13 Epic Client Stories That Are Almost Impossible to Believe

They say patience is a virtue, but after dealing with certain clients, it feels more like an extreme sport. From baffling requests to reality-bending logic, these 13 stories prove patience deserves hazard pay, because sometimes, keeping calm is the hardest job of all.

• I’m a waitress, and once a woman ordered a drink. As I brought it to her, another woman stopped me and said, “I want that exact one, right now.” I told her I’d bring one soon. But she insisted, “No, I want that one, right now!” That’s when I realized that she literally wanted the drink I was holding.
  
  Confused, I asked the first woman to explain that the drink was hers. She got furious, accusing me of being unprofessional, and immediately called the manager. The manager blamed me, but some customers whispered something like, “I don’t even imagine how this waitress can work in such a toxic environment and keep her sanity!”

• I work as an engineer. I do some consulting on the side, but typically only for people I know and as a favor. A good friend asked me to help his in-laws who were doing some fairly massive renovations/additions. I agreed solely because he asked me to. This is not something I have any interest in or need in doing except as a favor. Its an old house and had a can of worms written all over it with some of the changes they wanted to do.
  
  Now he warned me that the MIL can be unpleasant, but that was an understatement. She seemed to think that because I was being paid (I charged probably 1/10th what a business would) that she could snap her fingers at me like a servant. I had a few unpleasant emails with her, but it was tolerable. She was rude when I was pointing out issues with their plans, but nothing too extreme.
  
  That changed when I started trying to find a time for me to stop by and inspect a few areas of the house to verify some information. I offered times to stop by on the weekend, but that didn’t work for her. Tried evening times, still a no. Nope, she wanted me to stop by during my office work hours because that was best for her. When I told her no, this gets done on the weekends or in the evening, she went from rude to incredibly hostile. Telling me that she is paying me (LOL) and that I work with her availability. Not the other way around. CC’ed my friend in on the chain, told them I was out and to have fun working with whoever they get. Friend apologized, I said no worries not my problem anymore. She emailed back, quite stunned that I was walking away, telling me that it’s not how business is conducted. I didn’t bother responding.
  
  About three weeks later I get an email from the husband now asking me if I would reconsider and he promises that his wife wont speak to me or be involved in anyway. I hear from my friend that while the quotes came back much higher, which was tolerable for them, but it was how long the wait was. They just bought this house and wanted to move in ASAP, but its an incredibly busy time of year for the industry. Turns out when companies you reach out to are drowning in work and you have a potentially convoluted and messy project, they arent chomping at the bit to get your business. So now they are going to lose the trades they lined up because design would be a month or two out.
  
  I passed on the request as I struggled to believe she would be kept in check and had no desire to bail her out. My friend didnt care, said it was nice watching her attitude give her consequences that actually effect her. © vizantz / Reddit

• I spent the better part of the work day freehanding and outlining a dragon backpiece on a woman in her early twenties. She had several pieces on her back she had received from a kitchen wizard that we were covering as well so that raised the difficulty level a couple notches. Her boyfriend and best friend hung out, chatted and watched movies all evening while we worked. All in all not a bad time... until it was time to pay.
  
  As we finished up and put the bandage on she turned to me and said, “So I get paid next Tuesday... is it ok if I come back then and pay you?” I laughed because obviously she was joking. She had to be joking. She better be joking. When I realized she wasn’t I said, “No, that’s not how this works. Somebody is going to pay before any of you leave.”
  
  She turned to her boyfriend and asked, “You’ve got this, right?” He laughed and said, “You know I don’t have any money!” She looked to her best friend who conveniently found something interesting on the ceiling so she was no help. Thinking it over for a few minutes they sat back down and she started making phone calls trying to scrape together the cash to avoid police involvement. About an hour later, a half hour past closing, a guy shows up with a fist full of bills for me and that’s when all of it breaks loose! Her last ditch effort it seems, was to call the guy she was cheating on her boyfriend with. © tattooerdasfrank / Reddit

• As a graphic designer I have to deal with alot of people basically destroying all the hard work me and my coworkers put into a project. At first, I couldn’t handle it, now I just find it funny to see where a project goes. But today, I had a client yell at me for telling me that the images we used were too low res for their word document.
  
  Me: Sorry but we can not boost the quality of the images, we receive from you. If you have a higher res photo we will have no problems placing it into the document for you.
  
  Client: But I gave you a vector photograph.
  
  Me: Photographs do not come in vector files
  
  Client: But it was a screen grab, the resolution should be larger than the image. What if I scan my monitor, would that produce a higher quality screen grab?
  
  Me: How did you send us the last screen grab?
  
  Client: I took a picture of my computer screen with my iPhone.
  
  © D**n8ti0n / Reddit

• A client of ours sent out an email to our team which basically resulted in us completely having to redo his tax return. One of the managers on the account replied to our team, about how this client always procrastinated and was a real evil. Too bad she sent “reply-all” including our client.
  
  The minutes immediately following her reply were tense. The partner on the account was panicking and she was in tears for her mistake. Lucky her, the client responded with “haha, yeah, I can be unbearable sometimes” and found it hilarious. © kukukele / Reddit

• I do inside sales for an IT consulting company. I had a client that ordered a docking station and keyboard through us. He called me and asked why he couldn’t get anything to come up on the screen.
  
  Probably because he didn’t order a computer. © Unknown author / Reddit

• Usually when kids answer the door for pizza it sucks because their parents don’t tell them to tip or how to tip on a receipt. Well a little boy answered the door for a delivery I took the other day, he was really young, like 7 or 8. Had on a bright red shirt with a dinosaur and everything. He proceeds to hand me an extra five and says “keep the change” and when I say thank you he waves it off. I hand him his pizzas and he inhales like he’s smelling them and says “This is going to be great after the day I had.”
  
  I think I delivered pizza to a 2nd grader with a stressful job and a mortgage. © msciel / Reddit

• I used to work in a department store when I was a student. During one of my long and boring shifts I made my way to one of the fitting rooms to pick up a pile of clothes that was sitting in there. As I walk in there was a client standing there who asked me, “How does this look on me?”
  
  My general policy was honesty, so I replied: “Sir, that shirt doesn’t look good on you; it’s far too large, the colours are way off and the cut does not fit your shape at all”
  
  Without blinking, the client then said: “The shirt’s mine actually, I was asking about the pants.” I then blubbered something about the pants being nice and ran out of there, ashamed.
  © Pe****kDoom / Reddit

• “I once had a client tell me to rewrite my report without using the word ‘this.’ He said it was too vague.
  
  Just as an experiment, I want all of you to push ‘ctrl+f’ and search for ‘this.’ Just look at all of the instances of the word ‘this’ on your current page, and try to come up with an alternative word or phrase.
  
  I dare you.” © floorface / Reddit

• I was at the airport, ready to leave, when I got a panicked phone call from a client. She yelled that the wedding video I made for her, had no sound, only some cracking noises. She insisted that I must fix this immediately, because she had arranged a family party that day and was planning to show this video to the guests.
  
  After a huge fight and thousands of threats from her side, I canceled my flight and rushed to her home. When I came to her dining room, I checked the sound on her laptop, then I investigated the laptop and noticed plugged in headphones. Unplugged them, listened to her clumsy apologies, then left and sent her the bill for my missed flight expenses, which she never paid afterwards.

• My dad is a vet. He told me about a lady bringing in a group of puppies to be checked out and get shots, etc. She claimed to have found them and thought they were very cute. All would have been well except that they were no ordinary puppies. They were Coyote pups. This woman found wild Coyotes and brought them to my father thinking she was going to have some new puppies that needed shots. © blacksg / Reddit

• I work in a small, locally owned toy shop in little college town, however we have a lot of down to earth people and families. Couple comes in with three kids and immediately the kids go crazy, wanting to show their parents every single toy in the store. It’s a small store but is broken into three distinct sections, rooms connected by walkways. We have a card rack next to the cash wrap that has all sorts of cards.
  
  As the wife is being dragged by her kids around the store, the husband comes up to me and quietly goes “Don’t let my wife see, we are big star wars fans” and slides me this card and cash to pay for it. I quietly make small talk with him about the weather and ring him up. I finish just in time as his wife and kids walk around and then grab their dad to go beg and ask for toys.
  
  I’m chatting with the mom and she sees a card on the card rack and says “This would be perfect for [husband] but don’t let him see this,” and slides me cash, finishes the transaction and winks. It’s the exact same card. They finish their shopping, purchase a few toys for their three kids and walk out, both chuckling to themselves about how clever they are. © Unknown author / Reddit

• I work in a fancy restaurant as a waitress when a woman suddenly approached, looking worried. “Please help me,” she said. “My in-laws will be here soon. When I signal you, could you let me know the toilet is free?” Surprised, I agreed. Once I did, her husband also stood up and followed her.
  
  It turned out they were planning to surprise the in-laws with the news of the baby they were expecting, but all the necessary items were with her husband. She took and went to the restroom to prepare a box and everything, ready to present it to them.

Some stories don’t just tug at your heartstrings — they rip right through them. These are the moments that left people speechless, eyes wide, hearts beating heavily. From unimaginable discoveries to haunting decisions and near-miraculous happenings, these real-life tales don’t just move you — they stay with you.

Dive into these unforgettable true accounts — each one a gut punch of emotion, truth, and raw humanity. You won’t just read them... you’ll feel them.