The thing about making a mistake is that you kind of have to just own it. At this point, you're already suffering whatever negative effects and embarrassment have resulted from that mistake, and then you have to be able to rub salt in that wound and accept that you have no one to blame but yourself. It's no surprise that a lot of times, people seem to be completely unable to consciously or subconsciously accept that their mistake is their own fault. Instead, they come up with some way to explai…

How much trouble is it worth going through to avoid paying for a couple of leaves of lettuce? Is it worth a run-in with the police that could possibly see you arrested and sent to prison, all because you didn't want to pay $9 for your salad after complaining about the toughness of your steak? From there, you'll be forced to plan a daring means of escape. By day, you'll see yourself unwittingly participating in and then dismantling the operations of the corrupt warden running the prison while sp…

As a parent, it's only natural to want your kids to be involved in your life. That's why things like “Bring your kid to work” day exist — so you can show your kiddo off to all your coworkers, and let them see what you're doing all day long while they're at school. This dad had a similar idea of sorts… but it majorly backfired on him. U/FlashyCow1 shared a story from their time working at a burger restaurant. This place had a pretty devastating recurring problem: a faulty fridge that was consist…

Since the invention of the online star rating system, people have been leaving one star reviews for companies they had poor experiences at. But as you certainly know if you ever peruse these reviews, a lot of people have a bad time due to self-inflicted mishaps. Some actually have the gall to get upset that a store is closed at a time the customer wants to shop. Others rant about being treated badly by staff members, or receiving cold food at a restaurant. There are plenty of reasons you might…

People will go to any length and make every attempt to turn even the most petty situations to their advantage. Just a single trip to any busy parking lot will show you this, with desperate drivers doing anything in their power to secure a spot, even getting their passengers to jump out of the vehicle to stand in front of it and (hopefully) prevent anyone from getting there first, whilst engaging in outrageous displays of behavior from within the safety of their oversized vehicles. Of course, on…

Whenever you write the phrase “The customer is always right” online, there's always someone showing up to show you up in the comments to confidently proclaim that this utterance is actually a shortened version of the original phrase, “The customer is always right in matters of taste." Attributions for either version normally go to one of several pioneering and successful department store retailers who reshaped the trade in the late 1800s and publications on the retail philosophy emerge in the e…

Being mistaken for a worker by a fellow customer is an embarrassing experience for all involved—they're embarrassed that they made a mistake, and you're embarrassed for having to rebuff a complete stranger when you were simply minding your own business with some mid-shopping dissociation. Usually, at this point, you'd both abashedly go your own way and pretend that each other doesn't exist like good strangers do when you eventually cross paths again in the store. This goes sideways when the mis…

Some customers prefer to learn by experience, rather than listen to the waitstaff who know what they're talking about. This customer chose that route, and was quite displeased with her experience. You can't please everyone, which is especially true when it comes to food service gigs. No matter how long you've been waiting tables, there will always be those customers who ruin their own day by not understanding what they're ordering. Some customers will order a burger, then get upset because this…

Memes to scroll while you hide from your manager on your lunch break

The phrase “over my dead body” is typically reserved for extreme instances where you want to express desperate and dramatic opposition to a measure of change someone is trying to bring about. Such as a suggestion at a local forum in which Agatha from down the street proposes filling the local skate park bowl with water every summer in order to repurpose it temporarily as a community poo. You, an avid skater, may stand up and declare, “Over my dead body!” Now, of course, you don't really mean th…

Looking back on their new purchase in the 1990s, this person realized the car dealership got away with something intriguing. This is a story of a person buying a car in the 1990s, and one of the first things they claim is that these days, the “era of haggling” is over. Though I've never bought a car, I find that hard to believe. When purchasing a car, it's well known that people like to haggle with the salespeople to try and get a great deal for themselves. Meanwhile, the salespeople often have…

Working in any kind of customer service, you're constantly exposed to the worst sorts of people. When you're still fresh and green into a customer service job, you approach it with a certain sense of optimism, telling yourself and anyone who asks how excited you are to help people and make a difference in their life with your incredible service. With bright eyes, you look around you, wondering why your seasoned coworkers are so haggard and embittered, approaching the day with a thousand-yard st…

This teen spent a few months working at their uncle's sweet shop for a summer, and got to experience what happens when “tempers and temperatures” run high.

We all love a good loophole. Social media is full of people telling their favorite loopholes to get cash after a cancelled flight, return kids' clothing years after you bought it, or ‘hack’ a stores' return policy to your benefit. As a customer, finding a loophole can be great, but when too many people start to abuse the system, it results in a crackdown to stop customers from getting free stuff. Next up, this employee refused to do something his boss kept insisting on — but it was actually rea…

A waiter shared an odd day in their life: dealing with some of the silliest and most demanding customers . Servers of America, you have my sympathies. It seems like customers are crazier than ever — but at least these waiters know they aren't alone in the war against Karens. On r/Serverlife, u/serverforadecade shared an encounter with one couple who kept them running all over the restaurant to fetch them things and wait on them hand and foot. In the comments, people broke down the servers' bull…

Fighting back the urge to laugh when an adult is having a full-blown meltdown right in front of you over basically nothing is one of the most challenging parts of working retail—but you only reach this level of reaction when you've put up with it enough times that you no longer have the ability to experience the trauma of being shouted at that you did when you first started. Not only that but—when they're making obscene demands—you have to fight every muscle in your body that wants to do precis…