While working in the customer service industry, employees encounter a large number of people every day. Unfortunately, not all of them are nice. In fact, oftentimes, they have the ‘customer is always right’ mentality that allows them to get away with all kinds of ridiculous behaviour.

To show how infuriating and exhausting it can get, Bored Panda has compiled a list of clients that seem to have no bounds when it comes to cluelessness. Scroll down to find them, and be sure to share your own experiences down below.

#1 Charge Them For A Cappuccino, VIP Price

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#2 Customer Service "Sucks" Nowadays

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#3 If They Get Bigger, I Would Start Worrying. Possible Food Spoilage Or Alien Infestation

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Since this list is blatant proof that customers aren’t always right, let’s look at how the opposite of this phrase came to be and why it’s so important in the realm of customer service. 

The slogan is believed to have been coined by Marshall Field, who introduced this idea when he established Chicago’s first department store in 1893. Then Henry Gordon Selfridge took this concept overseas to London, where he popularized it further.

#4 Scammers Never Take A Day Off

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#5 "I Love To Work In Customer Service"

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#6 This Person Didn't Know What A Bay Leaf Was

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The original quote was actually longer, saying that "Right or wrong, the customer is always right." Almost 100 years later, César Ritz introduced this mentality to the hospitality industry when he founded The Ritz Carlton Hotels. 

His was a bit different, stating that "Le client n'a jamais tort," which translates to the customer is never wrong.

#7 Scrolled Across This Gem Someone Posted Today At A Local Grocery Store

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#8 Do You Lemonade?

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#9 Customer Guessed I Was Around 3-4 Months Along. I’m Not Pregnant

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Before this phrase was introduced to the customer service industry, the client wasn’t exactly treated well. In fact, it was the opposite. The person who bought the product was fully responsible for inspecting its quality and reporting any problems before the item was purchased. It wasn’t up to the seller to reveal anything about the commodities they offered or provide assistance to the customer.  

#10 Someone Is Walking Around The Store Eating Chicken Wings And Tossing The Bones On The Floor

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#11 Customer Bought Wheels And Tires Online. After Advising Multiple Times That The Tires Are Too Small For His SUV He Insisted For Us To Put Them On

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#12 A Customer From Florida Parked In Front Of The Cart Return, So I, The Cart Pusher, Started A Line Beside Their Car, And Now Customers Are Leaving Carts All Around Their Car

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So when business introduced the concept of ‘customer is always right’, they flocked to them, as they weren’t used to being treated with this level of consideration and care. Over time, many variations of this philosophy became popular globally.

#13 I Would Have Told Them To Leave

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#14 Standing In Line At The Bank, And The Current Customer Chooses This To Be The Perfect Time To Paint Her Toenails

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#15 Customer Got Mad Because His Debit Card Wouldn’t Work

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In Germany, it became ‘Der Kunde ist König,’ translating into ‘the customer is king.’ In Japan, the slogan reads ‘okyakusama wa kamisama desu,’ or ‘the customer is god.’ Spain has the phrase ‘El cliente siempre tiene la razón,’ implying that “the customer always has a reason." All of them ensure fair trade practices and build great relationships with clients.

#16 Being A Cinema Worker And Having To Clean Up After These Delightful People. Yes, Sadly, The Boxes Are Still Half Full Of Soggy Cereal And Milk

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#17 The Film "Five Nights At Freddy's" Doesn’t Really Have Jump Scares, So How Does This Even Happen? Last Theater, I Had To Clean And Had To Stay 10 Extra Minutes

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#18 Why Are You Like This, Target Shoppers?

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This mentality doesn’t necessarily mean that customers can do no wrong. Instead, it ensures that they receive the services that satisfy their needs (within reason). Customers have the power to make or break a company, so it’s important to meet their expectations. If not, they can quickly take their business elsewhere. That’s why even the most difficult customers deserve to feel seen and heard.

#19 Customers Spraypaint Testing On The Floor

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#20 This One

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#21 As If Having More Bags Is Going To Make Things Lighter Somehow

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There seem to be a lot of unsatisfied clients. The National Customer Rage Survey found that 74% of customers had an issue with a product or service in the last year, up by 8% from 2020. A US study found that 81% of customer service employees deal with verbal abuse from clients, and 36% have even received violent threats. 43% of customers confessed to raising their voice when communicating with customer support.

#22 Lady Goes To Self Checkout, Makes Attendant Unload Her Cart, Scan And Bag Each Item

At the grocery store, we crossed paths with the lady in white shopping and loading her cart. We go to check out, and she is there, making the self-checkout attendant unload her cart, scan, and bag each item. Then she had the attendant place the bags in her cart. Note that she had way more items than you should for self-checkout, and a recommendation was made by the employee that she consider going to the standard checkout, which had nobody in line, and she refused. Poor attendant had to stop every so often to go to every other self-checkout and do overrides and I'd checks. The customer was perfectly capable of doing all this herself.

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#23 Friend Is A Mechanic. This Was One Of The Cars A Customer Dropped Off

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#24 Customer Called And Asked If I Could Get A "Spot" Out Of The Carpet

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Hearing out and dealing with unsatisfied customers isn’t easy, as their hostile behaviour can take a big hit on employees’ morale. However, this can be avoided by trying to avoid issues altogether. Business owners should equip their workers and clients with helpful tools and resources to make this happen.

#25 I Work Closing At Target, And Every Single Night I Have To Push 3-5 Carts Of Full Shopping Trips Abandoned By Customers

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#26 Customers That Leave Frozen Food In Dry Food Aisles

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#27 Someone I Know Owns An Independently Ran Store And Works Very Hard To Please Customers. Their Overall Rating When You Google Them Is Down Because Of People Like This

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It’s also important to ensure the happiness of employees. If they remain content, they can better ensure that customers are satisfied with the service. In addition, they should receive proper training to handle customer complaints. Learning how to diffuse conflict or when to get management involved can help them better deal with it. Offering aftercare for them can be another great tactic to ensure that workers don’t burn out or struggle emotionally. 

#28 Customer Entered The Store, Peed Himself, And Left. 5-Minute Ordeal

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#29 All The Lazy Shoppers Who Can’t Afford To Spend An Extra Minute To Put Their Cart Away

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#30 He Really Wanted The Full Price

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#31 People Who Do This Are Jerks

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#32 I Really Hate It When People Do This. Take A Minute And Put It Back Where You Found It

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#33 Some People Are Really Clueless

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#34 I Hate Back To School Customers

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#35 People Who Leave Their Trash On Shelves In Stores

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#36 Someone Bought A New Car Seat At Target, Switched It Out In The Parking Lot, And Left The Old One Just Sitting By The Curb

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#37 The Grocery Store Had This Caution Tape Up Because They Are Redoing The Floors And That Is Wet Cement

An old man on an electric buggy lifted the tape and drove straight into the cement and then said, "I didn't know that was wet cement. They should have a sign-up." Umm, there was a caution tape...

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#38 Tell Me You Are Entitled, Without Telling Me You Are Entitled

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#39 Someone Ate A Pack Of Raw Mussels They Got From The Grocery Store And Left The Scraps At The Cafe

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#40 Did You Keep It?

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#41 I Will Never Understand Some Customers

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#42 Customer Accidentally Dropped A Pound Of Screws Into A Box Of Nails

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#43 It Is 11, And Two Closing Announcements Have Already Been Made. Customers Decide To Stop And Have A Reunion

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#44 A Restaurant Review I Stumbled On. The Customer Is So Many Kinds Of Wrong

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#45 This Intake Form I Got From A Massage Client Who "Didn’t Want To Fill It Out"

I know you don’t take me seriously, but I do need to know if you have had surgeries or epilepsy.

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#46 Customers Are Truly Special. They Didn’t Tell Anyone And Just Left It There

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#47 This Customer Decided A Top-Stock Cart Was More Suitable For Her Shopping Experience

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#48 At My Local Walmart... Really, People?

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#49 People At Walmart Are Really Getting Out Of Control. This Was In Memphis

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#50 This Register Will Never Be The Same Again

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#51 Customer Mailed Back His Computer Mouse

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#52 Customer Complained Having To Put Air In The Tire Every Day. I Wonder Why

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#53 The Entitlement

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#54 Ever Since Walmart Sold Gaming Keyboards, Here Some Hooligans Kept Stealing The Keys

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#55 Customer States Temperature Gauge Is Reading Full Tank

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#56 Homeboy Literally Looked At This And Then Asked Me "Does This Take Card?"

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#57 The Aftermath Of A Customer Who Accidentally Got The Wrong Burrito

I was a manager for Taco Bell last year, and we accidentally put red sauce on someone’s bean burrito (they asked for no red sauce), so he punched the drive-through window in, shattered the front door, and smeared his food on all the lobby windows.

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#58 People Who Do This In Stores

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#59 Customer Blocked 6 Parking Spots In Front Of Our Store And Walked Off

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#60 Told The Customer To Pack The Laptops With Care. This Is How That Worked Out

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#61 How Do You Like My Speaker That Was Returned Last Night?

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#62 Customer Was Involved In A Slight Accident

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#63 Target Nail Polish Aisle

Kamryn, Finley, and whomever else is in this presumably middle school girl crew decided to claim damn near every display in the nail polish aisle.

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#64 During Sales, People Touch Clothes And Throw Them On The Floor

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#65 I'm Being Harassed At Work. There’s This One Customer Who Keeps Coming Into The Store I Work At To Hit On Me And Talk For An Hour At A Time, Coming In Multiple Times A Day

Ignoring my clear requests to stop. Today he came in with perfume. My boss won’t do anything about it.

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#66 People Like That Are Absolute Trash

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#67 Customer Dissatisfied With Dishwasher

We had a customer call in and complain that his dishwasher was taking 3 hours to wash and dry his dishes. While this is also somewhat true, he bought the dishwasher with the fewest features, and it was Energy Star-rated, so it does not dry fast to conserve energy. He said if we didn’t take it back, he would shoot it and put it at our front door. This is what we walked into this morning.

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#68 I Love Our Customers

This was less than an hour after we opened. They completely dug out the bottom bay, then used a ladder and dropped down more from the third bay up.

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#69 This Customer Return

I’m pretty sure the soup was from the Dollar Tree. The actual item was only $15, so I’m not so sure he really made off with much of a profit.

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#70 Someone Decided To Make Slime At Target On Top Of The $150 Knife Sets

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#71 Clueless People Who Don't Know Where They Are Going

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#72 But Wouldn't A Dull Axe Cause More Issues?

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#73 Clueless People

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#74 Someone Returned A LEGO Set Because They Didn't Know LEGOS Came In Pieces

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#75 Remarks Like This Make Me Wish Mechanics Could Make People Retake Their Driver's License Test

Last week, I replaced a battery in a customer's car, and she is trying to claim the battery is causing weird things to happen to her car now. This morning, she said the red line was never there before the battery was replaced and wants a refund. Lord, help me.

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#76 Customer Wanted The Best Boards In The Pile And Made This Mess

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#77 Someone Cracked Open Most Of The Tennis Balls At The Store

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#78 Because The Weather From Outside And On The Patio Is "Different"

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#79 Idiocracy Is Real

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#80 Customer States That His Rim Almost Fell Off And It's All Our Fault And He's Going To Go To The Cops About It Because We Were Negligent On His Vehicle

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#81 You Shouldn't Shop If You Can’t Return Your Carts To Designated Areas Instead Leaving Them Near Disabled Parking

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#82 Someone Recently Threatened To Shoot Up A Store Near Me On Google

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#83 5 Minutes Before Closing. Thank You, Beloved Customer

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#84 This Customer Said That She Was A Chef

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#85 This Is How Customers Storm Through Our Collars And Leads. Don’t Let This Be You. Just Put Things Back Where You Find Them

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#86 Don’t You Just Love When Customers Decide They Don’t Want To Shop Anymore And Leave Their Carts In The Aisles?

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#87 Today’s Dose Of What Did The Customer Do

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#88 At Least It’s In The Corral

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#89 A Customer Asked If This Laptop Was Salvageable. They Said They Wanted To Keep The Laptop Since It Held A Lot Of Sentimental Value For Them

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#90 A Customer Asked For Their Order To Be Left At Their Front Door But This Guy Was In The Way

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#91 This Customer Is Wild For Not Knowing Such A Thing

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#92 The Audacity

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#93 When Customers Do This And I Have To Clean It Up

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#94 Customer Didn't Know How To Drive A Manual, So She Just Drove Her VW Transporter Everywhere In 3rd Gear. We Only Put A New Clutch In It Last Year

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#95 I'm A Tattoo Artist, And A Client Just Paid Me In $1 Bills

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#96 An Angry Client Came Into The Store, Claiming That We Didn’t Do A Proper Repair On Their Fully Automatic Coffee Machine 2 Months Ago. This Is What The Inside Looked Like

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#97 Poor Zippers Just Hasn’t Been The Same Ever Since That Customer Pushed Him Over And Stomped On Him

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#98 Customer Said That Their Computer Is Running Slow

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#99 Customer Complained That I Left 30 Cases Of Fries Out And Didn’t Put Them In His Freezer. How The Heck Am I Supposed To Do That When They Have Kegs Blocking The Freezer?

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#100 The Cart Died And The Customer Left It Plugged In On The Condiments Aisle

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#101 I'm Not Sure What This Was For. The Grown Woman Was Trying Out Different-Sized Tubs. My Husband Said She Had Some “Questionable” Stuff In Her Shopping Cart As Well

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#102 What If You Just Saved Their Marriage?

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#103 Stack The Baskets Properly. It's Not Hard, It Takes 3 Seconds, And If You Leave Them Like This, It Just Infuriates The Other Shoppers

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#104 I Work For A Canadian Cable Provider, And A Customer Brought In This Remote Today, Saying They Had No Idea Why It Stopped Working

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#105 This Keyboard I Picked Up From A Customer. That's Not Just Sticky Dirt Between The Keys. There's Hair, And I Don't Think They Had Animals

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#106 Texas Requires The Front Tint To Be At 25% Or Greater To Pass State Inspection. This Customer Was Upset I Couldn't Just "Let It Go". Also, You Can Barely See Through The Windshield

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#107 When A Customer Hands You Cash Like This

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#108 "No Tax On Tips. Vote Donald Trump"

The lady comes in and makes a big fuss about having just left church. She yelled at our host to the point where she left the floor in tears. She got mad that we had her big top set for the inside table they reserved and that she had to set up a patio table and didn't have it ready for them. In the end, she signed a check with this.

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#109 A Mixed Blessing

So, one of my customers came in today with the gift of a bag of morels. I was pretty happy and grateful for their finding and thinking of me. I gave him a free dessert and my thanks. As he was leaving, I got a gut feeling that he'd picked them up on my property! I work a lot, so I was waiting until my weekend to get them myself. I don't even want to think about how many I could have had, but I'm still grateful for the gift. Truly, a mixed blessing.

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#110 "Ah Yes, Just As I Suspected'"

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#111 So Many Stickers

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#112 Things That Customers Do To Annoy Me

As you might guess from the title, customers doing this annoy me so much. Is it really that difficult to put the basket back where you got it before you leave the store?

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#113 People Who Think That It's Ok To Open Products In A Store

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#114 Customer Complains His New Chevrolet Suburban Engraved A Chevy Logo On His Driveway

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#115 When You're 3 Hours Into A 12-Hour Shift, And A Customer Does This

The hinge on the door broke last night and was due to be repaired. So when a customer opened the door today, it flew backwards and hit the corner of the brick behind it. Thankfully, only the outer pane was broken. What a way to start the workday, though.

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#116 What’s Your Favorite Stupid Question That Customers Ask? Here’s Mine: Is This A Discount Bin?

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#117 Definitely Infuriating

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#118 This Is My Number One Pet Peeve

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