# The Customer is Always Insane, Pt. II **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 13, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970 "2010-04-13T16:16:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![melodyharmonius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/melodyharmonius/32/21310_2.png) [@melodyharmonius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melodyharmonius)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/21 "2010-04-14T15:10:08Z")
That’s really bizarre, Malthus. When I worked at a men’s accessory shop - our ties were price coded according to the plastic color tie hook they were hung on. We found out that someone had switched the tie hooks on a few ties - only, they had switched the cheap ones for the more expensive ones, and ended up paying more! ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/22 "2010-04-14T15:23:11Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Wierdest I ever say was an inoffensive looking fellow dressed in a business suit (but wearing sneakers) who ordered a grape drink at a local coffee place when I was sitting there. > > He was perfectly polite, ordered his drink from the (attractive, female) server, received in promplty, paid for it, thanked her - then calmly took off the plastic over and _tossed the drink all over her_. Then he ran out as fast as he could. > > The whole thing was so sudden and bizzare that no-one reacted for a second - then the server gave a sort of choked scream (thank goodness it was only cold pop and not hot coffee!). The guy was long gone before anyone thought to detain him. The manager called the cops, and got a description - the guy was a total stranger to the place - it wasn’t like he was getting revenge on the server, or on the shop; he just did it. Maybe he was playing truth or dare somewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/23 "2010-04-14T15:24:16Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That just proves you don’t get why we’re (well, I’m) upset at you. Sure, the customer screamed at them, but did anyone pick her up and shove her out the door? > > Was there a customer who had a legitimate complaint but expressed it poorly and thus got the interaction terminated forcibly and then made fun of online? > > And was there a “Woe is me, pitiful job I have. I have a right to be a jerk, headquarters says, and everyone who has a problem with the way I responded is a horrible person who just picks on people in my poor pitiful job”? > > And is there any rubbing people’s face if someone disagreed that the situation was bad? > > Heck, did he pop over into your thread and say bad things about people who disagreed with him in his? Sorry–where did this stuff happen? Was it in the previous thread? I didn’t see any of your **Vinyl Turnip** ’s posts there… ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/24 "2010-04-14T15:26:36Z")
> [@Lanzy](#): > > Maybe he was playing truth or dare somewhere? Could be. My guess was that he just got off on doing it. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/25 "2010-04-14T15:34:54Z")
I’m surprised to see I didn’t post about this in the other thread, but: on my last day in the copy place (the one I mentioned in post #10), my final customer tried to pay for $20 in copies using only spare change. I guess he wasn’t any crazier that the homeless rapper or the obsessives or the people who would have their order tweaked over and over again for weeks, but I thought it was bizarre. He told me he was leaving town and didn’t want to take all the change with him. I think I accepted about half of it but wouldn’t take the pennies and nickels. ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/26 "2010-04-14T16:01:26Z")
> [@](#): > > When I worked at a men’s accessory shop - our ties were price coded according to the plastic color tie hook they were hung on. We found out that someone had switched the tie hooks on a few ties - only, they had switched the cheap ones for the more expensive ones, and ended up paying more! I worked for a while granting visa extensions. load of stories obviously but the one that really sticks out was the guy who submitted a really crappy false bank statement with his papers, the information on the statement would have indicated that he was working in breach of his conditions so he was pretty much screwed either way 😕 ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/27 "2010-04-14T16:08:53Z")
pbbth, I’m curious. What would you have done if y’all called the guy and he said he didn’t have a credit card and the pizza was already eaten? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/28 "2010-04-14T16:21:49Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m surprised to see I didn’t post about this in the other thread, but: on my last day in the copy place (the one I mentioned in post #10), my final customer tried to pay for $20 in copies using only spare change. I guess he wasn’t any crazier that the homeless rapper or the obsessives or the people who would have their order tweaked over and over again for weeks, but I thought it was bizarre. He told me he was leaving town and didn’t want to take all the change with him. I think I accepted about half of it but wouldn’t take the pennies and nickels. _Counting out pennies at the 7-11 From a quarter past six till a quarter of seven The manager, Bevan, starts to abuse me Hey, man, I just want some Muesli._ – Flight of the Conchords ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/29 "2010-04-14T16:22:32Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > pbbth, I’m curious. What would you have done if y’all called the guy and he said he didn’t have a credit card and the pizza was already eaten? My guess - the delivery guy would be screwed for accepting a wrong check, they’d eat the loss, or at best, try to deposit it and eat the loss when it comes back NSF. Joe ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/30 "2010-04-14T16:53:42Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > My guess - the delivery guy would be screwed for accepting a wrong check, they’d eat the loss, or at best, try to deposit it and eat the loss when it comes back NSF. > > Joe That was my guess, too. But I wonder if you’d be placed on the Do Not Deliver list or whatever after that. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/31 "2010-04-14T16:55:10Z")
There’s this guy where I used to live named Sailor Dan. He’s a homeless dude who does nothing but make pictures of the same ship. But he’s the pet homeless person of the city, and it’s a status symbol for him to give you one of his pictures. Anyway, a few months back someone created a Facebook group saying he had passed away, and thousands of people signed up to give their condolences and share their stories. Then someone figured out it was all a hoax and all hell broke loose, with people insulting the dude who made the group and insisting he be banned from Facebook. I guess you don’t fuck with Sailor Dan because the entire under-30 population of the city plus the hippies will fuck with you. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/32 "2010-04-14T17:17:45Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Wierdest I ever say was an inoffensive looking fellow dressed in a business suit (but wearing sneakers) who ordered a grape drink at a local coffee place when I was sitting there. > > He was perfectly polite, ordered his drink from the (attractive, female) server, received in promplty, paid for it, thanked her - then calmly took off the plastic over and _tossed the drink all over her_. Then he ran out as fast as he could. > > The whole thing was so sudden and bizzare that no-one reacted for a second - then the server gave a sort of choked scream (thank goodness it was only cold pop and not hot coffee!). The guy was long gone before anyone thought to detain him. The manager called the cops, and got a description - the guy was a total stranger to the place - it wasn’t like he was getting revenge on the server, or on the shop; he just did it. Wow, a real life Grapist! ---
**Author:** ![NicePete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee7513/32.png) [@NicePete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NicePete)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/33 "2010-04-14T17:26:43Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Wierdest I ever say was an inoffensive looking fellow dressed in a business suit (but wearing sneakers) who ordered a grape drink at a local coffee place when I was sitting there. > > He was perfectly polite, ordered his drink from the (attractive, female) server, received in promplty, paid for it, thanked her - then calmly took off the plastic over and _tossed the drink all over her_. Then he ran out as fast as he could. > > The whole thing was so sudden and bizzare that no-one reacted for a second - then the server gave a sort of choked scream (thank goodness it was only cold pop and not hot coffee!). The guy was long gone before anyone thought to detain him. The manager called the cops, and got a description - the guy was a total stranger to the place - it wasn’t like he was getting revenge on the server, or on the shop; he just did it. Sounds like fetish behavior. I’d google it, but Rule 34 and all… ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/34 "2010-04-14T17:30:46Z")
We had a lady I’ve mentioned in these customer threads before. I’m the baker in a cafe located in the public library. The whole library gets some crazies, being as it’s warm in winter, cool in summer, and centrally located on a bus line. But the Buddha Lady was the craziest. She’d sprinkle pine twigs all over the table she wanted to sit at, and then would either push away the extra chairs, (four at a table), or take chairs from other tables so there’d be half a dozen empties. We learned early on never to engage in ordinary conversations, as she was full of conspiracy theories and wouldn’t shut up once she got started She got her nickname after telling us Buddha had been on the ceiling of her bedroom shooting laser beams at her, after which he made love to her. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/35 "2010-04-14T17:32:14Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > Wow, a real life Grapist! Okay, that made me laugh. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/36 "2010-04-14T18:22:35Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > …you don’t fuck with Sailor Dan… Especially when he’s got almost [7,000 fans](http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Sailor-Dan/260411247811?v=wall&ref=search)! ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/37 "2010-04-14T18:22:44Z")
> [@filling\_pages](#): > > pbbth, I’m curious. What would you have done if y’all called the guy and he said he didn’t have a credit card and the pizza was already eaten? We would have tried to cash the check and if it bounced we would have eaten the loss. We would have then put him on a list of people from whom we don’t accept checks at all. He had serious anger management issues though and I don’t think his brain would have allowed him to just say, “Nope, sorry, you already took the check so now it is your problem.” ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/38 "2010-04-14T19:45:42Z")
I used to work in a small local museum and whenever I was at the front desk a homeless guy we routinely let hang out in the lobby would start proselytizing at me about how I had to take Jesus as my savior or I was seriously at risk of going to hell. I eventually noticed that I was the only woman he did that to. A co-worker explained: I routinely wore slacks, which indicated to him I was the worst kind of sinner and needed to repent (and stop wearing slacks, apparently). ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/39 "2010-04-14T19:51:50Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > We would have tried to cash the check and if it bounced we would have eaten the loss. We would have then put him on a list of people from whom we don’t accept checks at all. He had serious anger management issues though and I don’t think his brain would have allowed him to just say, “Nope, sorry, you already took the check so now it is your problem.” Thanks. That’s pretty much what I figured, I was just curious. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970/40 "2010-04-14T20:03:24Z")
> [@Big\_Norse](#): > > I used to work in a small local museum and whenever I was at the front desk a homeless guy we routinely let hang out in the lobby would start proselytizing at me about how I had to take Jesus as my savior or I was seriously at risk of going to hell. I eventually noticed that I was the only woman he did that to. A co-worker explained: I routinely wore slacks, which indicated to him I was the worst kind of sinner and needed to repent (and stop wearing slacks, apparently). Slacks? How long ago was this? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-customer-is-always-insane-pt-ii/535970.md?page=3)