My brother had a funny story about this. His friend worked in IT and was doing one of those system things that take all day and take the system down. He wasn’t supposed to let anyone in the building during this. So an executive comes to the door, his key card doesn’t work, he buzzes the bell. The guy inside answers, and says he can’t let anyone in. Exec says “Do you know who I am?” and the employee responds with a tentative “well, do you know who I am?”

“No”

“Ok, I can’t let you in.”

My manager at my last job (grocery store in Missouri) loved telling about the time Chuck Berry’s sister came in and said this. Apparently she was a massive bitch who thought everyone should worship the ground she walked on cause of her brother who was a creep with how he handled his restaurant down the street. Like she was demanding stuff be free for her.

I have done customer service, and I have heard the phrase used by a customer; though not at the same time. The only time I actually heard someone say “do you know who I am?” in a customer service capacity was a random dude ahead of me crashing out at 7-11 over $0.05 because the asshole couldn’t do some simple arithmetic. He claimed to know the owner and threatened a bunch of shit to the teen behind the counter, holding up the line for like 20 minutes. And in a very “that happened” moment, when he finally fucking left, half the people in line literally clapped.

I once had a guy claim he was one of the guys that invented the internet. I googled his name afterwards and it didn’t turn up anything and he was incapable of performing the basic tasks required to reset his password to our website so I’m pretty confident he was full of shit.

I was working security at a port where cruise ships were loaded, and a bunch of dudes carrying guitar cases and music gear came through. They didn’t listen to any of my instructions and tried to go through the metal detectors without putting their shit on the conveyor belt thing. I had to send them through several times, and one of them was like, “Are you sure we have to do this?” and I was confused and told him yes. I found out later that they were the Beach Boys.

I have met some celebrities. Didn’t know a single one of them. Have been absolutely uneventful in these conversations. I did get the ‘Hey I used to work here you know!’ a couple times at my current job at a supermarket. Which is always funny because our turnover is insane so like, yea, you and a thousand other people who tf cares, I’m not looking in the back for your apple juice sir.

Not quite but I got, “<company owner> eats dinner at my house!” I don’t know why they didn’t just talk to the owner over dinner

Heh. Not exactly. But I worked retail in college and this really popular chef opened up a new restaurant near us. He came in one day and was being helped and every time his phone rang he stopped the person helping him to go walk off and take the call. This happened A LOT. So, I went out there and said clearly you’re not in a position to be helped today so we’re going to take care of these other people first. Then I paused and looked him right in the eyes. He got it, left then came back in a few days later when he was actually ready. I looked out there and he threw me a nod. After that he’d come in every now and then and we’d talk a bit. We never talked about that day but I think he respected what I did and understood he would do it for his staff also.

yup, I knew exactly who she was, problem was, she didn’t know who I was. Crazy bitch was my next door neighbor. I exited the situation just before she began throwing wine bottles, knowing that things would devolve quickly. Sorry Alan, I left you with a real shit sandwich but you didn’t pay me enough to deal with that kind of mental health crisis and it was time for my break.

Famous old story. There is a fire alarm in a fancy hotel. Guests are told to go to the front of the lobby (near the exit, in case they have to evacuate) and wait for an all-clear. They do that except for this one guy, who lingers around the service desk or something. Hotel worker goes up to him and says “excuse me sir, guests have to wait over there (pointing)”. Guy puffs up and says “you know you are talking to the vice president?”. Hotel worker goes apologetic and says “oh I’m sorry sir, I didn’t know! Do whatver you have to” and leaves the guy alone.

A minute later the hotel worker returns with a suspicious look, and asks the guy “Wait a minute sir, what are you the vice president of?”. Guy puffs even more and with a chill in his voice says “the United States of America!”. Worker says “Oh! Get over there then (points to guest area). I thought you were the vice president of the hotel!”.

worked at Walmart. someone pulled that on me. my response, “If I knew who you were, would you have to ask me that?”

they stood there, kind of stunned and asked to see a manager.

evidently they were some distantly related person to the regional manager.

🤷 like that fuckin matters. I still didn’t know, nor care, who they were.

Former ISP helpdesk monkey. Had it several times. Didn’t recognise any of them.

My theory was that no-one important enough to take that tone needs to make their own helpdesk calls.

Yes, I did get hit with a “Do you know who I am?”. It’s not an exciting story and it took place about 20 years ago so my memory is faded. However, it was a bit weird.

This was a 50 or maybe 60 year old white man and he was neurotic about everything but also felt as though the policies that cover every other customer did not apply to him. For example, he was a habitual “I’m going to park right in front of the entrance to the store in the no parking zone” customer. But at the same time, our company policy is that we were supposed to greet customers a specific way (ex: like the chickfila people who are supposed to always say “my pleasure” instead of “you’re welcome”), and if we didn’t greet him that specific way, he’d ask to speak to the manager and tattle on us.

He was mean, nasty, rude and super arrogant. Apparently, he was also a lawyer, so management would basically concede to this guy’s every whim and request, no matter how absurd.

This guy was a regular customer at the main store that I worked at in a town about 25 miles from where I lived. When I switched store locations to be closer to home, I noticed that he shopped there, too. This guy lived in the same town as me. Yuck.

His “Do you know who I am?” spiel came about when I was calling customers about bounced checks, which was part of my job at the time. I had no idea what the guy’s name was at the time (and I’ve forgotten it now all these years later). But when I called him about the bounced check, he insisted it didn’t bounce and yes, pulled the “Do you know who I am?” line on me. This is also how I learned that he lived in the same town as me, since his address was on the check.

The weird part of this story is that I was telling my dad about this guy because he was such an ornery cuss, and my dad knew who he was because this guy also shopped at a store my dad was working in at the time. my dad lived in a town and worked at a store that was over an hour away from either location I’d worked at.

It honestly sounds like the “Do you know who I am?” guy spent his days driving around and shopping at different stores all over the state simply being an irritating and infuriating asshole of a customer. Like whether or not he actually was a lawyer, I could see him being the type of person who intentionally tries to cause trouble in order to give himself opportunities to sue people/companies and that’s how he makes all his money. I don’t know that for sure, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

I (also) expeirenced this in reverse. I worked with someone who once casually mentitoned they “play some guitar on the weekend”.

I figured out later that I have bought several of their albums. Lol.

“You don’t know who you are!? Do you have dementia? Is your carer here?

Hey Dave, this lady doesn’t know who she is! Can you get her a cup of tea while I call the police, somebody must be missing her”

I actually had to do this twice to two different customers over a number of years. Both times they backpedaled quickly and stopped being dickheads.