When you work in a customer facing role, you will always run into people who are trying to find ways to scam you or your company in one way or another.

What would you do if a customer kept acting weird to you, and then the next day they would complain to your manager in order to try to get a free stay or a discount at your hotel?

That is what happened to the front desk worker in this story, but they had video recordings, so she could prove to the manager that this customer was just trying to scam them.

A rare management W

Unfortunately, management here bends to entitled guest whining a lot. Or just generally lets people get away with whatever crazy behavior they want as long as they pay.

I can imagine putting up with customers like that would get old.

But the owner is getting increasingly fed up lately and is finally taking his staffs side.

This woman is technically two tales wrapped into one.

Dealing with people at the end of a shift can be difficult.

The first time she came in, it was at the end of one of my afternoon shifts. There was a bit of a language barrier, but I do know enough Spanish to get by.

She asks for a room, I tell her what we have and quote her prices, and I’m met with a blank stare. Total silence. Then she asks again if we have rooms.

I’m sure miscommunications are common in this line of work.

Okay, maybe I didn’t say it right, my Spanish isn’t great. I pull up my trusty google translate app, I have a bunch of phrases saved that I need so I don’t waste time typing/speaking into my phone.

I tap the one I need and show it to her, I write the price on a notepad. Another blank stare. Silence. Then she asks again.

Good, someone is coming in to help.

Okay, google translate sucks sometimes. Maybe it was a bad translation. At this point, another guest has arrived to the lobby and can see the struggle. He begins translating for me.

He speaks perfect Spanish, amazing. She’ll definitely understand this time, no chance of mistranslations. He tells her we have rooms, the price, tells her all I need is a card and an ID and we can finally move on.

Is this customer ok?

He actually explains this to her several times.

Silence. Blank stare. She leaves.

Okay, she’s confused? I’m definitely confused. The other guest is confused. I move on with my night and forget about her.

What is she talking about?

The next morning, she came in and ranted at my coworkers for hours claiming I refused to help her. Claimed I said we had no rooms left, on a night where we had 45 rooms left at midnight.

Said I was rude and dismissive and kicked her out. My boss asks me about it, I explain what actually happened, even more confused now. Camera footage is reviewed, I’m innocent.

She also begged for a job, but that’s besides the point.

Weird things happen, customers are unpredictable sometimes, what can you do?

I move on with my life. For weeks. I forget this woman so well, I don’t even recognize her when she comes back. I checked her in, but that part was totally normal.

She’s here for 2 weeks. On night two, she comes into the lobby.

She has a valid complaint this time.

Her toilet was leaking and she shows me the photos. My maintenance guy was here, but very busy working on a plumbing issue (probably why her toilet leaked).

The water was actually shut off half the day and he seemed really stressed out about the whole thing. He’s usually gone by 5-6 and it was around 10, so I offered to move her rooms so he could get his work done and finally go home.

Good, another happy customer.

She acts very understanding and chill about it, I move to a room 2 doors down. She leaves with a smile.

She leaves and sees the maintenance man in the parking lot, snitches me out, and demands he fix it for her.

Ahh, she is just looking to get a discount or free room.

Apparently she was really nasty to him and (again) when on a rant about how I refused to help her. (At this point, we all know what she’s doing right? lol)

He fixes it for her and later brings me back the keys to the new room. I had no idea she had even bothered him.

Yup, she is just a scammer.

The next morning, she speaks to the owner and rants about the whole situation, again lying about me and maintenance this time too, also bringing up the time I “refused to sell her a room” and demanding the rest of her stay (11 remaining days) all be free. Yeah, okay.

He denies it. Denies her a discount. Advises her she can find a new hotel if she has such huge issues with his and his staff.

Now that is a great manager.

He talks to me again in the afternoon just to get my side, though he was already on my side, just to make sure he had the story right.

He also tells me she’s the same woman as the first story and it suddenly made a lot more sense. We all have a good laugh about how her long weird plan to get a free week failed.

You can never trust a customer like this.

She’s still here, but she didn’t get anything. She’s had me fix her keys since and has again gone back to being super cheery.

Why are people the way that they are? Not to be that guy, but I think a lot of people assume I know a lot less Spanish than I do, especially with how silly I think I sound speaking it, and think they can feign miscommunication enough to game the system here.

People are always trying to get away with things.

It happened a lot at the last place I worked, too. My bosses know I’m not fluent, but that I mostly understand what’s being said, even if I can’t exactly say anything back every time. (I’m working on it, it would make getting a job/promotions a lot easier where I live).

Dealing with these types of people on a daily basis would get old. Why do they always feel entitled to something for free?

Read on to see what the people in the comments had to say about this frustrating (but funny) story.

Lying guests are the worst.

Cameras really help to minimize this type of thing.

This is a smart strategy.

Yup, this is the sad truth.

I was wondering this too.

Sadly, this type of person often gets away with their scams.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.