My various experiences in customer service the past 5 years

Worked for a Nation-wide used goods store

Sometimes homeless people come in with free 20 dollar vouchers for clothing. This guy comes in and reeks horrendously. Try to be nice and help him find clothing. Open up a dressing room. Tries on clothing, pays, leaves. I go to open the dressing room for someone else later only to find out that.... The guy ended up smearing THE ENTIRE dressing room in feces.

Worked for a gas station

Customer comes in and grabs a beer. He comes to the counter and opens it. I let him know he cannot drink it (and should not have opened it due to the law). He proceeds to glare at me, point his finger at me, and pull out a gun and lay it on the counter. He then finishes the entire can of beer and picks up his gun and leaves peacefully. Police were never able to apprehend.

Gas Station Continued

Guy stumbles in with his son. He is obviously drunk. Son let's me know his dad "is plastered". The dad tries to buy beer, I deny him the sale and move the beer aside. The customer proceeds to come to the store 2-3 times a day for months to complain to management that I racially profiled him.

Gas station Continued

Two young girls are in line. They are discussing cigarettes and what kind to get. When it's their turn, I ask for both of their ID's. One refuses to give me her ID so I deny them their sale. They leave. Ten minutes later an older woman barges into the store. She proceeds to berate me, scream her head off, lunge across the counter, throw stuff at me, and accuse me of being a racist. She is mad because I denied her daughters the sale of the cigarettes she needed. During her rant she admits one of them is underage. She awkward thing? She was blind but called me a racist and then demanded to know what country I'm from because I wasn't "a true American".

Gas Station Continued

Customer comes to the register with about 20 items. Proceeds to complain about prices. Accuses me of lying about prices. Makes me check on 10 items and their prices. The line ends up going all the way back (solo shift). When I refuse to change the prices he ends up crying and then yelling and accusing me of not giving him any sympathy. He then proceeds to tell me he was a Boston Bombing victim and I should be willing to be fired to give him a discount and then proceeds to damage various products and leaves. He made me feel very conflicted/sad/confused. He was an amputee but when discussing this event with other coworkers, apparently he has also claimed (prior to the Boston bombings) to be a 9/11 victim.

Used Clothing Store (Different)

Customer comes up with an iron. It's marked 25 cents and the tag is a tag we use for books. We are taught to try to handle people changing the tags on us carefully so as to not make them mad at us. I tell her that this is not the correct price and that someone else must have switched it. She accuses me of calling her a thief, throws the shoes she was going to buy, and marches across the street (we had corporate offices for the state right there). We get a call. I get yelled at, she gets a 20 dollar gift card and the iron for 25 cents.

Clothing Store (Seasonal)

I was hired as a temp for a big chain store. I do not have to wear the uniform or help customers. Just stock. A lady comes up to me ranting about something. I am having trouble hearing her. She then exclaims she remembered where the item she needs is. She proceeds to leave her kid in the stroller and wander away. I have no clue what to do. Make awkward faces at the baby till the mom comes back and exclaims how I'm so lazy for entertaining her kid/should get a kid of my own/ and calls me a racial slur. She was gone almost 10 minutes. It was one of my first jobs so I had no clue what to do. I hope the kid's mom got better at parenting...