Customer service workers invariably have to deal with a number of unpleasant customers while on the job, and sometimes their complaints just don’t make sense.
One woman, a former ice cream shop worker, used TikTok to share the story of a customer who accused her of stealing after driving away without her change.
The TikToker (@alex.ishere1) says she worked at an ice cream shop while she was in high school, and one time “this boomer lady” came through the drive-thru. She ordered a single vanilla ice cream cone, which cost $2.
The customer paid for her $2 ice cream cone with a $100 bill, Alex says. So the worker handed the customer her ice cream cone before returning her change, reasoning that it would take a while to count out the change, and she didn’t want the ice cream to melt.
When Alex turned around to hand the customer her change, she had already driven away. The TikToker says she put the change aside for the time being.
@alex.ishere1 #stitch with @mikey.skates #boomer #okayboomer #memories #customerservice #karen #MadewithKAContest #america #capitalism #karens #okaykaren ♬ original sound – alex.is
“We had this rule that if [customers] don’t come back within the next four hours, you get to take that change and split it between all the workers as a tip,” Alex says in the video.
After nearly four hours had passed, Alex split the abandoned change between herself and the only other employee working at the time. She says the customer came back through the drive-thru “literally two seconds later.”
Alex says she immediately gathered up the change again when she recognized the customer’s voice.
“She then came up and accused me of stealing from her,” Alex says in the video. “She yelled at me for about 20 minutes after that.”
As of Saturday, Alex’s video has received over 1.1 million views. Viewers had mixed reactions to the TikToker’s story.
One viewer commented that they often had customers like Alex’s during their customer service job and offered their advice.
“I’ve had so many people do that,” they said. “I always tell them we had cameras and if they didn’t even wait for their change then that was a you problem.”
“Why would you take that from her just tell her to leave and call the cops if she wants to keep yelling at you,” a second viewer commented, referencing the customer yelling at Alex.
Some users said they think it’s weird that customers have such large bills to pay for such inexpensive items.
“Why do they always have hundreds? I think I have maybe 2 hundred dollar bills. and that’s like. emergency money. 50 is the biggest i go. normally 20s,” one user said.
“Also how do all of these people just casually have so many $100 bills??? like boomers are richer than i thought,” another wrote.
However, some viewers didn’t agree with how the TikToker handled the situation, though, and scolded her in the comments.
“I work for Publix and we would get fired for this. Give it at least 24 hours. Geez,” one viewer wrote.
In response to the comment, Alex wrote, “This was back in 2016 and was a rule my boss at the time made… I wasn’t in charge I was just a worker.”
In separate comments on the video, the TikToker clarified, “Y’all of course we still have the money back if the people came back after the 4 hours. The 4-hour limit was set just because of shift change.”
“Also I was 16 and this was my first job, I was simply following what my manager had told me to do but I still gave the money back,” she added.
The Daily Dot reached out to user @alex.ishere1 via TikTok comment.
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