My most judgmental customer…

This happened over 6 years ago when I was working for an online clothing store. Reading the stories in this sub reminds me of my time there and I wanted to share a bizarre/terrible customer experience.

I had been working there for about 3 years at this point and had handed in my notice to leave. One day, I received a call from a member who wanted to complain about an item advertised on the site. I asked for account details etc and looked for the item she had saved to her cart. While searching, she kept shouting random words like “disgusting”and “horrible” while I typed away silently.

Once I had found the item, I was eager to see what could cause such an extreme reaction to a clothing item as we had received complaints regarding “inappropriate” items before. The item in question was a pair of leather pants (women’s dept). Once I had pulled it up, I asked the woman what exactly the issue was and this is where it all went downhill.

Apparently, the lighting in the photograph created a shadow on the crotch of the pants that looked like the model may have a penis. The woman on the phone continued to scream about how the item needs to be removed immediately as children might see it. While I explained that the shape was more than likely caused by lighting and that this woman probably did not have a penis that even if she did, it wouldn’t warrant taking down the photograph.

This lady freaked out and roared in what I can only describe as a demonic voice “I don’t want to see creatures like that when I’m trying to shop.” Once I had argued back and forth for a while I realized that I was leaving in a few days and that I couldn’t reason with a person like this. I proceeded to tell her that she was a disgusting creature and that she must have a sad life to be so full of hate, hung up and deleted her account. This was the only time I ever spoke to a customer that way but it was also the most ridiculous complaint I had ever received. Luckily there was no consequences with management at the time but it wouldn’t have mattered too much anyway.

I have moved on the another job but still deal with customers in a different capacity. Whenever I get frustrated with someone I remind myself that I’m lucky that I’m not speaking to someone as rude as that lady.