These Karens Are Seriously Unhinged
21. Surviving A Humiliating Encounter With A Rude Customer At My First Job In McDonald's
“This story happened when I was 20 and worked in a McDonald’s while studying at university.
I was shy and inexperienced with human nature, and it was my first job in the restaurant industry. McDonald’s probably was a bold choice for a girl like that, but despite the humiliation and suffering, I’m glad I chose it because it made me tough.
One day on my second week of working there, I finished my shift at 10 pm. In my country, most companies paid their workers that day so everyone paid in cash with big banknotes, so in the last hour of my shift, I was struggling with giving back the change.
My cash register mostly consisted of 50$ and 100$ notes or 1-5-10-25 cents. And of course, everyone rushed to spend their hard-earned money on McDonald’s.
A guy in his late 30s or early 40s, with a full business attire, walked in at around 9:50 pm. He only asked for a small ice cream in a cone.
It was 1$ when this happened, and he paid with a banknote which is worth about 50$ here. I asked him politely if he had a smaller banknote. He replied with a simple no. Until that point, there was nothing about him that screamed Karen.
I could give him back 40$ in banknotes.
I told him I could only give him the last 9$ in coins since there were no banknotes left in my cash reg. He let out a very annoyed and rude reply, but I thought it was directed at the situation and not me.
I started counting the 9$ to him in cents.
I could only give him back the last 1$ in 5 and 10 cents. I accidentally gave him 0.95$. I didn’t realize it until he said: “This is just 8.95$” I immediately replied “I am very sorry” and gave him the last 5 cents. I thought that was the end of it.
That is when he started screaming from his lungs with a bright red face:
“DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD GET AWAY WITH STEALING FROM ME? YOU ARE NOT GONNA TAKE AWAY MY MONEY.”
I looked up shocked, trying to process what was happening. He was screaming so loud that the whole McDonald’s went silent and they were all staring at us.
I told him “I am sorry, it was not intentional, I just miscalculated the coins.” He continued screaming.
“YOU ARE NOT GONNA SCAM ME! AND WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE COINS? GIVE ME BANKNOTES,”
and he threw all the coins from his grip at me.
I stood there humiliated, intimidated, 50 people staring at me. I could only say: I don’t have banknotes. He replied: I don’t care what you have, get me banknotes from somewhere.
That is when the manager arrived at my station. He was the good guy manager thankfully.
He took over the situation, gave him his change, and firmly told him that cashiers can not leave their station and can only handle the money that is in their register, and it is very unlikely someone would steal 5 cents. He dropped his brave screaming attitude now that the manager wasn’t a 20-year-old girl.
And left.
Before that incident, the only conflict I had was when my mum was mad at me for not tidying my room, so that was a lot for sure, I remember I walked home crying and shaking.
Never saw him again after that.”
Another User Comments:
“I had someone yell at me over 0.05 cents, too. I was working at a Hallmark store and this lady came up with a few items. She’d “calculated” all her items to total $8.01. When I rang them up, it came to $8.06 and she had a meltdown.
She started yelling at how she didn’t have sales tax in her home state and that she would NOT give the state of California sales tax either… (Yeah, it doesn’t work that way, lady) She made such a big deal about it that the man in line behind her slammed a nickel onto the counter and yelled (at her), “HERE!!
NOW SHUT THE HECK UP!!”” Artistic-Rich6465
Another User Comments:
“My first job was also at McDonald’s. I learned so much and actually had a lot of fun. Except for my second day on the job. Some jerk threw his Big Mac at me because it had pickles on it.
Yes, he ordered it without pickles. Yes, I put it in as no pickles. Yes, the grill messed up and put pickles on it. My manager came up, gave the guy his money back and told him to get out. First and last time I cried at a job.
Joke was on him, though, because Mac sauce has chopped pickles in it.” tidymaze
20. Entitled Aunt Throws Tantrum Over Non-Memory Foam Mattress
“So, a few days ago my aunt decided she wanted a new mattress, and so she went to her mom (my grandma who I also live with) to get her a new one.
This aunt is in her thirties and lives in her parents’ basement in a room that was entirely renovated for her so she could have a walk-in closet and everything plus a brand-new bed. She also doesn’t work so not a single penny of that room was spent by her.
A few more things about her, she’s entitled and racist and can’t stand when things don’t go 100% how she wants them to go.
Now, the reason for her getting a new mattress isn’t really that bad. She suspected there was mold in it due to finding mold on her old bedframe and wanted to replace it since it had been a long time since she’d done so.
The part where she becomes a Karen is this:
Her mattress, the one that my grandma bought her, brand new and entirely by her request (she picked the bed out and everything) GASP wasn’t memory foam!
She picked out the bed herself and was upset that it wasn’t memory foam.
This sent her into an absolute rampage. She began to stomp her feet, cry, and yell at my grandma, throwing a fit about how her bed isn’t memory foam. My grandma, who’s pretty tired since this happened just now (it’s about 10 pm at the time I’m writing this) just tells her that she doesn’t want to deal with this right now, and she’ll address it in the morning and this just sets auntie Karen off even more.
She began going on about how she can’t possibly sleep on her mattress because it’s just not the right kind for her. My grandma even offered to get her a brand new memory foam pad for her bed as well, and even that wasn’t enough.
Eventually, my aunt just stormed out and left, and at the moment nobody has any idea of where she went.
I do hope she’s okay because it’s late at night and just snowed like crazy, but at the same time, this outburst is ridiculous in my opinion.
Maybe I’m biased in this case because of my personal experience, but that’s another story.”
Another User Comments:
“Unfortunately, the grandparents probably don’t realize that they are the reason auntie is the way she is. They raised and enabled her bad behavior so now they have to deal with it.
Being that she’s in her thirties, I doubt she’ll change anytime soon. I’m not condoning her behavior and it might be an unpopular opinion, but I feel sorry for Auntie, her parents have raised an emotional and social cripple. What they have done to Auntie was, and is, abuse.” Puzzled-Yam-14
Another User Comments:
“Another “failure to launch”. We have a 44-year-old sister-in-law who is mentally 17 years old. Her 13-year-old son makes better decisions than she does. She is spoiled, given everything, handed a free home, just wrecked her fourth car (replaced by my in-laws every time), fed her son McDonald’s for almost every meal and he is now a sedentary blimp.
She has had multiple plastic surgeries (we can not figure out where the money came from since she has not worked enough quarters to qualify for SSN and has no insurance). She makes up lies to manipulate my in-laws. She has been and still is being given everything as a grown adult.
Can anyone say “enabled”? Contrast that with my husband who paid for his own terminal degree, I paid for mine, worked for everything we have, given nothing. I am so thankful for the way my parents have tried to keep everything equal between me and my FOUR siblings.
It has hurt my husband even though he keeps it hidden. Thanks for letting me rant. I can not talk about this to anyone. It makes me fume.” OnTheFly-1B-T10
19. You Want My Tires? Not A Chance
“It’s almost snow season here, and I booked an appointment to have my tires swapped today a month ago. First snow is forecast Wednesday morning, so I knew it would be busy when I got there. It was actually chaos.
I checked my vehicle in after about 15 minutes in line and was thinking they were moving pretty quickly for it to be that short given they had so many vehicles, there were even some parked on the grass.
I had to park 1/4 mile down and walk up.
And for the next hour, I waited and got to hear the poor employees get screamed at over and over by walk-in customers with no appointments who thought they should get their tires immediately.
But the last one really takes the cake.
She’d been staring through the big windows at the shop the whole time she was in line. She was told she had two choices: make an appointment for next Monday and come back or leave her vehicle and they’d get it done in the order it came in after those with appointments, so she’d probably need to come back in 8 hours.
She started freaking out, screaming and cussing that she needed her tires now and didn’t care who was in front of her because she was the first one in line right now. The employee patiently and kindly explained her options again, and that they were booked solid for a week.
She never even looked at him. She cut him off, yelling at him to give her the tires in the back of the little black SUV they just rolled out. I checked over my shoulder, and sure enough, they’d just finished up my Land Rover.
The employee kept trying to tell her that my tires are mine, and that they have plenty of tires. They only have 4 work bays. “Well, that SUV is off the lift, so just put mine on it and give me the tires you put in the back of it!
It’s really simple! Are you an idiot?!” He blinked, started to say something, and I cut in.
“Hey! That’s my vehicle. Those are my tires. I own them. Are you suggesting he steal my all-terrain tires that are terrible in snow and have them put on your car they won’t even fit?”
Her: “Tires are tires!”
Me: “Then drive off with the ones you have on and leave everyone here alone.”
Her, now whining like a toddler: “But they’re not snow tires! I need SNOW tires!”
I just lost it laughing. Neither are my off-road tires that they’d taken off my rims to put my snow tires on.
Me: “Seriously, just make an appointment like the rest of us did, and you’ll have tires that fit. Stop yelling at people and go book it online!”
I stood up. I don’t think I’m exactly intimidating as a 5’6″ 49-year-old woman, but it worked. She left, and several others in line followed her out.
I felt bad about that, honestly.
Me, to the employee: “Sorry you lost business there. But, my vehicle is done?” He was laughing but trying to hide it. Apparently, everyone that left had been in earlier yelling at them, too, so he didn’t mind.
I still don’t understand what her thought process was in the whole thing.
Someone said, as I was leaving, that she’d also left her car parked in the middle of the right-hand traffic lane on the busy highway in front of the place.
But a shout-out to that employee for never losing his cool at all. I can only imagine what his day was like already by the time she started in based on just the time I was there.
Friendly reminder: if you live somewhere it snows, book your tire appointment in advance.”
Another User Comments:
“I’m Australian so the whole concept of having to run a different set of tires during summer and winter is a totally foreign thing to me, but I’ve gotta ask, what is it with Karens and believing that their lack of prior planning constitutes an establishment’s employees’ emergency…?
Why do they think they’ll get priority over someone who had the foresight to book an appointment..?” AsboST225
Another User Comments:
“My favorite tire story was from a few years ago when we were all (probably a dozen or so customers) patiently waiting our turn to get our tires swapped out, when a soccer mom in her Escapade rolls up, blocking half the parking lot, comes in and demands that she get her tires changed immediately.
When told she’d have to wait her turn, she argued that she should get priority since she’s a doctor’s wife, then after being repeatedly told no, she stormed off saying she’d never be back and they’d lost an important customer.
One of the service guys waves at her as she storms off, then announces to the room full of waiting customers that she’d be back, as they had her winter tires stored in the back of the shop.” Alibeee64
18. Woman Thinks Because She's A Tour Guide She Can Touch The Museum's Artifacts
“So I’ve been working nonprofit in a little exhibition for 11 months now.
It’s the remains of a 2000-year-old Roman sanctuary to Magna Mater and Isis Panthea. Our exhibition is run by an organization created to take care of it and which is run almost exclusively by non-profit workers. Since we are run mostly through donations we often have money troubles and can’t improve the way we would like.
On October 20th, I arrived late to work (bus cancellations) and went down to see a single visitor. She asked a few questions about the video and audio we have playing and I explained it’s playing automatically in ≈30 min intervals. She complained that it’s only in German, and we should add an English one.
I told her we have a transcript of it for our guests but “That’s just not Atmospheric enough, we should add an English one”. She was a tour guide for American tourists and since the Gutenberg Museum was currently moving, and the Americans were often bored by our Cathedral because it was “another bloody church” as she said they would say, she was looking for alternatives and she thought we would be great for it.
I proceeded to tell her that big groups have to register an appointment and pay for it so one of my colleagues could give them a tour. She thought that just calling that day would be fine and I said that they would need to call at least a few days ahead so we’re prepared and can find someone who has the time to guide them.
Something that clearly annoyed her.
She then walked to the sacrificial altar and straight up put her hand all over it. I told her to please stop touching. She then tried to argue with me.
“There isn’t a sign, how am I supposed to know I’m not allowed to touch it.”
“Common museum rules, visitors know they’re not allowed to touch things unless otherwise stated.”
“I work with museums, I know about them, I’m allowed to do this!”
“No, that’s not how that works. And I just asked you to please stop!”
She then went upstairs and asked about the price for group tours and when she heard it was 35€ she started to get loud and argue.
“I heard it’s 15€, it should be 15€.”
I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation (I had other visitors with questions to attend to) but when I walked upstairs and told my other colleague about this she got mad as heck. “This woman is a tour guide, she should know how to behave, what if she does this in front of the visitors, they will think it’s ok since she does it.
And then they go around the museum touching everything.” And since she didn’t see her she also asked for a description so she could warn the others to beware of her.
Edit: The woman was German, not American.”
Another User Comments:
““I can do what I want, I’m a (insert whatever here),” gets my slapping hand itchy to go.
No. No you can’t. You know you can’t. Stop being a jerk about it, too. And for the record? I love cathedrals, art museums, and history museums. And I know what I can and can’t touch. In the cathedral, as a Catholic, I would instinctively be looking for the holy water, and also genuflect.
Because that’s what you do. I wouldn’t be putting my hands all over a sacred altar anywhere, because that’s just not done. I cannot stand people like this Karen. They really deserve to get their hands smacked publicly. Some people never learned shame, and should.” Madame_Kitsune98
Another User Comments:
“I know the urge to touch is real but adults should be able to stop being a toddler when they are in public. I did have a chat with a museum guard who fussed at me for brushing against a huge block of marble from Rome.
I had done it accidentally while avoiding another patron. I pointed out that the artifact had no protection around it and someone could easily hit it with a baby stroller or wheelchair. That was years ago and I still don’t understand why a museum would not make at least some attempt to protect it.” irishspice
17. My Terrifying Encounter With An Aggressive Motorist
“So I (17 at the time male) was filling up my car before going to college at 7:30 am and this guy pulls up behind me waiting for me to leave. He was looking at me like I insulted his mum constantly (it took 5 minutes maybe not even that to fill my car’s small tank).
I went inside to pay and he had moved closer to my car so I go sit in my car and turn on my sat nav (I had been driving for only 2 months and had a terrible sense of direction).
While I was waiting for it to turn on the Karen got out of his car screaming and pounding on my driver’s window telling me to move.
Then he finally realized the car in front of me had left while I was still filling up my car so he went round my car giving me the middle finger the whole time and he started filling his car. I finally got my sat nav set up and turned on my car.
He was still staring at me so I gave him the middle finger back and went to drive round his car.
He then jumps out from in front of his car making me slam on my brakes and he started hitting the bonnet (hood for you Americans reading) then he reached over, pulled up my wiper, and moved to the driver’s side.
Thankfully he didn’t realize my car was unlocked and he punched my mirror in all while shouting at me to get out and fight him. I revved up my car making him think I was going to hit him with my car so he got out of the way.
I drove to the exit thinking it was far enough away for it to be safe for me to get out and sort out my mirror and wiper. It’s safe to say I was wrong. The old Karen stomped over to me screaming and shouting the whole time and blocked me from getting back into my car trying to get me to punch him.
So while scared for my life because I don’t know if he has a knife or not, I raise my voice above his screaming (I used to be an army cadet where we were taught to shout really loud without straining our voices). It scares him enough for me to be able to get back in my car and leave and I drove home crying and shaking.
I make it home and my mum asks me what happened so I told her everything. So she took me back there in her car and asked the really nice workers if there was CCTV. There was, so we called the nonemergency line and the nice police officer said he would send some officers to look at the CCTV and would get back to us in a few days.
About 3 or 4 days later we get a call back saying they had found where he lives and asked me if I wanted to press charges. I said no because I don’t like the thought of having to stand for hours in court for something so silly and I just decided he should be told what he did wrong and that he can’t do that so no one else has to go through what I went through.
It has been a year since then and I’m still scared to go to that petrol station.”
Another User Comments:
“No one should react like this. I’ll say that first, but second, if someone is waiting behind you for gas early in the morning on their drive to work (probably limited on time) it isn’t the best idea to sit there after you have finished to wait for the GPS to finish booting.
You can pull out and wait for it to start up. Honestly, I’d be pretty annoyed if someone did this to me too. Doesn’t excuse him attacking your car, but a little more self-awareness here may prevent this in the future” MarryingRosey
16. I Need To Help My Friend Escape Her Awful Mother's Control
“My friend, let’s call her Heather, is 43 years old and I am the first friend she has ever had.
Her mother, let’s call her Bertha, has actively sabotaged all her friendships. As a child, she was not allowed to give anyone her phone number and address, and every time she met a friend as an adult her mother tried to manipulate them into leaving her.
An exact quote from Bertha: “I don’t understand why you’d need anyone in your life but family.”
Heather has severe emotional and mental depression, but when her mother found out she got a counselor, she verbally attacked her and screamed at her (in front of me) that she was a traitorous jerk for telling her counselor things about the family.
Long story short, Bertha has never protected Heather. At only 11, Heather was left alone for weeks at a time to take care of herself and her four siblings while her mother left town to “work”. Bertha married a person who was involved in illegal activities and mistreated the children.
Of course didn’t listen to the kids when they reported: she left him because he was unfaithful to her. Heather found out as a 9-year-old that there was no Santa by Bertha telling her she had to make all the gifts for her siblings look like Santa played with them.
Bertha joked with her coworkers and family that Heather was her servant and it was Heather’s job to clean up her messes. She also made it clear Heather was the mom of the family: all Bertha did was make a show of being financially magnanimous while taking absolutely no responsibility for any other part of raising the kids.
I have tolerated this jerk because I know Heather is still working through her issues and isn’t strong enough yet to tell Bertha where to shove it, but I’m running out of patience. When I come over (Heather is forced to live with Bertha because she’s the only member of the family who isn’t married), Bertha is purposefully rude, ill-mannered, and nasty.
If I’m nice to her she will snap at me and tell me to mind my own business, but later complain behind my back that I’m the rude one because I don’t specifically say hello to her when I come over. (Me walking in the door and saying “hello” to everyone isn’t enough for her, she wants her own hello.)
I’m not sure how much longer I can take it. I want to tell her off but I know she will take it out on Heather if I do.”
Another User Comments:
“Heather is an adult in an abusive relationship. Have you spoken to her about gathering her important papers, a bag full of clothing, and getting out??
Maybe her therapist can help her find a place in a women’s shelter until she can land on her feet? Bertha sounds cruel, and poor Heather is now mentally and emotionally broken. She doesn’t know how to break free, and will need guidance to help her feel like it’s ok to go live her own life!” FullyRisenPhoenix
Another User Comments:
“If I were in your situation, I might ask if I can accompany Heather to her next session with her counselor. It’s entirely possible that Heather isn’t being fully open about the extent of what she’s going through. I know that I spent years of my life never telling ANYONE how bad things had gotten at home with my ex-wife.
Also because of her insisting that “it’s private” and insinuating that sharing such information would be a betrayal. But if the counselor is being fully informed at least Heather will be getting informed advice and appropriate coping strategies from her mental health professional. Perhaps hearing about her mother’s behavior from an impartial professional might help spur her to take action to make changes and improve her situation.
Other than that, I would probably explain to Heather how it affects you to be around her mother and experience her behavior and tell her that you’re willing to be her friend and support her but need to minimize how often you’re around Bertha. Hope this helps.
Please pass along my encouragement to Heather. I know what it’s like to feel trapped with someone and not realize how badly you’re being treated. It took someone opening my eyes and I hope you can do that for her. She’s lucky to have you.” listening0808
15. Outsmarting A Driver During Last-Minute Christmas Shopping At The Mall
“It’s Christmas Eve, and due to stuff, I’ve not bought my presents or my food makings. It’s also 6 am and I am arriving at the massive mall outside of our city. I know it hasn’t opened yet, but I’ve missed the traffic caused by the awful road layout and the queues and the panic, I have a flask of hot chocolate and a book.
I’m good to wait.
Store opens, I get in, I get everything and I get out. It’s been an hour of my time. I am being slowly crushed under the weight of my purchases when I spot a cart. I grab it, chuck everything in, and toddle over to my car, which is right in front of the center doors of the mall, I am on the far right-hand side where the food shop was.
Then I realize, I am being followed. By a predator.
It’s a Karen. She’s in her champagne colored four by four, and she is so close I’m struggling to not heel-kick the front of her car. Then she starts honking at me because I’m not running I assume.
Scared the life out of me too. I’ve never had before or since, the sensation of my skeleton trying to leap out of my body before. It’s not nice. She sticks her head out of the window and screeches something about something, I don’t speak jerk.
I get to my Primo parking space and sloooowly load my purchases. A place for everything and everything in its place so some things need to be put in several times. Got to get my motor feng shui going. Karen is incandescent with rage. I then close my boot, give her a wave, and say, “I’m not done shopping yet, best you find another spot.”
If there are other spots, they are very very far away now. Karen knew this. She shrieks more foreign crap at me, and screeches away. I start to put my cart back and spot a car of lads ( you know, LADS lads) looking for a spot.
I wave at them and gesture for them to follow me. I pull out of my spot and they pull in, I’m being bathed in the warm glow of being told I am a great person and I deserve the best Christmas and Santa had better bring me something nice.
Then there is honking and screaming. Karen saw.
As I’m pulling away, I can hear screeching from her demanding her spot, laughter from the lads, and a wonderful Christmas conversation of “Jog on you leathery-looking jerk”. It was a nice way to start my Christmas celebrations.”
Another User Comments:
“I love this. I was at a large retailer known for hard-to-find parking spots. I returned to my car and saw a small red car patiently waiting for me to pull out of my space. Another car (blue) from the opposite direction saw me loading groceries into my car and decided to pull up and wait but had the advantage of being closer to my car.
I loaded my items and then walked over to the driver of the red car and told her I was giving her my spot and to follow my directions. I purposely pulled out of my spot in the opposite direction, backing toward the blue car and blocking her access to pull into my spot.
I waved the red car in and smiled as the blue car sped off in search of another spot. She was pretty angry. Made my day.” Bess_Marvin_Curls
Another User Comments:
“Hahahahaha I did this at a busy shopping mall a few years ago.
I realized how primo my spot was as I watched all the cars circling the area. I had a fine vantage point to view the contestants. One Karen was blocking the whole row trying to claim whatever opened next. After a while, she slowly crept forward, and then I spotted him behind her.
Handsome guy in a sportscar with a large box to return. The INSTANT the snobby Karen FINALLY went by me I pointed at him, he looked at me, pointed at himself with a questioning look, and then I pointed at my car, then at him, then my car.
He got it! He pulled up, thanked me profusely. I saw the Karen trying to back up but it was too late. If she backed up too far I wouldn’t be able to pull out, and she wouldn’t be able to get in anyway.
I pulled out in such a manner as to completely block her from reversing into the spot, and waited for him to park. Karen couldn’t do crap. Once he was in he shouted his thanks again. I told him to pass on the glorious spot to a worthy recipient and keep the karma (ha!) rolling.
I pulled around the Karen still hogging the rest of the aisle and went home. Her face was still snarling as I glanced over.” supershinythings
14. Defending My Coworker From An Aggressive Customer At A Baseball Stadium Concession Stand
“For context: I work at a sports stadium in the concession stands. I’m not going to say which specifically because it doesn’t matter but it’s a baseball stadium.
We’re the people you go to when you want some of the most unhealthy foods imaginable during your sports games. The concession stands also serve booze during the game and stop serving it during the 8-9th inning.
Since the game was almost over, most of the people who worked on the register were in the back kitchen cleaning up and doing other things.
Which leaves me and this other coworker (let’s call her Katie). Katie and I were the only 2 people at the registers working customers when this older man who was in his late 40s comes up and asks for a draft of beer. He was holding this empty bottle of beer (tiny bit important in a second) and was being served by Katie.
Katie is this 4’11” skinny white girl who was 19. She was one of those types of people you would think was still in high school or even middle school based on how young and small she looks. So she isn’t threatening at all both physical looks and mentality.
She’s not the type to even argue back, if you yell at her loud enough she would do what you want her to do.
Katie told him we don’t serve booze since it’s the 9th inning and the man tried to convince her and even tried “bribing” her.
Telling her he would pay double if he had to. And when that didn’t work he would show a 20$ to her and tell her that she can keep it as a tip. She refuses and tells him she can’t. The man threw a beer bottle right at her head.
I don’t know if she got hit by the open cap part of the bottle but it hurt her so bad that she started crying.
I jumped over the counter and started throwing fists at him. Won’t lie, it wasn’t like some anime moment where I overpowered an adult who was twice my age.
I wasn’t going Mike Tyson on this man but I still think to this day I held my ground.
Surrounding customers had to separate us and our coworkers came out from the back. I got sent home because I basically “assaulted” a man. But 2 years later I haven’t gotten any charges thrown onto me.
Probably because I had several eyewitnesses and cameras that proved I was somewhat in the right morally. Also if he filed charges then I can prove he assaulted a person first. Katie and I don’t work at that stadium anymore but we still talk about it to this day.
Good times honestly.”
Another User Comments:
“Not sure about the laws in the US but this seems like self-defense to me. He assaulted your coworker and it’s reasonable to assume he wouldn’t stop at her. I don’t think he’d be successful at pressing charges since a bottle can be argued to be a deadly weapon.” jcaarow
13. Dealing With Entitled Parents As A Volunteer Little League Coach
“This happened yesterday, and I’m still flabbergasted by the gall of people. I coach my 9-year-old’s summer baseball team. If you know anything about Little League, you’ll know summer baseball is only about staying active.
There are no mandatory practices, no tournament, and only 2 games a week over a 4-week span so the kids get to keep swinging. It’s basically the pick-up version of organized Little League baseball.
Last night was our second to last game, so we’ve been playing for 3 weeks.
I start warm-ups 45 min before every game so the kids can get loose, this has been known since before our first game. I put the lineup together 30 minutes before game time because at this point I should know who is and isn’t going to be there.
I knock that task out as early as possible so I can get back to warm-ups with the kids.
Said Karen rolls in with her son 20 minutes before game time. I’d put him at the bottom of the batting order and had him sitting out on defense during the first inning because I wasn’t sure when I did the lineup if he was coming.
There’s this perception that the worst players on the team bat last. So, seeing her son at the bottom of the batting order set her off. Mind you, her son plays on select teams (which is a pay-to-play advanced league, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the better player) and his dad coaches select.
That means her son must be the best player on the team and should be batting higher in the order, right? Well, she definitely thinks so. She has her son thinking that too because he was crying on the bench before the game had even started.
She proceeded to try and argue with me, in front of everyone, that she’d been on time for warm-ups the prior week and no one else on the team was there, so they came later last night because we weren’t actually starting 45 min early like I said we would.
First, that’s not true. Granted I’ve missed 2 of the games, but when I’m there I’m always there an hour early and she is never there on time. Second, her son skipped an optional practice I held because it was “only a practice”. So they’re not taking the whole thing very seriously anyway.
I pointed out that every other kid on the team had been here on time last night and warming up.
I wanted SO BADLY to say “hey, this is a volunteer position. You want to set the line-up? You coach next year”. Instead, I had to placate her by saying it wasn’t about her son’s skill, because it wasn’t, but about him being late for warm-ups and the fact I’d already set the line-up.
She proceeded to jump on the phone and start complaining about me, then hovered by the dugout the entire game.
Coaching is a thankless job folks, and Karens leech ALL of the fun out of it.”
Another User Comments:
“I was a soccer ref. Carried a copy of the FIFA rule book with me.
Parents give me trouble? I hand them the book and say “show me”. Coach gives me trouble? Off comes the ref jersey, and I shove it towards them. Shut up or take over. They tended to shut up.” Reddit User
Another User Comments:
“I coach an u12 cricket team.
After the Christmas break, this one kid didn’t turn up, without notice, leaving us 3 players short (others had already advised unavailability). Whatever. He turns up next week. Ok, but he bats near the bottom because I wasn’t sure if he’d turn up. Following week, he is batting up the order, top 4.
He doesn’t show up again. No notice, nothing… Following week, he batted last – those who batted lower the week prior were put higher and he was put last. He turned up this week, but halfway through the game when he found out he was last (I assume) I see him following his dad to the carpark carrying his cricket bag.
The other kids calling out his name asking where you going… no response. Just left and never returned… You can’t win with some parents.” GullibleNews
12. Harassed For Star Wars Decals
“Well folks, my faith in humanity has fallen just a little more today.
Some people just have absolutely no clue how to behave in society.
This morning I’m out and about picking up breakfast for the missus and myself. She prefers Taco Bell, I prefer Carls Jr. (Monster Biscuits are AMAZING!!!) I pull into the Taco Bell drive-thru and as I’m ordering, another car pulls up behind me and just starts blaring their horn.
I’m trying to finish up, but this woman just doesn’t stop, all the while she’s screaming out the window that I’m a terrorist and a communist (umm.. I’m your average caucasian American male.) and I have no idea why she’s screaming these things. I pull forward to the pickup window, Karen is still screaming at me, but has given up on honking.
(maybe she annoyed herself with it?) The employee asks if I know this person, I do not. She hands me my bag and I leave the drive-thru, Karen follows me out.
So I pull up to the exit and make like I’m going to turn right, but at the last second I pull a left and now she’s stuck at the stop sign waiting for her turn.
I continue down the street, make a quick right into a bank parking lot, and wait there for a few minutes hoping she gave up.
After about 2 minutes and she is nowhere to be seen, I decide she went on about her crazy day and I continue down the street, a couple blocks past the Taco Bell is my breakfast stop, Carl Jr. I pull into the drive-thru, I had already ordered online for pickup (points = free food) and am asked to park while they wait for the fresh tater tots and French toast sticks.
As I pull into my usual parking spot, Karen returns. She has spotted me and decided to peel into the parking lot and parked right next to me.
I roll up my window as she approaches and she starts screaming at me again, How I’m an imperial communist, that I need to go back to my own country, that I’m a terrorist, I think she assumed I was Russian?
I don’t know.
The manager of the Carls comes out to give me my food (I’m an almost daily regular here so we shoot the breeze for a few minutes) and sees this Karen going off on me. She asks her what the problem is.
The Karen rants to her the same thing she’s been ranting at me the few moments she’s been there. I roll down my window to get my food (At least she didn’t try to take that) and tell the Karen, “What in the world are you talking about?
I’m not a terrorist, I’ve lived in the USA all my life and have no idea what you are on about!!” and then she explains herself.
“WHAT ABOUT ALL THESE COMMUNIST STICKERS ALL OVER YOUR CAR? WHAT’S THAT ARAB LANGUAGE SAY HUH???” and then it hits me…
I’m a Star Wars nut, I drive a White 2019 Chevrolet Bolt and it greatly resembles a Stormtrooper helmet, so I have the imperial logo on the tailgate, a “The empire doesn’t care about your stick figure family” decal with a tie fighter and AT-AT walker blowing up some stick figures and some Aurebesh (star wars galactic basic text) that reads “Honk if you can read this”.
I quickly explain to her that I’m not a terrorist, this is all Star Wars stuff, including the “Star Wars writing.” It’s not any language on this planet or in this galaxy, let me assure you.
Thankfully she realized her mistake really quickly, she sputters out a quick “Oh, sorry…” jumps back in her car and drives away.
Thankfully that was the end of it.”
Another User Comments:
“When I bought my 17-year-old daughter a car, she kept getting tickets for stupid things like not turning on lights coming out of a parking garage and allowing an unauthorized rider (she was parked and someone was sitting in her window).
The first ticket was for the ‘unauthorized rider’. I went to court with her to contest the ticket. We won and it was dismissed. Then she got the lights ticket. I went back to court, got the same judge, and complained that my daughter was being harassed. The judge asked me if my daughter had any bumper stickers on her car.
She did. It said ‘Question Authority’. Welp, we took that bumper sticker off the car and the problem solved itself.” katehenry4133
11. Costco Membership Verification Sparks Outrage And Hilarity
“I work at Costco. As y’all may have read or heard, we are cracking down on membership verification at self-checkout. Now since this began, I’ve dealt with many different, and colorful, versions of verbal abuse. Now, here’s where things get interesting. I don’t know if there’s a weird Costco member’s site somewhere that all these folks go to, but there has been an influx of them acting very similarly.
Rather than speak to or even look at the employee, they take their membership card and shove it in the employee’s face.
So here I was, working self-checkout, fielding all manners of verbal abuse, and for the fourth time (for me in the last week) a man takes his card and shoves it in my face.
No words, only eye contact. Well, I back up a couple of steps, because, 1) this is my personal space being invaded and 2) I can’t see up close, even with my glasses on. As I step backward, he steps forward pushing his card in my face still!!
So due to my just being fed up, and dealing with a trauma response thanks to Karen here invading my space and being in my face. I say, out loud, “ok, enough with the nonsense”. I walk him to a self-checkout machine and loudly inform a supervisor that this man insists on shoving his card in my face.
I wanted everyone in the vicinity to hear me.
As the supervisor is walking toward Karen, and I am walking back to my designated spot, the most beautiful thing happens. Now we sell cooked drumsticks, along with our rotisserie chicken. He had said drumsticks in his cart.
Now usually, since I try to be a nice person, I will use my hand scanner on them since they tend to pop open and spill. Well since I was having none of this guy, I didn’t. As he went to tip them to scan the barcode on the top of the container, it pops open.
He ends up with chicken juice ALL OVER the machine and his pants and shoes.
Once I saw what was happening, I made eye contact with the supervisor and just busted up laughing. I was laughing MANIACALLY! I made sure Karen saw me laughing. Since our self-checkout area is small, about 7X10 feet, other members who witnessed the whole situation were laughing.
It really made the rest of my shift. On top of the juicing, he got a block on his account so if the chicken hasn’t humbled him, and he behaves that way again, he loses his membership. Take that Karen! I hope you smell like chicken for a week!!”
Another User Comments:
“LOL I am so sorry I missed that. The Costco I go to is having its rotisserie chicken area renovated. When I was there last week, some lady was getting upset with the meat department guys about it and literally yelled “You should be ashamed of yourselves!” because there was no rotisserie chicken.
Absolutely premium Karen. Your situation is so ridiculous too, because of all the places I shop, the employees at the Costco I go to are seriously the nicest. I can’t imagine just walking in there like “okay, time to implement my plan of being a jerk.
Who shall I start with?”” eternal_casserole
Another User Comments:
“I will say, Costco 100% needs to calm down about their membership validation nonsense. I went in with my parents and the dude at the register was rushing us to scan the card when we hadn’t even finished putting stuff on the conveyor.
My dad, who was paying, was busy unloading stuff and it would have taken some time to get his card out. Because mine was more convenient, I just let him scan that one. I mean, it’s on the same account, so it shouldn’t matter, right?
Wrong. Dude decided to be an absolute jerk the whole time, trying to insist that I be the one to pay because my card was the one he scanned. My dad pulled out his card to show that we weren’t trying to do anything shady and we explained that they’re cards on the same account.
We even have the same name (because my parents weren’t very creative when it came to naming me). So literally what the heck is their problem? Just stop. Costco will just drive away customers this way like Netflix did.” Ratiocinatory
10. Refuse To Wait Your Turn? I Can Be Patient, Unlike You
“I used to work for the courts in the post-sentencing unit. Basically, folks would come out of court, pay their fines, and sign up for diversion or jail time. The paperwork was always completed at that time, thus it could take a while with each client depending on the complexity of their sentence.
We always had a line of people waiting to speak with one of eight clerks. Management had to put up several signs telling people to wait to be called, most people honored it except the Karens of this world.
One day Karen comes up to me as I am finishing up paperwork from the person before her, the person had left but I needed to do a few things before forwarding the paperwork to the jail.
I ask Karen to return to the front of the line because I didn’t call her up.
She doesn’t go back, she asks my coworker sitting next to me what my name is and where can she find my supervisor. My coworker caves to her demands and she’s off to the admin area to seek out my sup.
I get called in to see my sup about 15 minutes later and she shows me the written complaint Karen wrote. It was incoherent and disorganized, definitely not the writing of a stable person. My sup told me since it’s in writing she needed to forward it to HR and that she would need my side of the story.
I agree, I wasn’t worried about it and was happy to explain my side in a coherent fashion.
While I was in with my sup, Karen’s finally taking care of her paperwork. I return to my station and Karen asks to get security because she feels threatened by me.
Security basically laughed at her and told her they didn’t think I was a threat. HR dismissed her complaint as I acted according to policy.
She didn’t remember me the next time she appeared in court, this time she was on Zoom. She wanted an extension of time for a court date, but for her type of case, she needs a judge’s prior approval. Of course she was upset by this so she asks for the sup.
Luckily we had a new sup that always had our backs. She told Karen no and that she needs to follow policies like everyone else.”
Another User Comments:
“The best thing about working in government is having a locked door between me and the public.
I can’t imagine having to be nice to people like that, I couldn’t do it. I remember one time I got a ride to work and I was dropped off in front of the building and instead of going to the back entrance, I went in to put my code at reception and some jerk was throwing a tantrum at the woman in reception.
I pulled his rear outside and told him to shut up and apologize or I was going to ask his p.o. to test him right there. That got him to calm down quickly. My mom worked with mentally ill people for decades and she said she had zero patience for regular people who act like idiots, I agree.” echobunny9203
9. Demand A Free Car Wash? I Don't Think So
“This happened a week ago and I still don’t know what Karen was thinking but working in retail for close to 20 years I’m not shocked.
Ok setting it’s a hot and sunny Thursday afternoon and I ‘m30’ wrapped up work since I work very early mornings on Thursdays and get the afternoon off. I decided to wash my car since it got covered in dust from gravel roads and being surrounded by lakes the front gets covered in bugs, gross I know.
So I break out my equipment power washer, foam blaster, buckets, new car soap, speaker to listen to music, and a little cooler with refreshments. I just finished spraying my car to spray soap on to clean when my neighbor who also was washing his Escalade waved me over.
Neighbor: “Hey OP can I ask you for some help?”
Me: “Sure what’s up?”
Neighbor: “Can you blast that dirt off the bottom for me? The mrs took the car out and somehow this happened.”
I took a quick look it’s got some mud pretty good caked on but not impossible to get it off.
Me: “Sure this will take just a couple of minutes.”
So I brought my pressure washer over, turned it on, and started spraying the dirt off while rocking out to Nickelback. Only took about 3 maybe 4 minutes and I got it off.
Neighbor: “Hey those things work great cleaning I need to invest in one.
Thanks OP.”
Me: “Sure thing, happy to help.”
So I wrapped up and resumed my car washing while enjoying Nickelback’s album Dark Horse when a dirty Lincoln stops behind my car and the lady is waving me over. Now I should explain I live at the end of the road we don’t have anything people would drive to unless you’re visiting someone and the main road is close to 8 blocks away, so yeah not many cars drive by my house.
Anyway, I walk up to the lady’s car to see what she wants maybe she’s lost or can’t find someone’s house. Nope, I was wrong here’s the conversation.
Me: “Yes, can I help you ma’am?”
Karen: “Yes, since you just finished, can you wash my car also I’d like the seats and carpets cleaned as well.”
Me confused for a minute: “Ummm what?”
Karen: “Ugh didn’t you hear what I said I’d like my car cleaned. I just got this and already it’s got dirt and bugs on it.”
Me: “Sorry but no I’m not going to.
But there are a couple of car washes down main street and I think the shops offer it too.”
Karen who clearly never was told no looks at me and goes: “Why would I do that you have everything to do it here. Just do it you washed that guy’s car now do the same for me and make sure to use wax as well.”
Me: “No I didn’t wash his car I just quickly helped him get the dirt off. I’m only washing my car.”
Karen: “What did you say. Fine how much for a wash?”
Me: “What?”
Karen: “What can’t you hear I said how much.”
Me: “Lady I don’t know who you are and frankly I don’t care. I’m only washing my car, if you need your car washed go downtown.”
Karen: “What!? Honestly what is wrong with you kids today, you don’t want to work and get money this is ridiculous.”
She did go into a little tirade that I won’t go into but she then gassed it down towards Main Street. I looked at my neighbor we both shook our heads and resumed what we were doing. About 3 hours later I was busy playing Call of Duty MW2 when someone rang my doorbell.
I stopped and went to see who it was and I open the door and see a guy standing there.
Guy: “Hi I’m the guy who owns the lodge did a lady ask you if you can wash her car?”
Me: “Yeah some lady did and acted like a toddler when I said no. Why?”
Guy: “That lady was complaining that the guy over here was rude and didn’t want to help her. If you see her just ignore her I’m not gonna let them stay here anymore. The husband is nice but she’s a piece of work.”
Me: “Ok but just out of curiosity there’s a lodge over there?”
Guy laughs and says “Yeah we only do it over the summer and about 3 weeks during the winter.”
So in one day, I learned Karens can come at you anywhere and anytime and I live about 2 blocks from a lodge, a very interesting day.
8. Dealing With A Neighborhood Bully While Trying To Maintain My Running Routine
“I started going on morning walks around the neighborhood with my mom & baby nephew in 2020.
After consistently doing this for a few months, we noticed the regular walkers & in particular a woman with Karen-like behaviors.
I noticed that when anyone saw someone else walking on the same side of the sidewalk, most people would cross the street & continue walking on the other side of the sidewalk.
So we began following this etiquette as well. But whenever we saw neighborhood Karen, she always walked with a sense of entitlement as if we should be the ones always moving out of her way, hence she would never bother crossing the street or even moving to one side of the sidewalk so both parties could pass without needing to cross the street.
I am Asian 28F & Karen is Asian, approximately mid 40s-early 50s
Fast forward, I began running 3-4x a week in 2022. After 3 weeks of consistently running, I saw Karen about twice & it was always from a distance – one day, as I was running down, I saw her at the top of a park entrance where she began pulling her dog & rushing to get to the sidewalk as soon as we made eye contact.
I passed her before she made it to the sidewalk to which she yelled “watch where you’re running, girl!!” I was taken aback because she was so far away from the sidewalk that I never expected her to try to rush to the sidewalk.
I was nowhere near her so it made no sense for her to yell at me.
I saw her again on my run 3 days later. On my first loop, I was coming downhill on a T intersection when I saw her across the street. I was already midway turning left when she attempted to walk in front of me.
I didn’t think too much of it but I definitely got an inkling that she was trying to start trouble. On my second loop, she was standing at the corner of a cul-de-sac by a fire hydrant where the sidewalk is the widest but also near a busy street intersection where a lot of cars are parked on the street & cars are always turning in.
The sidewalk in that corner is about 3.5 -4.5 feet wide where her dog was standing on the inside & she was standing on the side closer to the street – taking up about 75% of the space of the sidewalk. She was facing & watching me approach the cul-de-sac to which I just ignored her.
I passed her while remaining on the sidewalk. By the 3rd loop, I didn’t expect to see her still standing there. I did the same thing but at this point, my gut feeling told me this woman is trying to instigate something.
I finished my run & began walking as a cool down.
And from a distance, I see Karen walking up on the same side of the sidewalk. She didn’t bother moving closer to one side & I walked past her with whatever space I had to pass her. As soon as I passed her, she says “Do you have a problem?”
I have the argument recorded but long story short, I did not refrain from telling her off when she started mocking me. She said “the entire neighborhood has a problem with you running” & threatened to have her dog bite me. When I told her she should learn to share the sidewalk, she kept using those same words on me.
I’ve been running earlier to avoid seeing or running into her altogether. But lately, I’m seeing her more regularly… and there’s been a few times when we pass each other on the same side of the sidewalk.
I understand that one of the immediate responses is that I should just run across the street or on the street and let her have the sidewalk.
But does that make her a successful bully?
So my question is, should I ask the people that I see regularly on my runs if they have a problem with me running? Along with letting them know that this woman is causing problems?
I forgot to mention, when she said the whole neighborhood had a problem with me running, she also said that I purposely run at her…”
Another User Comments:
“I would talk to the other regulars you see and start a friendly dialogue and after a few conversations ask about Karen…..and I would also make sure that Karen saw you become friendly with these people…. might make her take a step back.
Good luck and never let her ruin your day.” Queenofhackenwack
Reply:
“A little backstory, after the incident, my mom talked to her friend who also lives in the neighborhood about Karen. And she too said that whenever she sees Karen, she walks around like she’s better than everyone else… But my mom & I both noticed that AFTER the incident, Karen started acting friendly & greeting other fellow neighbors (she would purposely wave at them when we were around) whereas before, she walked with her head held high, eyes straight ahead & didn’t budge an inch when she sees someone.
I did ask a couple I saw regularly on my runs about whether they had a problem with me running. And it just so happened that Karen saw us chatting. A few days later I saw her chatting the couple up as well.” princessdoggiebear
7. Lie About A Worker Speeding? I'll Get The Facts Straight
“I am the manager of a small pool service company in a very affluent area in northern California. One of my duties is monitoring our guys’ trucks on the GPS throughout the day, so I know generally what everyone is doing and where they are.
I received a call the other day from a woman, who started the conversation with a raised voice and it just escalated from there. Apparently, on one of the more treacherous roads, one of my guys came speeding up the road and made her almost drive off the cliff.
She wanted him fired, was sure he was one of those undocumented workers, had no respect for the kind of people in that area and how dare he think he had the right of way. I knew exactly what she was talking about because I had just checked up on my guy in that area.
I told “Karen” that I was sorry and if she would hang on for a second I would figure out what happened. With her on the phone, I brought up my guy’s truck info. Feigning innocence, I said, oh I see right here, our driver was going 10mph and had to hard brake, hmm, are you sure he was “speeding” up the road?
Karen sputtered out “well, it seemed like he was going faster than that.”
I asked her if there was any damage to her car, after having to go off the cliff like that.
“Huh, No, my car is fine.”
“Well thank you for letting us know.
I’ll be sure to talk to him when he gets back from his 9-hour-long day. It’s been raining so much lately, our guys are just worn to the bone. But I’ll be sure to talk to him about running you off the road. Is there anything more I can help you with?”
“Umm, no.. well, no, thanks.”
She finally hung up. I’m pretty sure I shamed her enough that she’ll think twice about lying about the workers that do the grunt work that makes her life easy.”
Another User Comments:
“Lmao. I always used to love it when a Karen would call in it’s a lie that I could easily disprove.
Especially the ones where they scream at you about how they’ve “been waiting for over 45 minutes! Don’t you have any respect for your customers!?” “That’s interesting ma’am, according to the timer that has been recording this entire phone call, you’ve only been on the line for less than 10 minutes.” “Well it feels longer than that…”” Expensive-Seesaw7918
6. I Can't Believe She Touched The Baked Goods With Her Bare Hands
“I used to work at a bakery. We had a display case installed for donuts, individual buns, croissants, etc. It was self-serve which I thought was odd to implement, but whatever, not my choice, right?
It was about 1/2 through my shift and I was working solo.
After the first hour all of the breads and such were packaged, and the rest of my shift typically consisted of standing around to help customers and restocking shelves. I had to use the washroom so I put up a small sign saying I’d be back shortly.
2 minutes after I left, I was paged back to the bakery. I finished up what I was doing, washed up, and headed back to my station. There was an angry-looking lady there, and she was using her BARE HANDS (gloves were provided) to tear apart a 12-pack of dinner rolls and take the ones she wanted, while shoving the rest into the display case.
Immediately I asked her what she was doing, and she said “I’ve been waiting here for TEN MINUTES and NOBODY CAME so I decided to just help myself. I needed 5 dinner rolls and there were only 4 in the case.”
I was honestly over being polite to customers like this, as I worked in a rich neighborhood and there was a high amount of Karen-type folks.
Usually, I was made to give them whatever they wanted (did you know if you complain to a manager at a Safeway you can basically name your own price for anything?) so I unleashed years worth of suppressed customer service torment unto her.
“I’m sorry you had to wait, however, I was here less than 5 minutes ago and I know you’re lying or at least exaggerating.
Further, even if you waited 20 minutes it doesn’t give you the right to start tearing into packages you haven’t paid for with your bare hands. You just can’t do that. Do you understand I now have to throw everything in the display case out because it’s contaminated?
Not to mention that you can’t just rip open a sealed/labeled package of buns to pick the ones you want in ANY store. You’re lucky we don’t charge you for everything you touched that now has to be thrown out.”
Her face was red and she started to argue back to me.
I cut her off and said “seriously?” and she looked really embarrassed/angry. Rather than say anything else, she took her bag of buns and headed for the cash registers.
This was the only time I ever got to have a satisfying interaction with a Karen.
Every other time they either got free things, steep discounts, or some other ridiculous accommodation. I was a bit nervous that she would go speak to my store manager and I would be reprimanded for my attitude, but nothing else came of it. I later told the bakery manager (best boss I ever had) and she seemed to get a kick out of it too, lol.
I still remember it fondly even though I no longer work in the service industry.”
Another User Comments:
“That last paragraph is exactly why they act like that. They get discounts and more. Why be polite when it is FAR more profitable to be a jerk?” Neoxite23
Reply:
“100%. I remember feeling really annoyed because some dude got a fresh, nice bouquet for 50% off because one of the roses was slightly imperfect. The guy who helped him was so weirdly smug toward me about giving the guy a discount too. There are Karens and then there are workers who encourage Karen behaviour.
Sure enough, the guy comes back a few weeks later, “but I got 50% off last time!” Yeah! You were a jerk last time too, and now Mr. Assistant Manager isn’t here to kiss your saggy butt (if you couldn’t tell I have some residual rage from that job).” jameshughlaurie
5. A Two-Hour Long Call With A Karen Who Just Won't Listen
“I’m (28M) a Customer Service Representative for a very reputable insurance company in the US. I’ve had experience in this job in different companies ever since I finished HS. (As a disclaimer.
I do NOT and would never work in underwriting. I’m just in charge of regular CSR stuff. I do not have a say on insurance claims and that’s an entirely different department.) Also, I’m an outsourced employee. Most customers don’t mind, some occasionally ask where I’m from, and there’s the very rare jerk that asks for ‘someone that speaks English’ as soon as they hear my accent.
I don’t care, I’m used to it. Generally speaking, American customers are very nice and patient. More than the ones in my country. So I never really understood where all the retail and customer service horror stories from the internet came from.
Today I DID.
So, Karen calls. As soon as I answer, I hear a lot of background noise, and the first thing I do after introducing myself, is ask for the policy number. I hear a man in the background yell between a lot of noise what I realize is in fact the policy number, and I ask him to repeat it since I could not hear very well.
Karen decides to take the lead and let me know that she is driving through the INTERSTATE while calling me and that she does not want me to waste her time. I’m like, okay, how can I help you? I kid you not when I tell you this woman started SCREECHING to the point I had no idea what she was saying.
Yes, I am not a native English speaker, but it’s never been a barrier for me. I could not for the life of me understand why this woman was so angry. Between the insane yelling I could make up something about her policy being canceled and her being charged anyway, and seeing the direction this call was going, I decided my best move was to immediately contact a supervisor through chat to get some assistance.
I inform Karen of this, and I ask her to give me a few minutes while I check on my side of the screen what is happening with her policy.
Karen, however, decided that I was a genie and I was supposed to grant her wishes and solve the issue she was having without even knowing what it was and without checking for possible solutions.
She decided I was not allowed to place her on hold, but I’ve had my share of angry customers and I know better than to let them take control of the call, so I explicitly tell her that if she wants my help she will need to cooperate with me, and let me figure out what is going on.
She reluctantly agrees, but says she will be ‘counting’ when I specify the hold will not be longer than five minutes.
First sup interaction and I’m just like, I have no idea what this woman wants, she’s yelling at me, very angry, what is happening here.
We start piecing together emails, notes and everything left and realize that she requested for the policy to be canceled and provided proof to have a backdate cancellation, and it all was processed smoothly! She even got a response telling her she would get the refund she expected, and now I was even more confused. My assumption was that maybe she was just angry because she hasn’t been refunded yet which is just bank time shenanigans and nothing we can do about it, so I’m like, okay ma’am don’t worry you will be getting your refund it’s just bank timing, and that’s when she informs me (at least in a coherent way) the real issue: She was magically charged again last night.
So I double-check, triple-check with sup. There are literally no traces of this supposed charge she got last night. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really believe she was lying about it, we just… had no proof of it.
So I asked her to send us a copy of the bank statement so we can issue a refund right away.
And she just loses it. Once again she starts screeching, about how she’s driving to go into surgery, how she’s going to sue the company, me personally, all the colorful insults you can imagine including my accent and country of origin. How we stole her money and she wants it back.
I insist that I just need some record of it to issue the refund. I genuinely try to reason with her, explaining to her that I can’t just issue a refund for someone who calls asking for it when it’s not showing up in our system and that I genuinely want to help her.
Apparently, she was so freaking angry she was driving like a maniac and got PULLED OVER BY THE POLICE and was given a ticket. She asked for my name so she could send me the ticket as she was not going to pay for it because we were the ones causing her distress.
I kindly explained to her that she shouldn’t be calling while driving and that is not our responsibility. (However, I gave her my name. Good luck with that, I’m on the other side of the world, lol.) She said ‘that’s what hands-free is for’ and I had to hold back laughing because it only then hit me how stupid this woman clearly was.
The part that really got under my skin was not the insults, the yelling, the racism, or whatever. It was just how insanely unreasonable this woman was. Her concern was completely valid and I told her multiple times that she was right to be upset and right to call us to get things fixed, but she needed to cooperate with me, and she was just bent on releasing all her anger and frustration on me.
She literally would scream insults at me and stop and say ‘What else can I call you so you can understand how angry I am?’
The worst part is that in my employee handbook, I am 100% allowed and justified to hang up on a customer like this.
Karen thought she had some sort of hold over me but it was not the case. I could have ended the 2-hour long call at any time I wanted with all the verbal abuse she was throwing at me, but I still wanted to help her because I did believe that if she was being charged it was unfair and I had to fix it.
I started to get suspicious when she consistently refused to send me proof of the charges no matter how much I reassured her that this would all be fixed as soon as she did.
It came to a point where she started telling me that if she died in surgery and made her husband a widower it would be my (personal) fault.
Don’t ask me why but that made me snap. For the first time in the call, I told her to not speak to me like that, and to not say stuff like that. She was so thrown aback by my reaction that she calmed down for 5 minutes, give or take.
I actually had hope then, that maybe we could end this on a good note, but to no avail. Karen still wanted me to trust her word that she was being charged 59 dollars on a canceled policy and wanted the money back. I finally told her that if she was not willing to send proof, to dispute the charges with the bank.
She said she shouldn’t have to call her bank and I told her “You’ve told me many times that this is illegal and fraud. Given what you’ve told me yourself, I STRONGLY encourage you to dispute the charges with your bank.” I asked if there was anything else I could do for them, and I ended the call while they were still insulting me.
I change my status to take a breather and realize most of my coworkers were looking at me extremely concerned. Apparently, the yelling could be heard through my headset. My supervisors (more than one joined in to help) congratulated me for keeping my cool and keeping control of the call.
I still feel guilty because I couldn’t help her, I’m not saying this for pity points, I really do. I was so willing to help her, I love my job. But she just wanted someone to be mad at. Screw you Karen.”
Another User Comments:
“The sad thing is that the most likely scenario, assuming she wasn’t just completely making crap up, is that her bank probably lets the customer see pending transactions, and she was probably seeing the pending credit back to her account, and she’s too stupid to know or comprehend that.” Usagi_Shinobi
Reply:
“This is genuinely my main theory but the post was already too long and ultimately felt irrelevant so I didn’t add it, lmao. It’s very likely the pending charge for the policy was supposed to be renewed but was canceled before it was. I got suspicious she didn’t want to send me the statement because I believe she herself noticed at some point during the call.” dirkpeta
4. Pool-Goer Was Warned About The Weather Policy, But Refused To Listen
“This happened over the summer. I worked as an operations manager at a small water park where I managed 15 cashiers and 15 concessions staff. One thing that surprised me working there is the amount of people who don’t check the weather forecast before going to an outdoor pool.
People also don’t understand that we close the pool and the deck whenever there is lightning within 10 miles of the park and stay active for 30 minutes after the last strike for safety. When we (the managers) know that there is a chance for storms to roll in, there are a couple of steps we take to prepare.
We have a big sign that we put out near the entrance where the line forms that says “The pool may close early due to weather/crowds”, we have signs that say “No refunds or rainchecks if we close due to weather” in English (twice), Spanish, and Polish taped to the admission booth windows, and we have our cashiers give the same warning verbally before they process the transactions.
But people don’t listen.
It was a very hot and humid day and the pool was near capacity (1500 people). It was getting pretty close to closing time when a storm popped up. When the Thor guard went off, I gathered my concessions staff to go outside and begin clearing the picnic area.
I saw lightning and heard thunder shortly after, and the other staff confirmed to me that they saw/heard it too.
By the point that we had cleared everyone, we found out that we weren’t actually going to get directly hit by the storm but it was still close enough to trigger the alarm.
The sky actually started to clear up a bit overhead. One of my cashiers came up to me and said “someone wants a refund, and this one specifically said ‘I want to speak to the real higher up, not some dumb teenager manager'”. If you’ve ever been to a pool run by a park district, you’ll know that 98%+ of the staff are high school and college students, myself included. So I walked with them to the front entrance where my staff had been sitting because the park had been evacuated. The Karen was standing in the doorway.
She opened with a very subtle “I need to speak to someone because this is nonsense. I got here 20 minutes ago and now I’m getting kicked out.”
I tried to explain that our cashiers had verbally warned everyone entering of our weather policy, to which she said they didn’t.
I said “yes, they did because I’ve been sitting here for the past 4 hours, listening to them tell everyone.” She said “Sweetie, people can make mistakes.” I answered “I’ve worked alongside these cashiers for the past two summers and I trust them. They’re hard workers.”
She announced, “Sweetie, I manage cashiers at 77 different retail stores so you should listen to me, I know what I’m talking about.” I responded “Being a cashier here is different than being a cashier at a retail store. We have to deal with weather concerns here.” She said “Sweetie, it’s a good managerial strategy to know that your staff can make mistakes” with my staff sitting right there and I quickly answered back “And it’s an even better managerial strategy to stand by your staff.”
She started to say “Sweetie” and then one of my cashiers shouted “Stop calling him sweetie! It’s really awkward!” To which she replied “Oh, thank you (cashier’s name)” and looked down and said “That’s where my camera is.” She had been recording on her phone the whole time, holding it against her chest. She continued “And I don’t use bad words like (whispered) jerk.”
I tried to explain again that even if my cashiers didn’t verbally warn them that there were signs all over the window and she claimed “This is why I would never hire you” and I said “And this is why you’ll never work for the (city name) Park District.” Her eyes perked up and she said “Oh wow, thank you!” joyfully and strutted off, apparently satisfied with what she’d done.
About 5 minutes later we decided to close for the rest of the day and we gave out rainchecks to those still waiting. Had she stayed 5 minutes later, she would’ve gotten one.
Two days later, I showed up for my next shift and the lifeguard manager came up to me and said “dude, did you see the reviews?” I went on to the pool’s Google reviews and saw the Karen left 3 reviews on different accounts specifically calling me out.
Luckily my boss was there and he’s very chill and knows that these kinds of people exist. He said I’m not in trouble.
So the Karen didn’t get me fired, or in trouble at all. If anything I gained more respect from my staff for standing up for them.”
3. I Can't Stand Over You While I Wait For The Machine? Management Won't Side With You
“I just encountered a wild Karen at Planet Fitness.
I am 6’1″ (about 2 meters) tall and weigh 240 lbs.
This is relevant because I’ve dealt with many people like this who think they can get me in trouble because I am a large male, and poor little them.
I was down to my last exercise on one of the machines. There was a middle-aged blonde woman using it, so I stood about 8 feet away.
I did not even look in her direction, I was listening to music on my earbuds, and watching one of the many TVs while glancing back at my phone here and there.
About 5 minutes into it, she turns to me. I take my headphones out, and she asks if I’m waiting for the machine.
I say “Yes,” and then look back at my phone.
Karen: Well, I’m going to be a while…
Me: No rush.
She then gets up and waves her hand in my face and says, “Can you not stand over me!”
Me: I’m not standing anywhere near you, I’m patiently waiting for the machine.
(I even made sure my body wasn’t facing her in an aggressive manner.)
At this time, there was an older woman who just sat down at the next machine over and said, “Don’t worry honey, you can come stand over me.”
We both laughed then I moved about 2 feet closer to her, and away from Karen.
Karen starts to mutter insults to herself, but I don’t really care and go back to my music. About 10 minutes later she dramatically gets up and yells, “You can jump on it now,” as she goes marching towards the front desk.
I reply, “Don’t worry, I’ll wipe it down and clean it for you,” because of course she didn’t.
I get my sets in then walk up to the front desk and ask, “What’d she say about me.”
One replies, “You!?! She was talking about you??!?”
I nod.
The second replies: You’re like the nicest guy in here. You come in, do your work, and never bother anyone.
The first one says, “Yeah, you’re the sweetest guy and always polite. We’ve had issues with her (Karen) in the past. Don’t worry about it.”
While the 3 of us are chatting and laughing, I glance across the gym at Karen and… If looks could kill…
Then this other guy walks up to me and tells the two staff members, “I saw the whole thing. That woman is something else. He was nothing but polite to her and she was being belligerent.” He then looks at me and says, “You handled that a LOT better than I would have.”
This ending may not be as satisfying, but it’s a huge win for me and I just had to share it somewhere. These situations don’t always work out in my favor. I’m just thankful it did and Karen had to sit there getting more angry and more miserable.
Screw you, Karen.”
2. Self-Absorbed Aunt Makes Toddler's Critical Surgery About Herself
“My aunt has always been a jealous and entitled creature who always tries to comb through a tragic situation to find some factor that doesn’t relate to her at all to make it all about her regardless of the situation. And if she can’t find any factor, she gets mad and makes it directly known that SHE is the one who should be pitied.
Just recently my cousin’s son had to go through a rather serious and terrifying surgery where they had to crack his skull open. He is 3 years old and he was born after 4 miscarriages so obviously the family was on pins and needles hoping for a successful surgery and fast and painless recovery for him.
Except for my aunt.
Not sure if the idea of her or her own grandson not being the one getting all the attention and positive thoughts is what threw her over the edge (despite her and her grandson being completely fine) or what, but her response was nothing short of disgusting.
In the family group chat my mom and aunt are a part of, my one uncle was sending updates all day as he had driven out to be there the day of his grandson’s procedure. So of course, everyone was replying anxiously for updates.
Except… my aunt.
So, she took it upon herself to text my mom how annoying it was to constantly be receiving text messages from everyone about my cousin. My mom reminded her that this TODDLER was going through a super intense and possibly deadly surgery and that everyone was nervous.
My aunt then made it apparent to point out that, “this kid always has problems when anyone brings him up.” This is because my cousin was born quite a few months premature, so of course he has some issues going on!
My mom was already mad at this and reminded her that if this was HER grandson she’d want everyone to give her and her son and his child nice comments and thoughts and prayers and she shouldn’t be acting this way about a toddler getting surgery.
My aunt’s only other response was that everyone was being “overdramatic” about him and it wasn’t that serious.
At that point, I almost darn near lost it. I despise this woman with a passion and a half. I can’t imagine being so self-absorbed that you’d tell someone a three-year-old’s skull being cracked open like a coconut is “overdramatic”.
And she wonders why nobody talks to her.”
Another User Comments:
“To be honest I would have said fine and just created a new group chat without her. If she doesn’t want to be part of a conversation that is not centered around her so be it.
Just create a new group chat and mute the other one. Some would suggest just leaving the other group but then that little message saying “x” has left will appear and that will start even bigger drama. Just start a new group and periodically just send a random LOL or something partially relevant to the original one but never fully engage.
Eventually, she will understand she is being ignored for a reason.” Azsura12
Another User Comments:
“Think it’s bout time to show the entire family her true colors. She is a coward that is for sure. She has enough balls to say it to your mom but not the entire group?
Time to let the cat out of the bag and be sure the family knows exactly what type of person she is. Also, I don’t consider these people family. Blood yes….. Family no. I get to choose my family and who I consider the most important people to me.
You don’t get that title just because we share the same bloodline. Hope your little cousin is doing well!!” theymademee
1. Road-Raging Karen Gets Mad Because I'm Trying To Do The Safe Thing
“I was traveling to my childhood home after work and school. The freeway exit at my house is a major hub and was built in such a way that causes a lot of accidents.
If you make a right turn there’s immediately another set of lights for another multiple-lane intersection. These lights are SUPPPPPOSED to be timed together but they are often very, very off. So the first light is green and the second is red, can only accommodate 6 vehicles before the seventh is sticking into the intersection and blocking a lot of traffic.
People do this all the time and then there’s an entire blockade cause idiots can’t remember you aren’t legally allowed to block intersections in California.
So as usual the light turns green, cars go, the second light is red and fills up.
I’m stuck at the first light, I’m not going because I cannot fit my car there and I will be fully blocking traffic if the light turns red and it’s another lane’s turn to go. I hear honking but I don’t care, I legally cannot go.
This car pulls out beside me, she’s in the lane that’s meant for turning left, so she’s on my left. At first she rolls her window down and now I’m thinking maybe there’s something wrong, so I roll my window down:
Karen: “Do you want me to beat your butt, jerk?”
Me: “What?” I was so confused I’d never met this woman in my life. Like what have I done to you?
Karen: “Out here blocking the road you dumb jerk I should flipping beat your dumb butt!”
There are now literally cars all down the left side who cannot make a left turn cause this Karen got her car parked across two turning lanes to get mad at me for not disobeying traffic laws that have literally caused thousands of accidents in this spot.
It’s a death trap.
Now the light has turned green and I’m just like no, I’m not dealing with this and I drive off. I’m in my car like I am supposed to be. I’m having a mild panic attack because she’s threatening to find me and basically kill me in very colorful language as I drive off.
So I pull off into a parking lot with a lot of cars at the grocery store so I can slow my breathing and my heart rate.
She’s following me. I hide down in my car and she’s driving up and down the aisles like a psycho.
Nearly hitting other vehicles and people walking until she gives up and leaves. I never thought in my life a Karen would get that upset about not being able to move her car up like one car length.”
Another User Comments:
“Next time call the police.
People die over this every day and this person should be behind bars not behind the wheel.” TheBigNook
Reply:
“I normally would have, but our city is NOT good and the police chief really really sucked hardcore at the time. In fact, he was fired for a lot of terrible crap in multiple cities, stepped down from ours, and got hired in a city that would absolutely shock you in California.
I wish I had any faith that a cop would have shown up. When an attempted robbery happened as a teenager and a knife was pulled on me it took them 9 hours to send anyone.” VerbalVeggie
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