I could write an epic here but I'll just share one for now. I sell industrial automation systems and have to deal with stupid customers at all stages of the sales process. The systems can be anything from simple pick and place type machinery to hundred yard long workcells with 1,000s of moving parts, processes, etc. The one thing we do for all of our equipment across the board is include installation with the purchase. The entire equipment package can get expensive so sometimes we get a plant engineer or technician that says they've "run similar equipment before" and can handle the installation and start-up. We disagree. One particular customer in Michigan was a huge pain in the ass during the entire process. He had terrible ideas for making the equipment "better" from day one (the use of wood instead aluminum was one of his ideas just so you get where he was coming from) but his plant had huge potential so I decided to stick with the account personally rather than passing it off. I rarely go to an installation for start-up but because I had a rapport with the guy I decided I would help out my technicians by keeping him occupied while they set up the machine. I flew in the night before and overnight the area got dumped on with snow. The techs got delayed and were going to be an hour late. No biggie? Wrong. This guy flies off the handle about deadlines, our unprofessionalism, etc. I calmly tell him the guys will work extra hard to make up for the lost hour but he persists. He decides that he's going to attempt to start-up the machine himself even after I explain that it will void the warranty if anything is damaged. He doesn't care. I decide I had better go get his boss the plant manager so I take off running. Find the PM, who can't believe what I'm telling him and we both literally run back to the machine. We come out onto the catwalk above the machine and the maintenance guy is on a ladder with the controls pendant in hand pushing buttons. The PM yells down to him just as he puts the machine into motion. The 600+lb rigid robot arm travels 15ft at full speed (approx 20ft per sec) and bangs into the ladder and stops sending this guy flying through the air and into stacks of boxes. He's fine but was pretty shaken up. Bad enough that he pissed his pants.
I run a skateboard shop and since we carry some pretty high priced shoes we are constantly on the look out for people doing the ol' switcharoo of putting their old shoes in a box and leaving with our new ones on their feet. Since this is something that we are on high alert for we try and steer customers away from attempting to find their own sizes by doing what we are paid for, getting the shoes down, lacing them up and checking on fit. I encountered someone today who didn't seem to grasp this concept. My boys had mentioned the dude seemed pretty shady and since I am the go-to person for making shoplifters look and feel stupid I headed over to the shoe wall. I asked him what shoes he needed since he was pulling out boxes randomly from the wall and also where the shoes that belonged in the now empty box that sat beside him were. He told me the box was there when he got there (lie) , that he was just browsing and thought I was being rude by asking what he needed and treating him as if he was being suspicious. I couldn't help myself and burst out laughing, which obviously made him even more upset which in turn made me laugh harder. He asked at this point "what's sooo fucking funny" to which I replied " I have you on camera taking the shoes, they look about three sizes to small and security is at the door" I have never in my life seen a grown man take a pair of shoes off and burst into tears so quickly. As security was escorting him out, in sock feet no less, he screamed back at me that I better watch my back. This was coming from a 6'4 man directed at a 5'3 teeny tiny woman. Security called down later to ask if we had found his shoes since the cops were taking him in after finding goods stolen from other stores in his bookbag and it felt pretty good to say that they were in the front garbage underneath the remnants of my lunch and if they wanted them they would have to dig for them knowing full well they wouldnt. edit- spelling
http://www.wallyworldlife.com/ I could write for pages and pages about the scum I've dealt with...but it would be nothing compared to this guy.