Employees Are Sharing The Wildest Reasons They've Had To Escort People Out Of Their Workplace And I Didn't Expect Some Of These
I'm sure you've been in a situation where you noticed a customer going off on an employee for whatever reason. Maybe it was at the hotel concierge when you were in line waiting to check in. Or maybe at Starbucks when someone's order was wrong.
FOX / Via giphy.com
I know I've definitely witnessed those scenarios before, and it's cringeworthy. I was curious to hear from an employee's standpoint when they're in those situations, so I turned to the BuzzFeed Community. I asked if any business owners or others who work in customer-facing industries — like hospitality, retail, restaurants, etc. — have any wild stories of customers misbehaving. Here are some of the responses.
1."I worked at a home furnishings shop in the UK, and a man was trying to return obviously used bedding. We don’t accept this for hygiene reasons, but he wasn’t accepting this."
"He had also defaced his receipt so we couldn’t see if the receipt was in date to give him an exchange. We told him he couldn’t have a refund or exchange, and he started shouting at everyone and causing a scene, calling my manager a whole load of horrible names. He then started filming us, and we had some staff who weren’t over 18, so he was filming children without their parents consent, as well as filming us without our consent. In the end, we had to call the police and get our biggest looking employee to escort him off of the premises. All over some bedding."
2."My first job was at Six Flags in Texas when I was 15. One year I worked games and learned the rope ladder game so I could work it. I spent a month practicing and had blisters. I had it down, and I was a tiny 90-pound redhead. Guys would spend a lot of money because 'If she can do it I can.' This guy kept coming back and spent $250 trying this game all day and was mad I wouldn’t just give him a scooter (the prize). He was red in the face yelling at me, but I stood my ground and just called the manager over. Security had to escort him out, and I never saw him again."
—Anonymous
3."One afternoon, a notoriously difficult customer came into the bank making strange noises and yelling about ending his business with us. He began harassing other customers and refused to calm down or leave. I told him I would have to contact the authorities if he wouldn’t do one of the above, to which he began yelling, 'Call the police! Call the FBI! Call the CIA!' So I did one of the above, as the latter two would have been excessive."
"The local police escorted him out of the bank, but proceeded to stand in the parking lot for a half hour letting this man yell at them before taking him home. He was issued a no trespass, and his accounts were closed. It’s a funny story on the surface, but highlights the mental health problem in our community and the country as a whole. It’s possible this man may forget this occurred and come back despite the no trespass. It’s our job to handle it as delicately but efficiently as possible while protecting our employees and customers."
4."I worked at H&M, and a woman brought the police in because we wouldn't do her return. It was outside of our return guidelines. Once the police got there and actually heard the complaint, they just walked out. She was escorted off the property."
"No joke. This was a repeat customer who had previously thrown a pair of pants at me and a co-worker when I wouldn't serve her after she skipped a line to the door on a Saturday."
5."When I was running a daycare, I had a terrifying parent who constantly caused problems with the other parents and teachers. She would start fights in the parking lot or come in to the building yelling. She was also notorious for not picking up her child on time."
"One of the evenings she came late, I explained to her that if she continued to arrive late to pick up her child, not only could I remove her from the program, I could also call CPS for child abandonment if it was too late past closing time. She went absolutely nuts on me in front of her child. She must have called me every obscenity under the sun. I called the police, and they actually had to escort her out because she refused to leave. Because of the incident, she wasn't allowed to return, and we never saw her again."
—Anonymous
6."There was this creepy old man that constantly came into our Walmart to harass a young female cashier that I was friends with. Apparently, he’d constantly tell her that he would make her very happy, and that he’s 'bigger than he looks.' ?? It all came to a head when he came in, went to my friend, and told her that he had a present for her."
"This jackass got a porn magazine, printed pictures of her face that were apparently taken while she was working without her knowledge, and pasted it on top of every naked girl. His face was on the naked guys. Security was called real quick."
7."I used to be the manager of a very busy pizzeria in Chicago. There was one night that two guys came in and started yelling and calling the front of house girl some pretty awful names, all for no reason whatsoever."
"I came up front and told him they had to leave. Eventually they did, but we could still hear them out back still screaming and making threats. Eventually the other two guys in the kitchen with me and myself said enough is enough, and we ended up chasing them down the street. That guy had the audacity to try to come in again a few months later, and we were just like, NOPE, you’re banned for life sir, byyyyeeee."
—Anonymous
8."I worked at a hotel front desk. We had a very drunk wedding guest who got locked out of his hotel room in his underwear at 3 a.m., and he decided the best course of action was to pull the fire alarm so someone would come let him back in."
"After the police and a fire truck showed up and another guest tried to physically fight him, he was kicked out, permanently banned, and had to pay for the rooms of every guest who he woke up."
9."I have been in the casino business for 40 years now and could add numerous accounts. One in particular, a man pulled down his pants and defecated on the casino floor. He was kicked out."
—Anonymous
10."I asked an older customer to put his mask on, and his response was, 'Are you a wearing a diaper?' So I turned around and said, 'Excuse me, what?' He said, 'Are you wearing a diaper? Because you’re acting like a baby.' I said 'Sir, you cannot speak to me that way, and that comment was extremely inappropriate.' His response was, 'Get me someone else to help me because your feminine ways are getting in my way.'
"My female manager came over, and when I tried to tell her the situation the guy told me to shut up and took a step at me. My manager threw her arm in between us and told him he couldn’t speak that way and needed to leave. He complained that now her feminine ways were in his way, and then security escorted him out."
11."I worked at a theatre, and I had a man sneak his tiny dog in, in his handbag. We only realized he had it when someone complained about it barking during the show. He actually just found it hilarious he had gotten that far when we kicked him out."
—Anonymous
12."A regularly problematic patron threatened the life of the library's branch manager. Same patron has harassed other staff members and patrons for years. This patron was escorted out of the library by police. Not the first time, surely not the last."
—Anonymous
13."I worked at a credit union. A non-member brought in an $8,000 check made out to a business to cash. It was drawn off us, but there was zero way to confirm the man in front of us was the business owner. I tried Secretary of State, Dept. of Revenue, and googled him and the business."
"The business name didn’t exist anywhere. I offered to convert the check to a cashier's check made to the business so he could take it to his bank he claimed to have. This is where he lost it. He ripped his mask off and started screaming in my face, yelling every possible curse word under the sun. I asked him calmly to leave. I forcefully told him, between screams, that I would be calling the police.
We were inside a grocery store, and the general manager was a 300-pound 6’5” beast of a man who came in, stood between us, and told the man, 'You will leave now!'"
14."Was working at a bookstore and we had an issue with people stealing comic books, so we kept a close eye on that section. There was a man hunched over in that area for a long time without moving, so the manager went over to see if he needed help."
"Turned out the man was pleasuring himself in the corner. He was promptly thrown out. Worst part was I was on register and just saw him thrown out, but didn’t know why. When I went to clean up at the end of my shift, I wondered why the comic book section was so sticky."
15."Former movie theatre manager here. Had to remove a man for masturbating during a film. Had to kick out another man for trying to fight me repeatedly. That happened every time he came to the movies. Eventually had to ban him so he would STOP trying to fight me, always found empty alcohol bottles under his seat."
—Anonymous
16."I used to work in a bookshop with a small erotic fiction section. This guy used to come in and read through the books for a couple of hours at a time; he was a bit creepy but nothing untoward until one day I saw him with his hand in his pocket while he was reading."
"He wasn’t just reading though, he was pleasuring himself slap bang in the middle of the shop while it was school finishing time (meaning there were also kids around). So gross. Kicked him out and threw the book away."
17."Worked at a major retailer and I sold baby furniture. I had a new dad come in very upset because he said the baby walker he purchased was broken and missing parts. It wasn’t. I assembled it for him in less than two minutes."
"He was so angry because he couldn’t build it, and he threw it at me. It was a pleasure to have security throw him out. We kept the walker and never gave him a refund."
—Anonymous
18."We had a guy in our store wearing no mask, so I asked him very politely if he had one or if he wanted one and he said no. So I told him you have to wear one in our store or else you have to leave. He then started to get angry and said I have no right to kick him out."
"I told him it's a private property; we have the right to refuse service to anyone, and that's our policy. He kept getting louder and louder, telling me that I was wrong and just 'Some dumb p**** b****.' I told him he has to leave now, and then he started coming toward me and threatening me, so one of my employees yelled over the radio, "911 FOOTWEAR," and other employees came running, and he finally left the store. Knocking over displays as he left."
19."I’m a Starbucks shift supervisor. My store is located right next to a train station, so we typically get quite a few homeless people in our café. For the most part, they just typically keep to themselves trying to get warm, hang out for a bit, or something. However on this one occasion, two groups of people had come in, each about three people."
"When the second group came in, they charged the first group and started fighting. They were literally taking coffee bags, mugs, and cups off the shelves and were beating each other with it. One partner called the cops while I went to the café to tell them to leave. However, when I asked them to leave, one of them dropped their pants and said to come and make him. They were all arrested."
—Anonymous
20."As a bartender, I've kicked plenty of people out. I always get a kick out of how surprised they act. Like dude, you KNOW you can't have sex in the bathroom; no, you can't stay and hang out after puking on the bar."
21."I used to work at a very popular restaurant. One day a local politician sat at my table. He was very nice to me, ordered a round of drinks and some food. I dropped off a second drink for him and needed to run to the bathroom."
"He was totally fine when I left. When I came back, not more than a few minutes later, he was being arrested. Apparently he became belligerent and thought it was OK to call my manager a racist word. They actually gave him several chances, and he refused to stop yelling it."
—Anonymous
22."I used to work for a phone company just outside of New York City. We had a customer come in about a month after 9/11 complaining about his bill. When he was told he was responsible for those charges, he got really upset and started throwing things in the lobby and told us that 9/11 was nothing compared to what he was gonna do to our building and that he would kill all of us."
"Cops eventually came and got him, but we had to print his mugshot and hang it in the office, so if he ever came in again we would have to call the police."
23."I had to escort three young high school boys from our store (a big department store) because they threw a cup full of soda from the escalators when they were going up to the fourth floor."
—Anonymous
24."When I was in my 20s, I had to throw a guy out of a bar I worked at when the bouncer was in the bathroom. This guy was way over served when he walked in and started groping female patrons. I asked him to leave, and he said, 'No, and you can’t make me.'"
"Well, I grabbed his ear and twisted it as hard as I could. He doubled over, and I dragged him out by his ear. He tried to come back in, but the bouncer was back by then, and so he smartly kept it moving. Not on my watch, dude. Not today."
25."I worked at a hotel concierge, and I was in charge of our VIP guests in the morning. There was one guest who kept asking me out to the point where I started wearing an engagement ring to try to show that I wasn't interested. One morning, he lingered around after I closed the lounge for the VIP guests and waited for everyone to leave, and he cornered me into a kind of storage room where I had no exits."
"At that point, I pulled out my phone and told him I was calling someone, and he took off. I told my manager, and they immediately went up with security and escorted him off the premises. I was told he was in his underwear when he opened his door. He was banned from staying at the hotel after that."
—Anonymous
26."At one of the first dental offices I worked at, we kicked out a patient. He pointed at our dental assistant and said, 'I don’t want that in my mouth.' I told the manager, and she said, 'We don’t tolerate that behavior here, so you can leave.'"
27."I was working for a jewelry store at the time, and a guy came in demanding a full cash refund on an item that he purchased and didn’t want anymore. Stores typically don’t have that much money on hand, so even if I wanted to give him a full refund I couldn’t give him cash. I told him I wouldn’t be able to do it, and the guy started threatening to hurt me so bad that he would be sent back to jail again. I immediately picked up the phone and called security. They arrived shortly after and escorted the man off the premises."
—Anonymous
28."I have had the pleasure to have had to have someone kicked out from a hotel room. She ended up not paying on time and would only answer the phone until she wouldn't. So I went to the door, gave a final warning. She answered the door completely naked. This woman had hoarded trash and beer cans for five days and managed to create a filth I've never seen."
"Police ended up being called, and she was arrested and forced into clothes by the police. They had to have us go in to record damage, and we found human feces in the bedding, smeared on walls. It was not what I signed up for."
—Anonymous