No matter how kind or polite you are, every once in a while you’re bound to run into someone who, for no reason at all, goes out of their way to be rude. Whether it’s a minor inconvenience or full-on drama, one thing’s certain, they’ll ruin your day. Online, these people have earned a name: Karens.
And of course, Redditors have no shortage of stories about their run-ins with them. Below, we’ve gathered some of the most patience-testing encounters people have shared. Scroll down to read them all—and maybe vent a little, too.
#1
She told me off for bringing my daughter to the playground while we were eating ice cream, because her “little son is allergic to dairy, and he’ll be sad if he sees the ice cream and can’t have any”.
Image source: AnarchiaKapitany, Kamaji Ogino
#2
I worked at Kisboltban, a nice customer called my boss to say I put a bad peach in the bag with the others.
Image source: [deleted], MART PRODUCTION
#3
Man Karen: bought a PC Star Wars Battlefront, in 2015 and comes back the next day to get his money back immediately, saying this doesn’t work. Did he activate the code? Don’t take me for a fool? I said we can’t take back PC games if the code’s been activated. Well, he’d already tried activating it with his IT expert friend, the code’s no good, it won’t download, it won’t run, and besides, he’s got a law degree and he’s gonna sue us. This went on for five minutes. I said thanks, but we still can’t take it back, but let’s have a look, show me what you activated?
He takes one of the two papers from the box and shows me: this. I look at it: I said, this is the pre-order DLC code. Look, here’s the PC activation code, it even says so right here, this is what you need to activate.
Image source: westhammer666, Maurice Nguyen
#4
Once, a customer wrote in the complaint book because one of the entrances wasn’t working, and on the sign that said “Dear Customers!” we wrote “customers” with a lowercase letter… bUt YoU sHoUlD wRiTe It WiTh A cApItAl LeTtEr
Image source: sunnybunny94, Wolf Art
#5
He was a man, but such a Karen…
I was a manager, and they wanted to disconnect the client. Totally justified. He hadn’t paid in almost 4 years… He wanted to pay in installments, but the internal rules were that after a certain level of warnings, it wasn’t possible anymore.
The point is, the guy first wanted to see a manager. That’s where I came in. After the information, he stood up and started yelling. Police… we’ll be reported. I tried to calm him down, where he could go, there are state agencies here that provide support, protection, etc…
It was during Covid, by the way.
Then the guy grabbed, recoiled to spit. He needed momentum. Then he realized he was wearing a mask… pulled it down. Spat again, like a cobra. It landed on the plexiglass.
That’s when I asked him if he wanted me to go to the other side of the plexiglass so he could spit on me.
He couldn’t answer because the security guard had had enough and dragged him out of the office in a chokehold.
He didn’t come back to complain!
Image source: DetectiveAns, Nicola Barts
#6
There was an older but actively aggressive woman who kept calling me by mistake, I guess she wrote down the wrong number. For God’s sake, she didn’t understand that I’m not Ferenc Horváth… she did this on a daily basis. By the way, I’m a woman…
Image source: PsychologicalRoyal90, Polina Tankilevitch
#7
Ugh, I was the Karen, unfortunately.
I was uploading documents for an OTP online loan application, and they sent it back for resubmission a second time. I misunderstood them, I thought my bank statement wasn’t good enough for them, so I wrote a super arrogant letter saying I also work at a financial company, and it’s not true that they won’t accept it because it’s perfect for income verification, and they should know what they’re doing.
Then I realized I sent them their general information sheet instead of the statement. Twice.
Image source: Bocsuletfarm, Pinkinesss
#8
She didn’t get that when printing, we look at the side, not the page, and double-sided printing costs 200 forints, even though it’s one sheet. She pulled out all the stops, saying she’d call my boss (who she doesn’t even know) and report me to the tax authority (!) etc. In the end, she said she’d write in the complaint book. When I offered it to her, saying “Here you go,” she stormed out, offended. It was a magical 20 minutes.
Image source: DoktorMiniszterelnok, Andrea Piacquadio
#9
I was still in high school, on the 4-6 tram, the old version with steps. It stops, I stand by the door so people can get off. Our Karen stood right in front of the door, they could barely get past her. When everyone who wanted to get off was off, I hopped in front of her and sat down in the first seat, and she started yelling at me, saying things like “these young people nowadays,” etc. (by the way, there was another seat two away)
Image source: PenEducational2759, Rishiraj Parmar
#10
Once upon a time, on the train, a young man tried to travel from A to B without a ticket. I politely informed him that this wouldn’t work, he needed to buy a ticket with a surcharge or we’d be saying a sensitive goodbye at the next station. The young man immediately went into attack mode and started telling me who he was, that he was somebody important, his mother worked for the railway, and that I wouldn’t have to come to work tomorrow. I told him that was fine, but to give me enough notice that I didn’t need to come to work, because I’d be really pissed off if I got up early for nothing the next day. The gentleman was put off the train at the next station and, as I later found out, his mother really does work for the railway, she’s a waitress at a restaurant.
Image source: GoldTomatillo7879, Andrea Piacquadio
#11
I’m pregnant, and lately, I’ve been sitting down on the bus because I’m struggling with nausea. Today, I got a really humiliating comment from a woman, saying I was rude because I didn’t give up my seat. I even apologized and told her I was pregnant and not feeling well; otherwise, I wouldn’t have sat down. She said I was lying because it didn’t show. I didn’t quite understand what she meant by that. Doesn’t show = not pregnant?!
Image source: Embarrassed_Air_4752, Darina Belonogova
#12
My aunt used to do some embarrassing stuff at restaurants. Her favorite was order something, eat ninety percent of it then insist that it was inedible and absolutely awful and she shouldn’t have to pay for it. Apparently back in the day this worked and she would frequently receive free meals. Until one time when it didn’t. The waitress looked her dead in the eye and said something along the lines of “you ate it, therefor you will pay for it and I hoped you enjoyed it because this will be the last time you are allowed here.”
According to my dad she got super embarrassed, paid and rushed out of there. After tucking her tail and running, her Karen core recharged and she called the restaurant to complain. Not sure if she got the manager or the owner but they essentially told her the same thing as the waitress. Her husband, who had no issues with her scamming places, got mad and wanted to pursue some sort of legal action. Nothing came of it.
Image source: NaughtyFox360
#13
Best Karen story: I used to be a butcher and was having a really stressful day at work last year around Thanksgiving time,when my mom stopped into my store because she was in the neighborhood and on a whim decided to bring me my favorite food: Lamb Rogan Josh and a Mango Lassi. It made my day
My mom’s name is Karen
She is not a Karen
Image source: reptile_boi1988
#14
I worked in a restaurant. The mom and her daughter brought back the food they bought from the buffet, asking for a refund because the cheese was spicy, the nachos were tasteless, and the popcorn was cold. Yeah, but they ate everything. They practically licked the cheese clean. When I said I couldn’t give them a refund for that, they got outraged and wrote in the complaint book.
Seriously, if something’s [bad], why eat it?
Image source: Ariianeee, Darina Belonogova
#15
Movie student job. Dude asked how spicy the sauce was for the tortilla. I said, well, it depends on the person, I think it’s more like piquant. After the movie, he stormed over to the counter, slammed the tray with the sauce on it, yelled something about what a jerk I was, that the sauce almost burned his girl’s mouth. He asked for the complaint book and wrote this in it.
Image source: crepuscularchiropter, Los Muertos Crew
#16
I’m sitting on the number 49 tram at Astoria, just staring into space, when suddenly a woman stops in front of me and asks me to give up my seat. I look around; there are at least four or five empty seats nearby. I ask her if those aren’t good enough. She starts freaking out, calling me rude and lazy! She says those seats are facing the wrong way, that I should just accept that she’ll get sick, that she can’t travel like that, and she went on a rant about how awful the world has become and the lack of respect for the elderly, etc. Fine, I moved, she sat down, and she kept going!! Everyone was staring at me, it was incredibly awkward. It looked like I’d kicked a puppy or something
Image source: Artistic_Fix_512, MART PRODUCTION
#17
An older-sounding woman complained to me that the color of our cars is scary and we should change it because it causes her anxiety.
Image source: NeighborhoodOwn8484, Minglong lin
#18
I worked as a cashier in university. A woman came with a package of coffee, I scanned it, and told her the price. She said it couldn’t be that much because it was on sale. I said that’s what the machine showed, so I called the head cashier, who confirmed the price. The woman didn’t believe it, and started giving me a hard time, saying I should know about the sales and prices, that I was doing a bad job, etc. Finally, she went to the head cashier, they gave her some money back, and she came back to me and said she was right. At the end of my shift, I asked what happened with her, and they said they didn’t want to listen to her complaining, so they gave her a 10% discount. That was probably less than 300 ft in total, to be honest.
Oh, and she was one of those well-dressed, elegant 50-something women who looked like she’d just come from the hairdresser.
Image source: PhilosophyNo3446, Getty Images
#19
I used to work in a clothing store, the kind where you have to schmooze the customers, tell them how good something looks on them, suggest what would look better, offer this and that, take everything off for them, hold their clothes while they get dressed… I helped a woman for 30 minutes, and I’d only been working there for a day or two, so I was fumbling at the cash register, having trouble activating the discount. In the end, the woman freaked out, saying she didn’t have time or patience for this, and wanted to leave. I guess she had time for the half-hour of browsing…
Image source: urf4iry, Arina Krasnikova
#20
I saw a news station on FB that posted about Mattel putting out Barbie with type 1 diabetes, and there were actually people upset about it in the comments.
They were claiming that they were “taking it too far,” “just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” “time for hooker Barbie,” “silly,” and so on.
Not all the comments were bad. Many of them were positive, and some came from parents of diabetic kids and even diabetic people themselves.
Image source: Peanutbutternjelly_, Julee Juu
#21
Latest incident: An old lady comes into the pharmacy with receipts to show that she paid 300 Ft once for a medicine, but 850 Ft twice, and wants us to give her the money back because we deliberately overcharged her, as she’s entitled to a discount. Obviously, I can see on the receipt that the more expensive one is the regular price, and the other one has an increased subsidy. I tell her that if the doctor didn’t prescribe the medicine that way, I can’t give her a discount. (Luckily, our Karen is also as deaf as a post, so the whole pharmacy and the other patients could listen to her confusion.) But she insists that we give her the discount, give her the medicine for free, call the boss, etc., she just kept going on. After 5 minutes of confusion, she was willing to give me her and her husband’s social security cards so I could check what the problem was. It turned out that they both take the medicine, but only her husband has a specialist’s recommendation for it, so it’s prescribed for him at a discount, but the old lady doesn’t, so it cost her more.
Image source: mrsRollz_, Getty Images
#22
Worked as a bank teller. I was there maybe a month. This lady comes in. Says she wants to withdraw some cash. I said ok no problem. Just insert your bank card and punch in your code.
“I lost it. And need a replacement too.”
“That’s no problem. I need some I.D. and if you sign this I can verify your signature.”
Big sigh.
“No. Im sick of this. Every time I come here its a new teller. This has been my bank for years!”
“I just started here last month and I have never helped you before so I can’t circumvent procedure.”
“I don’t care.”
“So you don’t want me to verify your identity before I take money out of your account and give it to you?”
I just sat there staring until she gave in.
Image source: [deleted], Andrea Piacquadio
#23
Mine was a dude with his kid, while I was working zmedia at Best Buy during the holiday season.
I was cleaning up the area because it was trashed after a monring rush. So as I was putting gaming accessories back on their legs this father with his kid on the cart started looking at stuff. Took GameCube controllers off the peg, looked at it, then threw it down into the base of the shelf. Didn’t even try hanging it up.
So I let it be a while. No big. But I kept hearing it. And it was post rush, so I caught up and essentially started cleaning up behind him. He’s take memory cards, whatever was on the end cap, look at it, then toss it. Even through a guide book on the floor.
So, I told him to please put it back where he picked them up from. Just sneered at me and said, “F**k you”. I was kind of taken aback. But whatever, just kept cleaning up after him.
Then he almost went ballistic because I was following him messing up my department. Started yelling at me. Luckily boss came by and asked what the hell was going on. Dude told my boss that “This idiot’s been following me”.
Boss said, “Because he’s been cleaning up after you, get the hell out”.
Man just sneered again, then walked out with his kid. Sneered at me again, and I just shrugged.
Image source: FatefulPizzaSlice
#24
I’ve only encountered one up close in the wild. I was at a Petco to get my dog’s nails cut down and some dumbass was mad at an employee because they wouldn’t groom her dog without rabies vaccine records. Even though they tell you that you need them when you book the appointment.
She put her little rat dog on the counter and refused to take it off, then berated the poor groomer girl for a few minutes. Ended with her calling the groomer a bitch and storming out.
I felt so bad for the employee, I was next in line and she was super nice and professional with me even though I could tell she was trying her hardest not to burst into tears. It just confounds me that some people can get so worked up and be so mean over things that really don’t matter at all.
Image source: [deleted]
#25
I was finishing up a grocery order in my lane and my bagger and I were completing our conversation with that customer. I said one more thing to the kid bagging groceries and turned to help the next customer.
Did the greeting, rewards card, everything. When she went to address me or answer questions, she kept looking away from me and acting strange. I didn’t think anything of it. When I rang up her total, she ERUPTED at me about how rude I was for not acknowledging her (but I did). And I had no idea how that could make somebody feel (but I do know). Finally, she had spent the entire day at the hospital with somebody and I should be ashamed of myself. Half way through her rant, I placed my hands on top of my very pregnant stomach and let my eyes glaze over: this was a part-time job I did on evenings and weekends after teaching full-time at a nearby middle school. I was 8 months pregnant.
She finally stomped off and then the girl behind her was so sweet. “Wow, she was really rude. I’m sorry that happened to you.”
That crone came in a few times after that, but always used a different cashier. I stared her down every damn time.
Image source: Sea_Minimum_5070
#26
Not an exact re-enactment but it went something like this.
I was stocking a shelf and a bag of sweets fell on the floor.
Some guy: it fell, pick it up
Me: sure, once my hands are free (I still have merchandise in my hands while it’s happening)
Guy: pick it up.
Me: (hands still full) yeah will do asap, no worries
Guy: I said pick it up at once! You lazy piece of shit
Me: ????
Guy: if I were the store manager I’d fire you right on the spot
Me: I’m sorry sir, but you’re not my manager
Guy: I own a store
Me: not this store
Guy: walks off in a huff
Guy’s wife who was apparently watching the whole thing: yeah your behaviour is unacceptable and I’d totally get you fired.
Image source: sicklything
#27
I was working in a call center for a health related company. Received a call from a woman complaining that she didn’t receive her test results, which she paid to be delivered at home. I checked to see if everything was in order with her delivery and found that the company would not deliver in time for some reason or other. She starts screaming at the phone, saying she won’t accept something like this, says she’s a lawyer and that she’ll sue the company and make me lose my job. Because she needed her test results so badly I eve presented a different solution to her problem, which she immediately denied. I told her that if she didn’t want to get her test results through the internet she would have to wait for the delivery to me made with a delay. She didn’t accept any help I wanted to give her and just kept on screaming until the end of the call.
I quit that job a few days later and I’ll never work with customer service again.
Image source: anon
#28
Had a Karen threaten to report me to my manager for talking with other customers I was serving.
Image source: Plonkie-
#29
I work in customer service, and people regularly complain that the IVR (the voice that announces the information at the beginning of the call) addresses them informally, or that the TV box (the “please wait” message or “hi” during installation) is annoying, or they just don’t like the hold music :)
Image source: WearyPollution152, Curated Lifestyle
#30
I was driving my car in a huge open parking lot for half a minute when our hero came over and started banging on my window.
Saying I should turn off the engine, that it’s carcinogenic, poisonous, his family will get lung disease from me. Okay, I let it go, didn’t pay attention to it, and drove off. But!
He walked back to a car that was exactly the same brand, a 1.4 diesel, just about 2-3 years newer than mine. It was running, and his wife was standing behind the car. In the “carcinogenic smoke”….
Image source: Illustrious_Mall483
#31
I’ve been working in customer service for about five years now. I’ve been threatened with the police, the courts, consumer protection, and everything else for trivial things, multiple times. Nothing ever came of any of it, just empty promises.
Image source: Plenty_Stranger6351
#32
It happened just yesterday. My husband and I were pulling out of a small street onto a bigger road. Karen was turning in from the main road onto the street where we were. At the last second, she swerved towards us and then put on her turn signal. My husband, surprised, raised his hand on the steering wheel. It was like a total “wtf” hand gesture (he raised his hand and put it down, no pointing or anything). Karen stopped next to us while there were cars coming behind her and behind us, rolled down her window, and asked my husband what his problem was. We just told her to move on and not yell, but she kept going.
Image source: ElderberryNormal3585, RDNE Stock project
#33
An elderly lady came, I was scanning the products, but the bag ripped with the potatoes. I put them on the scale without the bag, weighed them, then put them in a double bag, thinking I’d be nice. Then she started yelling at me, saying I was robbing her because I weighed more than what it was and that I must have pressed the scale. I put the potatoes on again, and the second time it showed even more (the weight of 2 bags + a few grams). She threw the paper money at me and left
Image source: Effective_Spot8206, Mads Eneqvist
#34
We ran a street food place (a food truck with a small seating area of four tables), and one mother decided to change her kid’s diaper right there on the middle of a dining table. We told her maybe she shouldn’t do that there, because other people were eating, and she went ballistic, calling us every name in the book. She and her friend spent at least 20 minutes cursing us out before we finally managed to get them to leave.
Image source: Silent_Tangerine0214, Karola G
#35
Karen demanding to speak with manager over and over again.
Manager is never available. Karen ends up taking it out on me. I offered her everything I could do, and even though I did, nothing appeased her. Lol.
Anyways, she ends up filing a complaint — they couldn’t find anything I did that was wrong.
Workplace still holds it against me that I could’ve done more. So, so stupid.
I wonder if the Karen’s out there are aware that they intentionally make it difficult for us workers. Get a life
Image source: aokkuma, Alex Green
#36
This random lady that lived in my neighborhood said I couldn’t bike in front of her house without wearing a helmet because she was afraid of getting sued by my parents if I were to fall off my bike in front of her house or something along those lines. I was like eight. Told her the street wasn’t her property and rode away. Didn’t really look back for a reaction.
Image source: Jummatron
#37
There was a man who kept calling me by mistake. In fact, once he announced that he could see me through the window from the bush and was watching me. I congratulated him, especially since I was sleeping on the 9th floor.
Image source: GoldComposer7546, Yan Krukau
#38
I used to work at a mobile phone shop. I was assessing the value of stolen phones for two detectives. Just then, a woman stormed into the shop, screaming. I should add, I’d never seen her before. She demanded the customer complaint book immediately because she wanted to write in it. I told her she’d have to buy something first, right? Then she started screaming even louder, like a banshee, and left. The two detectives and I couldn’t figure out what that was all about.
Image source: vihar00, Pavel Danilyuk
#39
One time, a client said, “My girl, bring me a coffee while I wait for the boss, with whom I’ll be discussing all sorts of important things. But you wouldn’t understand that anyway. But maybe you can manage to make a coffee properly, even for a woman.”
I was the one he was supposed to negotiate with, and when he found out, he stood up and said that he would never negotiate with a woman, especially a young one, and asked my boss to send someone else in. Nobody came
Image source: Guilty-Archer-5946, Tima Miroshnichenko
#40
When I moved into my apartment, I didn’t know anyone yet. Karen made me a bunch of copies of keys (front door, back door, trash chute, indoor-outdoor gate, common door) then waved them around, saying it would be 17,500. I looked at her, because I’d never seen her before… “Who’s the lady?” She was deeply outraged that I hadn’t paid her for something I didn’t even ask for.
Image source: SatisfactionBig4704, Alena Darmel
#41
I was in a store during Covid, already standing in line at the checkout, nicely keeping the one and a half meters distance, when the woman in front of me started hassling me because the toe of my shoe shouldn’t be on that line (which, you know, was taped to indicate the one and a half meters), because my foot is there, but my toe is closer to her. At first, I tried not to pay attention to her nonsense, but she bumped my shopping cart into me several times, saying she didn’t want to end up on a ventilator because of me, and that I was selfish, and I should get out of line and go home.
Image source: Puppipu, Meruyert Gonullu
#42
The maintenance guy/gardener at my workplace back then was the husband of one of our colleagues who worked in the same office with us. His wife initially tried to present herself as a quiet, withdrawn, deeply religious, cute lady, but aside from proving to be a real pain in the a** and constantly hindering our work, it turned out over about three months that she was a true hypocrite, sneaky, and a scheming troublemaker. She would talk back, gossip, and constantly try to stir things up, an average public sector troublemaker.
My then-boss (who was a really great guy) had enough of this and let her go on a beautiful autumn day. The woman went out to cry in the garden, and I guess she spoke to her husband too because about half an hour later, the guy burst into the office with a RAKE in his hand and started yelling at us, cursing, and threatening. The best part was when he tried to hit my boss and was swinging the rake around, but thank God my boss caught his hand and kicked him out into the hallway after the first shove 😅
I think I’ll remember the stunned silence and shock after that incident for the rest of my life.
Image source: Relative-End2110, Faruk Tokluoğlu
#43
My friend and I went to a chocolate factory in a small town years ago and found chocolate breasts for breast cancer awareness. They were awesome. I finally had the chance to go back there yesterday and was gutted they didn’t have any. I asked the woman at the register why they got rid of them, and as I suspected a bunch of Karens complained, even when it was explained they’re for breast cancer awareness. It got to the point they had to stop selling them because the complaints were so extreme
Image source: gorhxul, Doğu Tuncer
#44
So I’m currently in the hospital for some heart issues. There’s this very good looking nurse that I can hear bullying the other nurses out in the hall. Mainly the ones that don’t fit that “perfect figure” look.
Anyways back to me. Every time she had to come take my vitals, adjust my leads or touch me in any way, I can see in her eyes that she is just disgusted.
Guess who had to give me a sponge bath this morning? Bwhahahahaha
I hate bullies.
Image source: Paradigmfusion, Karola G
#45
My worst Karen experience was when I was 15 working at Chick-fil-A. We had a lot of customers one day and we were totally out of change with like maybe a few nickels to spare. Many customers were ok with it since the change was less than .50 cents. And, just my luck, this lady was in my line and ordered her meal for her kid and herself. But at the end of her order, I explained I couldn’t give her exact change back, which was $.15. She started yelling at me in front of everybody and I did my best to calm the situation down and explained to her like I did everyone else. She wasn’t having it and as a 15 year old experiencing my first job with three weeks of experience under my belt-I was mortified. She called for the manager and said some demeaning things about me being a bad employee. After her grumpy butt left, my manager took me to the side and said to just round up the change for the customers. How could I if we were basically out of change? (my coworkers were basically out and the person going to the bank for more change left a few minutes before Karen blew a fuse). He just said just do it…wth?! This was wasaaay back in 2005 but I still carry a bit of that anger.
Image source: PhantomPanduh
#46
I once had a customer complain that her new hydrangea was pink instead of blue.
Image source: pigeonboy94, Cheung Yin
#47
So I was behind a male Karen at the drive thru at Walgreens to pick up a prescription and there was only one employee working it.
He pulled up expecting to have his prescription ready for him as soon as he pulled up and didn’t want to wait for the cashier to find it and ring it up. Even after she told him that it wasn’t fast food service
Image source: PaulmUnser, Jace Miller
#48
Nothing too dramatic but one constant Karen at my store who always finds something to complain about decided to confront me last week about something that was very obviously out of stock, half gallons of milk. I cut her off mid-sentence because it was a question I’d already heard countless times.
“You cannot be back here, we are completely out of half gallons.”
“Okay well I’m leaving anyway.”
“There’s an ‘employees only’ sign right out there.”
I really had it that day as two of my co-workers had already been cursed at for the low stock and me and my co-workers had already warned each other when this Karen shopped so I hit my breaking point there.
Image source: JeffPlissken
#49
Work at an auto/tire shop. Lady comes in the other day for a flat repair. Tech pulls car in, notices she has a wheel lock which we’ll need a special “key” for. Some people keep them in the glovebox, but a lot of them are in with the spare. Key wasn’t in glovebox so tech starts looking in the trunk where the spare is. Lady sees this through the window and comes up quickly to my counter demanding to know why my tech is looking through her trunk. I explain the key. She tells me that she’s had tire rotations done before and no one ever asked her for a key. I explain that they probably just grabbed it and got it done just like he’s doing, but tell her if it makes her feel better I’ll go check myself. Note that she and I are both white. The tech in question is Hispanic. I go out to the bay and my tech immediately knows what’s up as he saw her staring him down through the window. He fixes it while she watches him suspiciously the whole time, we give her the keys and she leaves. Next day she comes back with another flat and she had to wait longer because the same tech was there and he refused to touch the vehicle (and I don’t blame him) so she had to wait for the other tech to finish the vehicle he’d been working on when she came in.
Image source: Peecheekeene
#50
A customer called and stated she had shopped at my store the weekend prior and made a huge purchase, but didn’t realize the whole store was going to be 20% off the next weekend (Black Friday) and therefore she wanted me to refund 20% of her prior purchase back to her card since she had paid full price and that was unfair. I silently laughed, said no I’m sorry I’m unable to do that, so she got mad and hung up
Image source: anon
#51
I worked at Michael Kors and a Karen tried to return a watch (that had been sized which makes it final sale) two YEARS after purchase date. She could not handle a “no” and freaked out…continued to freak out and yelled at everyone in the store….employees and other customers lol and at some point called me stupid. I told her she had crossed a line and is no longer welcome in our store and I called mall security and they gladly escorted her out.
Image source: justshenangianshere
#52
Bit of back ground first. I work at a garden centre and our loyalty card allows you to accumulate points from purchases , which later translates to vouchers being sent to you. These vouchers come as a redeemable money essentially and also special offers with a prerequisite. For example , get £10 off when you spend £50 or more.
Okay so Karen comes to the counter with a plant from outside and proceeds to hand me a voucher for “£3 off an outdoor pot”
Me: I can’t use this, it’s for an outdoor pot
Not hearing what I said
Karen: gestures to the plant and says use it
Me: I can’t as it’s not a pot, I can scan it anyway but no money will come off
Karen: well why not?
Me: gesturing to the plant, umm this isn’t a pot
Karen: well it’s in a pot so….
She leaves the plant and exits in a huff . Not the worst experience but I struggled to keep a straight face
Image source: anon
#53
I worked at a chain health food store in the Chicago suburbs for about a year, and there were plenty of Karens. The worst moment was working in the juice bar. I had apparently used an insufficient number of carrots for this Karen’s liking, so she threw the entire drink in my face like something out of an old Hollywood drama and snarled, “Try again!” I did not try again. I sent my manager out to deal with her, and typical for this place, she was apologetic to the customer and remade her drink.
Image source: Eyerockets
#54
Work at McDonald’s in a small town, working front counter, women with Karen haircut comes up and says “I want a Big Mac but don’t you dare put any slaughter cow in it!” I laugh a little and when I see she isn’t laughing i pretend to cough and punch in her order, specifically put in “Big Mac no meat.” Minute later after she gets her food, tray drops from across the room, blood curdling scream followed by the audible footsteps of Karen storming up to me with her burger in her hand. Of course it had meat on it, Karen is sobbing and demands to see the kid in the kitchen that made the food, kid comes out from the back (kids first day working here) and asked what he did wrong. Karen personally attacks the kid calling him fat and retarded and then demanded to see the manager. Manager comes out and gives her the money back. Kid quit that day over a simple mistake.
Image source: Punchline1771
#55
I used to work at a movie theater where you could call a server to take your order from your seat. I was working the box office on New Years and we were a little busy to say the least. I get through the rush of people only for one of the couples to come back and inform me that some people were in their seats. I called a manager to sort the issue out and didn’t think anything else of it. Until Karen marched out of the theater with her son and his friend trailing behind and demanded to buy tickets.
What had happened was instead of waiting in line like everyone else she thought she could bypass everyone and order her tickets from her seat. That’s not how we do things here. My manager calmly walked into the booth and stood behind me. Manager tells me to refuse service to Karen for her yelling at me and Karen was not having it!
Karen begins throwing what I can only describe as a tantrum infant of everyone including her son and his friend and was asked to leave. It got to the point where I had to call the police, although she bolted as soon as they were called. I have so many stories from that job.
Image source: cantcallmenothing
#56
When my son was a baby, I had to go to the restroom to change him. I open the bathroom door and the little kid in there nearly got hit by the door. Instead of telling her daughter to stay away from the door and telling her this is why she cannot stand close to the door, she blames me instead and tells me how I should open it slowly. No bitch, your kid should not be standing near the door. My mom always told us kids that growing up and one day I got wonked with it and my mom said “see why I told you you can’t be near the door?” Plus I remember as a toddler I was trying to leave the restroom to go play on this toy ship again at this mall and these people come in and open the door and they stub my toe with it and my mom didn’t yell at them about it. Instead she rinsed my toe off in the sink that got caught under the door.
Image source: diaperedwoman
#57
Karen, the ultimate mom, got on the metro at Corvin with her 3 kids + a stroller, basically making everyone give up their seats for the four of them (she stood in front of people and glared at them until they could sit down), dragged the stroller over everyone’s feet, and then got off at Kálvin. Seriously, she made 4 people stand up during rush hour just to get off at the next stop. I still can’t believe that kind of thing exists. They sat for, like, half a minute, tops… Then, with the utmost composure, they strolled out, also dragging the stroller over people’s feet.
Image source: Gold_Birdy
#58
I worked at a Subway in England.
There was this woman who came in every few months with a bunch of kids, saying they ate rotten meatballs at our place and the whole family ended up in the hospital, so they wanted free meatballs 🤣🤣🤣 I loved it.
When we didn’t give them free food for the umpteenth time, they went to the other Subway nearby. The problem was, we were in contact every day, the boss was the same, and by the time they got there, the other team already knew the story.
Image source: Glad_Alternative9028
#59
When I worked at the Home Depot a Karen told me that she didn’t want any black men to install her flooring. I was in charge of arranging her order and told her that we don’t select which individuals exactly will install her floor and that she’ll get who she gets. She proceeds to have a fit about it, demands white installers, asks to speak to my manager.
I’m so glad she did, because my manager’s name was Dwayne and he was a real big black dude.
Turns out she didn’t want to speak to the manager
Image source: Trompdoy
#60
That I needed to leave the gym because I made her son feel like only fat people go to the gym
Image source: Ultimosome22
#61
When I worked at a bakery, Karen bought a chocolate cupcake and ate half of it. Karen then asked if she could return her half-eaten chocolate cupcake…not because she didn’t like it, but because she wanted to exchange it for half of a vanilla cupcake, “something less decadent.”
Like most bakeries, we did not sell cupcakes “by the half.” She became offended when I asked if she wanted to purchase a vanilla cupcake.
Image source: cabernetcat
#62
I deliver appliances for Best Buy. We had a woman call and complain that her fridge was not pre-cooled before it was delivered and that she had to wait for it to come down to temp. No one in the office was prepared for that one.
Image source: o0quiksilver0o
#63
Told me I couldn’t work on my car in my own garage at noon because she didn’t want my fast looking car to influence her son’s to “be hooligans like you”
Image source: anon
#64
When I was working retail, this one women had a big bag of coupons. Most of them were unusable because either they were expired or they were duplicates. She berated me because the system was rejecting most of the coupons. She called me stupid amongst other names, telling me I just wasn’t doing it right. Then as a typical Karen would, she asked to speak with my manager. My manager came and asked what the problem was. The women ranted about how incompetent I was because I didn’t know how to scan a coupon. My manager looked at the coupons and the coupons were the problem, not me. My manager bitched out the customer for being disrespectful for me and told the customer to leave the store.
I hated working there but I’m so grateful that I had managers that totally didn’t go by the “customer is always right” rule and weren’t afraid to stand up for their employees. That was just one of many incidents.
Image source: d0n7w0rry4b0u717
#65
Asked for my manager’s personal cell phone number to complain that I (seven months pregnant at the time) would not carry a refrigerator (that she had not paid for in the cost of her room) up to her second story room (we did not have an elevator), rather than just accept an upgrade for free because she didn’t want to unpack her stuff. She refused to believe we had rooms without fridges and I was just being fat and lazy.
When I refused to give her the cell phone number, she asked for corporate’s number. I wrote it down on a sticky note with a smiley face. She came down later and asked to move rooms. I made her pay the difference.
Image source: MadameMothman
#66
I used to work at a fast food in a theme park when I was 18. Karen held up the line cause she was demanding us to assemble a food for her daughter which we aren’t allowed to do cause we go by a menu.
“My daughter can’t have that.”
“Well, what can you do for me?”
“Do you want her to starve?”
Are one of the most irritating lines I ever encountered.
Image source: anon
#67
Was at the park with my daughter(she was 3 at the time). Her and a couple other kids started to play together. Then she attempted to use the monkey bars(she’s a very adventurous child). About mid way through, she fell. I didn’t do anything because she’s fallen before and I want her to learn to get back up on her own and not be scared to try again. Anyway, one of the boys was about to get on the monkey bars too, until I heard a woman run toward him screaming to stop. She picked him up and looked at my daughter. Told her it wasn’t “smart” of her to go on the monkey bars if she wasn’t fully ready because then others might get that same idea. That’s when I got up and went to my daughter’s defense. Sternly told the woman to not speak to her that way and it’s no fault of hers that she wasn’t scared to try something new. She took her kid and left.
Image source: anon
#68
I worked at a home improvement store for a while in college. I was a cashier in the garden section. This woman pulls up on the curb in a no parking zone. Grabs her fertilizer and soil. After I check out she goes fucking ballistic that I didn’t help load her car and she was going to report me to managers. (Due to company policy, I wasn’t allowed to. Other employees were though).
Her face mole was shaking and everything. Over a bag of soil that weighed under ten pounds and a handle of fertilizer.
Image source: Grandaddyspookybones
#69
I was working at my job as a cashier at my local supermarket. We were swamped with people I had at least 7 people waiting in my line. One of my good friends from high school was in my line and I talked to him as I was ringing up his stuff.
After he left I welcomed the next lady in line and asked the usual stuff “did you find everything okay?” “How are you doing?” Etc.
Before I could get a word out she asked to speak to my manager. Apparently I was rude to her for not including her in my conversation with my high school friend. She didn’t even chime in or anything and I never seen her in my life
Image source: Elba-3
#70
I worked at a coffee shop where a woman came up to me to complain that her lattes weren’t filled to the top(I had seen her husband sneak sips on the walk over but I wasnt gonna say that). So I gladly offered to remake both drinks but she said “I dont want you to fix this, I just want you to know Im dissappointed in you”
Image source: HushTheWise
#71
I was standing on a crowded train and a pregnant Karen started screaming at ME because she had nowhere to sit. Me, the person who was standing because there were no seats. She started screaming like it was my fault that there were no seats.
Image source: decearing-eggz, Loveleen Cherub
#72
I used to work at a coffee shop and this one male Karen gets pissed that we don’t have the small individual sized cartons of white milk. Like, raging. My coworker offered to give him some milk in a cup, but this just wouldn’t do, you see. He continued shouting and hollering about the principal of the matter.
Image source: sixhoursneeze
#73
I used to work customer service by chat. A customer was arguing that 20% off of $19.99 is not $4.00. I sarcastically responded “ you are correct ma’am, 20% off of $19.99 is $3.998 but we have to round up to the nearest cent.“ She ended the chat.
Image source: anon
#74
About a month into my first job(during the pandemic, around Oct./Nov), a woman walks in wearing a mask, although improperly. Part of my job involves giving customers gloves, so I do that. She requests a second, although we have a shortage. No biggie, though, as I give her the second one, noting that she seems like a germophobe and that I should be extra careful when giving her spoons and stuff.
She gets over to the machines, slowly removes her mask when she thinks I can’t see her. I’m not a super confirm person, so I call over my supervisor. When she goes to get toppings, and my supervisor confronts her, she says something to the affect of “well, I can’t wear both at the same time(mask and glove))”.
Needless to say, it was a weird day.
Image source: bumblebor1
#75
In a restaurant, a “Karen” ordered a dish with numerous customizations and substitutions, only to send it back multiple times for trivial reasons (e.g., the plate was too hot, the garnish was not to her liking).
Image source: anon
#76
i worked at a bagel shop and a karen ordered several bagels… she asked for a quarter pound of cream cheese as well, so i packaged up her order and gave it to her. she rips the bag out of my hands and says “i can FEEL my order is wrong” she then proceeds to rip the bag open in front of a long line of customers waiting to order… and says hm yeah i ordered half a pound of cream cheese (she didn’t). i said, well you only paid for a quarter pound so would you like me to ring you up for another quarter pound? she said sure, and i got her another quarter pound. i give it to her, and she grunts saying she wanted the cream cheese all in ONE container but she will have to make it work then stormed out
Image source: anon
#77
She cut in line in front of me, after I threw a 5-minute tantrum, then said, “But if it’s so important to you, go ahead and cut in front of me.”
Image source: Lordy8719, John Cameron
#78
So I worked in an office supply store and for whatever reason we decided to have oats on one of our end caps. Now, I don’t know why this lady decided to get oats from OfficeMax and I really don’t care why but for whatever reason she thought that she could just walk up to one of the registers and completely bypass the other four families in line. When I told her that she had to get in line she stood right at the front of it and let the next customer go to my register. After I got done processing their purchase she came back only for me to tell her that she still hadn’t gotten in line. She started screaming at me while violently shaking her oats and demanded to speak to my manager. According to my manager I looked as if i was nearly ready to explode on her and i broke a trigger on a scanning gun when he told me to take a break and he got her dealt with. I walked to the break room, got a cup of water, and then was told i could come out to continue ringing up customers. the next few people who came through my line were so kind to me and apologized for what happened. I felt bad that they got held up so I gave them all 20% off using this sorta secret coupon we had. The next day my manager was laughing at how angry I got because he had never seen me look so ready to bust in the entire time I’ve worked with him.
Image source: Chrisrdouglas
Follow Us
