Most of us assume that a Karen is always a middle-aged woman who gets on someone's nerves. Well, sorry to burst your bubble because that is wrong. Regardless of gender or age, once someone chooses to inconvenience others for the sake of their benefit, he or she can now be labeled as a 'Karen.'
While we may have had some awful experiences with a Karen, checking into these stories will reveal that others have had worse. Let's dive into these!
1. Getting her way or getting away
I was on the bus with a broken leg in a cast. I was sitting in the designated handicap spot.
Suddenly, this older woman gets on the bus, looks at me, and says, “Get up." I said I had a broken leg, and she didn’t seem to care.
She insisted I get up to the point where she told the driver and threw a fit. I will also add that she looked perfectly fine. She walked just normal and didn’t seem to have any issues standing.
While I was speculating, I had a clear sign that standing wasn’t a legitimate option for me. All of a sudden, someone put her in her place and she ended up standing.
Jawbone71
2. That’s what you get
I'd say it was one time, a Karen and her toddler child decided to trespass on my property to "play" with my pet goat.
She squawked at me over having "an evil goat that needed to be put down." What you would think would happen with a goat, happened. The toddler tried to play, and my goat headbutted him. All he had from it was a scuffed lip.
Had to call the sheriff to get Karen to leave. The sheriff wasn't having any of it. He told her that she didn't need to be trespassing and letting her kid play with strange animals because it would be worse if someone had a guard dog.
SillyBlackSheep
3. Hotheaded for a cold drink
It was free slushie day at a convenience store. I was just standing in line, buying a soda or something. I can hear the conversation at the front of the line. The guy at the register is calmly explaining to this lady that their slushie machine is out of order, and they can't get someone to come fix it until the next day, but there is another location just down the road and their machine might be working.
She was having NONE of it and started to scream and curse at this guy for what felt like hours about how they owed her a free slushie, that he just didn't want to give her one because she was black, and so on.
She finally left, and I looked at the cashier whom I'd run into at concerts before and had grown kinda friendly with, and said, "So, having fun?" He took a deep breath to calm himself down and half whispered, "Over a freaking slushie.”
I, the cashier, and the guy in line behind me who also witnessed the whole event, proceeded to badmouth her for a minute.
Klown1327
4. A Series of Karens
I'm a librarian and I was helping a lady use a computer. My boss walked by and asked me a quick question while I was observing the woman do something on the computer and when I turned a bit to face him, my shoulder moved a couple of inches closer to the woman, not touching her but going a bit more into her "bubble."
When I turned back, she chewed me out for being in her space. "What is WRONG with you? Ugh!!! I can't believe you got in my personal space!"
Another Karen at the library blew up at me because she printed 100 pages before realizing they were printing incorrectly due to her selecting the wrong option on the computer. I explained that our terms of use say the user is responsible for those errors, so we couldn't refund her. She was fine with that but kept griping and asking what we were going to do about it.
She wouldn't let me respond and went on and on. When I finally got to speak, I sincerely asked, "How would you like me to fix this for you? How can I help make this right?" She stared at me then yelled, "You don't want to help me at all!" and stomped off.
In a non-library setting, one time my car broke down in a parking lot. I put on my hazard lights and there was enough room to go around me. Some woman in an SUV drove up right behind me and honked and honked. I shrugged helplessly and waved her around. When she finally drove around, she rolled her window down, stuck her head and shoulders out, and screamed "You dummy wench!" at me. She didn't look like the person who would do that and she even had alumni stickers on her SUV from the same university I attended. It was so surreal. This was probably 15 years before "Karen" was a thing.
DeweyDecimator020
5. Nothing’s free here
I was behind this Karen in line at a fast food restaurant. She ordered a turkey sandwich and told them to put more turkey on it because the amount they put on wasn't enough.
When she got to the checkout and they charged her extra for the extra turkey, she went ballistic.
She demanded she not be charged extra because she didn't say she wanted extra, she said they didn't put enough on, even though it's a pre-measured amount so they put the same amount on every sandwich.
She held up the entire line for about 10 minutes in the middle of lunch rush while she screamed at every employee in the store, and then when her temper tantrum finally paid off, they didn't charge her like 2 dollars. She stormed off and got into her late-model Mercedes.
ElToberino
6. Pen Fiasco
Was working at the counter where the customer had to sign off the receipt before I could release the package. Usually, when I present the receipt, I would include a pen as well just in case they don't have one. So this one time after a Karen had signed for the receipt, she was taking the pen with her. This was the conversation
Me: Hi Ma'am, may I have my pen back, please?
Karen: No, this is my pen.
Me: Um, I just gave you this pen along with the receipt.
Karen: No, I got this pen from my purse. (proceeded to search her purse and couldn't find any pen)
At this point, I'm not gonna argue with her for a pen that costs less than $1.
Me: It's OK, you can keep that pen. (opened the drawer and pulled a new pen from the box)
Karen: See! There's your pen!
Me: No, ma'am, I've just pulled out a new pen from the box. (bring out the box and shake it beside my face)
She finally left at the cost of a pen, good riddance.
pukguyhumgachan
7. Good Samaritan gone Wrong
My worst 'Karen' encounter happened while I was shopping at a grocery store. I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, which in no way resembled the red shirts and khaki pants uniform actual store employees rocked.
I was young and not in a hurry, so when some lady asked me where something or other was, I looked at the handy dandy thing on the cart that listed common purchases and the aisle number. I said "I don't work here, but it looks like that's in aisle whatever" as I pointed to the thing that told me that. She went away.
I continued shopping, and she tracked me down to tell me she couldn't find it. I told her I didn't work there while gesturing in the general direction of my cart, and I wasn't going to interrupt my shopping to scour the aisle with her. She huffed off, and I continued shopping. Only to have the lady and the store manager appear a few minutes later.
At this point, I can hear her whining about the horrible employee that needs to be fired on the spot for rude and unhelpful behavior and now I'm lying about not working at the store, which is stupid because I helped her earlier but refused service when it required a little walking.
She stops in front of me, smirking 'cause she thinks she just got me fired. And the manager, of course, realizes the problem. He's never met me before, I'm not dressed like an employee, and, oh yeah, I've got a shopping cart full of groceries just like every other customer in the store.
Guy half apologized to me and hurried her over to the aisle to find whatever for her.
Lesson learned: Don't try to help random people who mistake you for an employee.
Ljr55555
8. So much for a Good Neighbor
We had two very severe snow storms within 24 hours resulting in about three feet of snow. The city wasn’t able to clear it so a bunch of the neighbors got their shovels and decided to do it ourselves.
Then out of nowhere, this lady comes out screaming at us for clearing the street and putting a mound of snow on her property (it had to go somewhere). We were even clearing her driveway for her where it was the sidewalk.
She was crazy unfriendly though. My first interaction with her was when her dogs got out and I rounded them up, read their tags, and knocked on her door with them. I said, “I found your dogs wandering the neighborhood.” She just grabbed them and slammed the door in my face, no “thank you” or anything.
Taxitaxitaxi33
9. Macho but with Attitude
I had an encounter with the lesser-spotted male Karen!
I was working in a petrol station, on a rural road in the Fenlands of the UK. We closed at 10 pm and I did my counts for the evening. During this time, the pumps were switched off or more accurately the pumps are on a timer so once it's gone past 10 pm, they won't allow me to dispense fuel.
At 10:15 pm, Karen dude rocked up, pulled his car up to a pump, and tried to fill up. He stands there gesturing to me to turn on the pump. I said to him over the intercom we closed at 10 and I couldn't serve him. He continued to stand there, flailing his free arm.
I reiterate my previous comment. He then gave up and tried to walk in, no doubt to ask for my manager, only to find the door was locked.
Hint still not taken, he was now right up against the glass where the tills are, screaming at me to put the pumps on. Again I explained to him we couldn't serve past 10 pm due to the pumps going off. I get called every name under the sun, and he stormed back into his car, held his horn down, and blasted out of the forecourt.
KairiZero
10. Ain’t Slaving Away
A man was screaming while I was working at a grocery store, "Boy, hey boy." I ignored it because this isn't the 1920s.
5 minutes later he came over with an assistant manager to yell at me because I didn't help him get a cart for his daughter or whatever it was. He was going on about how he had to treat me military style.
Keep it in mind that I was only making minimum wage, fresh out of college, and with 3/4th of what I was making going to Great Lakes and depression that could end an elephant. Needless to say, I didn't care.
18moreshirts
11. Raging Discover Card
A long time ago, when I was 17, I worked at a grocery store. It was a good job as I mostly hung around electronics messing with customers and tidying up. One day they were busy and I got called to the front to do checkout work.
Almost immediately a woman and a few co-workers showed up in my lane. I rang up whatever they were buying and she handed me a Discover card. I look at the back and it's not signed so I asked to see some ID.
She lost her mind. There was a lot of yelling while I just sort of stared back at her blankly. Eventually, a manager came over and made me apologize and she finally shut her mouth and left.
To this day I have no idea what she was so angry about.
Gobroncoz
12. Karen meets C.A.R.E.N
The other day, a Karen was yelling at my co-worker. The reason was, he had an accent. I kid you not, she was pissed because he had an Indian accent.
She started acting like he was attacking her and called the manager. They went TOGETHER to review the security tapes and Karen acted like she had nothing to hide. The tape said this:
Jason (co-worker): Hello ma’am what seems to be the problem?
Karen: OMG you are an Indian? YOU SHOULD BE DEPORTED YOU TERRORIST!!!!
Jason: Ma’am…
Karen: NO!!! HELP!!!! HELP!!!! HE’S ROBBING ME, HELP!!
She called the police. As you all know the C.A.R.E.N law was enforced, and she got fined $300.
Asinstraloof
13. Ken do, Can’t do
I just had one a couple of hours ago, it was a Ken though. He called the first time just as we opened at 9 am and asked to speak to someone in the Service department about a leak in his RV's shower.
Note: this guy specifically tells me that he's currently in South Carolina, our office is in California.
However, today has just been "one of them days.” The WiFi has been down since 8 am. The IT guy has been running around trying to fix the issue. I let him know service is unavailable and that if I could get a contact number a service Tech will return his call at their "earliest convenience".
WiFi finally goes up at noon and stays up, but printing and scanning capabilities are nonexistent. There had been non-stop service calls, all three service techs were doing 4 to 5 different things at once and it's still only NOON! Anyway, the dude called back about 2 1/2 hours later complaining that no one had returned his call.
I apologized to him and told him that service was still busy assisting the guest we have on-site that I'll let them know that he called again and that I'd ask the next available tech to call him back. That's when he pulled out the big guns...
Him: "Listen Emma... that's your name right Emma (it isn't, but due to the tone of his voice, I wasn't going to correct him) I purchased my RV from your dealership this last April/May. This is the second time I've taken it out and I have a serious problem. Now, if you don't get someone in service to talk to me RIGHT NOW I'm going to go on the internet and place the worst service review you will ever receive!!!!!!!"
I almost wanted to say: "Do you think threatening me is going to make me want to help you out in this situation?" But the calls are recorded for "quality assurance" and if that particular call was randomly reviewed I didn't want to be called in, although my managers are pretty awesome and probably would have called me in to laugh at the fool with me.
Anyway, I transferred the call to one of the managers to deal with the Ken. But as I said, he told me he was in South Carolina. I don't know what we could do exactly to help him with whatever was going on.
Artistic-Rich6465
14. Craving for Discount
I used to work at a store that had a retail side and a restaurant in it. It’s pretty popular. Anyway, I worked in the retail section. It was before Easter in 2017, a lady came to return food she bought from the retail store.
In our store, you couldn’t return food at all after you purchased the item. I told Karen she couldn’t return the food, only the non-food products. She got mad because her precious grandchildren weren’t coming over for Easter now. So she had to have her money back!
I told her she could speak to someone above me. Which was my shift lead Diana. Diana told her the same thing. She said, “Well aren’t you a manager? I didn’t open anything! Why can’t I return anything?” She also explained it was in our policy she couldn’t return the items.
The Karen was mad as heck after that and wanted to speak to the manager on duty. Diana paged Nathan up to the front to deal with her. Nathan was the sweetest manager I’ve ever had. He was understanding! However, this backfired on him when he had to deal with this Karen. This Karen was still demanding a refund.
He also told her the same thing about the policy but Karen still didn’t care. I think she even threatened to call corporate at that point lol! She pretty much bullied him into giving her a refund. I can’t remember exactly what was said, but she laid it on thick about wanting her money back because her grandchildren weren’t coming over for Easter now.
I was mad as hell she was able to pull that off. I was timid then when working there. I wish I could have stood up to her at the time because I just don’t care anymore.
Idkcatz
15. Warehouse Drama
Back in the day, a young woman came to pick up a mattress from a warehouse in a small hatchback car. It's raining a lot. She's worried it won't fit. I tell her it's fine, fold the mattress, and shove it in her boot. She starts flipping out like crazy. I'm like “What do you expect, the mattress is the same size as your car.”
The mattress has a cheap (not waterproof) plastic cover on it. I unloaded the mattress, put it on the ground outside in the pouring rain, and told her to do it herself. She could even lift the mattress, I closed the door and went off. I could have gotten some straps to keep the boot of the car strapped down and some waterproof plastic so it wouldn't get soaked but I didn't.
If you can't behave to a stranger, don't expect them to help you.
The male version is worse. The guy comes to the warehouse 1 minute after we're open. He's not a local and he has an imported bride who was in tears. He bought something that was slightly damaged and he started yelling like crazy.
I told him this isn't a store, if you have complaints take it to the store.
He's mad I won't replace his stuff. He gets back half an hour later with the paperwork and demands I unload it from his truck, but I refuse. He was fuming mad/yelling now. He wants to throw the item he wanted to replace but he's so weak he drops it on his rear bumper and kicks the item a few times.
I called him a crazy fool to his face and told him we couldn't replace it now because he damaged it himself and walked away. He threw a wrench at me from his boot after I had my back turned to him and he hauled ass out of there because I was running towards him to subdue him and call the police.
He’s the worst loser I've ever seen. 50-year-old chubby dude, with massive rage issues and tries to attack people in the back then immediately runs away when he gets aggro.
Tigerbloodz13
16. It rings a bell
This isn't my greatest Karen moment but a friend of mine's Karen moment.
My friend has exceptionally good hearing. Anyway, he was at this noisy event and he kept hearing a phone ringing. He was looking around trying to decipher where the sound was coming from.
This lady glares at him with a nasty face and says to him, “What the heck are you looking at?” He says to her I keep hearing this phone ringing and was just wondering where it's coming from. She has this huge handbag and starts to go deep down in her bag and it's her phone ringing.
She looked embarrassed and didn't apologize but he said, “Oh that's the phone I was hearing.”
EchoEquani
17. Mask slipped, Mouth slipped
Maybe not the worst in the grand scheme of things but the one that made me the angriest.
A customer came to my register (in the era of COVID-19) with her mask beneath her nose, so I softly said, "Pardon me miss, your mask slipped," saying it as if maybe she just hadn't noticed. She proceeds to roll her eyes heavily and lecture me about how she has COPD and gets tested regularly for COVID because she's a nurse and so forth.
I tried to tell her to go to self-checkout, but yielded, as I needed to ask for her ID for her nicotine gum.
She said, " You know what, I don't wanna check out here," so I said "Great," and handed her her items, and then things unraveled.
As she left, she wrenched the items out of my hands and said, "Soyboy" (for context, yes I am a semi-flamboyant gay man with a mildly nasal voice). I got so mad that as she walked away I shouted, "What did you call me?"
Bless my manager for instantly banning that lady.
Appstmntnr
18. Crazy for a Sandwich
I worked at a sandwich shop and there was a woman who ordered a weird and specific sandwich. She would get mad when anyone was working except for this one girl.
The first time I took her order, she asked for the other girl. I said she didn't work today. The woman rolls her eyes.
I take her weird order (also I did not make the sandwiches. Just a cashier).
The sandwich came out and the woman asked me specifically to put on gloves and show her the layers of the sandwich to make sure nothing was missing.
katderieg
19. Self-Service Comedy
I've had a few, but this one is possibly the worst I've experienced working in retail yet.
I work in a supermarket and last year a man went up to a self-service machine (that was cash only, which also said it was cash only on the screen 2 times before scanning anything), scanned all of his items through, and then got incredibly angry at me because it wouldn't let him pay by card.
He demanded to speak to my manager, yelling about how he would rather stand in a queue for a manned till, for hours before he would go to self-service.
He complained to both me and my manager that we must get rid of the self-service machines as they are a waste of time and stealing our jobs.
He also started complaining about the massive queue that had formed whilst he stood arguing with us, a whopping 3 people. The lady he was with looked very embarrassed and kept apologizing to me.
That was the second time a customer had made me cry.
ScientificCorgi
20. Spoiled Grandma
It was in Peach City, Georgia. I was driving a golf cart back to my friend’s multimillion-dollar house. An old lady pulled her car in front of me on the golf cart path.
She asked what I was doing in her neighborhood and she had never seen me before. I explained I was going to my friend’s house, they were family friends.
She was on the phone with the police when my friend's dad showed up. He was her lawyer. She apologized profusely but he had to remind her that the golf cart path was open to the public regardless of their status.
NearlyUp
21. Pot of Confusion
I worked at a garden center and our loyalty card allows you to accumulate points from purchases, which later translates to vouchers being sent to you. These vouchers come as redeemable money essentially and also special offers with a prerequisite. For example, get £10 off when you spend £50 or more.
Okay so Karen comes to the counter with a plant from outside and proceeds to hand me a voucher for "£3 off an outdoor pot"
Me: I can't use this, it's for an outdoor pot
(Not hearing what I said)
Karen: Use it.
Me: I can't as it's not a pot. I can scan it anyway but no money will come off.
Karen: Well, why not?
Me: This isn't a pot
Karen: Well the plant is in a pot.
She leaves the plant and exits in a huff. Not the worst experience but I struggled to keep a straight face.
Danny6ft
22. Carrot Catastrophe
I worked at a chain health food store in the Chicago suburbs for about a year, and there were plenty of Karens.
The worst moment was working in the juice bar.
I had used an insufficient number of carrots for Karen's liking, so she threw the entire drink in my face like something out of an old Hollywood drama and snarled, "Try again!" I did not try again.
I sent my manager out to deal with her. Typical for this place, she was apologetic to the customer and remade her drink.
Eyerockets
23. Vegan Crazed Burger
I worked in a fast-food restaurant in a small town. I was at the front counter when a Karen came up and said, “I want a burger but don’t you dare put any slaughter cow in it!” I laughed a little and when I saw she wasn’t laughing I pretended to cough and punch in her order, specifically put in “Burger no meat.”
A minute later after she gets her food, a tray drops from across the room. A blood-curdling scream was followed by the audible footsteps of Karen storming up to me with her burger in her hand. Of course, it had meat on it.
Karen is sobbing and demands to see the kid in the kitchen who made the food, the kid comes out from the back (his first day working here), and asks what he did wrong. Karen personally attacks the kid calling him chubby and a fool and then demands to see the manager.
The manager comes out and gives her the money back. The kid quit that day over a simple mistake.
Punchline1771
24. Lunch meal Meltdown
I was in a Boston Market on my lunch break and this middle-aged chick in front of me was ordering food. But for every single thing the employee put into a container, this chick would find some ridiculous reason to whine about it, make them unpack it, change it for something else, etc. The chicken she got, she had them take it out and find her a different one TWICE.
The second time she turned around to me and the other people behind, she rolled her eyes and sighed. Then she said, "Why can't they just do their jobs right?" I was pissed off that my lunch break was ticking away while she messed around trying to cause as much trouble as possible so I said,
"You need to hurry up with this craziness because I'm hungry and you're making me wait for my food, crazy wench."
Then she looked shocked like she expected me to be on her side and came back with some insult about, "I hope you don't talk like that around your children" or something involving kids I don't have. So I just told her she was out of her mind and to hurry up.
I think she was worried that the other patrons would join in and take revenge on her or something because she left without her food before the worker could even package up her third chicken. She was going on the whole time about how people had no respect these days, but she made a hasty retreat to her car and sped off.
Coward. It's fine for her to intentionally mess with the poor employees but heaven forbid anyone try to put her in her place. The entitlement of some people is repulsive.
ChristopherRabbit
25. Screamed her problem away
I was working in a call center for a health-related company. I received a call from a woman complaining that she didn't receive her test results, which she paid to be delivered at home.
I checked to see if everything was in order with her delivery and found that the company would not deliver in time for some reason or other. She starts screaming at the phone, saying she won't accept something like this, says she's a lawyer and that she'll sue the company and make me lose my job.
She needed her test results so badly that I even presented a different solution to her problem, which she immediately denied. I told her that if she didn't want to get her test results through the internet she would have to wait for the delivery to be made with a delay. She didn't accept any help I wanted to give her and just kept on screaming until the end of the call.
I quit that job a few days later and I'll never work with customer service again.
NormalHuman01
26. Disastrous Coupon Saga
I worked at a sandwich shop and I ran into so many Karens it’s not even funny. One of my worst experiences was when I first got hired. So I was new and messed up a lot because I hadn’t gotten the hang of everything yet (also my boyfriend of 2 years had just broken up with me, which is no excuse but I was just kind of out of it that day).
This Karen lady gave me a coupon and I accidentally typed on the register the wrong coupon code so the amount she got wasn’t the actual price she was supposed to have for her meal. She snapped at me right about the time my dad walked in and I was so embarrassed. I got my manager and she fixed everything for me and the Karen lady rolled her eyes at me and walked away.
I already wanted to cry but I had another customer behind her who saw everything.
He looked at me and said, “Is this your first day here?” And I said no because it wasn’t. He then said, “Are you sure?” I know he was saying this because I messed up Karen’s order.
He then started talking to me slowly like I had something wrong with me and I was so embarrassed! I just let him talk to me like that until he also had a coupon. But he didn’t understand it. He was confused about how it worked and when I tried to explain he said, “How about get your manager, okay?”.
So I ran and grabbed my manager again and she told him the same thing I did but this time he understood her. I said the same thing as my manager but he still treated me like I was dumb. After that, I ran to the bathroom and cried. So yeah. Thanks, Karen.
SSSlamber
27. No VIP treatment is allowed
I used to work at a movie theater where you could call a server to take your order from your seat. I was working the box office on New Year's and we were a little busy, to say the least. I get through the rush of people only for one of the couples to come back and inform me that some people were in their seats.
I called a manager to sort the issue out and didn't think anything else of it. That was until Karen marched out of the theater with her son and his friend trailing behind and demanded to buy tickets. What had happened was instead of waiting in line like everyone else she thought she could bypass everyone and order her tickets from her seat.
That's not how we do things here. My manager calmly walked into the booth and stood behind me. The manager told me to refuse service to Karen for her yelling at me and Karen was not having it!
Karen began throwing what I can only describe as a tantrum infant of everyone including her son and his friend and was asked to leave. It got to the point where I had to call the police, although she bolted as soon as they were called.
I have so many stories from that job.
Cantcallmenothing
28. Overpriviledged role model
When my son was a baby, I had to go to the restroom to change him. I opened the bathroom door and the little kid in there nearly got hit by the door.
Instead of telling her daughter to stay away from the door and telling her this is why she cannot stand close to the door, she blamed me and told me how I should open it slowly. No lady, your kid should not be standing near the door.
My mom always told us that growing up and one day I got wonked by it and my mom said "See, that’s why I told you you can't be near the door." Plus I remember as a toddler I was trying to leave the restroom to go play on this toy ship again at this mall and these people came in and opened the door and they stubbed my toe with it and my mom didn't yell at them about it.
Instead, she rinsed my toe off in the sink that got caught under the door. So shut up, Karen.
Diaperedwoman
29. OAT-terly Outburst
So I worked in an office supply store and for whatever reason we decided to have oats on one of our end caps. Now, I don't know why this lady decided to get oats from an office supply store. I don't care why but for whatever reason she thought that she could just walk up to one of the registers and completely bypass the other four families in line.
I told her that she had to get in line she stood right at the front of it and let the next customer go to my register. After I got done processing their purchase she came back only for me to tell her that she still hadn't gotten in line. She started screaming at me while violently shaking her oats and demanded to speak to my manager.
According to my manager, I looked as if I was nearly ready to explode on her and I broke a trigger on a scanning gun when he told me to take a break and he got her dealt with. I walked to the break room, got a cup of water, and then was told I could come out to continue ringing up customers.
The next few people who came through my line were so kind to me and apologized for what happened. I felt bad that they got held up so I gave them all 20% off using this sort of secret coupon we had. The next day my manager was laughing at how angry I got because he had never seen me look so ready to bust in the entire time I've worked with him.
Chrisrdouglas
30. Sandwich Witch
I have so many entitled customer stories, but this one stands out because I lost my temper. Years ago, I worked for a Sandwich store. Friends used to call me the "Sandwich Queen" because I have worked in five Sandwich stores in two provinces in Canada. In this story, I was living in a small town in Ontario about 15 minutes from Niagara Falls.
The owner was a piece of work. He used to hide behind pillars in the food court to watch us sometimes during rush hour to make sure we were doing our jobs. We could see him staring at us as he peeked around a pillar. He also used to give free coupons to some employees from at least one store in the mall to spy on us.
They quickly learned that if they complained they would get more free food and we would get written up for lies. That is just a bit of background so you know that this place could get hostile for no reason other than that the owner was ridiculous, paranoid, and creepy.
Anyway, food costs were getting high and the owner decided we could only give the exact amount of veggies from the Subway formula. For example, three olives on a six-inch sandwich and six olives for a footlong. We were supposed to tell customers about the policy but say we would put on extra this time, but that next time we were supposed to follow the formula.
During the lunch rush, I was on veggies when the Karen arrived. She even had a haircut. When she asked for extra olives I told her the policy and that I would put extra on today, just as I was told to do. I don't like confrontation, I try to treat people the way I want to be treated.
I am friendly and respectful. I don't get angry easily either, but when I do I don't yell. I get quiet and have an icy cold voice and the person remembers what I said for a long time.
Karen asked for olives so I added the extra olives and told her what I was supposed to tell her. Then it happened, Karen went from 0 to 60 in a second. I was shocked when she suddenly started yelling at me. She was so loud that everyone in the food court turned and looked at her. People in the huge line were exchanging "this woman is crazy" glances. She was screaming that she was the customer and the customer was always right and I would do what I was told.
I finally got mad and my face went from friendly to my unsmiling, angry face (the face that my siblings used to say "Don't look at me like that," when they acted up) as I was making her a sandwich. I quietly, in my angry, frozen voice said,
"Look lady, I only told you what the owner said to say and I still put extra olives on your sandwich. I do not make decisions, I am a peon here. I do not make enough money to stand here and allow you to yell at me for something I have no control over. If you have a problem with the policy, the owner's phone number is at the cash. Call him and tell him what you think about his policy. Have a nice day."
Then the manager, who had been doing food prep in the back came rushing out as the Karen quietly, with an embarrassed posture and face, apologized for yelling at me. She said that I didn't deserve to be treated that way. I accepted her apology. I continued making sandwiches and the manager said,
"I was afraid that you were about to quit and walk out." I said, " Nope, you aren't getting rid of me that easy" and continued our work.
YourAuntV
31. That wasn’t hard to Decode
I don’t get many Karens but this is a pretty memorable one
I greeted her with a friendly “Good morning! How are you?” Then she cut me off asking if we scanned the app (I work in a department store). I said yes as long as it’s not the QR code, our system can’t read it. She asked why I was not sure, I told her they just haven’t been able to update it. She continued to ask me how many calories were in this drink and that drink.
This whole time there was a long line. She claimed she didn’t have the service to look it up in her app, so I was nice enough to do it on mine.
She eventually settled on a pink drink and showed her app for me to scan the QR code and I said, “Oh sorry that’s the QR code, we can’t scan that.”
Even as I said that, she just stared at me. So, I repeated her total and paid with a card and said “so when I asked if you could scan the app….”, she screamed, “What did you think I meant?” I just stared at her and said, “I knew exactly what you meant our system just can’t scan QR codes.”
She just let out a big sigh and walked away. The family before her had about 7 frappes so she had to wait about 6 minutes for her drink. That’s Karma.
Cauliflower29
32. Latte Tantrum
Karen came in and said she wanted a 2.5 shot latte, extra hot, with “good foam”, drank it, and said it needed to be hotter but left.
She came back during the evening peak four hours later, when there were TONS of people, demanded a remake, pushed another (male) customer and they got into an intense argument and cussing match.
She came back a week later, only allowed white partners to make her drink, and then cussed a minor for charging her for the half shot. Our manager was a coward so we called the DM and then the partner line.
She ended up being banned in the district because she had made a similar fuss at other stores.
Minimsmores
33. Egg bites Chaos
I used to work at a licensed store. This store in particular was awful. I worked open to close, alone. When you work alone and your doing pos, bar, food, and stocking, it gets quite chaotic quite fast.
This Karen ordered some complicated drinks and egg bites. The line is 20 deep so I’m all over the place. I made her drink. hand it out, told her to have a good one, and got back to the line. She then cuts in front of the man whose order I’m taking and says, “Where are my egg bites?”
I instantly replied, “Oh I’m sorry I’ll put them in right now.” I gave her the egg bites and she went off. I apologized again, “ I’m sorry ma’am it’s really busy and I’m alone.” Then I gave her a spoon instead of a fork.
She promptly threw the egg bites at me and ever since then, I lost all hope in humanity.
Helpmeplz219
34. Regular Ken Frenzy
I had a Ken come in my store, but this is when I was only there for like two weeks. He said, “Hi, I want a frappuccino iced with 2 shots of white mocha and 2 shots of mocha decaf in a Venti cup.”
I was so confused and my brain just wasn't working. I told him, “Sorry could you please repeat that” and he was SO MAD. I kid you not he was so triggered that I didn’t understand what his drink was. He was raising his voice, this six-foot-old man with all that attitude. I was done and told someone more experienced to take his order after he tried to tell me three times.
Before I got to the other person he said, “WELL I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU THE OTHER PEOPLE KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I WANT”. I understood what he wanted now, but I'd never had to take or make a drink like that before. He then proceeded to watch the barista as close as possible making his drink on a cold bar and he was talking to her,
“Make sure that has the right pumps.” and stuff like that which he does every time he comes.
Unfortunately, he comes in like every day.
Small_Ad_7487
35. Reading Comprehension left the Window
So my store has been very short of items. Toffee nut syrup, hazelnut syrup, peppermint syrup, Splenda, stevia, you name it. So it became so much of an issue that we have 4 (four) signs around the drive-thru and 3 (three) in the lobby listing all the items that we don't have. I guess people are just too lazy to read because we never fail to have that one person order a latte with all the syrups we don't have.
Well, this person ordered a Venti iced Hazelnut latte with 3 pumps of toffee nut and 2 Splendas. What are the chances? So I tried to stop this person as soon as hazelnut left his mouth, but he just didn't care and kept going on with his order.
Once I told him we, unfortunately, didn't have any of those syrups, this man got so heated. He started cursing at me through the speaker for a good 3 minutes (R.I.P my drive-thru time) and would not stop even after I apologized and offered him other drinks I thought he might like.
Well, he just drove off as I was speaking and purposely left a good 3 car distance between the car in front of him just so he could speed by the window and throw a drink at us. We were so glad we made a habit of closing the window between cars because otherwise, we would've gotten a very unpleasant surprise.
Maria_serratos
36. Thank you or Thank you Not
A lady was talking on the phone in drive thru so I had to wait awhile to take her order. When she finally did order, I treated her like normal and then ended the order with “Would you like anything else?” And she loudly said, “No, thank you!”
She rolled up to the window and I handed her her drink, she yelled “THANK YOU” At this point, I was weirded out and took her card. I was kind of laughing nervously. I gave her the card back and told her to have a great day. She screamed “Thank you” like loud enough that the entire lobby quieted down and I nervously laughed and closed the window.
She beat the window and I opened it, she screamed, “You’re supposed to say thank you.” I got scared and closed the window right when she threw her drink at me. I started to call the cops on the phone and I guess she saw and peeled away. She showed up the next day like 10 minutes before my shift started and asked my coworker where I was so she could fight me.
He told her to leave, but my manager didn’t ban her or do anything to get rid of her. All of this happened after I had worked there for like two weeks.
Altered-ever
37. Merry Karen Christmas
One of my favorite Karen stories was about the woman on Christmas Day who called me a wench and told me I ruined her and her family's entire Christmas by closing at 4 pm.
Christmas was volunteer only and I worked from 5:30 am (opened at 6) to 4:30 (closed at 4:00) by myself. She comes at 4:20 all the lights are off and I explain that I was the only person working that day and I apologize for the inconvenience of having to close early.
She proceeded to cuss me and I told her to have a great day! Honestly makes me laugh thinking about it now.
Stefabug
38. Fed with Paranoia
She came in 1-2 times a year, a normal lady with a nice car. Then she would accuse us of poisoning her. She said that we would put stuff in the water, the bar, etc. She would hang out at the hand off dictating who could make the drink, what water tap to use, and which bar to use.
She was always yelling to not use our things because “we’ve done something to it”.
She would normally throw one of the drinks away, finally get a drink that she felt wasn’t poisoned, and roll out.
These always take like 20 minutes, and this happened for 3 of the 4 years I was at the store. At first, I thought it was a manic episode or something, but the regularity of it and how calmly it would end after such an intense process. I don’t know anymore.
Solidhandshake
39. Mood swings on the run
I’m a green bean and haven’t had many awful experiences, but I’d have to say this one haunts me a bit and it was a partner, not a customer.
Another partner (who, yes, worked at the same store) came in early and ordered an iced London fog latte with some modifications. His drink came out and they called out his name. 10 minutes passed, and I called out his name. Another 5 minutes passed and the cafe was empty.
I walked out placed his drink on his table and smiled saying “Hey, Your special drink is ready!” since he was so helpful to me during my previous shift. He looked at me dead in the eye and softly yelled, “I wanted it hot!” I'm like, “Oh, man I must’ve rung it up wrong.” But no, this guy asked for it iced.
I then said I could have it remade but hot and we weren’t even busy so it would be out in a minute. By this time, other partners took notice of his very weird behavior and he saw that. So he just brushed it off and said over-nicely, “No it’s okay. It’s no big deal.”
Later that shift, things winded down a bit and I rolled over to his station (warming) and told him I was sorry again about messing up his drink. He seemed nicer now and said it wasn’t a big deal. But on the inside, I was like “Holy cow, this guy can flip like a light switch!”
Mean_Ad_4068
40. Thank God I was Brazen
I think my one flaw in customer service has always been my “smart mouth” (I was given this tool as an advantage when I am lacking in physical strength in the real world), but I digress.
This pregnant lady came through the drive-through and I wanted a double tall caramel macchiato with Oatmilk, then when I proceeded to ask if there was a dairy intolerance she said yes. So, being the Good Samaritan that I am I quickly informed her that our caramel sauce has dairy in it to which she quickly started yelling at me and then I ended up making it with caramel sauce.
When I went to hand it to her in the drive-thru, she said that it didn’t taste right.
Mind you, I’m 280 and I’m 19 and I’ve been working as a barista long before I was even shackled by the siren, and while I do make mistakes, I put extra attention towards her drink JUST so I wouldn’t get yelled at. So I ask the dreaded, “What’s wrong with it? I can remake it for you if you’d like?”
To which she said, “I used to work in customer service and you guys are all trash! This just tastes nasty, I get it all the time!” At this point, I’m just tired and it’s 9 pm, so I respond with “And I make it all of the time, so what’s the issue?” She didn’t know how to respond to that.
I didn’t even ask her I just gave her a refund in cash and told her that she should try another store if she wasn’t satisfied with this one.
Austintenial
41. Love but mostly HATE
My wife is a Karen. It wears me out. If she has to stand in line at a store for more than 5 minutes she will whine the whole drive home.Last week at Target the cashier had a short conversation with the person in front of us after she gave the customer the change. My wife told her she did not think she should "visit" when people were waiting.
In the course of driving, everyone going faster than her is a wild reckless driver and if you drive slower, you need to GTF off the road. I usually try and gently call her out on it, but then she would whine about that.
tFalk
42. Conceited Karen Chronicles
I was a server for a couple of years so have had plenty of “Are you really gonna do this?” experiences.
The biggest one was a lady who would come in and order a “create your own” salad. She would request something like 1/4 romaine, 1/2 spinach, and 1/4 iceberg for her greens every single time. Mostly, she would send it back because the portions were not correct.
But she and her husband would come in frequently so we knew her as “crazy salad lady” and it eventually got to the point that my managers would hand-make her salads and do the greens by weight to make sure it was 100% correct portions. She would then complain it wasn’t correct and my manager who made it would come out and put the same salad she sent back down and say, “Yeah, I measured these by weight, it cannot be any more correct than that” and the lady would immediately shut her mouth.
After that we never had her send a salad back and she stopped being the absolute worst customer.
Another fun one was that I had a solo woman who ordered a beer. Being a proactive server (read: lazy and not wanting to make extra trips), I brought her water while she waited for the beer, as most people like water, even for just a few sips. At the end of the meal, she had a weird hiccup and we already got her gift card sorted out.
Then I saw her at the front of the restaurant talking to my manager. My manager asked her what was the matter and apparently, the lady is PISSED that I brought her water. She insisted she didn’t ask for it and is demanding $.75 back because that was her gift card's remaining balance. She wants it in cash even though that’s never how that thing works and my manager explained this.
Still not good enough for her. So the manager goes and gets HER WALLET, pulls out the $.75 and says, “Here you go, hope this was worth it” and sees the lady out. I’m no longer in the industry, but you could not pay me enough to deal with people like that ever again.
Worst 3.5 years of my LIFE.
GottaBlast7940
43. Not a Picture-Perfect Story
I got called a pervert and had things thrown at me because I wouldn't let someone print pictures of a child that were copyrighted.
The picture had the copyright stamp on the photo and everything. I could not legally allow them to print it and sell it without proof from the photographer that they were getting permission to print it.
When I asked her to prove it was not copyrighted, she refused to show any type of form or sign release papers. I worked in a photo center by the way.
WaYaADisi1
44. Full Force Attack
Mine was a group of Karens. Both female, male, and kids.
So I never was popular in school. I was not white and so the adults decided to bully me and my classmates simply learned from them. I tried for years to make friends but it never worked. Sometimes I did make a friend but they would bully my friend so badly that they stopped being my friend and joined in on bullying me. Oh, and these were Christians.
In middle school, I discovered I actually loved reading. Suddenly I didn't need friends. I could just read. Well, my classmates noticed, especially 2 girls. They were pissed I wasn't giving them any attention and complained to our homeroom teacher. She basically said to “grow the crap up” because we were going to be high schoolers in a few weeks.
When that failed, they went to the science teacher (who yelled at me for being too "sexy" when I was 12) and she found me at recess, reading. She proceeded to yell at me about how selfish I was, how mean, and how I needed to stop reading so much and pay more attention to my classmates. After she was done, I rolled my eyes and went back to reading.
She wasn't pleased I wasn't kissing boots so she ran to the principal to complain. This man decided to run to my nanna in an attempt to get me to obey. My nanna tore him to pieces and even brought up how stupid it was that they were rewarding kids for reading a lot but they wanted me to stop because 2 kids who never liked me suddenly wanted attention.
The principal left red-faced with his tail between his legs. Never had a problem with my reading after that.
Bluellan
45. Don’t Touch My Penny
When I was younger, I lived in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in my state and everyone in that neighborhood was a Karen, male or female didn't matter. Everyone was so bratty.
I had a dog named Penny. I loved her unconditionally. She was my dog and I did everything for her. She was also the nicest dog ever, she would never hurt a fly. Anyone who knows Boxers knows that they are precious. Anyway, one day I had my best friend over and we were playing video games inside and Penny was outside.
We had an electric fence and she always wore her collar. I got a knock on my door and opened it to a lady who was visibly distraught clutching her little white rat dog. I asked her if she was okay and she screamed at me, "IS THAT YOUR DOG?!" I looked at my front yard and saw Penny playing with a stick. I laughed and said, "Yes ma'am."
She screamed at me again and said that Penny tried attacking her and her dog. I laughed and said, "I'm sorry, she likes to play with people, probably wanted you to throw the stick she found." The lady was not having it and said she'd mace my dog and kept bragging about how she had a mace for some reason. She started to threaten me and my dog and I became livid.
No one, and I mean no one, lays a hand on my dog if it isn't in a loving manner. She stormed off to her house, and I found out she lived across from me! My dad got home from work and when I told him he was pissed. So Papa Bear went over to the lady's house, talked to her husband, and settled things out.
Never heard from her again.
Virt333
46. Appointment Rumble
I had an ultimate encounter with a Karen.
I work at a retail store. We have a policy that you can only enter the store or return something with a shopping appointment. So I asked her if she had one, and she replied “No.” Then I said, Sorry, I can’t let you in. You need to have one. Then she started telling some lie that a week ago she had the appointment but she did not have to show it to another guy.
Finally, I told her that it was not my problem. I asked her why she did not have an appointment. She said she deleted it. Then the ultimate Karen moment came. She said, "'Can I speak with your manager?” I started laughing and called my manager in. She looked at me like she wanted to attack me.
CreeperPlays_MC