Are Customers REALLY that stupid?

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Seriously...I have come across stupid customers.

Here's an example: I ask a customer about an image regarding leaving white in it or not...what does he do?

He gives me a file that displays how the logo should look (Via E-Mail)....which is EXACTLY how I recreated it....now I just resend him what I've done and he doesn't approve which one is right!?! *Facepalm*

Here's another: I contact a customer via E-Mail about requesting an image, and what does she do? They tell me where to send the delivery of their stuff. *Facepalms*

There are worse scenarios, such as not being capable of setting up an ONLINE ACCOUNT! JESUS!

Sometimes they even give you the wrong address and then COMPLAIN about their stuff not coming!

Okay peeps, tell me your laughable moments with customers?

Yes, they can be lol. When I was in high school I worked at a retail store...and a customer called me once because a TV she bought wasn't working.

Her: "I've tried just about everything I can think of...I pressed every button on the remote, I pushed the power button on the T.V., but it just won't turn on!"
Me: "Is it plugged in?"
Her: "Uhhhh...." - she promptly hung up lol

Customers are really that stupid.

I worked at a company that did contract work for an American auto manufacturer, back in the day of 5-1/4 inch floppy disks. A day after installing a new computer-controlled NC machine in their engineering department, the customer called and said that the machine would not boot after the first shift. When I got there, I determined that the boot floppy had become corrupted, so after thoroughly checking out the floppy drive, I created another boot disk. After watching the user run it through a few boot cycles, I went back to the shop.

The next day, same call, same problem, same solution plus a new floppy drive.

On the third day, I had to go back again. This time, my supervisor, his supervisor, and the sales rep all met with the NC operator, his supervisor, his supervisor, and some doofus from their legal department, who said that if the machine wasn't working by the end of the day, the entire contract would be cancelled. I went through the same routine as the previous two days. Then the operator took over, swapped disks, and ran the machine through its paces.

"Everything looks good", he says.

"Anything else?" I ask.

"Nope! I got it!"

Then he picks up the boot disk, holds it against a nearby file cabinet, and fixes it firmly in place with a 5-ounce magnet.

30 minutes later, they had a new boot disk, a second floppy drive for the operations disk, and a new operator for the NC machine.

No wonder the American automobile industry went into a decline for the next 30 years ...

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Last edited by nat4200 on 19 Apr 2012, 6:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

Here's a few that I remember:

Was working in an electronic dept, and got a call about a guy hooking up his DVD player to the TV. Took me 30 min to explain, "Red to red, white to white, yellow to yellow."

Same place, and some older woman (50's to 60s) returns a computer saying it doesnt come on when she pushes the button. So I hook it up and ask her to tell me which button she pushed . . . it was the one for the CD tray.

Electric Dept again . . . guy is returning a TV cause it wouldnt show anything. We hooked it up and all was well and he says. "Wait, it's not wireless?"

It's not so much that they're stupid, but that they're not willing to do any thinking for themselves and expect you to hold their hand the whole time.

Fellow co-worker had someone call in and ask, "Hey can ya'll setup my phone?"
co-worker, "Ok, do you have your manual?"
customer, "Yes."
co-worker, "Are you able to read?"
customer, "Yes."
co-worker, "You're good . . ." <click!>

Yes, they are that stupid sometimes. I keep telling myself that "everybody has brain farts, they must be having one now", that helps me stay patient when I get one of the stupid ones. I've had my own dumb days, so I can sympathize with them.

Sometimes it's hard to tell whether the customer is being dumb, or if it's a prank call. Where I work there are a lot of calls about people using a power washer on their gaming console with it plugged in, or, *ahem*, male body parts stuck in the disk tray.

When asking if the machine is plugged in, I've found it best to phrase it as "checking to see if maybe the cord came loose from the outlet". That way they can keep their dignity if it turns out it wasn't plugged in, and it doesn't sound quite so condescending when you ask them to check.

I work in retail (selling games) and we have had our fair share of idiotic customers. If they just don't know something, that's fine, but some of the questions we get make me question my own sanity as well as their, some examples.

1) Shop is open during our Christmas period, it's the middle of the day and the queue is half way down the shop. A customer comes up to the tills and asks if we are open, in a genuine way.

2) A customer comes into the shop and asks if we sell socks (bearing in mind we retail in games/hardware).

3) A lady comes up to the tills with Fifa 11 and asks if it will work on her TV, we say "yeah but you may need an online pass to play online with your Xbox", she said "what's an Xbox, can I not play the disc through my TV?" - I'm not sure if that's stupidity or genuine lack of knowledge.

4) We have an offer in store called '2 for £20'. It works on all pre-owned games that are labelled with '2 for £20 or £12.99 each' stickers. Several customers have come in and actually asked me if it's any 2 games in the store for £20 (bearing in mind that some of the new games retail at £49.99).

If you read the first few words from the first 3, they actually read like the beginnings of jokes lol.

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Last edited by nat4200 on 19 Apr 2012, 7:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

well you sure took the fun out of that for me

It's a consumer's market . . . if they see something they like, they get it. However, that doesnt mean they do their homework about it beforehand. Dont say they're stupid, just ill-informed. Then again, it doesnt help us wayward aspies to work in a place where people expect courtesy and not blunt truths

The proper response is:

To spare ones mental health this customer segment is better avoided. Or maybe one should offer cheaper support in exchange for some basic test?

I worked tech support back in the late 90s (my first job out of post-secondary school), during the days of dial-up modem and early ADSL. Despite the fact that I was an (undiagnosed) Aspie, I found it relatively easy to stay diplomatic with technically clueless customers and avoid bluntness. I believe this was due to the "glass houses" mentality; since I knew of my own shortcomings as far as "people dyslexia", I was more forgiving of those who made slip-ups in my area of expertise, since I would expect the same patient and non-judgemental treatment from others in my realm of deficiency. Customers and supervisors monitoring my calls would remark about how patient and tactful I was. I suppose because it also had a routine component to it, i.e. frequently recurring problems, that made it easier.

worked in the deli/smallgoods section of a supermarket.

Common questions included asking why something that was priced at say $10/kg and the packet contained say 1.5kg had a price greater than $10, and asking me to get the 'bigger' products from the front of the window (they are all the same size, some people think the stuff at the front is bigger because it's closer to them. I'm serious. It's easier to not even attempt to explain.)
We had cooked roast chickens in a self serve heater that if a customer wants they simply grab one and take it to the front registers to pay. We write the time they come out of the oven on the bag, and another common question was to ask if the 2:15pm chickens really cost only $2.15 (this is despite a large sign showing the actual price, and the hand-written time appearing in a box that begins with TIME COOKED in big letters)
Also a common complaint was that they felt cold after spending 5 minutes walking around the refridgerated aisles.



http://notalwaysright.com/ is a good site for customer stories.

Worked at walmart lawn and garden. Multiple times I have been asked about a product... everytime I read off the label right there to know about it, good thing I read fast.

Had a customer get pissed off had me after she looked at her receipt and saw that an office chair was not tax free, certain school supplies were taxfree that day. They were all labeled and cheap items. The OFFICE chair was 50 dollars.

Few questions I have been asked and could not believe it.


"I keep pressing my iPhone to the phone line but can't get to the dial up page"

"can my VHS play blu ray?"

"I put this movie into my tv and it melted" tv was a toaster oven.

"why can't my 10 year old son buy grand theft auto?"

"even though the signs say buy one get one for a $1 on all used DVDs can use it with new DVDs?"

And my favorite.

After watching me put away two handfuls of DVDs. Wearing a vest and a name teg. Offering to help them and others.

"do you work here?"

Few questions I have been asked and could not believe it.


"I keep pressing my iPhone to the phone line but can't get to the dial up page"

"can my VHS play blu ray?"

"I put this movie into my tv and it melted" tv was a toaster oven.

"why can't my 10 year old son buy grand theft auto?"

"even though the signs say buy one get one for a $1 on all used DVDs can use it with new DVDs?"

And my favorite.

After watching me put away two handfuls of DVDs. Wearing a vest and a name teg. Offering to help them and others.

"do you work here?"