‘Despised this woman’: Former retail employee relives the most frustrating conversation she had with rude, condescending customer

Mike Flanagan, Stephen King, Ari Aster, Ti West, Jordan Peele; at this moment in time, we are in the presence of some absolutely sensational horror storytellers. And yet, not a single one of their yarns could ever hold a candle to the real-life horror stories experienced by retail workers.

TikTok‘s @whatsinthekoolaid bore witness to one such deplorable at her last job, who threatened to give corporate a call if Kaelin didn’t perform the secret 13th Labor of Hercules for her.

It was just another workday at Kaelin’s Old Workplace That Shall Not Be Named when a lady came up to Kaelin’s till to ask her a “unique question,” but not before casually insinuating that all retail employees are stupid because they work in retail. Kaelin, presumably, took that introduction as an omen for where this conversation was heading.

The question in question had to do with a piece of outdoor furniture that was sold yesterday; the customer wanted to know what it was called. Kaelin asked for details on the item, the lady responded with the least helpful details possible, and with no way to search the inventory, there was nothing Kaelin could do to locate this piece of furniture. When Kaelin said “no” to the lady’s haughty suggestion of searching through thousands of receipts for an item that neither woman knew the name of, the customer went full customer mode and issued the aforementioned ultimatum. Kaelin, in response, wrote down the phone number for corporate and handed it to the customer. Like we said; just another workday.

But why are customer service horror stories one of the world’s most abundant resources out there? Does the smell of a clothing store just trigger the monsters in all of us, or does the sight of a cashier fill that many people with pungent disgust? The truth is, it almost always has nothing to do with the store or the people in it, and everything to do with the grasp that the customer has on their emotions. According to Mind Tools, an angry customer is probably angry (or fearful, anxious, restless, etc.) about something else entirely, to the point where even the smallest inconvenience is capable of setting them off. These interactions, then, are mostly an incidental side effect of issues that are actually personal and entirely separate from their shopping experience.

So if you ever find yourself behaving like the customer in Kaelin’s story, maybe seek some therapy; to help oneself is to help each other.