Being fired is never fun, but sometimes it’s worth it. Sometimes you encounter a customer so rude that it’s almost impossible not to put them in their place.

In the following stories, people recount experiences they had with ignorant and even abusive customers–customers who put staff down, yell at cashiers, and even grab and throw things at staff.

Here are 42 stories of people getting fired for losing it on rude customers.

42. How Big Is 8 Inches?

Unsplash (Bimo Luki)

I worked at Jimmy Johns. Last Sunday, some rich-looking trophy family came in when I was working the register. The three kids stood there laughing at me while the mother and father spoke to me more pretentiously than I’ve ever encountered. However, at one point, the mother asked: “How big are your eight-inch sandwiches?” I stood there sort of perplexed and amused. Then, I replied after a moment, “Usually they’re eight inches” and then grinned a little. She got so mad. The dad pointed his finger in my face and threatened me with blah blah blah and called my manager over to talk.

At the end of my shift, my manager came up to me and gave me this whole talk about customer respect. Then he fired me. The management there honestly does treat the staff like garbage. They literally fired me for answering a customer’s question.

41. This Fills Me With Such Rage

Unsplash (Jessie McCall)

I was working at Burger King many years ago. I was working the drive-thru register, which was close enough to the front registers that I could hear conversations. One of my co-workers was taking an order from a lady who kept asking how much her total was, and then canceling food on it and changing her mind. I guess she was trying to keep under a certain dollar amount? Well at the Burger King I worked at, any canceled food on an order needed a manager’s password, thanks to one jerk who stole money by putting in someone’s order, telling them the total, and then canceling out the order and pocketing the money. So the manager had come by three or four times at that point. This was during dinner time, mind you, so there was a line of customers out the door waiting to order.

Finally, my co-worker pulled out a pad of paper and a calculator. He started writing this woman’s order down and totaling it out by hand. The woman asked him why he was doing that, and he told her, “When you make up your mind about what you want, then I’ll put it in the register.” This ticked off the lady, so she grabbed the notebook and tried to hit my co-worker with it. He snatched it back from her and told her, “Get the heck out.” My manager was only going to write him up for it since the manager agreed that the lady absolutely deserved it. But, my manager had to follow company policy so since he already had two write-ups on file, she had to fire him.

40. We Can Change It For You!

Freepik @stockking

I was working at Boston Market that night, in the back kitchen. A woman came up to the counter at 9:50 and we close at 10 p.m. We had gotten slammed that day, so the only entrees we had left were BBQ shredded chicken and meatloaf. My coworker explained to her that we were out of chicken, turkey and ham.

She then proceeded to order a quarter of white meat chicken. He reminded her that we are out of chicken. So she asked for a quarter of dark meat. Finally, he suggested a meatloaf or a side dish meal. She flipped out. “You guys are called Boston Chicken and you don’t have any chicken??” He replied, “Actually they changed it to Boston Market in 1995, but if you want we can change it again to Boston Meatloaf!” He did get fired, although it wasn’t explicitly because of this incident.

39. Be Your Kid’s Role Model

Freepik @master1305

I used to cut hair. I was cutting a lady’s hair when the child of lady waiting started running around the shop. I told the child several times to go sit with her mother and asked her mother to please keep her child seated next to her. Well, in the middle of cutting around my client’s ear, the child ran into my work area, ran into me and almost caused me to cut my client. I looked at the child and firmly said: “You need to go sit down with your mother now.”

Well her mom didn’t like that and came running back to me and yelled: “Don’t tell my child what to do; I’m her parent.” I responded with “Then act like it.” She glared at me, grabbed her child and stormed out. Everyone in the shop was relieved the child had left. A few days later the owner came and tried to fire me for it, but luckily there were enough other stylists and clients that came to my defense about the danger of the situation and I only got a write-up.

38. The Rude Witch

Freepik @8photo

I’ve only worked retail part-time for six months in a game store. I don’t know how people do it. One thing that still raises my blood pressure is the thought of my first week. I rang up an item wrong and it was charging this lady $1 more than it should. Good catch. I screwed up on the code entry. But the lady looks down at her 10-year-old daughter and says “This is why you have to watch these people. They are greedy and will take all the money they can from you.”

Being part-time, I didn’t care and fired back at her. “Jesus Christ, lady, stop being so overdramatic. It isn’t going into my pocket. I messed up…sorry… Try not to hit your head on the door frame while riding your high horse out the door.” If her kid hadn’t been there, I’d have thrown out bad words at her. Yeah, I got fired for it.

37. “Save Big Money At Menards”

Freepik @cookie_studio

Many a year ago, I worked at a home improvement store called Menards. I was a cart pusher, which was nice as I was outside all the time. Anyway, we gather about 25-30 shopping carts together and push them up to the entrance where they are stored inside. Now to get them there we do have to cross the main drive of the parking lot in front of the store. We always stop and let customers drive by. So as I push the carts up I stop because I see a guy in a pretty nice SUV. He is actually stopped in front of the entrance maybe he dropped someone off I do not know. So I’m waiting to see if he drives off and he then looks at me and waves me across; it looks like he wanted to finish a call he had gotten or something. So I wave back and start pushing the carts across.

I am on the other side when something clips me across the shoulder blades and it stung somewhat and pushed me forward. And at the same time, I heard glass shatter, I turn around and the guy in the SUV clipped me with his side-view mirror. It had swung closed and shattered the window in the door, and I’m just standing there wide-eyed. Two seconds later, the guy gets out of his car swearing up a storm at me and how I’m a low life piece of crap and how I’m going to pay for a new window and that I’m not going to get anywhere in life because I broke his window. Now I’m the type of person that if I was the reason I’ll take the blame and fix the problem. But this guy hit me,; I blew up on him for about five minutes before a manager finally had the guts to come over and pull me away. I didn’t have to pay for a new window as it was on video, but I lost my job because we are not supposed to yell and cuss at the customer.

36. What’s So Hard To Understand?!

Pexels (Polina Tankilevitch)

I used to work at a pizza place in a small town when I was a teenager. One night I took a phone order from some witchy woman. It went like this: Me: “Thank you for calling [pizza place]; may I take your order?” Customer: “Yes, I’d like a large pizza. Half pepperoni, half sausage, and half black olives.” Me: “OK, did you want the toppings combined or separated?” Customer: “No, I want half pepperoni, half sausage, and half black olives.” Me: “OK, so you want 1/3 pepperoni, 1/3 sausage, and 1/3 black olives?” Customer: “No! I want HALF PEPPERONI, HALF SAUSAGE, and HALF BLACK OLIVES!” Me: “I understand the toppings that you want, but I’m not understanding how you want us to put the toppings on your pizza. Do you want them separated by thirds? Combined together? Or do you mean put half the amount that we usually put on?” Customer: “What’s so hard to understand?! I want half pepperoni, half sausage, half black olives!!!” Me: “Lady, there’s only two halves to a pizza!” Customer: “I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!!!”

I got fired on the spot. It was easier for the manager to just hire another person than it was to lose a customer in a small town. Oh, and the lady wanted the toppings divided into thirds. She told the manager the same thing and he just went with her math. The witch also got it for free.

35. I Thought We Were Friends?

Freepik

I work at a restaurant that makes burritos. A customer came in and the manager said she would take care of him. As it turned out, she had dated the guy and they had issues or whatever and had a messy breakup. This was the first time they’ve seen each other since. The dude just showed up at her job. So he started talking to her as she took him through the line. He was saying things like, “I still consider you a friend even after all this time,” and other mushy stuff. She was obviously not interested. She didn’t say a word until she got to the end of the line.

She rolled the burrito and took a giant bite out of it before wrapping it in foil. He kind of stared at her for a minute, dumbfounded. And then he asked, “Did you just take a bite out of my burrito?” She said, “I mean, you said we were friends, right? So what’s the problem?” He ended up emailing the GM to complain and she got fired.

34. A Not Merry Christmas

Freepik @benzoix

I was working Christmas Eve at my retail job. I’d worked fifteen days in a row and was absolutely exhausted. Most of those days, I didn’t even get a lunch break because we were ridiculously short-staffed and the manager was more interested in chilling out in her office than helping us on the shop floor. I was finally heading off on my break and was taking two huge boxes of overstock into the stockroom on my way when a customer stopped me to ask the price of something. There was literally a price sticker on the box but it’s retail and Christmas Eve so I decided not to bother arguing. So I said, “Sure, I’ll have to check that on the till. Give me a moment.” I pushed open the doors to the back of house area, literally dumped the two boxes on the floor, and headed straight back to the customer. When I found her –middle-aged, middle class, yummy mummy type–she literally grabbed me by my shirt, demanding to see a name badge, which was nonexistent. She said, “Tell me your name now; I’m going to complain about you.” “I’m sorry, complain about me? Why?” I asked. She said “You told me I’d have to go to the till to find out the price. Have you seen the queue? Horribly disgusting service.”

I pulled away from her grip, ripping my shirt in the process, and sighed quite loudly. “Sorry, I think you misunderstood. I said I would go to the till to find out for you. If you just give me the box I’ll go and do that.” The customer then literally threw the box at me, hitting me on the shoulder. By that point, I didn’t care anymore so I kicked the box under a display table and told her to get out. I then went on my break. My manager texted me the next afternoon–Christmas Day–to tell me not to bother coming in on Boxing Day because I no longer had a job. I did think about pursuing an unlawful dismissal claim but I was so glad to be out of that craphole that I didn’t bother.

33. You Want It Mashed Right?

Unsplash (Rachel Loughman)

This happened to my mother’s previous coworker. She worked at a burger joint restaurant and on a busy night this one table ordered mashed potatoes. The server told them that mashed potatoes aren’t on the menu but they have baked potatoes. They kept on insisting that they want mashed potatoes but eventually they seemed to agree that baked potato was fine.

So when the order came out so does the baked potato that they ordered. He put it down on the table and the customers went, “We wanted mashed potatoes!” The server had had enough at this point and went, “Mashed?! You want them mashed?!?” He raised his fist and smashed it down on the baked potato, giving the customer exactly what they asked for, mashed potatoes. The management, however, did not find this dedication to the customer very professional and let him go.

32. When You’re Protecting The Business From Thieves And Get Fired For It

Freepik @master1305

I work at a gas station. Some stupid young punks were stealing frozen taquitos and shoving them in their pants. I walked up to them and asked if they had anything in their pants. They said, “Screw you, jerk” and started to walk away.

I quickly ran around the adjacent aisle so I emerged in front of them. With a swift and furious swing of my foot, I crushed the box of frozen taquitos, and subsequently the gentlemen’s nuts. Yeah, I got fired.

31. When The Hold Button Betrays You

Pexels (Mart Production)

I was on a call with a woman who wanted something impossible. She wanted her own postpaid phone account to get off her ex-boyfriends. I told her that her credit wasn’t good enough unless she made the 800 dollar payment to pay off her phone and made a deposit. Otherwise, she could do prepaid but not with that fancy new iPhone. We went back and forth over and over for 40 minutes. She asked for a supervisor. I put her on hold and said to myself, “Thank god; I can’t listen to your voice anymore.”

My heart stopped when I heard her reply, “Excuse me?! You little jerk! I’m going to get you fired! Where’s your manager?!” Well, my manager talked to her, and apologized for me and said I would be disciplined. She then put her on a separate bill under her boyfriend’s credit, which I had offered five times. I was put on probation. I quit the next day before they could fire me.

30. Good Samaritan Gone Wrong

Pexels (Roger Brown)

I worked for Kroger from high school to early college. One day I was coming from the back dock when I saw a woman slip and fall and hit her head on the corner of the end cap. She gashed her head open a bit and said her one side felt a little numb. I grabbed the emergency kit, put on the latex gloves, grabbed a 4×4 bandage and held it over her to the bone cut and supported her neck. We called 911 and they were there in a few minutes. The medics take over, put a C-collar on her and get her ready to transport. The medic says thanks and leaves with her.

A few minutes later, I get called into the manager’s office by our absolute crap of an assistant manager. She has a write up ready and I ask what for. She was writing me up for helping her because that establishes we did something to cause it. I explain to her that I was one of five people in the store who were trained to use the BBP kit (bloodborne pathogen). Well, she didn’t care.

29. Let’s Not End The Argument!

Pexels (Moose Photos)

It wasn’t me but I’ve been told about it. Some guy just passed his training for a call center and a few days in, he answers the phone to a customer and they get into an argument.

The argument goes on for nearly an hour and when the customer hung up, the worker called him back to continue the argument! The guy was in his late 50s and lost his job very quickly after.

28. The Dog Deserves Better

Pexels (Tima Miroshnichenko)

I lost my position at a vet clinic. The story goes like this: A woman brought in her 5-year-old dog that had diarrhea for the past week, and untreated for it. She was tired of the dog messing in the house. So instead of having the dog treated for the condition, she decided she would rather just have the dog put down.

I proceeded to call her a dumb witch while explaining to her the responsibilities that are involved when you decide you want to have a pet. I was fired. I never looked back.

27. Undercover Revenge

Flickr (Ethan T.)

Back in October of last year, I had a job at Mr. Pickles where I had to wave at cars in a heavy sweaty Pickle costume. This kid from my school, who I already didn’t like, walked passed me with some girl. I waved at both of them being nice and because it was my job. He proceeded to flip me off to look like a tough guy in front of this girl. Still waving and looking at him, I said, “You look stupid today.” He confronted me and started threatening me. I just responded with something like, “I can hurt you.” He then swung at me and the punch did not affect me in any way due to the costume being very thick.

I just started laughing for a second, then tackled him. I am a pretty scrawny kid but the weight of the costume helped. I started hitting him since I have complete control of my arms in the costume. The manager, who was my best friend’s stepdad at the time, ran outside and broke us up. I beat him up pretty badly and I didn’t have a scratch, all in a pickle costume. I got fired, which I sort of wanted anyway. I hated that job. I saw him at school the next day; everyone knows he got beat up by the pickle and he doesn’t have a clue that it was me.

26. The Nitwit Family

Freepik @karlyukav

I got admonished but not fired, although I didn’t care at the time; it was just a side gig in high school. I was 15 and working as a hostess and working the to-go counter at a popular sports bar chain. A big college football game was on and we were slammed. Our restaurant didn’t have bussers; servers where just suppose to clean the tables themselves. I had a huge list of people waiting to get a table while I was busy answering phones, getting to-go orders ready and helping servers bus tables so I could get people sat. I was obviously busting my butt and not standing around the hostess stand acting useless. A couple in their 50s and their late teens/young adult daughter came in wearing their sports team jerseys asking how long the wait was. It’s a football game people; no one is going to get up until the game is over but whatever. I told them it could be a while and this was how many people were in front of them. Well, they watched me like a hawk. They noticed every time I sat someone. When they came back up again and asked, “So where are we now?” I miscounted and told them the wrong number. I was off by like one.

The 50-year-old nitwit started screaming at me about how awful I was and said something about me being the worst hostess ever. I wasn’t rude to him even though he was a grown man belittling a 15-year-old girl. I explained I made a mistake and that I would get him seated as soon as possible. He wasn’t having it and said he was leaving. I waved him out the door and said bye and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. His Stepford Housewife looked at me appalled like I just took a giant dump on her mansion floor. The daughter was also nasty to me, but again, her grown dad cursed out a 15-year-old girl. That nitwit called the store and complained. I got a write-up because it was “policy.” I am now a successful engineer and have the utmost respect for anyone in the service/retail industries. I still can’t imagine ever treating someone like that and I think that’s a true testament to someone being a horrible person.

25. You Can’t Even Afford Bubble Gum!

Freepik @asier_relampagoestudio

I used to work at a car dealership and one day I had this customer that was just a pain from the beginning. He had a problem with every car I showed him and took up most of my day. I finally found something agreeable and we got to the paperwork. The dude refused to give his social security number to run credit. My manager got involved and finally got him to agree. I followed the manager into his office and the manager ran his credit report. He said, “he can’t buy anything unless he comes up with cash.” His credit was terrible.

I went back to the customer to explain and before I said anything he started saying that if we tried to use his SSN to steal his identity and buy something with his credit that he was going to do this and that, etc. And so, in the middle of the showroom, I screamed at him, “Sir, who would steal your identity? You couldn’t buy bubble gum on credit!”

24. They Can’t Fire You If You Quit First

Freepik

My sister was the manager of a women’s clothing store. At the time, she was dealing with some personal issues regarding depression and anxiety so she wasn’t in the greatest state of mind to begin with. A customer came in with a pair of pants that had ripped along the inner thigh seams, which were well past the return period and had clearly been worn/washed. The customer, who was a larger woman, went off on a sales associate, stating she’d only “tried the pants on” and that caused the seams to rip and she wanted a refund.

She brought the associate to tears with her ranting and finally demanded the manager, my sister. Enter my sis, and the customer starts yelling at her too. My sis promptly tells the customer that her pants split because she was a freaking fat; she wouldn’t get a freaking refund, and to take her fat butt out of the store and never come back. My sis then went in the back, called her boss and quit before she could be fired. Her boss actually was willing to let her stay but she chose to leave anyway until she could get her depression issues under control. It took a solid year but she’s much happier and healthier now.

23. The Server Deserved It Though

Freepik @Drazen Zigic

Someone I know was waiting tables and one night had a large table of 10(ish) people. They took up most of her section and lingered at the table for quite a while after their meal. They paid their bill and just drew a line through the tip section. She inspected the table and saw that they didn’t leave cash either. She followed them into the parking lot and berated the man who paid the bill. She went on a whole tirade about, “I only get paid blah blah blah, and I need those tips to survive, and you took up my whole section all night, etc.” He calmly said, “Let’s go back inside and talk about this,” so they did.

He walked with her back to the table, and he lifted up his plate. Two $100 bills (total $200) were left under it. He said, “I put this under the plate so no other diners would grab it before you could find it, but I guess you’re not getting it now,” and he put it back in his pocket. A manager saw the altercation and asked the man privately what the problem was. He explained and the server was fired on the spot.

22. Like A Big Baby

Pexels (William Mattey)

When I was in high school, I worked at a pizza place. It wasn’t like Domino’s or anything; it was a sit-down place with rides for kids. It was essentially a mini amusement park. It was a nightmare. I had worked for like eight hours, needed a smoke, and was just having a bad day when this guy walked in and ordered a pizza. We made the pizza and sent it to him and he complained that it wasn’t what he ordered. I knew what he had ordered, and he was saying he had ordered something completely different. I knew he was just messing with us to get free stuff. So my manager got involved and essentially patted this guy on the back and cooed to him like a big baby. He said we’d make him what he totally really did order. So this jerk started making loud and snide comments, saying how stupid we all are and how we all should have respect for people who don’t “need to work at a pizza place.” I shrugged it off, whatever, humanity fail for the day.

I took the pizza over to his table, which was covered in plates and napkins and other garbage he had already somehow accrued in 10 minutes. There wasn’t a clear spot to set the pizza down on, and he wasn’t making any attempt to clear a spot. So I asked, “Where can I put this?” This guy’s response was, “God, you’re so stupid, man…” He didn’t get to finish his sentence because I threw the pizza onto him and literally went off the handle and yelled a short rant at this man’s horrified face as he tried to wipe an extra-large pan pizza off of his chest and lap. My boss asked me to not return and I happily complied. I never found out how much free stuff that guy probably got.

21. It Was Worth It

Freepik @Racool_studio

My mother was working at an upscale bar/lounge in Arlington, Virginia. She was just out of college. It was a fancy place filled with DC businessmen. It was common for large groups of men to come in and get absolutely wasted.

One night, a guy decided, after a few drinks, that it would be hilarious to untie the wrap skirt that was part of her uniform. Bad idea. My mother was furious and dumped an entire tray of drinks on his head. She was promptly fired, but still thinks it was worth it.

20. A Not-So-Magical Moment

Pexels (Juan Mendez)

Disneyland. I worked in the ticket booths. If you’re an annual pass holder, and you’re on the monthly contract, Disney takes automatic payments from your credit card. If your card expires or otherwise has to be changed, and you don’t call to put a new card on file, the auto-payments stop, and your pass freezes. No big deal; Disney doesn’t hit you with fees or penalties. You simply call or come to the booth, and we handle it right then and there– zip-a-dee-doo-dah, and in you go. One day, I get a middle-aged couple who passes froze. The man was upset, and ready to talk about it. A common question from guests is “Don’t you send out late notices?” No, Disney doesn’t because they’re not practical, and again, there are no penalties anyway. Just come see us and we’ll straighten you out. The man says to me in a disgusted tone, “You don’t send notices when a pass freezes? How does that work?” I said, “Well, you receive your credit card statement, you see that a recurring charge is not present on it, and you can expect the service related to the recurring charge to be interrupted, and that it must be related to your card having been replaced recently.” The wife smiled, the man’s face reddened, and he leaned in and barked, “Get your supervisor. I want to talk to somebody smart.”

To my shame, I said, “Of course. Would you like someone smart enough to stay aware of their credit card use, or merely smart enough to read contracts they sign?” My booth lead happened to come over as soon as she heard “supervisor,” so she was standing behind me when I said the emotional thing. It isn’t how I wanted to go out (I was five days away from leaving for a new job), but I looked at it as a vicariously cathartic mic drop goodbye to my fellow cast members. For them, it was a thrill.

19. “No! It Wasn’t Me!”

Freepik @benzoix

Not fired, but almost. I used to work at a large retail warehouse home improvement store setting up installations for flooring. So this lady comes in needing help because the associate in charge of her order is an incompetent jerk who promised her the moon to get her money. So I’m trying to work through this lady’s laundry list of problems and have about two hours vested of her tutting me and sniffing her nose and being an overwhelming obnoxious witch through which I miraculously kept my cool. Finally, I get to a point at the very end after fixing her laundry list of issues and there’s nothing I can do to fix the last issue. Suddenly, I’m an incompetent jerk and she flat out asks me if I’m the only one working and she wants someone else to help her. As a matter of fact, yes, I was the ONLY one at the time as two people called in sick and the other support I have is on lunch. So she has a fit when I tell her this and tells me to go find her the parts and she’ll get someone to do it. So I left to go “find her parts.”

I basically walked away from her and let her sit at the desk. I walked around, talked to friends in other departments, helped other customers in the isles, told someone to go let the witch know I was still looking for her part, went to go take a dump, and got a drink in the break room. I basically wanted her to sit her butt there wasting her precious time. She sat there for an hour until she figured out I wasn’t coming back. Later, my manager came up and asked me who was working with this lady as she was pissed off and dressed him down, rode his ear ragged over some terrible employee who didn’t know their job. I denied knowing what or who he was talking about; luckily she was too stupid to read my name badge and remember my name.

18. Go Stick It Up Your…

Unsplash (Robert Bye)

I was rude to a customer who tried to goad me into a fistfight. A long time ago, I worked on bicycles. At the shop I worked at, the head mechanic was popular in the cycling community and a lot of people requested him for their bikes. This guy wasn’t really good about letting his coworkers know about extra work that we were supposed to do for customer’s bikes if he was out to lunch or running errands. This was one of those situations. The customer brought in his bike for some work because he was going racing the next day. The head mechanic agreed to put him at the head of the repairs queue but neglected to let anyone else in the shop know or to note it in the computer system and basically hid the paper ticket on his workbench so no one else would work on this fancy bike that apparently only he could work on. So the customer stops in to pick up his bike that he only dropped off a few hours earlier.

Conveniently, the head mechanic had stepped out for an hour leaving me and cashier alone. I had no idea what was going on and the customer was pissed about his bike and “Geoff said it would be ready” and “you’re incompetent.” At this point, I was probably visibly pissed but I asked the guy to come back in an hour when Geoff would be back. I didn’t know about their verbal agreement. The guy pokes me in the chest and tells me to screw off to the storage room and “fetch” him his bike. So I did. When I brought it back, I told him to stick it up his butt. He complained to the manager. I got fired two days later.

17. The Prediction Came True

Freepik @kroshka__nastya

I worked at a Subway with his guy; we’ll call him Allen. Allen was a bit “out there.” He was alright for the most part but always seemed a bit off. One day, a customer came in, a lady I nor he had ever seen before. Anyway, she ordered a meatball sub and Allen started to make it. As he started making the sub, he started talking about how he liked to eat squirrels and proceeded to describe in detail how to skin and field dress the squirrel, every gory detail, all while continuing to make her meatball sub. As soon as he started, I kept trying to get him to go into the back and make bread. “Allen, go make some bread. ALLEN! Go make some bread now!” The woman was horrified and kept saying how that was not appropriate talk while making her sandwich.

Finally, she had enough and then said she wanted to talk to the manager, who at the time was not there. I finally get Allen to go into the back as I apologized to the woman and told her I would make her sandwich and it was on the house. Before I could finish making her sandwich, he came back out and gives her the number to the Regional HQ and said, and I quote, “Here you go, and by the way when you talk to them could you do me a favor? Tell them I told them to go screw yourself!” I replied: “Allen for the love of God, go make some bread because I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the last time you do it here!” Predictably, it was his last day.

16. He’s Not A Germaphobe; He’s Just A Jerk

Pexels (Mart Production)

I used to work at a convenience store. I hated it. I had a string of bad customers and then we got this regular that just rubbed everyone the wrong way. He would talk down to most of our employees, mostly the men but also any women he didn’t like. One thing he liked to do was when you went to hand him his change he would act like he was about to take it, then smack his hands on the counter, look at you and yell “PUT IT ON THE COUNTER.” Then he’d casually scoop it up and be on his way. For the longest time, I thought he might have been a germaphobe, but after a while, it became pretty clear he liked to play mind games. He wouldn’t pull this move on the more attractive female workers.

One night, I just forgot and I went to hand him his change and he did his usual PUT IT ON THE COUNTER routine. I was just fed up with being pushed around so I slammed it on the counter and it went everywhere. He got red and angry and told me he was going to tell my manager. My manager also hated this guy, so I smirked and told him to buzz off. He then immediately calmed down, said “well okay then” and walked out. The next day. the assistant manager took me in the back room and told me the guy called corporate. He was about to send me home when the store manager called in and said to forget that guy, so the assistant manager talked corporate out of firing me.

15. She Wasn’t Lying Though

Unsplash (Markus Winkler)

I was a stockroom assistant at a well-known fashion chain in the UK and US. I didn’t go off on a customer but I bloody well wish I did now. I happened to be behind tills changing hangers boxes when a customer explodes at the trainee cashier demanding to know where her order was. She’s screaming her head off at how it’s “unacceptable I paid extra” and how she “made a specific detour” to collect her package. She had ordered a jacket in another branch and had paid for next day delivery to the store I worked in. Customers aren’t supposed to come to collect their orders until they get an email saying their order is ready to collect. The poor cashier started last week and is basically cowering for dear life. I take over and ask to see her email which she explains she “doesn’t need” because she “paid extra” so her package “must be here.”

After 10 minutes of me trying to explain why her package isn’t ready to collect and her trying to challenge Krakatoa, she storms off shouting that she’ll be “having words” with the guy who owns our company. I hand back to the cashier and carry on with my day. The next day I’m prepping our delivery and I get called for a meeting with the store manager. I’m told I’m being let go for gross misconduct specifically “being unhelpful and challenging” to customers. Turns out the customer was a “journalist” for the DailyMail and she called our head of the company who she did indeed know personally and got me fired specifically.

14. Somebody Help This Witch

Unsplash (Engin A.)

Luckily I didn’t lose my job for this, as the manager on shift was pretty lenient and agreed with me. So I worked at a pretzel place where you hand-make everything. I had just finished rolling and bounced over to register to help out a customer. The lady asked “Hi, can I get your salted nuggets? But are they fresh?” I knew for a fact they were; I had just rolled them myself and put them in the warmer. “Indeed, ma’am, I’d be happy to make you fresher ones if you want to wait five to ten minutes. But I literally put these in here less than five minutes ago.” She seemed happy and content. “Sure, I’ll take those. Thanks.”

Not even five minutes later she comes back hollering at me that I’m a liar, that I must be stupid because the nuggets were hard. Which I knew she was the liar because I had just made everything. What gets me is she came back EVEN THOUGH she came back with less than half of the cup left. Must have been terrible, right? So after I get called a liar, a moron, and she had the audacity to demand a refund and new fresh nuggets another three times, I turned to a coworker and I said which I quote, “Someone needs to help this witch because I’m not” loud enough for her to hear and I stormed out of the store to the back room to cool off.

13. Losing Cool At The Pool

Freepik @wayhomestudio

I worked at a water park when I was 15. My job was to assist people going down the slides in the slide-required tubes. We had single tubes. We had double tubes. The issue was when obese people would go down the slide and I’d have to help. This was not easy. So, I’d ask if they could help me push themselves off the slide. Well…one day, we have two obese people who wouldn’t help push themselves down the slide. I asked twice for a little help. They wouldn’t help.

So, in response to their unwillingness to assist, I told them that I can’t push their fat butts down the slide and that they can rot up here. I was fired about an hour later. Yep, not my best moment.

12. He Was Blacklisted

MaxPixel

I was blacklisted from Sonic drive-in for standing up for myself. The store in Oak Hill was shut down and everyone was fired because the manager was busted selling pot out of the trunk of his car. I was one of the “dream team” of handpicked Sonic employees selected from around the city to bring the store back up to speed. Our new manager had the initials “JT” and he was very proud of the fact that he comes from 5-star fine dining restaurant management and this was his first fast food experience. He was strict and that is OK; we were expected to be perfect, but he had a temper. One day he came in squealing his tires and as soon as he hit the front door, he was screaming and cussing. I was trying to take orders while releasing the talk button as he was cussing at employees, like reverse censoring. When I finished taking the order, I turned around to see what the issue was. I noticed the other car hop run to the back crying. He turned to me and said, “…and YOU, you little jerk.” This guy was 5’4″ and I’m 6′ and in rollerskates.

I rolled over to him and stopped a bare inch away and in a strong, clear voice I said, “Excuse me, SIR! I am a human being and when you speak to me, it will be with decency and respect, do you understand?!” He replied, “Give me your apron.” So, I walked out and went directly to the home office and talked to one of the executives, the son of the owner, and related how I loved my job, I had worked for nine different Sonics, won multiple awards, over the last decade and had been invited to VIP movie premiere, featured in the news with his father, the owner. I could no longer work with JT for creating a hostile work environment and asked to be reassigned back to MY store where I had been working. I was told he would call. So he called. Turns out, JT had sold his restaurant as part of a messy divorce and invested several million dollars into the Austin Sonic association of franchise owners, becoming a full partner and part-owner of almost every Sonic in the city. He had me blacklisted. I can no longer work for Sonic. I tried again to get a job several years later, but I was told they still couldn’t hire me.

11. Manipulating Stories

Freepik @8photo

I’ve only been fired once and it was completely stupid. I was working at the newly opened Papa Murphy’s Take-n-Bake pizza in my town. There was this complete fart face working there. As you may know, you can call ahead and order a pizza to be ready for pick-up. On the day in question, I answered the phone in the midst of an argument with the aforementioned fart face. She used some choice language while I was taking the order, and the customer heard it.

The next day, the customer called back to complain, and the only people working were the coworker and an assistant manager who was not a big fan of mine. The coworker rearranged the story so that I was the one who swore, and I got canned without even being given the opportunity to defend myself. Total jerks.

10. Are You BEEing Nice?

Unsplash (Leandro Fregoni)

My sister worked at the local zoo as a snow cone vendor over the summer. People were insanely rude. They would get mad when they invented flavors that the zoo doesn’t sell. They would get mad when the cash register told them that the change they expected was wrong because they can’t do the math. All sorts of things like that. They’ve even reacted by throwing snow cones at her. Fortunately, my sister learned that the bees that are everywhere around here in summer are not only harmless if you leave them alone, but that they really really like the syrup that goes into the snow cones.

So she started placing little water bottle caps of syrup underneath her cart. This attracted loads of bees that kept most customers away. Her favorite part was when people tried to brave their way up to the cash register only to lose their nerve and run while she called out cheerily, “Are you sure there’s nothing I could do for you, sir?!?” She loves bees so much she’s bought t-shirts with bees on them that she wears regularly. The manager suspected her when they found the caps of syrup. They gave her a safety lecture on customer allergies to the whole staff, so she stopped doing it. She’s pretty sure the only reason she hasn’t been fired is that it’s a seasonal job, and the temp workers are no longer getting hours.

9. Keep Calm And Get Fired

Freepik @benzoix

So I was moonlighting at a popular dive/hipster bar in my college town. I was working full time in addition to this spot. Starting out as a cook, I loved it. I made good tips and loved cooking. Eventually, I was moved to bouncer/barback at minimum wage without being tipped out. Respect for those who can do it but it ain’t for me. One night, we had a callout so I was working as a bouncer and a cook. It was tough and we had an extra rowdy crowd. The night was smooth until the last order. The guy was with a large group and wandered off. I called his name and someone took the food who I thought was part of his group. I was wrong. He came back asking for food and I apologized and offered to refund his money.

It took quite the process on our old register, and the customer started yelling and swinging his fist. I yelled at him to stop being violent and we will give him his money. I never cussed. He kept escalating the situation until I told him I would kick him out if he didn’t chill. He did calm down and the refund went through. I spoke very calmly for the entirety of the altercation. I got fired the next shift for the error and for yelling at him. It’s terrible.

8. The Next Number After 1 Is 12?

Freepik @benzoix

I was working for a bakery because I just couldn’t find anything else after my last stable job let me go in favor of automation. Anyway, so I’m working there for about six months and there’s always this one particular old dude who was a major headache and a frequent regular. The bakery used a number system; however, we only really used it when it got busy and we couldn’t always keep track of who came in first. So this guy comes in and takes a number, he gets 12. Our counter is at 99 from the previous day. I reset it to 0. I call “#1.” Nobody has one, so I call out the next. This guy, though, this guy had his #12. I keep calling out numbers while he butts his way through the line and up to the counter. “I am next.” I asked, “What number do you have, sir?” He replied, “12 but I was here first.” I said, “I’m sorry sir you’re just going to have to wait until I call your number.”

Well, he didn’t like that I said this to him, so, verbatim, he goes: “Shut up, prick.” Immediately, synapses in my brain are just going off and I flip the rage switch. “Pardon me?” He goes, “I was next and you skipped me! Jerk!” I took his order out of spite, got him his coffee, slammed it down on the counter and told him to leave. He said no. This angered me more than it should have but I was already having a bad week and this guy was the straw that broke the camels back. I threw open the counter partition, went around to the line and grabbed him by his shirt collar, dragged him out the door and told him to screw off. I immediately got changed, handed in my uniform and went home because nobody should have to deal with pricks like that.

7. Freaking Fries!

Freepik @foodfotografie

I got fired from my second job ever as a waiter at a steakhouse. This particular chain does curly fries. One night, a customer complained that his curly fries were in too many pieces and he wanted a new batch. I’d been having a bad night and asked him: “Are you serious? They’re freaking fries.” Needless to say, I got fired straight away.

I kicked the door open on the way out and shattered the glass, so they kept my last paycheck too. I actually didn’t mean to break the door. I had my hands full of all my stuff and went to kick it open with my leg. The glass must’ve been loose and smashed. It didn’t look good though.

6. No Poking, Please?

Freepik @stockking

I was working as a server at TGIFridays while in school. One evening I got a group of businessmen in for a happy hour. They all ordered drinks, and one man, who I believe was from India, had a very very strong accent. He ordered a pina colada. I repeated the order back to the table. I delivered the drinks and was at the computer putting their food orders in when I got a poke to the back. I turned around to find the pina colada man standing there 3 inches away from me. He was yelling at me, while aggressively poking me in my shoulders with his finger. He went off on me, “I’ve never had an adult beverage in my life! Who do you think you are?! You should take more time listening! You have ruined everything!”

He went on and on. I had not heard or understood that because of his accent even though I repeated the order back. One of my co-workers intervened and said, “I don’t know where you’re from but we don’t talk to women like that and we definitely don’t touch them.” I was extremely shocked and embarrassed and refused to take the table after that. I was then let go because my manager didn’t believe me or my coworker on what had happened.

5. Frisbeed And Jailed

Unsplash (Harry Shelton)

This didn’t happen to me…but I witnessed it. A friend of mine used to work in a pizza place. I’d hang out in the lobby playing their Pacman machine…(yeah, it was a long time ago). Anyway, my friend is taking orders when a guy storms in, screaming about the wrong toppings.

Well, what he did was he removed the pie from the box and frisbee’d it into my friend’s face. My two-time Detroit Golden-Gloves champion friend. What followed was the worst beating I’ve ever seen one man take. My friend lost his job AND got jail time out of it.

4. The Crap Lady

Freepik @cookie_studio

A woman came into a charity shop and complained about every single item loudly to the ten or so customers in there. Along the lines of “This is all crap. Who pays for this?” Like we’re some boutique with clothes from the back of a van. She clearly didn’t understand how rarely new clothes (still tagged, etc.) are donated. Then she got in my face about it.

I was so angry with her for chasing away the people that came in that I lost my cool. There was nobody left except her since she’d ranted them into leaving. I told her to get out and I “didn’t give a crap” about the clothes or her opinions. She screams her way out of the shop broadcasting it to everyone on the street. She came back once the manager was off their break and complained again, so I lost my job fairly soon after. I can’t blame them, I’d have done the same.

3. He Finally Loses It

Freepik @cookie_studio

It was my co-worker but I was like five feet away. We worked in the produce section of Safeway. He had gotten in like five minutes prior and was obviously in a bad mood when a customer comes up and starts complaining about her fruit. He tries the normal talking points, but the lady is being a brat.

Finally, he just loses it and yells, “Screw off you stupid witch!” He throws his apron at her and leaves the store. I never heard from him again. That was also the day I worked my first 16-hour shift.

2. You’re Still Wrong!

Freepik @drobotdean

I didn’t get fired but got a written warning for this. I was working chat tech support for a web host. The customer chatted in complaining of slowness claiming our servers were having issues. I do all the standard steps and we determine that his ISP is having issues (standard Tracert, etc). He doesn’t believe me and becomes obstinate. So I end the chat by saying “you’re wrong!”

About 10 minutes later I get a new chat. I see the account name and the question. It was the same guy with the same question. Without letting him say anything I write “You’re still wrong” and close the chat. If I wasn’t one of the better techs I know I would have been fired.

1. Why You Gotta Be So Rude

Freepik @wayhomestudio

I got fired because I worked at a sandwich shop when I was like 20. In the past I had a freaking sandwich thrown at me. This time my coworker had a bag of chips thrown directly at his head. I was furious. The guy starts walking away and I’m like no, so I start yelling “Hey! Get back here!”

I don’t remember what I said but I pretty much said “You can’t do that; it doesn’t matter what he said or did, you do no attack people here” and I yelled at him in front of the store and made damn sure everyone knew what had happened. I was told, “He’s still a customer.” Screw customer service; it really is the devil.