Isn’t it insane when customers think they own the store and refuse to be kind?

This guy shares his experience with a weird customer and how he tackled the situation.

Check out the full story.

You can’t park there. It’s a sidewalk.

When I worked at the hardware store we sold a lot of bagged goods. Top soil, potting soil, rock salt, mulch, cement, sand, etc.

He explains his workflow…

We would periodically run a sale on one of the many listed goods and we’d get several pallets of them in for the sale. We would occasionally sell something like 50-100 bags, or more, of one of the bags.

Each weighed ~30-60 lbs and we usually always loaded the big orders from the back of the store.

This is where it gets interesting…

Sometimes customers would try to outsmart us, not to cheat us or anything, but to save time. We weren’t supposed to let people walk all the way through the store (front door to back door), but occasionally we were forced to by people why were trying to save time.

The manager would always tell them that this isn’t policy, I forget the exact reason, I think it’s some sort of liability with the back room; driving the forklift there, something.

It was a decent reason, and, although I personally disagreed with the policy…I didn’t make it. Three such exchanges stick out in my mind.

UH OH…

The first was in 2009 when I’d only been at the store for about a year. I was well versed in all aspects of the store at this point, but still the new guy.

So inevitably when someone pulled up to buy 100 bags of top soil…I’d get to load it, even if I was running the register; someone who didn’t want to get covered in sweat would switch places with me.

Well, a customer tells me that they want 75 bags of top soil and 75 bags of cow manure. I rang them up for it and as they paid I was about to tell them to drive around back to pick it up; I’d meet them there.

This is where it gets bad!

Me: Please drive around back and we’ll load them up for you.

Mulch lady (ML): My husband’s already back there. He said I could cut through the store.

I didn’t know her husband made the store policy!

Me: Ok, but just for future reference we aren’t supposed to let people cut through the store.

ML: Well, that’s stupid. Takes her receipt and leaves

That’s INSANE!

I saw the manager halfway down our main aisle tell her the same thing that I just told her (I still had one more customer to ring out before I loaded up 150 bags of crap…well, only 75 bags were literally crap I guess).

She stopped and began to chew the manager out in the middle of the aisle. He stood there and took it while I finished on the register and got someone to cover for me. As I’m walking down the aisle I hear her finally finish.

Manager: Are you done?

ML: EXCUSE ME?!?

They tried working around the situation!

Manager: Ma’am, I’d like to show you something; it’s the door. I prefer to show people the front one, but in this case I’ll show you the rear door. He (me) will help you load your goods. Thank you for shopping.

And then he just walked away. Now, I expected her to haughtily ask for a refund and tell me where I could shove something, but she didn’t.

I guess no one had ever told her off like that before. She didn’t say a word to me. Her husband and her proceeded to watch me, in the hot Florida sun, load up 150 bags onto their trailer…weighing ~30 pounds each.

It went on and on!

They didn’t lift a finger. (Most people help us; it goes quicker, and it makes it a little easier on us. I get if you don’t want to help, but they just stood there and stared at me as if I was going to short them a bag or something).

The next was about a year later when a customer purchased 80 bags of mulch. I wasn’t available to load them and the only guy who was…was literally a WWII vet.

He’s since passed away, but he was awesome. He was ~5’8″ tall, 80-something years old, and a marine to the core. You asked him to do something…he’d do it…or he’d die trying…and that’s what we were afraid of.

Things got messy!

So, he’s in the back loading the mulch and his emphysema starts to kick in. He has to take a break. Now, none of us knew that it was just him back there loading it.

So I was cutting glass for another customer when a very concerned looking, somewhat older (late 60’s), lady comes over (CL) to ask me a question.

CL: Excuse me, is there someone that could help us.

Me: One moment; I’ve got one piece of glass left and I’ll give you a hand.

cuts last piece of glass, writes a ticket for customer

Me: How can I help you?

They weren’t convinced!

CL: Can you load some mulch for us? There’s a nice gentleman helping us in the back…but we’re afraid that he’s going to die.

Me: WAT

I go back there and there’s our buddy leaning heavily on the wall breathing like he’s run a full marathon. In combat gear. In summer.

But he’s holding another bag about to drop it on their trailer. I relieve him and tell him to take a break. He survived that particular encounter thankfully.

The finale: This one happened in 2012 and I was on the floor that day. I see a guy with a big older F350 doing some weird maneuver in the parking lot.

That’s so weird!

Finally, with the rear of his truck facing the store, he floors it…in reverse. Hops up on the curb and slams on the brakes leaving skid marks on the sidewalk.

This particular area is about 30′ to the store and runs the entire length of the complex. Now, being that I was standing by the door at that particular moment I nearly needed a change of pants as I thought I was gonna die.

He gets out of his truck and starts loading bags of top soil off our display. It was on sale 99¢ a bag. I go outside.

Me: Sir, you have to pay for that first.

Truck guy (TG): Nah, I’ve done this before. right

He still tried maintaining his cool…

Me: Sir, it’s store policy, you pay for it, and we’ll even load it up for you.

He stops for a moment and looks at me.

TG: Well, Ok, I’m gonna need about 80 more bags, so that’ll work. You can start bringing them up front for me.

Me: Sir…can I have you drive around back? We’ll have a few guys meet you there to load them up and It’ll go quicker.

He was trying to make things work!

TG: Nah, I’d prefer them to be brought up here. Thanks. Where do I pay? (Yeah, he’d done this before…mhm)

I stood there for a few seconds and tried to see if that was feasible; we tried to please the customers anyway we could…but we just didn’t have a good cart that could bring up a few loads of top soil, and the forklift wouldn’t fit through the store.

Finally the owner came back from the bank.

Owner: You can’t park there sir.

TG: Why?

Owner: It’s a sidewalk! (somewhat frustrated)

TG: I’ve done it before.

UH OH…

Owner: Have you been towed before?

TG: I’ve never been threatened like that before! I pay good money to shop here, and I’ve been a customer for over twenty years.

Owner: That’s funny; we opened in 1999.

TG: I can temporarily park wherever I want; I’ve done it before.

Owner whips out his cell phone and dials a towing service. TG moved. Paid for the ~7ish bags of top soil he’d loaded into his truck and left.

Total price? Not worth it.

GEEZ! That sounds like a lot of work!

Why would someone be so mean?

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this.

This user knows how to work out of spite.

This user knows it is painful to work in a hardware store.

This user knows the last bit is insane!

This user shares their experience working at a similar place.

This user is glad this guy put the customer in their place!

Someone’s being really smart here!

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.