Comments on: Hour 10: The worst day ever

By: Shannon

Shannon — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:58 +0000

Oh boy do I have one lol. Im an RVT at a small animal clinic. We had this one looney client with a persian cat and a shih tzu mix. When I say looney, I mean looney. Her previous vet mentored my boss, she came to us after she was asked to leave his clinic due to her finding his phone number in the phone book, calling him at home, and making very derogatory comments to his wife. Anyway she came in one day, totally off her rocker, accused me, in the waiting room, of sleeping with my boss to keep my job. She would call the clinics fax number instead of the phone number, then she would come in a reem reception out saying they knew it was her calling and they were transferring her to the fax machine on purpose. The last time we saw her, she made her way into our surgery room inthe back after we removed her from the waiting room for causing a scene, proceeded to curl up in the fetal position on the floor and cry…the police came and got her.

By: Robyn Broyles

Robyn Broyles — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:21:40 +0000

Hmm. I’m a former animal control officer, and I don’t remember the worst thing a citizen ever said to me (you grow a thick skin very fast in that business), but here is what must be the funniest thing:

I knocked on the front door of a house whose resident had committed some infraction or other. The woman who answered was on the phone, and she became belligerent the instant she saw my uniform. I insisted she hang up. (Hey, I might not have been a cop, but I was not about to let someone play status games with me.) I went through the standard questions to get her contact information—name, etc. When I asked her phone number, she said to me:

“I don’t have a phone.”

This was the only time I ever remember being speechless with a citizen—mainly because I was trying to keep a straight face. I wasn’t insulted that she thought I was that stupid—I thought it was hilarious that she was stupid enough to THINK I was that stupid!

By: casacaudill

casacaudill — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:38:14 +0000

When I worked at Pottery Barn after college I was responsible for signing people up for their registry and helping people find registered gifts. The system was pretty new and it would sometimes turn buggy and go offline for no apparent reason. We had a lady come in who was dressed to the nines, but in all cheap stuff. Fake gold, fake Chanel, fake LV. She was definitely trying to play a part, but I recognized her for what she was. She wanted to pull up her daughter’s registry, but the system was down. I tried explaining this to her and she started waving her red talons in the air talking about what a shame it was that stores were no hiring incompetent people who probably didn’t even graduate high school and couldn’t figure out how to work basic technology. I was livid, especially because I had gone to college and because of the dot com crash the best I could do was Pottery Barn. I asked her what college she went to. She looked at me blankly and was like, “I didn’t, but it doesn’t mean I can’t spot someone without an education when I see it.” I looked her square in the face and told her that in addition to her fake couture, she had revealed her ignorance of the world because unlike herself, I was a college graduate and I wasn’t going to deal with people beneath me.” And I walked away to help a nice little old lady pick out a candle. And then I went and cried.

By: casacaudill

casacaudill — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:33:32 +0000

When I first started doing agency PR, I had a nasty woman client ask me, “Are you as stupid as you look, or stupider?” I started crying. It turns out she’d insulted all of the team at one point or another and the agency never did anything about it.

Earlier this week I was onsite for a client’s big launch and the marketing guy went berserk as 10:35 because he hated the results. We’d been working since 5 a.m. and he had expected all of their coverage to hit at 5:01 a.m. When it didn’t, he started to get nervous. When I arrived in his office he started screaming at me in front of everyone about what a colossal failure the launch was, how it was amateur hour and the coverage was terrible. I explained to him how launches work down here in the real world and he was having none of it. The worst was that at no point did any of the 7 other people in the room try to stop him. Then, because I didn’t freak out he started yelling at me because I wasn’t panicking, telling me that me being calm & collected only made him feel worse because it meant I didn’t get the gravity of the situation. My hands & knees were shaking – I was in enemy territory with no reinforcements. I finally talked him down from the ledge and by the end of the day he was happy with the results, just like I guaranteed him he would be. Last night we got a note from him saying the results were exceptional, but I’ve never received an apology for basically being his whipping post that morning.

By: Kristie

Kristie — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:58:58 +0000

I could tell a lot about nasty customers after five years working in big box retail, but your story has me making a donation in memory of my first day ever teaching in my very own classroom, a day which involved a fight, my cell phone being stolen, graffiti in the bathroom by some of my students, and getting cussed out. And I taught 5th grade.

By: Dr. V

Dr. V — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:38:11 +0000

It couldn’t have been that vital to her, then! What if Dr Soandso went to that crummy school…I don’t know which one I am talking about but I’m just inserting one for her benefit. The one that isn’t Texas A&M? lol.

By: Sara

Sara — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:35:07 +0000

Me: “Mrs Crazy let’s talk about why we recommend a heartworm test before selling you interceptor”
Mrs Cray: “And what school did YOU go to?”
Me: “Ohio State, Ma’am”
Her: “WELL – I’ve never had a good experience with any vet that didn’t go to Texas A&M so I doubt you even know what you’re talking about”
Me: *blank stare* “OK, well… perhaps you should go find a vet from A&M prior to shouting loudly in my waiting room that we’re trying to rip you off by recommending a $13 blood test. *explains HW and why we test*”
Her: Well Dr. Soandso said the tests weren’t necessary!
Me: “Was he from Texas A&M??”
Her: “….I don’t know”
Me: “Well maybe you should just take Fluffy to go see him…”
… Keep in mind we live in Pennsylvania – Texas A&M grads are very few and far between here…
OK so that story’s not exactly hair-raising like yours BUT it sure did get my blood pressure up. Thankfully I haven’t been in the biz long enough to get totally floored.. Yet.
~Sara

By: Dr. V

Dr. V — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:18:52 +0000

Oh, what an awful thing to say to a kid! People are rotten, I tell ya. Did she happen to have a Yorkshire terrier with her?

e-mail me and I will get you the contact info for our lovely sponsor.

By: Megan

Megan — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:46:28 +0000

I had a similar experience with my very first emergency case as a veterinary intern. The nasty pet store owner of a very ill baby parrot was full of insults not only directed at me, but also at my wonderful referral hospital. She made me cry (fortunately I kept it together until I was able to leave the room where I was trying to discharge my patient-AMA) and was subsequently fired as a client by my supervising clinician, who has a reputation for being patient with almost everyone. It was one for the record books. That woman was pure evil. (Ps-I plan to donate once I get to work today. Can’t do credit card stuff over the Blackberry!)

By: silvergrey

silvergrey — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:34:20 +0000

I don’t have any nasty client stories, either, thankfully. But I’ll tell you how the worst week of my professional life started. I was a senior vet student. A client called on the phone, saying something was wrong with his dog, and he was bringing her in. Despite much prompting, he couldn’t put his finger on exactly what was wrong. When he arrived, I met him at the front. He was dog-less, and when I asked him where the dog was, he nonchalantly said, “Oh, I don’t need your services anymore.” I brightly said, “Oh, good!” He replied “No, NOT good. She died on the way here.” I wanted to fall through the floor!

And that was actually the least-horrible thing that happened to me that week, so you can imagine how downhill it went from there!