My first psychotic, enraged customer in 3 years of retail!

[Despina83]

So tonight I was sitting on break when I got a call from the floor phone:

Customer: "I need help in the cough and cold" (said through gritted teeth)

Me: "Alright, I'll be right there."

Customer: bgyfjdbfhbs (unintelligeble words I miss as I hang up)

So I was pretty pissed off that a customer interrupted my break (I normally never have my phone with me when I'm on break because it's happened one too many times). So I'm trudging back to HBC thoroughly irritated and thinking that the guy sounded rather crabby from his tone of voice. So I walk into the cough and cold aisle and am greeted by the site of boxes of cold and allergy medicine all over the floor, and an angry looking guy throwing another one onto the floor. I assess the scene while he glares at me.

Me: "...What do you need?"

Him: "........." (GLARES MORE)

Me:"...."

Him: "What the FUCK is going on here with you fuckin' people??!!"

Me: "What??"

Him: "You don't have a FUCKIN' THING!!!" (gesturing to a rather small empty space on the shelf)

Me: "Well, throw stuff on the floor, that'll help!"

Him: WHAT??!!!!!! (picture Mel Gibson here)


At this point I was walking away from him when I said it, and I was worried for a second that he was going to attack me, and maybe I shouldn't have said that. So I go to one of the night shift stockers and ask her to help him, while loudly proclaiming that I wasn't going to help some crazy guy with an attitude (while other customers looked at me).


I start to walk away as I said I would, but then I went back to see what would happen next.

Him: "You don't have any fucking Tylenol!!"

Stocker: "Yeah, we don't have Tylenol-"

Him: *sarcastic voice* "OH, you don't have any TYLENOL!!!"

Stocker: "THIS is just as good as the name brand. It's the exact same thing. My son uses it, it works great."

Him: (RIGHT in her face) "If it DOESN'T work..I'm coming back and CUSSING. YOU. OUT."

Stocker: "Go ahead."

I followed him at a distance to see if he was planning on stealing it, but it looked like he paid and left. Later I was told by the stocker that I looked crazed, like I was going to beat the shit out of him. So fuck yeah, I say he didn't dare to call me any names because he could tell by looking at me not to messs with me. Ha! However, I probably handled the situation poorly. I always planned on standing up for myself if someone got mouthy with me (I'm incredibly shy and nervous around people but if someone gets mouthy, darn right I'm going to say something), but I'm being told that I should avoid doing that with people who appear to be crazy, and possibly dangerous. From what I was told, he was over in grocery yelling "Where's the FUCKING ICE CREAM??!", yelling about our being out of regular Mountain Dew (yeah right, he probably just didn't see it), and yelling at the people at the deli counter. Somebody lock this crazy bastard up.

[Kristev]

Don't you wish you had that thing Catwoman had in an episode of Batman (60's tv show) that took men's voices away?

[Gawdzillers]

I hate when people know the brand name but not the drug they're taking.
Tylenol = Acetaminophen
Motrin = Ibuprofen
Bayer = Aspirin
Aleve = Naproxen

Saves you money, yo.

[Despina83]

Earlier today a woman asked where the children's Tylenol was, and I showed her what we have (the store brand, Acetaminophen
) and she refused it and left without. Happens all the time.

[Sapphire Silk]

Why wasn't the police called?

[MaseMan]

He should have been refused service after all that.

[TonyDonuts]

Earlier today a woman asked where the children's Tylenol was, and I showed her what we have (the store brand, Acetaminophen
) and she refused it and left without. Happens all the time.

I know a lot of people who absolutely refuse to even pick up one of those icky "generic" boxes.

"Well, you don't really know what's in there, after all!" Yes, actual quote.

I stopped even the simple, "Aspirin is aspirin," explanation years ago. People really want to believe that expensive=medicine and cheap=candy.

[PepperElf]

Me: "Well, throw stuff on the floor, that'll help!"

pretty sure he's not really use to having someone call him out on his behavior. maybe it shocked him into leaving you alone. (not to mention the crazed look you described)

[radiocerk]

Recalls

Yeah, the kid's Tylenol (Motrin, Zyrtec) and a couple of other liquid medications were recalled a few months back. I've had an awful time in the pharmacy explaining to people that: not only are the brand and generic the same medication, the brand is not currently available. Half the time they still say they'll get it somewhere else.

Good luck with that.

[chainedbarista]

i buy generics when they're available (yay for generics $$ in my pocket instead!); people who don't understand that there is no difference deserve to pay for for their stubbornness and stupidity.

i'm also wondering why this nutjob didn't receive a police escort and a free night in jail for vandalism at the very least with a perma-ban.

[Sapphire Silk]

The FDA oversees production of all pharmaceuticals sold in the US. They are required to be the same.

That being said, some few people do better on name brand vs generic, and those people should use which ever type they get the best result from.

But for the vast majority that is the rest of us, the only difference between name brand and generic is price.

I wonder if all these picky people would be so picky if Tylenol brand name cost as much as say, Lipitor? Or the latest, greatest antibiotic?

[EricKei]

Tylenol = Acetaminophen
Motrin = Ibuprofen
Bayer = Aspirin
Aleve = Naproxen

Saves you money, yo.

Indeed ^_^

I have to be extra careful about these, myself -- I can't take NSAIDS (ibu/nap) because they interfere with my blood pressure meds, I can't take aspirin for a similar reason (plus, blood thinner), I can only take acet/tylenol >_< Which wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't unintentionally built up a tolerance to the stuff as a teenager who got frequent headaches.

[Orelinde]

maybe this person may have "seen the light" from a generic frontal lobotomy maybe?

[zombiequeen]

I get generics of almost everything I need to take. Except for Zantac. The round generic ones have a different filler, which makes me throw up. A couple of other generic pills do this too. I have no clue why, it's not like a mental thing because I'll take the sheild shaped generic ones and be fine. I asked my doctor about it and she said that some generic pills have different coatings/fillers that make some people who are extremely sensitive to it sick. That, however, is the only brand name pill I take.
I learned from an early age that store brand=save at least $5, usually $10 over name brand then I can afford to stock up for when I won't have money and still need pills (like every three months )
I know people who only take brand-name pills, and some that only take prescriptions. Really, a prescription for tylenol?

[Akasa]

Generics all the way here. I'm getting bf in the habit these days too.