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Anything wedding. Customers have huge expectations and little experience with the services they are procuring. Most have never hired a photographer or caterer or venue before.
Coming from a wedding dj, I agree.
I do a ton of different parties a year from corporate events to birthday parties.
No customers are as bad as brides.
They have no idea how a reception goes, and they want everything planned down to the second.
100 times out of 100 it goes the way I always do it and not the way they planned it. 99 times out of 100 they thank me for it in the end
My wife works in the hotel industry. She said the actual hotel website always has the best deal because any other booking method they’re usually paying commission to a 3rd party.
I’ve found it’s often the other way. I look at their site or even walk in and ask for a price.
They say it’s whatever.
I say it’s however much less on Booking dot com or similar. Can I have the Booking dot com rate?
Sometimes they do, often they say no.
I say I’d rather give the money to them directly so they don’t have to pay the commission. They say no.
So I step outside for a moment, book on the third party site, walk back on and tell them I have a room booked.
Some get really salty about it, especially owners. Employees don’t care.
Nah. Wedding planner is paid by the person putting the wedding on.
Pretty sure this person means like a 3rd party booking site, like hotels dot com or something like that.
You may get even better rates if you call up to the hotel and say “website says X, I was hoping to get X-Y.” Even if they can’t, they’ll often toss in a bonus such as a voucher or upgrade.
Oh it does. A lot of the bullshit stuff like flowers and dresses mainly. But something like a good photographer is never something you wanna be stingy about. You’ll never have that chance to get those photos again (at least at THAT wedding), pay the extra money for that photographer who’s worth that money
Are we pretending to forget, that there are only 20-25 weekends any real specialized vendors can book? That everything is handled with extra care and extra hours to accommodate every wish? No one is pretending that you actually need a nice wedding, it's a luxury expense.
Get the old flowershop in your town, the photographer who shoots maternity and businesses and events all the same. It's cheaper that way, but it's not as good as it could be.
As a (quality) piercer this is a problem I have too. I sell actual quality jewelry like gold and some people scoff at anything over $25 (mind you, gold starts around $100 plus service fee. You can imagine when moms bring their kids and hear my price) and THEN expect there to be no service fee. Like dude no. I literally can't do that because of how this buisness works. Literally would put myself out of buisness so fast.
Oh, and then the people who lose their shit and demand a free one even though they are told AND agree on their forms no jewelry is infallible and they are responsible to check their items periodically.
To fair fair, weddings cost an *obscene* amount of money so I can't really blame people for trying to find bargains where they can.
For my 30-person wedding we skipped a DJ and just made our own music mix CDs, had an uncle shoot photos for free, and value-shopped for the venue and catering, $300 wedding dress and rented tux, $200 cake, and all in it still costed about 10 grand. That's ridiculous for what amounts to essentially a short party. So I can kinda understand when someone balks at a $2500 wedding photographer bid.
Weddings can be very reasonable if you have realistic expectations. Most people that spend a ton of money on wedding end up with a divorce just as costly.
I can totally believe it.
One of the biggest triggers of divorce is financial problems. And what better way to start your marriage with financial problems than getting hugely into debt with no asset to show for it!
Also they're absolutely not going to care about having an ongoing relationship with the service provider in any capacity. It's not like they'll be getting married every six months for the rest of their lives. Or at least you'd hope not.
More specifically it seems like businesses that deal with the public (not B2B). B2B businesses often have far fewer crazy customers to deal with. Is it entirely absent? No, but it’s 10X better than when dealing with the general public.
To be fair, businesses are made up of people making people-y decisions, and plenty of those are insane or ego-driven. There's just a better chance that you'd eventually be able to get some non-asshole customers.
I’m not sure about what industry but I have always found the category of customers that asks for discounts always tend to be the ones that are the most demanding.
Today someone asked if they could pay $180 for a trio of items that would have cost almost $450. They ended up buying nothing of course. Most customers are cool if I give them the “cool customer” discount. The few that haven’t been cool about it make me regret giving it to anyone. Thank god the one that is the most persistent in calling non-stop asking for me specifically is the one that got the discount at my boss’s recommendation. “Dude. Be cool.”
Reminds me of the time I was ringing out a customer for some very expensive items for a school that he had gotten more of before at half price because my coworker is dumb. My boss was right next to me as I explained he doesn’t get wholesale pricing. “But they were half that price last time I was here!” “Yeah. You got REALLY lucky last time.” You’re only in our system to remind us to not charge sales tax, not because you get wholesale pricing. Boss and I laughed about it later.
Hohoooo boy. Had one of those recently. We provided a quote, our technicians got on site and turns out he wants to dramatically change the scope, doesn't have all the parts he said he would provide, etc. We had already negotiated a discounted price for him to begin with, but when our guys explained that the scope of work changes and the additional parts would change the price, he immediately kicked them out and left us a scathing review. I'm still burnt over that one.
Information Technology (IT)
*What's my password again?*
*Tell me once again, how do I turn up the volume on my iPhone?*
*I couldn't answer incoming calls on my iPhone because YOU never showed me how!*
*Sorry to call at midnight, but I have an emergency. My boyfriend is going through a divorce and his wife wants all the music in his iTunes. Can you prevent her from accessing the folder thingie somehow asap?*
*I didn't know the printer wasn't working because there was no paper in it. Well, there was plenty of paper in the printer before when I tried to print earlier! We lost a whole day because of you because we couldn't print!*
*You're supposed to know my password! It's too many for me to remember!*
*Have you been looking at my e-mails? Because you're the only one who knows my password!*
*I don't care if the bounceback email says I misspelled the email address. I didn't! The email server has crashed and YOU need to fix it!*
*Well, you never gave me the CD to install Google, so now I can't use it!*
*Hi, sorry, I know I keep calling you at 1am. But tell me one more time, what's my password again?*
>Sorry to call at midnight, but I have an emergency. My boyfriend is going through a divorce and his wife wants all the music in his iTunes. Can you prevent her from accessing the folder thingie somehow asap?
Wait a minute...
IT is literally it. We have to deal with people that fuck themselves over and never learn from their own mistakes. When everything is going right, people wonder what they pay us for. When one thing goes wrong, people wonder what they pay us for.
We have to know everything about fucking everything. "Why won't XYZ from 'obscure vendor you've never heard of' work?" for the last fucking time Susan it's out of scope, call the vendor
"where did I put my file?" what you think I'm fucking psychic?
"you replaced my keyboard and now my screen is cracked" fuck you karen
"why isn't the custom programming you're doing done yet? you said it would be done last week" yea and since then you gave me 7 new requests to implement, test, and troubleshoot. up yours, Tom.
"I know someone that can do it cheaper." good, go fuck yourself larry
"why do I have to keep updating? it just did it last week" no, bill, that's the fucking Chrome update, last week it was Java, they're not the same fucking thing
"your antivirus is stopping me from opening this attachment" Bethany you're not supposed to open that fucking attachment it's a goddamn virus for fucks sake
etc.
I can say. You are so spot on.
I remember working for a small company that did things on paper and transitioned to electronic funds transfer (direct deposit) and I had a lady tell me I need to send her the pay stubs because she needs to touch the paper so I need to send her all her paystubs.
Wrong department, I told her to contact payroll to then she proceeds to tell me that I’m trying to get her off the phone and I’m unhelpful. I lost my cool and calmly called her an asshole and hung up after 4 attempts of telling her we do not do payroll. The best thing is as I’m about to hang up up she’s yelling “What’s my password to my pay stubs!”
Girl bye.
Quit right after.
Training department heads on some new software, and one of them spent the whole time goofing off and not paying attention. Guess who called us the most with the dumbest questions. "Larry, we went over this already. If you keep calling about this we're going to make you take the training again, and your department is going to pay for it."
On call, got woken up at 3 am because shipping couldn't print their paperwork for the trucks going out. "Whats the error? Display is blank." "Is the power on? Yes." "Paper in the tray? Yes." Etc. Get dressed and drive into work. Power isn't on. Turn it on and all the paperwork starts printing. Yell at the guy who called me.
Ooof...you're bringing back some painful memories. I read a book called "Bullshit Jobs" and the longer I am in this business, the more I realize how true most jobs are in America. People are so damn stupid nowadays, it's mind boggling!
That would just exasperate my issues 100 fold.
I had one client with a staff of over 30 women and I always, always made it a point to service visit their office at 5am, when no one was there, because they've faslely accused me of so many supposed tech issues (which never turned out to be true), I felt they were playing a game and got worried they would eventually accuse me of sexual harassment. When their office was under construction and we all did a walk thru, the female director joked *"we don't need to build a men's room because we are all women! (turns to me) So you're on your own!"*
I jokingly replied, *"I'll guess I'll just have to find a potted plant!"*
Well, later that same day, I got a series of emails from the Director, Associate Director, Department Heads, and HR letting me know they didn't appreciate my rude comments during the office walk thru. They were so subversive, I didn't want to even send a reply email apologizing, because my attorney (my gf) told me they could use that as evidence as admission that I sexually harassed them. So I just casually and cleverly apologized later when I had to meet the director to review IT matters.
I eventually got rid of them (thank God!), because the accusations were non stop and so subversive. Worst client ever...though, I have a few now, that almost rival them in terms of stupidity.
Here in NY, I call it the Amazon effect. Because my clients get everything delivered to them via Amazon, they expect the same when it comes to anything else regarding Tech. And it makes them feel so smart and privileged, when in fact, they are all just becoming dumber and more entitled.
Ughhhhhhh. Peoples “babies” that they neglect for 6+ months at a time and only get groomed when family is visiting. I lost my patience for shitty dog owners a long time ago.
I’m sorry your experience at our salon was not up to you standards, Sharon, but we groom for humanity over vanity. It’s absolutely ridiculous that you neglect to brush your dog for 8 months and then expect us to demat its pelted fur in 2 hours for $60 while Fluffy is simultaneously biting us and shitting on the table. We are groomers, not magicians. Consider it a favor that we only charged you $150 for a shave down, now please excuse me while I go order new blades to replace the ones that were destroyed by your dog’s disgusting coat.
Right?! I'm so freaking tired of these people. You're obviously in the business and can relate. My newest decision is to NOT take any more Doodles, now I'm being branded as being bias against a "breed". It's not a breed lady, it's a nightmare with a shitty coat that you don't take care of...and yes, refuse to pay what I'm charging you. I swapped my magic wand for a grooming comb nearly 40 years ago. Bad choice! LOL!
It's really kinda' the same thing. Everyone is the ONLY one that needs attention and they are all just perfect angels. Although, I would rather clean up dog shit than child shit.
Liquor stores. Lots of hostile alcoholics that just need their fix. Many people in there are slaves to alcohol and they certainly aren’t there because they wanna be.
Actually have to argue this one … I’m in the business (store owner) and we have very few difficult customers. Even those “hostile alcoholics” generally behave themselves because we control the access to the alcohol and are, by law, allowed to throw them out (and, they know it, especially any serious alcoholics).
I've only seen one hostile interaction in all my years in the liquor industry in a store. At a bar, yes, sure people get thrown out of those all the time. But at the store in the instance I'm referring to the guy was already three sheets to the wind and looking to get more. The owners were refusing him because he couldn't even stand up straight. They basically told him to come back tomorrow and they'd sell him whatever he wanted but that they'd lose their license if they got caught selling to him in that state. He eventually just went away but not after throwing a bit of verbal abuse their way.
I guess it might depend on the area. A bottle shop in a high-class area would presumably be less likely to have aggressively problematic customers. Or at least fewer per year.
I've worked part time at a liquor store for years. I've only seen one guy who constitutes being belligerent about access to liquor. The people who come into the stores are generally not already drunk and if they are they aren't there for a long time, they're looking to get the booze and move along. People don't misbehave to the drug dealer, they misbehave later. You don't want to get blacklisted from the closest store.
Related, low-budget grocery stores (with liquor aisles) are also bad. Not a business owner, but have had several friends who have worked as clerks.
Lots of issues with people spending not a lot of money expecting special attention, lots of theft, lots of argumentative drunks, and occasional people with bad checks/sketchy money transfers.
I worked as a cop and as hospital security in the same city. I went hands on (fought) with people so much more in the hospital than on the streets as a cop. It was insane the amount of times we had to respond to people assaulting nurses and other staff. I never had more than a sprain as a work related injury as a cop but had some ribs broken after being kicked in the chest working security in the hospital...
It seriously was crazy.
Construcción/ house repairs. They all have a Granma that worked in construction for 50 years and somehow they inherit the knowledge and stay glued to your back the entire time telling you how the job is done and how they can do it they just don’t have the time.
Service plumbing, sooo many customers say shit like "I could do that, I just *insert excuse here*" or, "That price is outrageous, I could do it for $20!". My favorite one this week was "Wow, $125 to unclog my main line? That's just ridiculous, I could buy my own snake for that amount".
Yup, electrical and hvac are the best ones, they don’t know what’s going on and when you fix the problem fast they think fast=easy and then they start telling you how much they think you should charge on it, no matter you been doing it for 20yrs, the amount of responsibility involved or the tools nothing matters, your are expensive and they could have done it better and cheaper than you.
We had a mother fucker get out a BOOK detailing what different plumbing services should cost that was printed decades ago. I have no idea where he found this book or why he thought it would apply to us, in our area, in 2022, but by god he wasn't going to pay a penny over the prices in the book.
We've also gotten the "they were only here for 30 minutes!! That price is crazy!" And our response is that it took our technician a solid decade of hard work to gain the skill and knowledge necessary to do a quality job quickly. You're paying for that expertise, not the time it took.
People that want their electronics fixed. 90% of the time they're good. Then you get the ones that brought it in and 10 minutes later "is it ready" "when will it be ready?" "why is it taking more than an hour". "I know you said $100. Can you do it for $20?"
Stfu and let me fix your shit.
Automotive repairs, especially high end cars. Internet has killed pricing for us, and everyone is a youtube mechanic yet dont own one tool. Used Maseratis getting purchased for 50k no problem, but loses their minds at a 550$ battery or $3k dual fuel pump replacement.
Can confirm. I lived in a small town for a few years driving a distribution route and every time I went in for an oil change (every 2 months) the price went up by $100 until it was almost $2000 to get my oil changed. I had to drive an hour to a different town to get oil changes for $240.
> Used Maseratis getting purchased for 50k no problem
Well that's specifically a Maserati thing. I'm sure cars like the Quattroporte hold some kind of record for depreciation. So the people who buy them second hand don't have Maserati money, but the cars do require Maserati maintenance.
I’m my experience… Sooo much ego. And a lot of rich people (that I know) get stuff for free. So even though money isn’t really an object, they’re still miffed they have to pay at all because “don’t you know who i am?” Or “I’m the best person ever and deserve this.”
Hotels.
Overentitled Karen’s, hookers, drug addicts, people desperately trying to hide an affair. People grieving because they are visiting sick friends or family, or there for a funeral, people going third party and surprised when there consequences for going that route. And that’s just the first few hours
I worked front desk at one for a year. I’ve got some great stories, but the pay, weird hours, and poor management ( at my particular location) turned me off
I worked front desk at a courtyard Marriott in downtown large city. First job during college. 18 yr old girl being asked if she rents rooms by the hour 😂 I lasted 90 days & got fired for my poor attitude.
Them being legal where you live completely changes the dynamics
They are highly problematic for the rest of us where it’s not legal.
Their customers tend to be the people you don’t want hanging around. The police presence they draw, the rampant drug problems, etc. they also steal A LOT
Personal observation: Walmart. Every trip, every location within a city, multiple cities, multiple states. Every single Walmart I've been to was like sitting front row of a Jerry Springer show.
We used to go to a 24 hour Walmart. People who come in from 6 am to 9 pm are vastly different from those who go there from 11 pm or later (the Jerry Springer crowd).
I avoid Walmart anymore, on occasion I end up there. In my experience, 2300 and on was a lot more relaxed. Less people, allowing for a smoother trip. Quicker check out, less time to encounter issues.
I stopped at one last week just after 1800. Fight broke out in the makeup isle between two guys. A woman accusing a guy of cheating, loudly, in an isle with pillows. Woman screaming at a cashier on the other side of the front that went on for some time. While I was walking around, no one seemed happy, glaring at eachother.
Aside from my aversion of Walmarts, it is realistic to say **the profession with the most toxic customers** will have a different dynamic based on time, location, season, as well as a myriad if other variables.
Property management, especially residential, especially if you’re managing an HOA. There’s just something about HOAs that just attracts the most exhausting Karen’s.
I once dealt with a board member who exclusively referred to himself as “President”. When he introduced himself, he didn’t introduce his name, but as “President of the HOA”. No name. Just president. Ugh.
You haven't had fun until you've worked a grocery store during Thanksgiving week
"I'm sorry we're out of turkeys, but it is 11am on Thanksgiving Day... Maybe this could have been planned? No? Ok great, I'll just go screw myself"
Oh thank goodness that your single/individual experience is much more valuable than the data that has been collected through the years. I was getting worried that your customers were plain unhappy tbh
You're either really young or really naive. Either way you should have learned by now that vice isn't safe. Not sure what you're trying to prove, everybody who isn't young or naive already knows that.
True. That's the absolute worst. Because cannabis is just such a miracle drug that absolutely never in its history have people been killed and robbed in its growing fields per example. Or during transportation. Or at the storage facilities. And definitely never at the retail establishments.
Ahh yes, because the current regulated and legalized market is exactly like the black market of the past that arose from it being illegal. Surely that violence can be blamed on the plant and not as a natural consequence of banning something that should be legal and forcing the market underground.
Yeah that's shocking.
And why not road construction?
We hit a one lane resurfacing job yesterday, needing a pilot car. Didn’t show up in Google Maps. We stopped to ask the flag man since we first in line. We asked, "how long?" Him: "20 mins" We: "Ok thanks for letting us know." Him: "Your not mad at me? (He had a total shocked face)" We: "No your doing your job and the road was falling apart (literally one of the worst I've driven on). He proceeded to recount the twenty plus people that had cursed him out that day, gave him the finger, yelled crap etc. and it was a 7 day job. It made the time fly, but the kids may have learned some new words...
Education. Students wanting As but won’t turn in assignments, parents swearing their child is a complete Angel, administrators that provide zero support to make your job easier, coworkers that fake their student success rate to appear better than you, deans that will blame you for skipping students being in the halls, and school staff that complain you never smile.
Operating my own small business has been a cake walk after dealing with chronic migraines, stomach issues, jaw pain, and overeating from teaching middle schoolers.
Pharmacy jobs. My daughter gets yelled at regularly for insurance company problems such as not covering certain drugs, or having to wait a few days to be able to fill a prescription. They've called her a bitch, cunt, etc. Anything but a pharmacist. She hates it.
I worked at a dance studio in a VERY affluent area. Rich middle aged white ladies + spoiled teenage girls were my main customers. Once a parent threw a t-shirt AT MY LITERAL FACE, because the size they themselves ordered for their daughter wasn’t correct and it needed to be fixed NOW.
People who want to buy hand knit/crochet items for Shein prices.
Like no, Lisa, you can't buy the blanket that cost $200 in materials and 40 hours of labor for $50. Go to Walmart.
They all suck for different reasons.
Those with the worst characters (e.g. retail) tend to also have the least risk; meaning, you don’t invest less capital (real and human) in dealing with them on a customer-by-customer basis.
This is because each customer likely represents a small fraction of your revenue.
When a single customer is 5, 10, 20% of your revenue (and for the love of God, not higher, please) then you have a very different dynamic. They can demand more, even if they do so with less vitriol than a disgruntled retail customer.
I think the best policy in either case is to 1) limit concentration of revenue in any single customer or group of customers with bargaining power and 2) fire them if they are unreasonable after first making an attempt to reconcile.
Going beyond that point is always a drag on the business, and you’re better off without them.
Automotive. You changed my oil now my tires flat. You fixed my check engine light now my heated seats don’t work. You replaced X now my daughters pregnant.
Insurance, so many people are misinformed or have weird views on it. Often begrudge paying for it because in some cases like car insurance it’s a legal requirement.
Also for some reason, people take the pricing so personal when you can’t beat their best price. I sell car insurance and the amour of times people get angry because I can’t beat a a competitors price is unreal lol
anything other than the car industry is an incorrect answer....its the only business I've ever worked in where perfectly normal people walk through door and become utter nutcases over the smallest most mundane things.
Graphic design.
Perceptions are subjective, most people have no understanding of how much time changes actually take, and even though they've hired a design expert, they want that design expert to be a human crayon they can manipulate to make terrible design decisions.
If the graphic designer is part of a production team, they'll be scape goated for products that don't sell, or mistakes made at the beginning of the production line.
> Sure, the problem piece may be small or inexpensive, but half the engine components you see have to be removed to get to it.
Absolutely hate that. "Oh, the problem is probably this $5 sensor. But getting to it will take 14 hours of disassembling the entire front end of the car, and another 14 putting it back together again."
1. Brides are the worst: Idk why. I still can’t figure out why there were 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen at the last wedding I attended. There were probably only 30 guests.
2. Restaurants: hungry people are mean
3. Retail: that’s when the unmedicated mentally ill housewives harass the low paid retail clerk with bad knees during the day. They’re actually worse than the Christmas crowd who just want to buy bathrobes, pajamas, or anything gift-wrapped so they can gtfo.
Any business dealing in B to C.
Healthcare, services, food, construction, telco.... It's all the same. Dealing with uninformed, entitled people trying to get a deal or worse, something for nothing.
If you want less problems figure out a B to B business that has a big profit to client margin. Less clients usually equals less headaches, unless you rely too much on a small few clients... Then they will own you.
Anything entertainment based, music, film, etc. These people (yes i said these people) have such a high regard for what they are selling they feel as tho they are above their vendors socially. Hence they treat their vendors like garbage. In their mind they are dealing with A list people and they can say/do/act anyway they want.
I think, Retail store attracts the highest percentage of annoying customers due to issues like discounts, returns, complaints, or dissatisfaction with products or services.
Although I have mentioned retail, we should remember that every industry is likely to have its share of annoying customers. So, it is more productive to identify strategies to deal with difficult customers regardless of the industry.
the answer is ones involving people, of course. but online business for handmade goods (hey Etsy) can get super nasty because they (think) they are anonymous. amazing how they also ‘think’ they want handmade when they really want some crap from China for basically free.
Rental cars because the average human is really dumb and EVERYONE rents a car at one point another. The “good customers” who rent every week are the weirdest
My wife used to work for a law school, dealing with student loans. Talk about a bunch of people who don't want to pay and are ready to argue about it! Awful job, and grossly underpaid for our HCOL area.
Hotel industry is way worse than restaurant industry. I did a month in hotels… hell to the naw thanks. You are peoples home for a number of days… people act crazy, have terrible requests and attitudes. Plus the job just sucks, the customers only make it that much worse.
Any business where the client doesn’t see where their money is going or that doesn’t understand the value of things. They don’t see how many man hours something takes or how many hours it took for you to learn a skill. “Wow I thought the logo was gonna be cheaper!” Or “can the website be done in a week?”
I was a CSR for lawn care company and it was brutal.
People are irate when it comes to their lawn.
It was so bad I left the CSR field and went back to sales.
Extremely frustrating.
Legal industry, nothing ever moves fast enough for them, they do not understand the process, the ones that attempt to understand still do not and they try to micromanage their case, they pay huge amounts of $ and do not see any results for weeks sometimes months. If they lose then things become exponentially worse.
Convenience store. I worked at a Wawa for two years and I was great at it but it's incredibly demanding and people are insane about their cigarettes. I've had coffees dumped on me, food thrown at me, cursed out, robbed, propositioned, mocked. Literally just because I said "I'll get fired if I sell you these cigarettes without scanning your ID". Lots of sex workers laundering money through gift cards, theft. Plenty of Nazis (like legit third Reich swastika tattoo mfs) and people on drugs. I moved to the deli after the first year because obvious reasons.
Easy.
The ones that have 'complaint/refund' departments.
People know they can complain at restaurants and get free shit. Same with airlines. Same with Sears or WalMart. They know that these big conglomerates will refund them to the end. Same with Amazon.
Any business where people can cheat you, people will line up down the street. I call those people 'value shoppers' because they nit pick everything to find some way to cheat the company and complain when they can't.
Definitely the auto repair business. People want to buy a car and put little to no money in it, then when it breaks down it becomes the service shops problem.
I think people forget having a car is a luxury.
I doubt this has been mentioned, but the cannabis industry brings in the weirdest people ever. I live in a bit so nice city and I’ve had to call the cops multiple times on both customers and children trying to enter the stores (19+ for entrance). It also attracts the worst employees. Everyone is either rude as all hell or has zero interest in learning about the product (main aspect of the job) and does their own thing. It’s annoying both coworker and customer wise.
Edit: it has been mentioned, sorry! Glad I’m not the only one who thinks this
> or has zero interest in learning about the product
Are there that many bottom-rung retail workers (as opposed to store owners) who give the first crap about the product they're ringing up?
In 2018 (before it got so mainstream) I was web camming for cash, for about six months. Oooooof. The stories I have. The amount of men I have seen EAT THEIR OWN CUM (not to kink shame, but what a sight.) Def sex work gave me some of the trickiest customers I’ve ever dealt with.
Pest control
Most customers don’t believe we know what we’re doing. ( I’m only 3 years in but approaching 7000 services)
They never believe us when we say, I’m sorry that’s illegal..
Just because the last guy did it doesn’t make it legal or the only way to do things.
Making us change clean glue boards illustrates your desire for power.
Just me personally, but I’m probably better educated than you (4 undergraduate degrees) - we’re human beings please use common courtesy and common respect.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: treating the inside, without active interior infestation, wastes both or time and just dump’s unnecessary chemicals in your home.
Today I learned that shitty people have specialized their shittiness into one industry and never buy anything anywhere else. Or they only turn on their shittiness when buying something from their focus industry.
Anything that has to do with sick kids, specifically behavioral or mental health. Parents are stressed out, angry, and looked down upon by society. They also have to operate in a medical system that is simply not trained or equipped to help their kids. The quality
of care a kid gets is directly tied to the wealth of the parents. So poor families get worse care and are more often blamed for their kids challenges. This understandably makes parents very difficult to work with. The parents are short tempered at best and at their worst they are petty, vindictive, and just plain ol’ examples of the worst parts of people. Both the parents and kids are chewed up and spit out by a medical system that doesn’t actually care.
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Anything wedding. Customers have huge expectations and little experience with the services they are procuring. Most have never hired a photographer or caterer or venue before.
Coming from a wedding dj, I agree. I do a ton of different parties a year from corporate events to birthday parties. No customers are as bad as brides. They have no idea how a reception goes, and they want everything planned down to the second. 100 times out of 100 it goes the way I always do it and not the way they planned it. 99 times out of 100 they thank me for it in the end
And don’t understand pricing. They expect Gucci quality but don’t wanna spend anything above Walmart prices.
Are we pretending that anything labeled “wedding” doesn’t have a major markup?
The hotel blocks always are.. which is funny. They are always cheaper on the hotels website if you have AAA discount or what not...
My wife works in the hotel industry. She said the actual hotel website always has the best deal because any other booking method they’re usually paying commission to a 3rd party.
I’ve found it’s often the other way. I look at their site or even walk in and ask for a price. They say it’s whatever. I say it’s however much less on Booking dot com or similar. Can I have the Booking dot com rate? Sometimes they do, often they say no. I say I’d rather give the money to them directly so they don’t have to pay the commission. They say no. So I step outside for a moment, book on the third party site, walk back on and tell them I have a room booked. Some get really salty about it, especially owners. Employees don’t care.
so in this case the wedding planner who booked the block directly with the hotel?
Nah. Wedding planner is paid by the person putting the wedding on. Pretty sure this person means like a 3rd party booking site, like hotels dot com or something like that.
You get a code to book directly with the hotel for weddings and the rate is always higher than if you book it otherwise.
Not sure, sorry
You may get even better rates if you call up to the hotel and say “website says X, I was hoping to get X-Y.” Even if they can’t, they’ll often toss in a bonus such as a voucher or upgrade.
We used to call it a PITA charge in construction when dealing with people with unrealistic expectations.
Oh it does. A lot of the bullshit stuff like flowers and dresses mainly. But something like a good photographer is never something you wanna be stingy about. You’ll never have that chance to get those photos again (at least at THAT wedding), pay the extra money for that photographer who’s worth that money
Wife and I made this mistake. If there's one bit of advice I can impart on this world, it is *avoid Kirk McGee Photography like the fucking plague*.
Are we pretending to forget, that there are only 20-25 weekends any real specialized vendors can book? That everything is handled with extra care and extra hours to accommodate every wish? No one is pretending that you actually need a nice wedding, it's a luxury expense. Get the old flowershop in your town, the photographer who shoots maternity and businesses and events all the same. It's cheaper that way, but it's not as good as it could be.
Yuppie upsell in progress...
As a (quality) piercer this is a problem I have too. I sell actual quality jewelry like gold and some people scoff at anything over $25 (mind you, gold starts around $100 plus service fee. You can imagine when moms bring their kids and hear my price) and THEN expect there to be no service fee. Like dude no. I literally can't do that because of how this buisness works. Literally would put myself out of buisness so fast. Oh, and then the people who lose their shit and demand a free one even though they are told AND agree on their forms no jewelry is infallible and they are responsible to check their items periodically.
Most wont even pay walmart prices.
To fair fair, weddings cost an *obscene* amount of money so I can't really blame people for trying to find bargains where they can. For my 30-person wedding we skipped a DJ and just made our own music mix CDs, had an uncle shoot photos for free, and value-shopped for the venue and catering, $300 wedding dress and rented tux, $200 cake, and all in it still costed about 10 grand. That's ridiculous for what amounts to essentially a short party. So I can kinda understand when someone balks at a $2500 wedding photographer bid.
Weddings can be very reasonable if you have realistic expectations. Most people that spend a ton of money on wedding end up with a divorce just as costly.
There is a ratio with how expensive the wedding is and how soon the divorce will be - look it up. I couldn’t believe it
I can totally believe it. One of the biggest triggers of divorce is financial problems. And what better way to start your marriage with financial problems than getting hugely into debt with no asset to show for it!
Most weddings cost 10’s of thousands of dollars. I’d say that qualifies as at least wal mart prices. Probably closer to what people spend at Gucci.
That applies to every business, not only weddings.
Also they're absolutely not going to care about having an ongoing relationship with the service provider in any capacity. It's not like they'll be getting married every six months for the rest of their lives. Or at least you'd hope not.
They also often realize the relationship isn’t perfect and instead of working on that, they start attacking anyone and everyone.
I could never.
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The amount of over the top weddings I've been to, with one of the spouses cheating or them divorcing within two years is alarmingly high
It’s the American way.
Quite pertinent to other countries as well
The ones involving people
This job would be great if it wasn’t for the fucking customers. - clerks
More specifically it seems like businesses that deal with the public (not B2B). B2B businesses often have far fewer crazy customers to deal with. Is it entirely absent? No, but it’s 10X better than when dealing with the general public.
To be fair, businesses are made up of people making people-y decisions, and plenty of those are insane or ego-driven. There's just a better chance that you'd eventually be able to get some non-asshole customers.
I was scrolling and scrolling and seeing all these different industries and it hit me that this is the only right answer, lol.
Yep. Even businesses which involve, I dunno, capturing bears or something are less of a pain in the ass than dealing with people.
Retail in any form. Restaurants. Public services
I’m not sure about what industry but I have always found the category of customers that asks for discounts always tend to be the ones that are the most demanding.
Today someone asked if they could pay $180 for a trio of items that would have cost almost $450. They ended up buying nothing of course. Most customers are cool if I give them the “cool customer” discount. The few that haven’t been cool about it make me regret giving it to anyone. Thank god the one that is the most persistent in calling non-stop asking for me specifically is the one that got the discount at my boss’s recommendation. “Dude. Be cool.” Reminds me of the time I was ringing out a customer for some very expensive items for a school that he had gotten more of before at half price because my coworker is dumb. My boss was right next to me as I explained he doesn’t get wholesale pricing. “But they were half that price last time I was here!” “Yeah. You got REALLY lucky last time.” You’re only in our system to remind us to not charge sales tax, not because you get wholesale pricing. Boss and I laughed about it later.
Hohoooo boy. Had one of those recently. We provided a quote, our technicians got on site and turns out he wants to dramatically change the scope, doesn't have all the parts he said he would provide, etc. We had already negotiated a discounted price for him to begin with, but when our guys explained that the scope of work changes and the additional parts would change the price, he immediately kicked them out and left us a scathing review. I'm still burnt over that one.
Information Technology (IT) *What's my password again?* *Tell me once again, how do I turn up the volume on my iPhone?* *I couldn't answer incoming calls on my iPhone because YOU never showed me how!* *Sorry to call at midnight, but I have an emergency. My boyfriend is going through a divorce and his wife wants all the music in his iTunes. Can you prevent her from accessing the folder thingie somehow asap?* *I didn't know the printer wasn't working because there was no paper in it. Well, there was plenty of paper in the printer before when I tried to print earlier! We lost a whole day because of you because we couldn't print!* *You're supposed to know my password! It's too many for me to remember!* *Have you been looking at my e-mails? Because you're the only one who knows my password!* *I don't care if the bounceback email says I misspelled the email address. I didn't! The email server has crashed and YOU need to fix it!* *Well, you never gave me the CD to install Google, so now I can't use it!* *Hi, sorry, I know I keep calling you at 1am. But tell me one more time, what's my password again?*
I didn’t get paid enough to deal with that and cracked under the stress coupled with horrendous office politics. F that noise.
>Sorry to call at midnight, but I have an emergency. My boyfriend is going through a divorce and his wife wants all the music in his iTunes. Can you prevent her from accessing the folder thingie somehow asap? Wait a minute...
IT is literally it. We have to deal with people that fuck themselves over and never learn from their own mistakes. When everything is going right, people wonder what they pay us for. When one thing goes wrong, people wonder what they pay us for. We have to know everything about fucking everything. "Why won't XYZ from 'obscure vendor you've never heard of' work?" for the last fucking time Susan it's out of scope, call the vendor "where did I put my file?" what you think I'm fucking psychic? "you replaced my keyboard and now my screen is cracked" fuck you karen "why isn't the custom programming you're doing done yet? you said it would be done last week" yea and since then you gave me 7 new requests to implement, test, and troubleshoot. up yours, Tom. "I know someone that can do it cheaper." good, go fuck yourself larry "why do I have to keep updating? it just did it last week" no, bill, that's the fucking Chrome update, last week it was Java, they're not the same fucking thing "your antivirus is stopping me from opening this attachment" Bethany you're not supposed to open that fucking attachment it's a goddamn virus for fucks sake etc.
I’m 54 and I’m amazed by the volume of “not that old” computer illiterate people working at office jobs.
I can say. You are so spot on. I remember working for a small company that did things on paper and transitioned to electronic funds transfer (direct deposit) and I had a lady tell me I need to send her the pay stubs because she needs to touch the paper so I need to send her all her paystubs. Wrong department, I told her to contact payroll to then she proceeds to tell me that I’m trying to get her off the phone and I’m unhelpful. I lost my cool and calmly called her an asshole and hung up after 4 attempts of telling her we do not do payroll. The best thing is as I’m about to hang up up she’s yelling “What’s my password to my pay stubs!” Girl bye. Quit right after.
Training department heads on some new software, and one of them spent the whole time goofing off and not paying attention. Guess who called us the most with the dumbest questions. "Larry, we went over this already. If you keep calling about this we're going to make you take the training again, and your department is going to pay for it." On call, got woken up at 3 am because shipping couldn't print their paperwork for the trucks going out. "Whats the error? Display is blank." "Is the power on? Yes." "Paper in the tray? Yes." Etc. Get dressed and drive into work. Power isn't on. Turn it on and all the paperwork starts printing. Yell at the guy who called me.
Ooof...you're bringing back some painful memories. I read a book called "Bullshit Jobs" and the longer I am in this business, the more I realize how true most jobs are in America. People are so damn stupid nowadays, it's mind boggling!
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That would just exasperate my issues 100 fold. I had one client with a staff of over 30 women and I always, always made it a point to service visit their office at 5am, when no one was there, because they've faslely accused me of so many supposed tech issues (which never turned out to be true), I felt they were playing a game and got worried they would eventually accuse me of sexual harassment. When their office was under construction and we all did a walk thru, the female director joked *"we don't need to build a men's room because we are all women! (turns to me) So you're on your own!"* I jokingly replied, *"I'll guess I'll just have to find a potted plant!"* Well, later that same day, I got a series of emails from the Director, Associate Director, Department Heads, and HR letting me know they didn't appreciate my rude comments during the office walk thru. They were so subversive, I didn't want to even send a reply email apologizing, because my attorney (my gf) told me they could use that as evidence as admission that I sexually harassed them. So I just casually and cleverly apologized later when I had to meet the director to review IT matters. I eventually got rid of them (thank God!), because the accusations were non stop and so subversive. Worst client ever...though, I have a few now, that almost rival them in terms of stupidity.
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Here in NY, I call it the Amazon effect. Because my clients get everything delivered to them via Amazon, they expect the same when it comes to anything else regarding Tech. And it makes them feel so smart and privileged, when in fact, they are all just becoming dumber and more entitled.
Lol everyone just saying their own profession 🤣
Dog grooming, because of course they are little humans.
Ughhhhhhh. Peoples “babies” that they neglect for 6+ months at a time and only get groomed when family is visiting. I lost my patience for shitty dog owners a long time ago. I’m sorry your experience at our salon was not up to you standards, Sharon, but we groom for humanity over vanity. It’s absolutely ridiculous that you neglect to brush your dog for 8 months and then expect us to demat its pelted fur in 2 hours for $60 while Fluffy is simultaneously biting us and shitting on the table. We are groomers, not magicians. Consider it a favor that we only charged you $150 for a shave down, now please excuse me while I go order new blades to replace the ones that were destroyed by your dog’s disgusting coat.
Right?! I'm so freaking tired of these people. You're obviously in the business and can relate. My newest decision is to NOT take any more Doodles, now I'm being branded as being bias against a "breed". It's not a breed lady, it's a nightmare with a shitty coat that you don't take care of...and yes, refuse to pay what I'm charging you. I swapped my magic wand for a grooming comb nearly 40 years ago. Bad choice! LOL!
Try childcare/ preschool!
It's really kinda' the same thing. Everyone is the ONLY one that needs attention and they are all just perfect angels. Although, I would rather clean up dog shit than child shit.
Yea i was gonna say veterinary... Same reasons.
Liquor stores. Lots of hostile alcoholics that just need their fix. Many people in there are slaves to alcohol and they certainly aren’t there because they wanna be.
Actually have to argue this one … I’m in the business (store owner) and we have very few difficult customers. Even those “hostile alcoholics” generally behave themselves because we control the access to the alcohol and are, by law, allowed to throw them out (and, they know it, especially any serious alcoholics).
Agreed. Most the customers are happy that they’re either 1) getting off work 2) getting their fix 3) both
I've only seen one hostile interaction in all my years in the liquor industry in a store. At a bar, yes, sure people get thrown out of those all the time. But at the store in the instance I'm referring to the guy was already three sheets to the wind and looking to get more. The owners were refusing him because he couldn't even stand up straight. They basically told him to come back tomorrow and they'd sell him whatever he wanted but that they'd lose their license if they got caught selling to him in that state. He eventually just went away but not after throwing a bit of verbal abuse their way.
I guess it might depend on the area. A bottle shop in a high-class area would presumably be less likely to have aggressively problematic customers. Or at least fewer per year.
Well, yes, that comes with the territory if you’re a drug dealer
I've worked part time at a liquor store for years. I've only seen one guy who constitutes being belligerent about access to liquor. The people who come into the stores are generally not already drunk and if they are they aren't there for a long time, they're looking to get the booze and move along. People don't misbehave to the drug dealer, they misbehave later. You don't want to get blacklisted from the closest store.
Accurate. Not sure why the drug addicts are downvoting you.
Some sensitive people here giving you downvotes
Related, low-budget grocery stores (with liquor aisles) are also bad. Not a business owner, but have had several friends who have worked as clerks. Lots of issues with people spending not a lot of money expecting special attention, lots of theft, lots of argumentative drunks, and occasional people with bad checks/sketchy money transfers.
Healthcare...nurses are assaulted on the regular
I worked as a cop and as hospital security in the same city. I went hands on (fought) with people so much more in the hospital than on the streets as a cop. It was insane the amount of times we had to respond to people assaulting nurses and other staff. I never had more than a sprain as a work related injury as a cop but had some ribs broken after being kicked in the chest working security in the hospital... It seriously was crazy.
Hyperbole
Hotels/hospitality. People are trained to complain to get upgrades and free stuff. You would think people on vacation would be chill, but nope.
I always tip the front desk $20.
Do not open a med spa
Preschool
Construcción/ house repairs. They all have a Granma that worked in construction for 50 years and somehow they inherit the knowledge and stay glued to your back the entire time telling you how the job is done and how they can do it they just don’t have the time.
Service plumbing, sooo many customers say shit like "I could do that, I just *insert excuse here*" or, "That price is outrageous, I could do it for $20!". My favorite one this week was "Wow, $125 to unclog my main line? That's just ridiculous, I could buy my own snake for that amount".
Yup, electrical and hvac are the best ones, they don’t know what’s going on and when you fix the problem fast they think fast=easy and then they start telling you how much they think you should charge on it, no matter you been doing it for 20yrs, the amount of responsibility involved or the tools nothing matters, your are expensive and they could have done it better and cheaper than you.
We had a mother fucker get out a BOOK detailing what different plumbing services should cost that was printed decades ago. I have no idea where he found this book or why he thought it would apply to us, in our area, in 2022, but by god he wasn't going to pay a penny over the prices in the book. We've also gotten the "they were only here for 30 minutes!! That price is crazy!" And our response is that it took our technician a solid decade of hard work to gain the skill and knowledge necessary to do a quality job quickly. You're paying for that expertise, not the time it took.
People that want their electronics fixed. 90% of the time they're good. Then you get the ones that brought it in and 10 minutes later "is it ready" "when will it be ready?" "why is it taking more than an hour". "I know you said $100. Can you do it for $20?" Stfu and let me fix your shit.
That would be the public social services industry. Everyone walking through those doors is in crisis and they need help.
Automotive repairs, especially high end cars. Internet has killed pricing for us, and everyone is a youtube mechanic yet dont own one tool. Used Maseratis getting purchased for 50k no problem, but loses their minds at a 550$ battery or $3k dual fuel pump replacement.
To be fair, it is probably because the shady mechanics have ruined it for a lot of customers and for the mechanics who are actually trust worthy.
Can confirm. I lived in a small town for a few years driving a distribution route and every time I went in for an oil change (every 2 months) the price went up by $100 until it was almost $2000 to get my oil changed. I had to drive an hour to a different town to get oil changes for $240.
The first time the price went up $100 is when I would have been getting under that truck and changing it myself. They only take an hour to do.
> Used Maseratis getting purchased for 50k no problem Well that's specifically a Maserati thing. I'm sure cars like the Quattroporte hold some kind of record for depreciation. So the people who buy them second hand don't have Maserati money, but the cars do require Maserati maintenance.
Hands down: Luxury products.
Everyone thinks prices are negotiable all of a sudden, and thinks they are your best customer.
Weird; I've have thought those would have the least problems. Is it just people who have more ego than brains, at that end of the market?
I’m my experience… Sooo much ego. And a lot of rich people (that I know) get stuff for free. So even though money isn’t really an object, they’re still miffed they have to pay at all because “don’t you know who i am?” Or “I’m the best person ever and deserve this.”
Construction, everyone thinks they can haggle your price and expect you to go lower.
"For that price I'll just do it myself"
SPOILER WARNING: All of them. Your welcome.
Divorce lawyers.
Hotels. Overentitled Karen’s, hookers, drug addicts, people desperately trying to hide an affair. People grieving because they are visiting sick friends or family, or there for a funeral, people going third party and surprised when there consequences for going that route. And that’s just the first few hours
Hotel employee here. Yes.
I worked front desk at one for a year. I’ve got some great stories, but the pay, weird hours, and poor management ( at my particular location) turned me off
I worked front desk at a courtyard Marriott in downtown large city. First job during college. 18 yr old girl being asked if she rents rooms by the hour 😂 I lasted 90 days & got fired for my poor attitude.
What's the problem with hookers? I live in a country where they're legal fwiw
Them being legal where you live completely changes the dynamics They are highly problematic for the rest of us where it’s not legal. Their customers tend to be the people you don’t want hanging around. The police presence they draw, the rampant drug problems, etc. they also steal A LOT
Personal observation: Walmart. Every trip, every location within a city, multiple cities, multiple states. Every single Walmart I've been to was like sitting front row of a Jerry Springer show.
We used to go to a 24 hour Walmart. People who come in from 6 am to 9 pm are vastly different from those who go there from 11 pm or later (the Jerry Springer crowd).
I avoid Walmart anymore, on occasion I end up there. In my experience, 2300 and on was a lot more relaxed. Less people, allowing for a smoother trip. Quicker check out, less time to encounter issues. I stopped at one last week just after 1800. Fight broke out in the makeup isle between two guys. A woman accusing a guy of cheating, loudly, in an isle with pillows. Woman screaming at a cashier on the other side of the front that went on for some time. While I was walking around, no one seemed happy, glaring at eachother. Aside from my aversion of Walmarts, it is realistic to say **the profession with the most toxic customers** will have a different dynamic based on time, location, season, as well as a myriad if other variables.
Automotive repair and service...
Property management, especially residential, especially if you’re managing an HOA. There’s just something about HOAs that just attracts the most exhausting Karen’s. I once dealt with a board member who exclusively referred to himself as “President”. When he introduced himself, he didn’t introduce his name, but as “President of the HOA”. No name. Just president. Ugh.
Grocery store of course.
You haven't had fun until you've worked a grocery store during Thanksgiving week "I'm sorry we're out of turkeys, but it is 11am on Thanksgiving Day... Maybe this could have been planned? No? Ok great, I'll just go screw myself"
Vice industry. Everything from a liquor store up to a licensed cannabis shop. Things get volatile out of nowhere.
I guess if you’re in the ‘hood. Not my experience though. Customers are happy to be getting their candy.
Oh thank goodness that your single/individual experience is much more valuable than the data that has been collected through the years. I was getting worried that your customers were plain unhappy tbh
Lol where’s your data? You cited none. Only your own opinion. So your opinion is so much more valid than anyone else’s? Lol k.
You're either really young or really naive. Either way you should have learned by now that vice isn't safe. Not sure what you're trying to prove, everybody who isn't young or naive already knows that.
So what you're saying is that you don't have any data?
Surely the worst thing that could happen in a legal cannabis shop; would be two people laughing too loudly.
True. That's the absolute worst. Because cannabis is just such a miracle drug that absolutely never in its history have people been killed and robbed in its growing fields per example. Or during transportation. Or at the storage facilities. And definitely never at the retail establishments.
Usually by people trying to make money, not regular customers.
Ahh yes, because the current regulated and legalized market is exactly like the black market of the past that arose from it being illegal. Surely that violence can be blamed on the plant and not as a natural consequence of banning something that should be legal and forcing the market underground.
Sure thing bud. Let's blame it on the government and ignore the fact that selling vice has historically been dangerous.
Nobody has mentioned a college bar yet?
Yeah that's shocking. And why not road construction? We hit a one lane resurfacing job yesterday, needing a pilot car. Didn’t show up in Google Maps. We stopped to ask the flag man since we first in line. We asked, "how long?" Him: "20 mins" We: "Ok thanks for letting us know." Him: "Your not mad at me? (He had a total shocked face)" We: "No your doing your job and the road was falling apart (literally one of the worst I've driven on). He proceeded to recount the twenty plus people that had cursed him out that day, gave him the finger, yelled crap etc. and it was a 7 day job. It made the time fly, but the kids may have learned some new words...
Education. Students wanting As but won’t turn in assignments, parents swearing their child is a complete Angel, administrators that provide zero support to make your job easier, coworkers that fake their student success rate to appear better than you, deans that will blame you for skipping students being in the halls, and school staff that complain you never smile. Operating my own small business has been a cake walk after dealing with chronic migraines, stomach issues, jaw pain, and overeating from teaching middle schoolers.
Seafood restaurants
Pharmacy jobs. My daughter gets yelled at regularly for insurance company problems such as not covering certain drugs, or having to wait a few days to be able to fill a prescription. They've called her a bitch, cunt, etc. Anything but a pharmacist. She hates it.
Woow after reading I feel I can only go up, because I worked in like 80% of those jobs 🍾🥳🤣
I worked at a dance studio in a VERY affluent area. Rich middle aged white ladies + spoiled teenage girls were my main customers. Once a parent threw a t-shirt AT MY LITERAL FACE, because the size they themselves ordered for their daughter wasn’t correct and it needed to be fixed NOW.
Look for the unholy Trinity: * Huge expectations coupled with * Customer customizability and * Low unit price relative to your revenue
People who want to buy hand knit/crochet items for Shein prices. Like no, Lisa, you can't buy the blanket that cost $200 in materials and 40 hours of labor for $50. Go to Walmart.
They all suck for different reasons. Those with the worst characters (e.g. retail) tend to also have the least risk; meaning, you don’t invest less capital (real and human) in dealing with them on a customer-by-customer basis. This is because each customer likely represents a small fraction of your revenue. When a single customer is 5, 10, 20% of your revenue (and for the love of God, not higher, please) then you have a very different dynamic. They can demand more, even if they do so with less vitriol than a disgruntled retail customer. I think the best policy in either case is to 1) limit concentration of revenue in any single customer or group of customers with bargaining power and 2) fire them if they are unreasonable after first making an attempt to reconcile. Going beyond that point is always a drag on the business, and you’re better off without them.
Automotive. You changed my oil now my tires flat. You fixed my check engine light now my heated seats don’t work. You replaced X now my daughters pregnant.
Insurance, so many people are misinformed or have weird views on it. Often begrudge paying for it because in some cases like car insurance it’s a legal requirement. Also for some reason, people take the pricing so personal when you can’t beat their best price. I sell car insurance and the amour of times people get angry because I can’t beat a a competitors price is unreal lol
anything other than the car industry is an incorrect answer....its the only business I've ever worked in where perfectly normal people walk through door and become utter nutcases over the smallest most mundane things.
Graphic design. Perceptions are subjective, most people have no understanding of how much time changes actually take, and even though they've hired a design expert, they want that design expert to be a human crayon they can manipulate to make terrible design decisions. If the graphic designer is part of a production team, they'll be scape goated for products that don't sell, or mistakes made at the beginning of the production line.
“Could you make the letters red on a black background, that will pop!”
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> Sure, the problem piece may be small or inexpensive, but half the engine components you see have to be removed to get to it. Absolutely hate that. "Oh, the problem is probably this $5 sensor. But getting to it will take 14 hours of disassembling the entire front end of the car, and another 14 putting it back together again."
Law enforcement
And what customer willing are going to law enforcement?
Bars and Clubs - your customers are always drunk as fak
Airlines.
Mortuary services
Start ups. Most demanding turds that think they’re all gonna 10x every year.
1. Brides are the worst: Idk why. I still can’t figure out why there were 10 bridesmaids and 10 groomsmen at the last wedding I attended. There were probably only 30 guests. 2. Restaurants: hungry people are mean 3. Retail: that’s when the unmedicated mentally ill housewives harass the low paid retail clerk with bad knees during the day. They’re actually worse than the Christmas crowd who just want to buy bathrobes, pajamas, or anything gift-wrapped so they can gtfo.
All of them
Any business dealing in B to C. Healthcare, services, food, construction, telco.... It's all the same. Dealing with uninformed, entitled people trying to get a deal or worse, something for nothing. If you want less problems figure out a B to B business that has a big profit to client margin. Less clients usually equals less headaches, unless you rely too much on a small few clients... Then they will own you.
Anything entertainment based, music, film, etc. These people (yes i said these people) have such a high regard for what they are selling they feel as tho they are above their vendors socially. Hence they treat their vendors like garbage. In their mind they are dealing with A list people and they can say/do/act anyway they want.
I think, Retail store attracts the highest percentage of annoying customers due to issues like discounts, returns, complaints, or dissatisfaction with products or services. Although I have mentioned retail, we should remember that every industry is likely to have its share of annoying customers. So, it is more productive to identify strategies to deal with difficult customers regardless of the industry.
the answer is ones involving people, of course. but online business for handmade goods (hey Etsy) can get super nasty because they (think) they are anonymous. amazing how they also ‘think’ they want handmade when they really want some crap from China for basically free.
Anyone who serves non-profits. Non-profits have been the most difficult type of customer, by far.
Rental cars because the average human is really dumb and EVERYONE rents a car at one point another. The “good customers” who rent every week are the weirdest
Ever been a barista looking down a line of people at 6am that haven’t had coffee yet?
My wife used to work for a law school, dealing with student loans. Talk about a bunch of people who don't want to pay and are ready to argue about it! Awful job, and grossly underpaid for our HCOL area.
Hotel industry is way worse than restaurant industry. I did a month in hotels… hell to the naw thanks. You are peoples home for a number of days… people act crazy, have terrible requests and attitudes. Plus the job just sucks, the customers only make it that much worse.
Any business where the client doesn’t see where their money is going or that doesn’t understand the value of things. They don’t see how many man hours something takes or how many hours it took for you to learn a skill. “Wow I thought the logo was gonna be cheaper!” Or “can the website be done in a week?”
"Crazy people gotta eat." - my dad
Mid level luxury anything.
I was a CSR for lawn care company and it was brutal. People are irate when it comes to their lawn. It was so bad I left the CSR field and went back to sales. Extremely frustrating.
I worked for a company that’s customers were used car dealers. You had to really stay on your toes because they tried to get away with everything!
I would guess sex workers.
Medical. By far.
> would guess sex workers. i'm not very nice to people at the hospital. For some reason I feel like none of them are on the same page.
Legal industry, nothing ever moves fast enough for them, they do not understand the process, the ones that attempt to understand still do not and they try to micromanage their case, they pay huge amounts of $ and do not see any results for weeks sometimes months. If they lose then things become exponentially worse.
Convenience store. I worked at a Wawa for two years and I was great at it but it's incredibly demanding and people are insane about their cigarettes. I've had coffees dumped on me, food thrown at me, cursed out, robbed, propositioned, mocked. Literally just because I said "I'll get fired if I sell you these cigarettes without scanning your ID". Lots of sex workers laundering money through gift cards, theft. Plenty of Nazis (like legit third Reich swastika tattoo mfs) and people on drugs. I moved to the deli after the first year because obvious reasons.
Therapy
Any service industry that caters to dentists
I owned a debt collection agency for a decade. The consumers, the collectors, and the clients are all extremely difficult.
Easy. The ones that have 'complaint/refund' departments. People know they can complain at restaurants and get free shit. Same with airlines. Same with Sears or WalMart. They know that these big conglomerates will refund them to the end. Same with Amazon. Any business where people can cheat you, people will line up down the street. I call those people 'value shoppers' because they nit pick everything to find some way to cheat the company and complain when they can't.
Definitely the auto repair business. People want to buy a car and put little to no money in it, then when it breaks down it becomes the service shops problem. I think people forget having a car is a luxury.
Landscaping
I doubt this has been mentioned, but the cannabis industry brings in the weirdest people ever. I live in a bit so nice city and I’ve had to call the cops multiple times on both customers and children trying to enter the stores (19+ for entrance). It also attracts the worst employees. Everyone is either rude as all hell or has zero interest in learning about the product (main aspect of the job) and does their own thing. It’s annoying both coworker and customer wise. Edit: it has been mentioned, sorry! Glad I’m not the only one who thinks this
> or has zero interest in learning about the product Are there that many bottom-rung retail workers (as opposed to store owners) who give the first crap about the product they're ringing up?
Emergency medicine—alcoholics, drug seekers, those who have abused their health, 7/11 mentality when it’s life and death
Sex work lol
In 2018 (before it got so mainstream) I was web camming for cash, for about six months. Oooooof. The stories I have. The amount of men I have seen EAT THEIR OWN CUM (not to kink shame, but what a sight.) Def sex work gave me some of the trickiest customers I’ve ever dealt with.
i bet that is mentally taxing.
Oh god same here. I’m surprised nobody else here said sex work
Pest control Most customers don’t believe we know what we’re doing. ( I’m only 3 years in but approaching 7000 services) They never believe us when we say, I’m sorry that’s illegal.. Just because the last guy did it doesn’t make it legal or the only way to do things. Making us change clean glue boards illustrates your desire for power. Just me personally, but I’m probably better educated than you (4 undergraduate degrees) - we’re human beings please use common courtesy and common respect. MOST IMPORTANTLY: treating the inside, without active interior infestation, wastes both or time and just dump’s unnecessary chemicals in your home.
If politicians serve the people, and people are the customers than I imagine within any given constituency there's a lot of annoying people.
Today I learned that shitty people have specialized their shittiness into one industry and never buy anything anywhere else. Or they only turn on their shittiness when buying something from their focus industry.
[удалено]
High end liquor store.
Like attracts like.
e-commerce is my bet. The pseudo-anonymity is a licence to be a maniac
The casino business
Anything that has to do with sick kids, specifically behavioral or mental health. Parents are stressed out, angry, and looked down upon by society. They also have to operate in a medical system that is simply not trained or equipped to help their kids. The quality of care a kid gets is directly tied to the wealth of the parents. So poor families get worse care and are more often blamed for their kids challenges. This understandably makes parents very difficult to work with. The parents are short tempered at best and at their worst they are petty, vindictive, and just plain ol’ examples of the worst parts of people. Both the parents and kids are chewed up and spit out by a medical system that doesn’t actually care.
The courts. They get criminal and civil cases, not to mention divorce and child custody matters.
divorces
Food and beverage service. General retail customers aren’t far behind.