Imagine having male customers refuse to believe that you know what you’re talking about simply because you’re a woman.

Would you let this bother you, or would you walk away and let them figure it out on their own?

In this story, one woman shares an encounter she had with a customer at the paint store where she works.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Just one of those days.

Setting Info: I work at a professional paint Store. This means 95% of our customers are contractors, handymen, or businesses looking for paint.

My location is on a major intersection so we have usually 1-3 homeowner customers a day.

Personnel Info: female. 24. Working at paint place for 2.5+ years (oh heck has it really been that long already?!).

She’s an expert.

I know my stuff.

I came into the job with 0 knowledge on paint and now know my products, how to prep, square footage of products, what the issues will be with application and all those little details.

I constantly get praised by men who have been in the industry for decades for knowing my stuff. brush my shoulders off also, I work by myself in the store about 15-20 hours a week because I’m awesome.

An annoying homeowner entered the store.

Today has just been one of THOSE days.

I had a couple headache-inducing encounters with homeowner customers. Here is one of them.

Man, 40s or early 50s enters my store. Greet him.

He, of course, snaps at me that he is “just looking for water-based polyurethanes”.

He ends up needing her help.

Trust me buddy, I want to help someone with an attitude like yours even less than you want my help.

I was helping one of my regular contractors so I left him alone and he started huffing about 5 minutes later.

I walk in his general area, cheerful smile stapled to my face.

He now wants my help. He starts asking for a durable polyurethane.

Just answer the question!

The first question we are taught to ask,

Me- “is this for an interior or exterior project?”- it infuriated him. He started getting visibly worked up

Customer- “I need something durable”.

Me- “okay, for interior or exterior?”

She brings it back to the same question.

Customer- “I told you!!! It needs to be durable. This one says not for walking on”

Me- “correct that won’t hold up to foot traffic but it is really durable against UV Rays and hand oils so it is good for spindles and hand rails on decks. If you are looking for something to walk on—”

Customer- “I said it needs to be durable!”

Me- “durable for what use? Interior or exterior makes a difference too, so when you figure that out the selection becomes easier”

He doesn’t seem to believe her.

Customer- “it doesn’t matter just your most durable!”

Me- “okay, well if you are looking for most durable then this (pulls quart off shelf), is what I’d recommend”

Customer- “no, if I can’t walk on it, it’s not durable enough.”

Me- “you can walk on this one”

He still didn’t believe her.

Customer- “if I wanted to finish a cutting board why would I need to walk on it? Where are the men? I don’t think you can help me.”

Me- “I’m the one here. You can feel free to try another location or come back at a different time” then I walked away.

At this point I just wanted to get back to my nice regular customer.

The problem here was the customer not her.

I’m used to people in my industry being skeptical of my knowledge or skills just because I’m a female. But I take great pride in being able to prove myself.

I love my job and have a good work ethic.

But if you spend 5 minutes talking to me about durability for walking on, then I show you something you can walk on, AND YOU REFUSE to answer any of my questions to assist you better- then you cannot blame my gender for walking out of my store empty handed.

Talk about an unreasonable customer! How hard is it answer the question of interior versus exterior use?

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person explains why they think the man was so rude.

This is funny!

Someone who shops at home improvement stores shares how they would’ve approached the situation.

This woman shared her experience taking her car to get an oil change.

Customers need to stop judging employees based on the way they look.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.