I’ve a few fun stories.

I spent some years around the turn of the century running a video arcade in a shopping mall. (Kids, ask your parents what both of those were.) Kids regularly got themselves kicked out for violence, whether toward the machines (sometimes hard enough to chip paintwork) and sometimes against each other (always fun when a round of Street Fighter results in a round of Regular Fighter.) I once banned a kid who had stolen a roll of prize tickets behind my back while I was reloading a machine’s ticket supply, and very intelligently tried to come back the next day to buy prizes with the still-intact unused roll. I once got a family banned from the entire mall because they decided to leave a scared toddler - maybe five years old, no ability to play the games or money to spend on them, and no discernible ability to communicate in English - alone in the arcade - a dark, crowded, and noisy place with its own open door leading directly to the parking lot - while they went off to do their shopping in the rest of the mall. The kid was turned over to mall security who got the cops involved.

More recently I worked for some years in a 3D-print-to-order factory which I’ll call “Shapeways,” for that was its name. Custom tabletop RPG dice sets were popular items; considerably more expensive than getting a standard set from the local hobby shop, but available in all sorts of bespoke designs in cool materials. One customer was apparently so dissatisfied with their dice order that they not only sent a bunch of Chaotic Evil emails and phone calls about it, but included direct threats to go down to the factory personally to teach us some sort of lesson. This resulted in their account being shut down, authorities getting involved, and the factory hiring an armed security guard for a few months over a set of dice they could have simply had reprinted or refunded. (Shapeways has since shut down, but as far as I know it was not over unsatisfactorily-printed dice.)

At the video rental store, the customer that returned a DVD case reeking of cigarettes and full of cockroaches. I had seen the customer before and always read the notes about the latest gross ass thing they’d done that flashed up on screen when serving them because all the other staff hated them and would write these complaints. Despite that I didn’t really remember them particularly or have much of a run in with them.

I happened to be the one on shift when they were to discover they’d been banned though. They tried to pick up some movies to rent and I had to explain that I couldn’t rent to them because they were banned. They asked why and I told them that it says here you returned a DVD case full of cockroaches and they responded indignantly “What!? Is that IT!?” They definitely weren’t denying it and seemed very surprised this was a bannable offence.

When I worked in customer service, a guy kept calling in and waiting until he got a woman so he could say vulgar shit. Another guy called me a “n*gger bitch” and he was put on letters only. I know he couldn’t tell what race I was over the phone, but I immediately said “fuck you” and hung up and then proceeded to panic about losing my job once the initial shock wore off. I didn’t lose my job though. 👍🏾

A recurring customer having habit of delaying to pay the bar tab because he’s “too drunk”. Usually took him weeks and multiple asking before he paid his bar tab in full.

This time he bought a bunch of pretty girls lots of expensive drinks, at the end of the night he is so drunk that nobody can reason with him to pay (but we suspect he’s faking it as always). So we put his bill in his tab and let him go.

The next day he act like he doesn’t remember anything and refused to acknowledge that he was buying anyone else drinks even with the CCTV footage of him on that night (and of course refused to pay his tab).

This went on for 2 weeks before the head bartender get into a fight with him. The customer ended up with a black eye and got banned from the bar. He doesn’t press any charges.

I couldn’t remember his bill total in the end, but it was close to 2k.

Wrked in a bakery with a café part to sit at. the store was in the same building as a convinence store. Every now and then a middle aged woman with smeared make up (think simpsons make up shotgun) went to the convience store the came to us, to first use the toilett and the sit down and “drink” a coffee. at least that is her story. as a worker we all knew that she never drank the coffee, but instead drank those mini alkohol bottles in the toilett ( as if we didnt see the bottles in the trash). she usually gets punch drunk till closing time. but we let her since she obviously felt ashamed about drinking, and seemed to have a hard life as is. but as she got comfortable with the workers, because we were nice to her, she started to belive/act as if she worked there too when drunk. repositioning all the tables and chairs. takeing the toilett keys home and never return them, try to make us hang out inside the store after closing. and if you ever tried to reason with a drunk person you know there is no way. after we needed to call the police the second time just to able to end out shift, and close down, she got banned.

in a way i feel sorry for her, since she was never seen in the store again. these people make me want to be able to help. but i am not able and i get paid minimum wage to keep up with it :/