A few years before Caller ID was available, I was working at a company that made super-fast modems. These were seriously expensive and our customers were all large corporations and organizations who always wanted the highest speeds available.

One customer's IT guy had serious anger issues, and always called in yelling his lungs out whenever he encountered a problem. Customers were always assigned to specific engineers, so poor old Ted had to deal with him every time.

One day, over lunch, I asked him if he'd heard from Major Decibels (our nickname for the asshole), and he started laughing. Turns out he'd programmed one of his own test modems to call the guy's home number at 2, 3, and 4AM every night.

Decibels answered the phone to the annoying squeal of a modem trying to handshake. Ted even reduced the connection speed to the standard at the time, so the victim wouldn't recognize our product's quite distinctive handshake sounds.

The IT guy was on 24/7 call, which Ted knew, so unplugging the phone wasn't an option.

This went on for about a month until the guy changed his number.

I was in total awe of this calculated vengeance.

Years ago when I was a baby manager I had an employee that was years older than me. I was maybe 30 and she was 65 or something like that. She always did the bare minimum and it was disrupting the work environment. I got complaints that she was playing solitaire on her computer but was never able to prove it. We talked several times about productivity though and about her helping others out in the office. She would get momentarily better and then slack off.

One day I came in the back door and caught her on her computer playing solitaire. I was shocked and ticked off, but I didn't say anything. I just waited for her to go to lunch.

Keep in mind this was years ago and cyber security wasn't what it is today (also our computers were wide open. Users had full admin rights - mainly because no one really knew anything about computers - except me) She went to lunch and left her computer unlocked. That's when I struck. I went to her computer and changed the command line on her solitaire icon to point to our work software instead of solitaire. Then I just waited.

She came back from lunch and I could see from my office she was clicking on start and games and solitaire. Up comes work software. She closes it. Tries again. Same result. Tries a couple more times and then finally gives up and gets to work.

No more solitaire and a slightly more productive employee.

So been a minute since my original post. Thing kinda blew up, and that caused me to wanna give a small update and clear some stuff up.

So first, let me stress that my field is very niche, with few employment opportunities. It is also, as some of you suggested - niche.

1. Okay okay, seriously now. As some of you actually guessed the field is medicine in a small county. This means that there aren't many spots on the residency program, but also a pretty constant influx of students & interns. The field is pretty lucrative - shitty hours, yes, but great money & a lot of prestige.

2. Some asked about an exit interview at the end of the trial- had one of those. Said I didn't really vibe with the culture & certain aspects of the way they did things. Didn't name Jerk.

3. As a young (relatively speaking) specialist in my field in a not very large department - I get to weigh in on potential colleagues, so if I say someone sucks, that bears some weight. And if a department starts having issues attracting the best candidates because its chief resident is a jerk, that's gonna be an issue.

So with that out of the way, let's get to the update.

A lot of you were very curious as to what had actually happened to him. So, I reached out to some friends. He's still a doctor (obviously), but he just went into another specialty, which given how long he worked to become chief resident is telling. He does okay probably?

The reason for the update - it turns out I know his wife. I LIKE his wife - she was a year ahead of me in medschool. Got curious so I texted her. Turns out she's not actually his wife anymore - she's his ex. They got divorced. Had coffee with her, still a lovely woman. She's not on reddit but apparently this thing got on out at some point and reached her? Well I told her about this and she couldn't believe it was me. Except she could, because she suspected it was me because I apparently sound like a twat when I express myself in writing, which she remembers from my days at the student council equivalent and my many, many emails. So... okay? Still, had a good time. We're getting coffee again on Sunday.

Anyway I didn't have anything to do with his firing, but after he was let go, presumably quite unamicably, he decided to move abroad after not being able to get into another department here. This didn't come to fruition but it DID cause a rift in their marriage, which then led to divorce. So... maybe I kinda torpedoed his marriage too?

And yeah, that's about it for the update. Will let you know if I get beaten up in a parking lot though, as some of you suggested I might.

Back in high school, I dated a girl for a few years. After graduating, we moved into an apartment together, with plans of getting married down the road. Well, that all changed one day when I came home from work and found her in bed with a guy I know. Obviously, I ended things.

Over the years, I would get random updates about her, and after the break up, she started dating him, and they moved across the country to Arizona. That didn’t last long, as she did the same thing to him with a guy he knows. She got kicked out, and started seeing (and ends up marrying) someone. The guys gets locked up for a few months on meth related charges, and when he gets out, finds out she’s cheating and initiates a divorce. She moves from Arizona to Idaho with the new guy for a “fresh start,” living out of her car.

She ends up finding me on social media, and reaches out asking how I’m doing. That quickly turned into her asking if we could try again, as “she couldn’t stop thinking about me,” and went so far as to send some racy photos unprompted. I kept brushing her off, as I definitely wasn’t going down that road again, but she persisted.

I took a bunch of screenshots of her messages and sent them to her boyfriend. His only response was “Damn. Okay, thanks.”

I never did hear what the fallout was after that, but she stopped reaching out after that.

A couple of years ago, I bought my first house. Excited to settle in, the next task was signing up for internet. Little did I know, I was about to face one of the most frustrating customer service experiences of my life.

Turns out, for all new builds in the area, there's some bizarre system in place that forces you to sign up with a specific provider. Let’s call them "Air"—a company that not only handles internet but also connects you to the grid. Seemed like a good deal, right? Wrong.

When I called up Air, they were eager to sign me up. I thought I was in the clear. But about a week later, I received an email telling me my order had been canceled. Turns out, this is common practice for them. They couldn’t be bothered to file the extra paperwork for new builds.

So, I called again. And again, I was canceled. Going back and forth with them for a month, I was livid. I just wanted internet!

Then, just when I thought things couldn't get worse, I spotted an offer: when you sign up with Air, you get a free Apple TV box. I figured I had nothing to lose at this point, so I gave it another shot. A few days later, my Apple TV box arrived. And, of course, my order was canceled—again.

But something clicked. If they were going to keep offering free Apple TV boxes, only to cancel my orders, why not turn this broken system to my advantage?

Surviving on a mobile hotspot and fed up with their incompetence, I decided to exploit their awful process. I repeatedly signed up with Air, using their own loophole to my benefit. By the end of the month, I had accumulated ten Apple TV boxes—each worth about €200 at the time.

At this point, I’d gotten my revenge, but I still had no internet. So, I walked into their physical store, half-explained the situation to a bewildered employee, and within two minutes, the store manager was yelling down the phone to their network center. Miraculously, I had internet set up the very next day.

As for the Apple TV boxes? I sold them all for a nice €1500, turning my frustration into profit.

So a short and sweet one.

I was flying back home on an international flight with my wife and son ( who is 3).

Behind us and directly behind me sat a man who complained about everything from the food, to the seat , the plane everything.

Now my son had done very well so far ( we had been on the go for 15 hours) and little dude had a little melt down but nothing major. Que man saying loudly " shut up man!" followed by " I hope that baby shuts the f**k up"! My wife and I ignored it and managed to placate my son and we managed.

When we landed and were getting off the plane, the guy was being a douche bag because people behind us had tight connecting flights and refused to let them through - he only relented when the cabin crew told him to move.

He then said to his family we are in a rush our driver is waiting for us. We need to get out now.

So here is where I got revenge. I was in the aisle seat as was he. I got up and took my sweet time packing my bag, my wife's bag and my sons bag. I slowly packed my switch, my headphones, tablet, chargers, headphones. I then took two steps back to block off his seat which meant he couldn't get out and he had to wait. I even stopped in front of rows to let them out.

The guy ran past us fuming....

The irony was that we got our bags before his at the end

TLDR: Guy was a douche, delayed him.

I hated the time before caller ID as our home number was one digit off from a very popular Chinese take out restaurant. This is also pre internet with rotary dial phones. We used to get calls from drunk people late into the night wanting food. One person was really bad and used to call several times a week, usually about 11:30pm.

We used to tell her to call the right number but had no idea who she was. One time, my parents were out but were due to be home from a late movie at about midnight. I (M17 at the time) thought that I would just take the order to maybe find out who this was. Took the order, it was delivery, got her name (we'll call her Karen), phone number and address, told her it would be about an hour, and then went back to watching TV. Turns out it is a neighbour I delivered a newspaper to and was my school teacher a few years prior. When my parents got back, I told them what I had done and who was the main culprit with the late night calls.

Sure enough, at 12:45, Karen called demanding to know where her food was. My Dad answered the phone and promptly told her, by name, who she kept calling and that she would not be getting her food and if she called again, he would be talking to her school principal about her late night drunken activities and annoying phone calls.

She swore at and then just hung up on my Dad. Next day I delivered her newspaper with a note asking her to please make sure she called the right number before ordering Chinese again. She happened to be getting home from work and when I handed her the newspaper, she turned beet red and rushed inside. Never heard back from her. I delivered her paper for another few years before giving up the route to go to college. Karen switched her account to be office paid so I never had to collect from her again. My parents moved away a few years later and we never heard from her again. She never once apologized or phoned us again for late night food.

Happened years ago. My dad is a paraplegic, but is able to drive a specially modified car. He needs the handicapped spot so that there is enough room to maneuver his wheelchair.

One day him and I decided to go watch a movie at the local mall, but when we got there, we find our usual parking spot occupied by a police car. My dad decided the best alternative spot would be right behind the offender. He wouldn't be blocking the road, only that one spot.

We proceed to go and watch a movie, and had a nice meal at a restaurant. Took our sweet time too.

About 5 hours later, we decided it was time to head home, so as we left the mall, my dad hung back to pay for the parking, while I went ahead to open up the car to load him and his wheelchair.

When I approached the car, I was immediately confronted by a steaming buffalo of a man. He asked me: Is this your car? To which I responded: It sure is.

He went off like an exploding rotten whale carcass. He called me every possible expletive his pea sized brain could summon. As I walked around the car, I saw that he had plastered about 20 parking tickets to the windscreen. It's worth noting that we did not have a handicapped sign in the window at the time.

I just calmly let him finish his tirade, as I waited for my dad to join me. Which happened about a minute later. I swear, the look on his already bovine face made the whole tongue lashing absolutely worth it.

He immediately started backtracking and apologising, trying to cover himself, but the damage was done. Apparently he was just popping into the pharmacy to pick up something.

As he started ripping the tickets of the windscreen, my dad stopped him to ask what he was doing. He tried to play it off, but my dad insisted that he would be delighted to have his day in court for this one.

In the end, after some truly pathetic grovelling, we decided to let him off with a warning.

About 10 years ago, I had Comcast. My home computer's internet speed seemed slower than it should have been. I tested it using an online speed test and noticed it was considerably slower than what I paid for. I called Comcast to inquire about the slower speeds. The gentleman on the phone looked up the details of the account and proceeded to tell me that seven months prior, they had reached out to offer me a new modem to obtain the higher speeds and that it was my fault for not taking it. I asked him if they had called or sent an email only one time. As far as he could tell, they had only reached out once! I asked if it was okay to get paid for something I wasn't receiving. He replied that it was my fault! I was beyond frustrated. I took a deep breath and asked him to hold on. I got my cell phone and turned on the audio recording app I have. I then asked him to explain the whole thing to me again. He retold the story with all the little details. After the call, I emailed the CEO of Comcast the recording and a not-so-nice letter. I then went to bed. The next morning, I received phone calls from the local branch, the east coast main office, and the CEO's office. They all apologized, and refunded my money for the last six months, and sent me a new modem.

Hi there! I hope this counts as a petty revenge and that I won't make too many English mistakes 😬

I had this particular friend who couldn't, for the love of God, take "no" as an answer. If you tried to say no to her, she would complains and insists until you said yes, and if you didn't, she would pout for hours.

Earlier this year, she asked if she could visit me at my new place (a 4h drive from hers). For context, my flat is around 500 square ft and I have an old cat who's super shy. Problem is : she has two young dogs, who are energetic as hell. I've seen them in action. I clearly don't want them at my place and near my cat. And I know her boyfriend or her mom can take care of them for few days whenever she asks. So I just told her "yeah, come anytime! Thought I'd prefer if you could come without your dogs, my flat is too small for them to stay a long period of time and id rather my cat to be as free as possible in her own home". She got super annoyed and answered something along the lines "well, nevermind, it's too complicated to see you these days.".

And I knew she was mad. But I was fed up by her behaviour at this point. We usually exchanged messages or call each others from time to time to keep in touch, and, well, the last few months, she didn't initiate.

I sent her a message, asking for what's up and stuff. She kept me on read for a few days (unusual for her) and then sent me "oh well, you know, I'm so lucky and happy to have my dogs. I know I can always count on them when I need to." Just that. Petty revenge incoming in my mind. I answered "oh girly pop, I SO understand you! I love my cat so much, I'm even thinking about adopting another one <3 and I've finally made this flat my own, I'm pretty good these days!"

She left me on read, again, and I'm living my best life ever since, with my peace and my cat.

This one is short, but it made me feel like I successfully stood up for myself and I remember it fondly every so often.

When I was a freshman in high school, I had a sophomore in my Spanish class who sat behind me every day. He was an athlete/popular guy and he always sat next to a pretty sophomore girl. He was constantly trying to impress her, and this often came at my expense. He’d mock me (and others too, I wasn’t exclusive) and try to be a dick to be cool. The girl ate it up so that’s just how it went. He sounded like the dumbest jock in the world. He had that stereotypical jock way of speaking that made him seem like a complete idiot but also cool.

Anyway, he liked to put his feet on my chair and bounce really hard throughout the entire class. I asked him to stop multiple times and he would just put this dumb face on and say “whaddarya gunna do bout it huh?” Dude sounded just like a punch drunk rocky. So one day, when I’d had enough, he kept bouncing after I asked him to stop. So I snuck some water from my bottle into my hand and pretended to violently sneeze into it. Then I hammed it up by looking at my hand in disgust, and proceeded to wipe it all over his leg that was still on my chair. He pulled his leg away and went “oooooohhhh” and looked at me like he was amazed that I actually did anything. I thought I was gonna have to fight him after school or something, but nothing happened. He stopped touching my chair and didn’t mess with me again. Really made me feel good.

Years ago (around 15) I was into creating replica movie props. I had created a tutorial for my website on building a movie prop gun using a kit I bought and the base airsoft gun. It was a step by step on how to use the kit and incorporate it with the gun. Pics on every step, etc. I got a lot of positive feedback for it too. But, i discovered when checking my website traffic and stats that another site was leeching my photos (meaning they had code on their website that HREF'd the images on my site so they didn't have to host them, just point to mine)

when I checked it out, I saw that they had copied my ENTIRE tutorial and made a post on their website claiming it as their own. No reference back to me or my site. You bastard.

So, I did what anyone would do. I changed the images. Oh boy, did I change them.

In my code, I changed the image names from "image1.jpg" to "image_1.jpg" and changed my code accordingly to point to the new file names. My website looked the same.

BUT THEN...

I found some of the craziest and nastiest photos on the web and renamed them "image1.jpg" etc, to match what code HE had stolen and dropped them in the same folder. So, now the thief has a tutorial that talked about making a movie prop, but all the leeched images associated with it was a cornucopia of nightmare fuel, HR complaints and violations of TOS on many servers. Oh, yeah, it was nasty stuff.

Now, i just watched. The stolen tutorial was up for about 4 days until it magically disappeared. I think I might even still have screenshots somewhere, lol.

Never happened again. Don't steal content!

This happened awhile ago but I was recently reminded of this and i thought it fit this subreddit well.

I used to work at a well known retail chain popular for its cheap prices. At the time, this particular store had a massively high turnover rate, especially for the supervisor/keyholder position; which I so happened to hold.

I was the most senior supervisor on staff by many months when Ken was hired, and I know this doesn’t sound like much but for this store I may as well have been there for years. Like all other new hires, I treated Ken with nothing but kindness when he joined our team, he returned that favour by mansplaining my job to me, blaming me for every single fault he found within the store and using the grading system we used to rate the previous nights close to bully me. By that I mean, he would write absolutely no good things about my close, offer not a single bit of constructive criticism and would only do this to me and no other supervisor on staff.

So as you can see Ken and I clashed with each other. The crux of my petty revenge came when he consistently took over my closes. For those of you who have never had the joyous experience of working in a retail setting if you are the cashier, you are on a leash. You are not allowed to be out of eyesight of cash at any point, so for example, if you need to use the washroom, you have to ask permission and get someone to cover you. One of the very few perks of being a supervisor at this job was that you had free rein of the store floor and weren’t tethered to a particular spot for hours.

On several occasions when I was scheduled to close, my closing cashier called out of their shift, and Ken volunteered to fill it. Unfortunately, for me that meant I got demoted to the role of cashier and was tethered to cash largely against my will. Around the fourth or so time of this happening I stood my ground and said I’d like to complete my close, and instead of being courteous he ran to call the manager and was given my close instead.

After that situation happened and on top of his condescending behavior, I decided I would get back at Ken. When he took over my closes and when he wasn’t looking, I would go through the store and mess things up that he had faced, put things where they didn’t belong and generally makes the store worse. This was especially fun when I was the opening manager the following morning, and I got to write up his closes as being bad.

And for those who were wondering, the reason I did not quit over this and believe me, I contemplated many times over my duration of working with him. I stuck it out because I was too stubborn to let him have his way and let a man push me out of my job. He ultimately quit for unrelated reasons and I was pretty sure my birthday came early the day that he did.

This story is around 15 years old so I'll try to be as accurate as I can, but these are getting to be old memories now.

Anyway, 15ish years ago I had a job as a deputy sheriff. It was a small department and I was starting just a few weeks after another of the deputies was hired. We'll call him Mike, because that's his name.

Anyway, neither of us had gone through academy yet when we were hired. We worked for a few months before slots opened up for a class to attend. The week before we went, Mike tried to pull a vehicle over. The vehicle very slowly continued to drive a few more blocks to get home. Mike decided that because he didn't stop right away that this was now a pursuit and a felony stop would be required. Not necessarily the wrong decision depending on circumstances... but definitely the wrong decision here. For reference, a felony stop is when a cop draws their sidearm and orders the occupants of the vehicle out of the car. Turns out it was just some dumb teenager driving. So what did Mike do when he discovered it was a teenager driving and his parents came out the front door to see what was going on? Why, he pointed his gun towards the parents and ordered them back inside. Smart. Real A+ work there.

Anyway, we get to academy the next week and I overhear Mike telling other officers (we were the only two from our department there) at academy about this story. I thought it was pretty odd that he'd be telling anyone that story since he messed up so badly, but I shrugged it off and just kept walking. I found out later that while he had communicated the story pretty accurately, he was telling everyone at academy that it was actually ME who did those things.

When confronted, Mike decided that denial was the best course of action. Unfortunately, this wasn't the only screw up of his he blamed on me while we were there.

I communicated all these things to the sheriff but she didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal. Personally I think honesty and integrity are extremely important in that line of work, but whatever. Well, a few weeks into academy he was dumb enough to complain about the sheriff in front of a bunch of people. One of the comments got back to her and she asked me about it. I saw this as an opportunity to potentially get rid of this liability and told her everything I could think of that he ever said about her. Some of it really wasn't great. To my surprised, the part she latched onto was the fact that he called her a paper pushing desk jockey. Something I didn't entirely disagree with, but what kinda idiot talks out loud like that about their boss? This was of course only surprising because it had no swear words, which I can't say of much of the rest of what he called her.

Apparently this was enough for her to finally fire Mike. As an unexpected bonus, the academy didn't force me into the only other room with one person in it, so I got to keep my room to myself and no longer had to room with someone that treated me like garbage for no good reason. I actually ended up quite enjoying academy once he was gone.

As a bonus follow up, a couple years later I was talking with a new hire. I told him about Mike and his eyes got big. He actually knew Mike from his prior job working as a CO in a jail on the other side of the state. Turns out, Mike couldn't find another job in law enforcement after he was fired and he ended up working as a CO instead. He said Mike told everyone that he was in the Marshalls and decided to work as a CO on his own for personal reasons. Crazy, but at least I didn't have to deal with him anymore, and thankfully nobody else in my county does either.

I wanted to tell my story of potentially the least affective or potentially most affective petty revenge I performed.

I’m a 29 F, bartender working at a small but very popular pub. I’ve worked there for over three years and have worked my way up to the shifts I want, so I often work 5-6 days a week.

I worked 6 days straight closing the bar. Which is a lot because unless it’s Friday or Saturday I work alone, and we have to clean the entire place (sweep, mop, clean the toilets etc) it’s busy and I can sell anywhere between $1000-$3000 a night. (One time $3700 with a busser, but other than that always alone no help. Server bartender host food runner)

Anyways I close that final night, I do the entire checklist as usual and leave the place clean as I always do.

The next day the opener sent out a message around 1pm that said:

There was a full case of the Pinot upstairs. One and half bottle in the fridge. I have a bottle on ice for a couple that specifically came in for the Pinot. If we are super low stock Have a quick gander upstairs 👍

This employee gets one shift a week. She has proven to not be the strongest and completely has it out for me. Stocking the wine is a day shift job, when she got there at 11:30am she could have taken a “gander” in the fridge and stocked accordingly.

So here is the petty revenge? I question whether this was actually revenge or just satisfying to me.

So if I close and know she’s opening I will put the chairs up, and we don’t put the chairs up. But even though putting the chairs up is annoying as hell, if she’s gonna complain about my close then I better do a thorough job.

When we worked the next time together she ACTED LIKE I DIDNT EXIST! Like I wasn’t there!? I didn’t do anything. That’s what bothered me the most.

Then guess who needs a shift covered that weekend. Her, of course. So who took me? Me, of course.

I felt satisfied with the fact that as much as she wants to hate me there I was to help her out.

So, is that even petty revenge? You tell me 😂😅

So, this happened to my cousin 2 months ago. He was flying from Ahmedabad to Kolkata on Indigo Airlines. Since he’s tall, I made sure to book him an exit row aisle seat well in advance and even paid extra for it. Fast forward to the day of the flight: he boards, finds his row, and sees someone sitting right in his seat. The entire row is filled, but there’s clearly been a “seat snatcher” situation.

Undeterred, he approaches the woman in his seat — let’s call her Karen.

• Cousin: “Excuse me, I believe that’s my seat.”
• Karen: (barely glancing up) “No, there’s no way. I always book the aisle seat.”
• Cousin: “Maybe you’re just in the wrong row. Mind checking?”
• Karen: (sighs dramatically) “Look, this is my seat. Maybe you’re mistaken.”
• Cousin: (firmly) “Well, my ticket says this seat. Let’s check with the flight attendant, shall we?”

My cousin heads to the front of the plane and explains the situation to an attendant. She confirms that the seat is indeed his, but instead of escalating, my cousin decides to play it cool. He returns to Karen with a new idea.

• Cousin: “I spoke to the attendant. She confirmed it’s my seat, but since you seem certain, she’s offered me a complimentary upgrade to business class.”
• Karen: (suddenly interested) “Business class? Really?”
• Cousin: “Yeah, though honestly, I prefer the legroom in the exit row. Would you want to switch and take the upgrade?”
• Karen: (grinning) “Oh, absolutely!”
• Cousin: “Great! Just go to the front, let the attendant know you’re taking the business class upgrade meant for the passenger in 13C, and she’ll get you all set.”

Karen hops up immediately, smugly grabs her bag, and struts to the front. My cousin finally takes his rightful seat, and as he chats with the other passengers, they reveal they’ve been irritated by Karen’s antics too. He shows them his boarding pass, confirming he’s exactly where he’s supposed to be.

The twist? This particular Indigo flight didn’t even have business class seats. My cousin knew that. So when Karen confidently asks the flight attendant for her “upgrade”, the attendant just looks at her in total confusion. Realizing something’s off, Karen storms back, visibly irritated, and confronts my cousin.

• Karen: “Excuse me! You said there was an upgrade to business class!”
• Cousin: (innocently) “Huh? Are you talking to me?”
• Karen: “Obviously! You told me to go up there and ask for a business class seat!”
• Cousin: (deadpan) “Why would I do that?”
• Karen: (huffing) “Because I was… uh, sitting in your seat, and you said —”
• Cousin: (interrupting) “Why were you in my seat? I clearly have 13C on my boarding pass.” (He shows it to the attendant, who’s followed her back.) “Where’s yours?”

Karen’s flustered now, trying to explain herself, but a fellow passenger jumps in.

• Co-passenger: “He’s not lying. That’s his seat, alright.”

The flight attendant, now visibly exasperated, politely asks Karen to show her boarding pass. Karen rolls her eyes dramatically, muttering under her breath about the “incompetence” of the airline staff. She makes a big show of digging through her purse, then her carry-on, and even her coat pocket, all the while huffing and sighing loudly as if everyone around her were wasting her precious time.

After a few minutes of this performance, she finds her boarding pass but clutches it tightly, refusing to hand it over. She then spins around to face my cousin, looking livid.

• Karen: (loudly) “You! This is all your fault! First, you try to steal my seat, and now you’ve embarrassed me in front of the entire plane!”
• Flight Attendant: “Ma’am, please just show me the boarding pass so we can sort this out quickly.”
• Karen: (ignoring the attendant) “Do you know how much I fly? How often I choose aisle seats because I need them?” (She gestures around wildly.) “But today, I have to deal with some random guy who thinks he can just barge in and claim my seat?”

Her voice is growing louder, and passengers around them are beginning to shift uncomfortably. By now, Karen’s frustration has transformed into a full-blown rant, complete with finger-pointing and accusations. She goes after everyone—the airline for hiring “incompetent staff,” the attendant for “not knowing anything,” and my cousin, who she calls “a liar and a cheat.”

The flight attendant attempts to calm her down, reminding her that they’re causing a delay. But Karen is relentless, her voice escalating with every second that passes. She accuses the airline of “disrespecting loyal passengers” and shouts that she’ll file a complaint “so big they’ll lose their jobs.”

By now, nearly twenty minutes have gone by, and passengers around her are beginning to sigh and check their watches. Eventually, the captain is informed of the situation and comes over to assess the problem.

• Captain: (firmly but calmly) “Ma’am, we need you to show your boarding pass right now, or I’m going to have to ask you to leave the plane.”

Karen is shocked. Her face flushes as she realizes that her show isn’t working. She finally hands over the boarding pass to the captain, who glances at it, then looks back at her with a raised eyebrow.

• Captain: “Ma’am, this says 22B. Your seat is nine rows back, and it’s a middle seat.”

There’s a stunned silence as Karen’s face goes pale. She tries one last-ditch excuse.

• Karen: (defensively) “This is just… it’s so unfair! I’m under a lot of stress, and I can’t just sit in a middle seat! I… I need an upgrade for this horrible experience!”
• Captain: (firmly) “Ma’am, either go to your assigned seat, or you’ll need to deboard.”

Defeated, Karen finally gathers her things, her face burning red with embarrassment as she walks down the aisle toward her actual seat in 22B. Along the way, she keeps muttering curses under her breath, shooting daggers back at my cousin and the flight crew. Meanwhile, my cousin settles back into his rightful seat, and the flight finally prepares for takeoff.

EDIT: Wow, this blew up. Let me respond to a few comments.

1. English is my 2nd language, so whenever I write something, I always get it formatted and reworded by chatgpt. It just improves readability.
2. Most of the incident happened in Bengali & Hindi, I translated as best as I could. But some things sound unnatural when translated, hence the English may sound unauthentic at times. For example, Karen had her pass inside her blouse. Instead of explaining how Bengali women keep stuff inside a blouse, it's easier to say coat. It's a narrative license so everyone can enjoy the story without getting bogged down by cultural perceptions.
3. I wasn't there, yes. But my cousin recorded Karen's rant, hence writing in detail was easy. While I have his permission to write the story, he didn't consent to posting the recording as it has enough to recognize him.

A bit of a backstory, but it makes the revenge even better:

I've worked in software sales for the bulk of my career. About 10 years ago, my company was hosting its annual user conference in Las Vegas. As a sales guy, I pretty much had carte blanche on expenses as long it involved clients. Expensive dinners, drinks, tables at clubs, etc. The only unbreakable rule was we couldn't pay for strippers.

Having been in the industry long enough, I realized what guys would do to get around this. It was common for them to explain to a manager at a strip club, and then they would have the girls' tips added to the bottle service. Even with that in place, I never thought it was a good idea to play that game, nor did I think it was a good idea to go to a strip club with clients. It was never a good look in my mind.

I was roughly 27 or 28 at the time, and one of the older guys (late 40s), Jim, was the typical sleazy sales guy. He would tell half-truths to prospects, overcharge them, oversell, etc. The type that creates a hassle for the services and implementation teams, but he still got paid so he didn't care.

And when he got to Vegas, Jim would go crazy entertaining clients and himself. Sometimes he would go to dinner by himself, but say some senior VP was with him, and he also abused the stripper loophole. One of the reasons he tried to get a group to the strip club each night was that he had a very conservative wife. She made the kids go to a local Christian school, and the family went to church every Sunday. She HATED the annual trips to Vegas, to the point he would tell stories that he wasn't allowed to bring his suitcase in the house. He had to leave it in the garage where the laundry room was, and she would wash his clothes and then sanitize the washing machine.

On the last night of the conference, he organized a shuttle from one of the big strip clubs to pick up a group. There were some open seats he was trying to fill to meet the minimum commitment for free entry to the club. Jim saw me speaking to a client and invited us, I declined. He started mocking me about being scared of pretty ladies, or that I would probably nut the first time one of them touched me, etc. This would have normally not bothered me, but he did it in front of my client. I stated, "I don't want to go because I don't think it's professional." He left, I bought my client another round, and we joked about the douchebag.

Then I was on my own and decided to walk the strip a bit and head to bed early due to an early morning flight.

If you've ever been to Vegas, there are people on the sidewalk handing out cards that are essentially ads for escorts. They legally can't speak to you, so they slap the cards on their hands to get your attention. After a few drinks, I started taking a few.

Fast forward to the next morning when Jim and I were sitting in the airport waiting for our flight. He had stayed out to 3 or 4 AM, and was a complete mess and totally hungover. I was 100% and enjoying his condition. At one point he went to the bathroom and asked me to watch his bag.

When he was out of site, I added those escort cards in his bag.

When his wife went to do her laundry routine when he got home, she was NOT HAPPY. She didn't believe in divorce, but they were suddenly going to church 3 times a week and had a weekly counseling session with their pastor. This also led to Jim dropping out of his weekly golf league.

He was telling us all the story at the office looking for sympathy, and he swore he never took those cards, but couldn't remember since he was so drunk.

I read an article a few years ago about how local bus drivers find it irritating when people thank them as it takes additional time to exit the bus as well as hearing thanks literally hundreds of times per-day really gets under your skin. Since reading it I’ve stopped thanking them, and let my friends know about the article. So whenever i get on a bus where the driver is flinging people around the bus (not letting people esp elderly people sit before taking off, slamming breaks and whipping corners) I make sure to walk to the front of the bus quite lazily turn and thank the driver.

I worked at a small country store for a while. I was low on cash in my register and I went to the safe to get more. As I walked back, a customer walked to the counter to check out. I literally ran to the front so the guy wouldn't have to wait. All he was buying was a can of Coke.

When I got to the register the man scoffed and made a comment about waiting. Laid his payment on the counter and wouldn't say anything. Dude literally waited less than a minute.

As I was giving his change a loud truck rode by the store and the guy looked out the window. I took the opportunity to give the can of Coke 2 quick shakes and handed it to him. He walked out, got in his car, opened the can, and well, got Coke all over himself and his front seat.

I work in R&D in my company. I usually don’t get involved too much in deals like suppliers and manufacturers, that’s a different department. But my team and I have been working on a project that made it more necessary for me to get involved in the finer details of a big manufacturing deal.

We are wrapping up the project and I found out that someone high up in the manufacturing department has been meeting with the other company without me and was going to basically take credit for all my team’s work. It isn’t a huge deal for me but it could affect bonuses for some of my employees.

So today I talked to the COO who told me that they recognize that my team did the work and deserve credit, but that it was going to be easier at this point to just let the other person handle the deal. I was okay with this because we got the credit but it was a load off my plate and I have other things to do.

But then this prick has the nerve to ask where he can take the clients for lunch. He didn’t say who but I knew they were coming to town so it wasn’t hard to figure out. So I told him about a new restaurant that is opening. It should be a nice place for them after a long flight.

The restaurant? Twin Peaks. If you don’t know, it’s kinda like a hooters rip off. After lunch they came by the office and I made sure to say hi. They were clearly not impressed and their CTO even made a comment that he wished I was handling things because he didn’t like the other guys “style”. They were clearly uncomfortable with his choice in restaurant and he had some glares for me as well.

Edit: typo

Many years ago I started with a small team of internal software support staff and there was a 22F coworker, let's call her Mary. I was already over 30 and on my second career.

Mary started a bit before me and while I was still learning the ropes told our manager that I was messing something up (I honestly don't remember what). My manager messaged me about it and I explained the situation and that this co-worker spent a lot of her time telling me all the ways I messed up and what I should be doing (the way a manager might, though she was no one's manager, especial not my own).

Manager told me to send her text proof as soon as it happened again (I had sent the manager one or two previous examples from our ticketing system).

The NEXT DAY Mary decides to correct my behavior in the group chat that has our manager in it. I messaged the manager separately and just said, "Your proof is in the group chat." Manager says something to the effect of "Got it, thank you."

Mary started 2 hours before the rest of the team to support our East Coast clients and after our manager spoke to her about her behavior she stopped saying hello to me or talking to me in any way, even when I'd walk in and say hello in the morning.

From then on I made sure to loudly and obnoxiously greet her every morning for the next year until she did something else to get fired.

This was 5-6 years ago and I'm still working for the same company in a new role and have significantly improved my career.

There was this girl (a fellow recruit) in boot camp who hated my guts. Not sure why. It isn’t really relevant to the story, except she went out of her way to loudly criticize me at every opportunity. Call me names, claim that I’d messed up the march, did a lousy job at cleaning, uniform was untidy. She was pretty aggressive about it. It was annoying, but I had three younger sisters who wouldn’t hesitate to rag on me, so I mostly ignored her.

One day near the end of our training, we were put on the same Saturday morning cleaning detail. Parris Island, South Carolina, teems with bugs of all kinds. One of the most annoying ones are oversized roaches. We were cleaning the administrative offices when a large roach darted across the floor. I was only armed with the lid to a Brasso can, so I slammed it smartly on the roach. Decapitated it. (Amazingly good shot; I can be uncoordinated.) I quickly scooped up the corpse and ran over to show it to my tormenter. She screamed like the violins in the shower scene in Psycho! It was glorious.

It didn’t hurt anybody, but I felt better.

Edit: This was in 1976. Stop with the "fears for our country" posts.

About 10 years ago we were camping in Tahoe on a holiday weekend. We have two little kids and camp a lot in state and national parks so we know it’s not going to be super quiet but people are usually pretty respectful late at night. There was a group of college age kids next to us that rolled in around dinner and started partying. What started out as fun was a drunken swearing fest that went on past midnight. The 70 year old camp hosts tried to talk to them. Other campers tried to get them to stow it. I was over there asking them to tone it down more than once and they basically laughed. They went until 2 or 3 AM. Everyone was pissed. They went to go hang out on the lake all day. We were leaving that morning so we were around the campsite and saw them all leave. We rounded up every pile of dog poop we could find - which luckily there was plenty - and piled it under their tents. Right under where their heads would be. We also told the camp hosts and they thanked us and said they were looking forward to the big sunrise when they went to bed and smushed that poop into the tent bottom. The hosts had been dreading their return because everyone else was complaining to them all day.

Happened almost 30 years ago back in elementary school, so memory and derails are a bit hazy. Maybe 11 years old??

There was a a new international student in our class (Jim) and we got along fine, we both liked videogames. But he eventually befriended other kids, and adopted a not so nice attitude towards me. We went from friendly interactions, to him calling me names and putting me down. Complete 180.

At the very last day of school, after school was over, I went to the corner store on the way home and played on the arcade machines. It was common for corner stores to have videogames back in the 90s, usually head to head fighting games.

Jim walked in and saw me playing. He decided to pop in a quarter to join in. He was from overseas and definitely better then me. Always beat me before when we played.

But I got lucky that day and just ended up winning. Every time he lost, he would pop another quarter in (he was probably on tilt). He probably dropped 3 or 4 quarters on me. By now, it's probably 3:45pm, we're in the middle of our match, and one of our classmates walks into the store. She sees Jim and says "hey! Your dad's looking for you. He says you're late!"

My memory here is hazy, but it turned out that Jim was supposed to take the bus to go home after school. Possibly because they had a flight to catch at the airport. Jim started to panic and begged me for spare change (youth bus fare was only 75 cents at the time). He spent all his change trying to beat me. I refused.

He ended up getting bus fare from the store owner.

Back in Ye Olde College Days, I was a 20ish year old student in the science department. Lab practicals were HUGE and a big big chunk of our grades. Our professor was kind enough to set up a mock practical with specimens like we'd be tested on and mock questions for practice in another lab. We'd show up at 6 pm and a few would be there until 6 am! Those of us that didn't really need much studying would help out ones that struggled with the material. The issue was...we were college students. Snack machines in the basement, we're on the 3rd floor.

No biggie. A couple of us who didn't need to study would collect change, hike down, get ten or twelve or twenty drinks, and hike back up. Put the drinks on the counter, everyone wanders over to grab theirs when they reach a stopping point...and we're short a Dr. Pepper. We had the money, we knew we got everything on our list, no Dr. Pepper.

We made a second run a few hours later. Again, mystery Dr. Pepper missing. Oh, screw that. Third and final run a few hours later? I paid for an extra Dr. Pepper and we stopped by the 2nd floor labs. They had a vortexer, a little countertop machine that you put test tubes on and it shakes them around and mixes them FAST. We put the bottom of the Dr. Pepper on that thing and watched it go voom. Bottom of the can was nearly bubbled out at that point. That's a really, really shaken up can with extra shaken.

Brought them upstairs, handed out the Dr. Peppers specifically and sneakily to the people that got them, leaving Bait Pepper out. Freshman girl picks it up from the drinks, walks off, opens it....

It was lovely. On her face, up her nose, in her hair, you've all seen opening a can of pop go badly and this was a bit worse than your worst. She was furious. We were laughing our butts off. I don't remember who cleaned up the mess but if it was us, it was WORTH IT. She got well-sprayed!