One of the most bizarre requests a customer made of me: a customer was a few dollars short of the total owed, so she told me to pay the rest of it with my own money, and then she started to grab her bags and walk away. I held onto the bags and told her that I was not going to pay for customer's purchases with my own money and that she either had to pay the full amount or remove some merchandise from her purchase. After screaming until she was literally red in the face and calling me every name in the book, she abandoned the purchase altogether, yelling about how horrible my customer service was for not "helping" her and "giving her a break."
Wow, that is classic! Unfortunately, that's the kind of thing you get when we live in an entitlement society. People get handouts from the government, and so they expect it in other areas of their lives. I've never been a cashier, but I was a sales rep for a few years at Best Buy. One of the more bizarre things that happened to me was I got a call from a customer, asking about some software. At first, he didn't ask his question very clearly, so I said his understanding was incorrect. When he explained it better, I apologized and said he was correct. He then went into a hissy-fit about always getting poor customer service at my store. He said "do you know who I am!?" I thought "no, but I bet you can't wait to tell me." He told me he was with some paid shoppers group, and that because of what I did, he was going to give my store a poor rating. I thought "uh, okay. Anything else dips***? Because I have a real customer in front of me with a question." He then asked for my name and my supervisor, which I gave him. I did so knowing he was all talk and wouldn't do anything. And he didn't. I was never so much as asked about the event. I laugh every time I think about it. This guy apparently thought that getting paid to "shop" was being like a foreign diplomat or something.
I think my experiences working at Best Buy and a retirement home (my first job) helped me become more aware of how I treat those I encounter in customer service. I always do my best to be polite and not make silly demands.
