Some people expect customer service employees to perform miracles.

This e-commerce employee found herself dealing with one of those customers when a woman called to place an order before a major sales event.

The problem was that she kept expecting the employee to solve issues that were completely outside her control.

In fact, every time she explained why something wouldn’t work, the customer pushed for something else.

Even after she spent more than 40 minutes trying to help the woman, she still wanted her to find a way around a problem she couldn’t actually fix.

Read on to see what happened next.

A ridiculous customer with so many demands

I used to work at an online e-commerce where customers call you because they want to complain about a specific problem like lost deliveries, tracking order, etc.

One day, it was before the Black Friday Sale last November, I received a call from this woman who demanded me to go into her account.

So, yeah I agreed.

The woman had only a small amount of money to use.

First demand, remove all the items in her cart. I did. (To be honest she can do it on her own, but for some reason she chose to waste her time calling us). And then she told me to pick up some Oreo Nabisco cookies. She specified which product so the cost is 11.75 dollars minus tax. When I told her the total, she freaked out.

She said, “Cancel the order. Pick up some cookies for me which costs less than 5 dollars.”

I replied, “Less than 5 dollars. Got it. But the only thing I can see here are Oreo Packs which are smaller and not Nabisco.”

She contemplated for a moment then she agreed.

She still wasn’t happy.

The total came in at 4.25 dollars plus tax which is 11.95. She freaked out again once I told her the total. For the sake of easy understanding, I’ll call Demanding Customer as DC and Me as M.

DC: “I told you that my total should be less than 5 dollars. Why is it 11.95?”

M: “The total of your order comes in as 4.25 plus tax which costs 11.95.”

DC: “Your website says free delivery. Why is it that there’s tax on my order?”

Then, she demanded a promo code.

M: “Free delivery is only available for orders above 15 dollars. As your order is only 4.25, there is tax.”

She stopped for a moment then proceeded with the checkout. She has a promo code and when I entered it, it was expired. I told her that. There was a pause on the line.

DC: “Okay, give me a promo code.”

M: “Ma’am, as much I would love to, company policy states that we can’t give out promo codes. Promo codes are only issued once per order”.

Of course, it had no available balance.

At this point, I’m already so annoyed and angry. The call was already around 28 minutes at this point. When I checked her account, there were various complaints. And there were her ridiculous demands, which previous representatives gave her promo codes and there was one gift card issued by a supervisor when she demanded it.

DC: “Fine. I have a gift card.”

I muted my mic and sighed. Here we go again. So I just agreed. She gave me her gift card number and when I entered it, it has zero balance. I told her that her gift card is at zero.

DC: “What? There’s no way it has zero balance.”

At this point, she was tired and placed the customer on hold.

I’m already clenching my fists in anger. But still, I managed to keep my composure. Please, just check your cards to make sure you’re not wasting our time and you’re not wasting yours.

M: “But this is what I see here on my screen. It has zero balance. Do you have another alternate mode of payment on this one?”

DC: “I don’t. My debit card only has 5 dollars on it. I want you to remove the delivery fee on it.”

I placed her on hold. At this point, I’m so tired of dealing with her. Then after 2 minutes of composing myself, taking in deep breathe, released the hold. In the sweetest customer service voice, I said.

Then, she reverted back to asking for an alternative payment method.

M: “Thank you for patiently waiting on the line ma’am. I’m in your account and there’s no option for me to remove the delivery fee.”

The thing is that you cannot remove any fees while inside a customer’s account when you spoofed it as I’m in the e-commerce website and not in our system. The customer must place first the order before I remove the delivery fee.

DC: “No, no, no, no. Do something. I really need those cookies. Either you give me a promo code, a gift card, or remove the delivery fee.”

M: “Ma’am, do you have any other alternate modes of payment?”

The call was not helping her numbers.

DC: “No. I only have the gift card and the debit card. The debit card has only 5 dollars and my gift card should have some money left in it. It’s impossible to be zero”.

At this point, I’m like tired and stressed. We have AHT which means Average Handle Time. My supervisor has been screaming at me to handle my time. But the customer won’t let me off the line so here’s what I did.

M: “Ma’am, I have first to place your order to remove the delivery fee.”

I know I cannot place said order because debit card has only 5 dollars. I know it’s stupid but that is the only way to end the call.

Suddenly, she found something to try.

DC: “My debit card has only 5 dollars!”

M: “I understand. But don’t worry. The delivery fee will be removed once we place said order on your debit card.”

DC: “Okay fine.”

It was a gamble on my part. I know it’s stupid but she totally believed it. Guess what, debit card is beyond its limit. Payment transaction failed.

It didn’t work.

M: “I apologize but your payment transaction cannot be processed. Your debit card doesn’t have sufficient funds to place this particular order.”

DC: “Do something. I need those cookies.”

M: “One moment.”

Look, there’s nothing I can do. It’s your fault you don’t have money then you call us wasting your time. I just said one moment then typed something.

Finally, the woman hung up.

I just put my mic near the keyboard while I type to make it sound like I was doing something for her.

I wasn’t talking, just the sound of my fingers hitting up random letters. I never talked, just typed nonsense. Until she just gave up listening to the sounds of my keys.

DC: “You know what, never mind.”

She hung up. The call ended at 42:01 minutes. She wasted our time and she wasted hers. It was my worst customer that day. I hate her.

Wow! That lady really wanted some cookies.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a hardware store employee who lost his cool with customers wandering around after closing time.

Let’s check out if the folks over at Reddit have ever encountered something similar.

That would be nice to know.

This is probably true.

Yes! That must be a common reaction.

Let’s hope.

This woman sounds like a Karen who simply refused to accept reality.

The employee spent more than 40 minutes trying to help her, but none of that was ever going to solve the actual problem.

At some point, she needed to stop demanding exceptions and make sure she actually had enough money to place the order.

Instead, she turned a simple purchase into a headache for everyone involved.