Hideous Customer Service Stories
For the last ten years, we have been keeping our eyes peeled for customer service stories in the media. We collect them to use in our customer service training programs and service recovery training. In 2012, we began sorting and ranking them to create “top 10 best” and “top 10 worst” customer service story lists.
In 2018, we began to notice a disturbing trend. The bad customer service stories were becoming increasingly extreme, to the point that we could no longer include them in our lists. This trend has continued to escalate in 2019, and, quite frankly, has me concerned. Customers and employees alike appear to be rapidly losing any sense of civility, and, when unhappy, are defaulting to abusive and often violent behaviour.
To put this into perspective, for 2019 we have so far collected 25 possible candidates for our “Best” customer service list, and 22 for our “Worst” customer service list. Our list of “Hideous” experiences – both on the part of employees and customers – is already over the 150 mark – and growing rapidly.
Here are 50 of the stories to give you an idea of what I’m talking about. I will continue to add to the list over the rest of they year. If you have any thoughts as to what is going on, please let me know in the comments!
50 Hideous Customer Service Stories
- McDonald’s manager hits customer in the face with a blender
- McDonalds customer shoots at couple because of an incorrect order
- Lowes customer and employee get in a fight over grout
- Customer in Jamaican restaurant in New York breaks windows because they ran out of patties
- Man threatens to shoot up an H&R Block because of his tax return
- UK Bank employee tells customer “all vegans should be punched in the face.”
- Customer hits store employee with his vehicle
- Angry customer stabs business owner
- Angry customer shoots Walgreens employee
- Employee threatens customer with pocket knife in.
- Customer throws coffee into an McDonald’s employee’s face
- Customer gets angry over milk prices and hurls racial slurs
- Customer spits on liquor store cashier
- Denny’s customer defends an employee – then gets attacked himself
- Customer is too slow – clerk pulls BB gun
- Gas station worker yells at woman for speaking Spanish
- Customer pepper-sprays Wendy’s employee over wrong order
- Customer doesn’t want to wait in line – drives car through bank window
- Customer threatens Wegmans employee for asking child not to play with coffee machine
- Customer shoots phone store employee in the head because bill was too high
- McDonald’s employee pours grease on customer
- Dog groomer pulls gun on customer for being late
- Taco Bell employee punches customer for complaining
- Burger king employee shouts at customer
- Taco Bell employee goes on Islamophobic rant
- Passenger slaps Spirit Airlines employee in the face
- Customer slaps pregnant McDonald’s employee because of wrong order
- Who Dat’s employee prints racist message on drive-thru receipt
- Customer in wheelchair tries to tase McDonalds employee because of wait
- Man throws drink at McDonalds employee because of wait time
- Customers assault and shoot other customers because of fried mushrooms
- Walmart greeter punched in face
- Angry customer trashes convenience store because of change
- McDonald’s employee fights with customer over closed restaurant
- VivaAir passenger is late, hurls airline computer
- Customer has racist rant at Burger King
- Customer punches Subway employee for scanning bills
- Bagel store customer goes on bizarre tirade
- Vodafone employee tells customer to stop speaking a different language
- Hungry customer smashes employee on head with teapot
- Valvoline employee writes “Pocahontas” on receipt
- Gas station attendant hurls racist abuse at customers
- Customer threatens to stab UPS employee because of customs delay
- Gas station cashier tells customer to “go back to your country.”
- McDonalds employees tampering with food
- Employee pulls gun on customer returning charcoal
- Customer wants free propane – threatens to shoot U-haul employee
- Employee goes on rant because customer complains of burnt pizza
- Woman pulls gun because of cold fries
- McDonalds employee refuses to serve paramedics
