Working in any kind of customer service job can potentially be hazardous to your health!

Because you never really know what kind of folks you’re dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

Check out what happened in this story from Reddit’s “Tales From Retail” page and learn about the shenanigans this worker had to put up with.

“You’re really lucky, kid. If we were anywhere else…”

“M – Me

OM – Old Man

OW – Old Woman

I work in a small hardware store and we offer a window screen repair/construction service. I’ve been doing it almost 2 years now and I have a good reputation.

An older couple came in, probably late sixties, and asked me to build them a window screen. No problem, except they wanted me to make it with aluminum screening.

They decided to give it a shot.

I’ve had no luck fitting a screen with aluminum because it breaks when you roll it into the grooves so I generally refuse to do it, and I told them this, but they insisted on it being made of aluminum so I agreed to give it a try with no guarantees.

It would also be a week before I could get the material because someone recently bought the whole roll of that size. I took their info and told them to come in the day after we got the delivery.

So a week later they come into the store:

OM: Where’s our screen. (Notice the lack of a question mark)

M:I haven’t gotten to it yet sir, we’re still putting away our delivery. I’ll get started on it as soon as I can and I’ll let you know tomorrow how it goes.

Uh oh…

OM: Well why not? It’s been a week!

M: Because we just got our delivery today and I haven’t finished stocking the store, I told you it wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow.

He and his wife huffed and, amazingly, left.

I got around to working on it a couple hours later and quickly realized I was right, I wouldn’t be able to make their screen. I even tried 3 times for them, wasting material.

I ended up with an intact screen that had 4 or 5 small spots around the edge that were ripped. Aesthetically they’d never be noticed, but there is technically still a hole there.

Yikes…

I called them and told them about the situation, they said they’d “be there in a minute to fix the problem for me.” I knew immediately this was going to be an ordeal.

They walk in the door and OM immediately starts yelling at the owner, who had nothing to do with it. I didn’t make out what they were saying, I was on the other side of the store, but I knew exactly who it was. I walk up to them:

M: Hey is everything okay?

OM: My wife is saying you points finger at me called her saying you suck at your job and cant build our screen. WE’VE BEEN WAITING A WEEK!

M: Okay sir, I’ll do what I can to help you but you’re gonna have to calm down some. When you dropped it off I told you I probably wasn’t going to be able to do it, here’s the best I could do for you.

OW: It’s your technique that’s the problem. I watched a YouTube video about it this morning and did one myself earlier (note: they hadn’t purchased any screening from us, we didn’t even have it in stock, and we’re one of the few places around that you can get this specific screen).

I’m pretty done with their attitudes at this point.

Go ahead and do it yourself!

M: (Politely, no snideness) Well since you seem to be more talented than I am, I’d be happy to tear this one down and sell you the empty frame so you can put it in yourself.

OM: Oh, well hold on now inspects screen and grudgingly asks how much for it.

M: Well since it’s not perfect I’ll only charge you for the material used on the screen, no labor. (I just wanted them gone).

OM: Fine. (Under his breath) Fool.

This really irked me, which led to what is considered an “explosion” for me. I’m extremely mild mannered.

(At the checkout)

M: Your total is $$$.

OM: Should be free.

M: Well, it’s not sir.

OM: (getting super angry again) You got a lot of nerve, you know that?

M: Oh yeah, definitely. You total is $$$, cash or card?

This guy was something else.

OM: You’re lucky, kid. If we were anywhere else right now…

At this point I stopped the transaction and just looked at him for a couple seconds.

M: Did you just threaten me?

He shrugged and gave me a “what can I say?” kind of look so I voided the sale and broke his newly made screen right in front of him, them told them to leave.

OM & OW: Oh what the HELL?!

M: Get out of my store.

OW: You need to learn some respect!

OM: **** this place and **** you and **** your business, **** your attitude and **** YOUR FACE.

I didn’t reply but wanted so badly to say, “Well **** you too, AND that horse you rode in on!” but, you know, responsible adult. I’ve never been threatened at work before and it kinda threw me off.

The owner watched it all (he lets me handle any “situations” because Im very cool and collected while he has some temper problems) and after they left we had a good laugh about how I broke the screen.

All in all we probably lost about $10 in materials so it was totally worth it.

I love my boss.”

Reddit users shared their thoughts.

This person chimed in.

Another reader was impressed.

This individual shared their thoughts.

Another person spoke up.

And this reader weighed in.

No worker should have to deal with this kind of nonsense.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.