Most reasonable people would agree that retail workers deserve to be treated like human beings, but some people would rather they behave like puppets.

So after working a long shift, being told to “smile more” by one entitled customer was just about the last thing this employee wanted to hear.

But when he refused, the customer made it clear her request was more about control than anything else.

Keep reading for the full story!

When rude customers tell you to smile…

I work for a pretty big retail company, and yesterday I was at work, and this is how it went down.

Me: “Hey, how are you?”
Customer: No reply. (20% of customers bother to reply, I feel some days.)

The customer was buying one item, so I transacted it and handed it back to her.

But this customer then decided to get on their high horse.

Me: “Thank you.”
Her: “You could at least smile.”

I then looked at her, wondering why she thought I should smile at her after she couldn’t be bothered to say, “Good, thanks,” when I asked how she was.

Then things got even uglier.

When I didn’t smile after she told me to, she started yelling.

Customer: “You’re terrible! You’re so bad at your job! I’m going to tell your manager!”

Then she continued to yell things that weren’t even audible as she walked away and refused to take the receipt from my hand.

The cashier ended up getting the last laugh, though.

Security wouldn’t let her leave without a receipt, and she had to come back to me to get it.

I get that we are taught and paid to say, “Hi, how are you today?” and some people think it’s not genuine, but I could have also been a jerk and not even asked to begin with.

Simple pleasantries shouldn’t have caused this much trouble.

What did Reddit have to say?

Customers don’t seem to understand that politeness is a two-way street.

Some customers just need to be put in their place.

The audacity of some customers…

Entitled people rarely expect you to actually clap back at them.

In the end, all this customer had to do was take the receipt and leave, but she chose to be difficult instead.

If this customer wanted smiles so bad, maybe she could just try being nice.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.