We've all gone above and beyond in attempts to flatter someone or shower them with our love. Maybe it's a grand birthday gift that receives zero appreciation. Sometimes, it's more complicated than that.
These Reddit users shared their personal stories of secondhand saltiness. Here are the best.
Sorry! My mistake!
“A girl at my high school broke into a hysterical, foul-mouthed, tear-filled rant because her father surprised her after school with a brand new, fully-loaded BMW for her birthday… apparently she wanted a Mercedes.”
Kilen13
That’s what you get.
“A girl in my high school received a used car on her 16th birthday. She was unhappy with the fact that it was used—three years old—so she intentionally totaled it. She didn’t get a new car and had to ride the bus.”
Unknown
Nerf guns are stupid? Okay then…
“Gave my girlfriend a $90 dinner for her birthday, and she was mad I didn’t get her a present. I also got her a nice scarf and a Nerf gun for Christmas, she didn’t want the Nerf gun because she thought it was stupid and ‘not something you give your girlfriend’—whatever.”
moeller_99
That’s some karma.
“This elderly lady was pulling her car into a tight spot in the post office. I offered to help to spot her in so she wouldn’t hit anything. She screamed at me about how she was over 70 and didn’t need anybody’s help. Needless to say, she ended up hitting one of the cars.”
tilley77
She KNOWS that!
“A coworker whined that her grandmother gave her a silver necklace for her birthday when ‘she knows I only ever wear white gold!'”
lampshadesnoopy
Cats get a free pass.
“Bought my cats some gourmet food and they looked at me like I was trying to poison them.”
PaxiSnack
Be grateful, please!
“I work for a nonprofit and we host cookouts for people in poverty. They complain so hard that we buy generic soda or don’t have ‘good cheese’ for their burgers.”
Mashflob
Alrighty then.
“Around here there was a guy standing on a median divider at a stop light with a sign that said ‘Losing my house, wife sick, please help, God bless.’ So I stop in the middle of the intersection and tell the guy ‘I run a fireworks store, I have nine pallets of fireworks I need to unload. Should take about six hours, I’ll pay you $10 an hour cash today.’ You know what he said? ‘No, I’m doing fine here.'”
xenokilla
Just a casual 12 hour work day for free.
“I helped my work mate move— I was hungover. I moved all his crap, his boyfriend’s, and his roommates basically by myself; he was useless. Took almost 12 hours. He didn’t even buy me beer, food, or anything to say thank you.”
Never will, probably.
“I gave my ex-girlfriend’s family my old car, a 2003 Nissan Maxima, in great condition because they were on hard times and I had just gotten a new car. They proceeded to get down on their knees and thank Jesus for answering their prayers. I still haven’t gotten a thank you.”
gr8fulde4d420
Forgot about my job as a doorman!
“One thing that I hate is when I am polite enough to hold a door open for someone and instead of just taking the door or saying ‘Thank you,’ they just walk through like I’m a doorman being paid to stand there all day for them.”
DearStabby
But it’s not THE ONE.
“Watched my 18-year-old sister-in-law throw down a digital camera because it wasn’t the exact one she wanted. It was actually a far better and more expensive camera that her dad had researched for months.”
1stDownSyndrome
‘I didn’t steal it!’
“I found a $100 bill on the sidewalk near a family packing their car up for a trip. I politely asked the mother if the money was hers, and she got really irritated with me and called her husband over, who literally snatched the bill out of my hand. I stood there for a few minutes, baffled as they ignored me. After I realized that I wouldn’t even get a thank you, I continued walking home. I wish I would have kept the money.”
Unknown
This is devastating.
“When I was around eight, I saved up around two weeks of pocket money, looked up some recipes, and made a cake for my dad’s birthday. Around 11 p.m. he comes in and I light the candles. He says, ‘I don’t like sweet stuff’ and goes to bed.”
kloslat
All that help for nothing.
“My friend became homeless. So I gave her a place to live, food to eat, and even drove her all over several towns to help her find an apartment she can afford. She talked down to me. After I helped her get on her feet, she stole my stuff upon leaving.”
1cloeeolc1
Something…better?
“For Christmas, we got my cousin’s 10-year-old daughter a jewelry stand and some makeup. She opened the gift, looked around, and asked ‘Who gave me this?’ I told her that we did. She scrunched up her face and said ‘Ugh, you can take it back and get me something better.'”
Starqueentnk
How lazy are some people?
“One time at work they provided free lunch for everyone. It was all laid out, all you had to do was come fix a plate. Several of my coworkers were furious because they had to walk into the other room to get it. They felt like it should have been brought to their desks.”
Unknown
The gift that keeps on giving.
“I once had a friend who bought a discount PC game without the option of returning it and kept complaining about how bad it turned out to be. Two weeks down the line, he gave me that game for my birthday, now mentioning how good it actually is. It pissed me off and I gave him the same game back for his birthday several months later.”
TempusFrangit
20 minutes, it’s all that’s asked.
I’m a high school teacher and I had students complain that I was making them take notes two days in a row. My ‘lectures’ usually take 20 minutes or so and are followed by an activity.”
Jortastic
O-Oh…
“I once bought a girl I was dating a diamond necklace. She opened it and even saw the certification with it that said how many karats it was. She said ‘Oh, how sweet…’ She turned around and went to a pawn shop after I went back home.”
Sepherchorde
Money for ANTS?!
“My cousin got either a $100 or $150 check from our grandma for her birthday, and she tore it to bits and cried about how it was such an insultingly small amount of money.”
goodknee
This is what you wanted!
“I got my cousin a $7,500 four wheeler. He got a baseball bat and killed it basically because he wanted a dirt bike. It took me a few years to save up for this. Even after he said he wanted a four-wheeler.”
HerpDerpVonJerp
A wave is all that’s asked of you…
“When people on the road don’t give a ‘thank you’ wave for letting them into your lane. I could have just kept on driving like everyone else—the least you can do is waggle your hand at me.”
pizz901
From a skateboard to no eyebrows.
“I knew a kid that didn’t like the skateboard his parents got him, so he set it on fire because he thought that would get him a new one. Nope—he just went to school without eyebrows for a year.”
Unknown
Yeah right!
“My ex-girlfriend broke up with me days before our anniversary. I’d already bought jewelry as her present—she knew I’d already bought it and still expected to receive it, even though our anniversary was never going to happen.”
go_jumbles_go
Let the boy run next time!
“When I worked at McDonald’s, a two-year-old once ran behind the counter into the very dangerous kitchen. I ran after him and picked him up before he could touch anything or fall. I carried him back to his mother, only to be screamed at for touching her kid.”
Unknown
This is just so wrong.
“My dad was a truck driver and found an old man lying on the road one night, all by himself in the middle of nowhere, who didn’t seem to have a pulse. My dad gave him CPR for several minutes until he regained a pulse, and stayed with him there in the cold for an hour until the ambulance came to take him away. In the process of saving this old man’s life, my dad also fractured one of the man’s ribs. He and his wife sued my dad for more than $100,000.”
Aende
A Sony kid, eh?
“An old friend of mine threw his brand new Xbox 360 out of his bedroom window because he wanted a PS3 instead.”
slugmaniac
Worst…present…ever?
“I gave my niece a laptop on her birthday and she screamed at me because it wasn’t brand new. ‘This sucks!’ she screamed. ‘Worst present ever!'”
CarelessMonday
The sense of entitlement is real.
“My sister once got a really expensive book of unicorn paintings from my parents for Christmas. Trouble was, she got the same book from my grandparents. She felt entitled to the money my parents spent on it, which they supposedly would get back when they returned it.”
Unknown
That’s basically slavery.
“I once had to do a bunch of yard work for this old lady to save money for something I wanted. Days of hard work—I was scratched, bruised, and exhausted. She hard the nerve to give me a quarter. One single quarter.”
Failedjedi
Those iPhones change people.
“I have found and returned four iPhones. The worst response was the owner smugly proclaiming, ‘You couldn’t have stolen it anyway—it’s password protected!’ …The best was a ‘Thanks’ with no eye contact as he took the phone.”
Unknown
24 years of age?
“After getting close to $500 in gifts for Christmas, my sister tore down the tree, kicked other people’s gifts, started yelling and crying, because she didn’t see a Wii among her presents. We actually did get her a Wii, she just didn’t get to it yet. She was 24 years old.”
Unknown
“On second thought…”
“A horse kicked my friend’s daughter in the chest, collapsing her throat. She couldn’t breathe. I performed an emergency tracheotomy, saving her life. About two months later, I got a letter from a law firm. They’d changed their mind about how grateful they were and decided to sue me for leaving a scar from the tracheotomy.”
Unknown
PlayStation 2 was the best console of all time.
“Cousin gave my son a broken PS2 for his birthday. I fixed it—just needed to clean the optic on the player—then the cousin asked for it back.”
icanseestars
That’s how you handle that.
“My younger sister got diamond earrings for her 16th birthday from my parents. She then says ‘This isn’t what I asked for.’ Our parents took them back, scolded her, and she got nothing for her birthday.”
dr_adventure
When nice deeds don’t get rewarded.
A couple years ago a friend and I were driving across the country in a big moving truck full of my mom’s furniture. We had been on the road for about 18 hours on the second to last day of the trip and stopped at a rest stop to stretch our legs and use the bathroom. Sitting at the rest stop late at night was an entire family – mom, dad, and two young kids and their car which was obviously broken or otherwise not working. Feeling like I should try to help, I asked the father what was wrong and he told me they had run out of gas and just needed to get to the next town which was about 40 miles away. I couldn’t leave the rest stop with that family stranded so my friend and I got back in the truck and drove the 40ish miles to the next town, bought gas and a can and drove all the way back in our huge moving truck. The whole trip back and forth took us about an hour and a half and by the time we got back to the rest stop we were both about to pass out. Well, the family was still there waiting and I hopped out to give them the gas they needed so badly. I handed the can to the father and he looked at me and said, “I would rather have the money”. This caught me off guard as money wouldn’t help them get anywhere but it was then that it dawned on me that he never wanted gas to begin with and probably had some in the car. He was just fishing for cash and using his kids as the bait. I felt really bad for the mom, since she was just looking at me the whole time with this expression of “I’m so, so sorry”. I was at a loss for words since the dad didn’t even want the gas we had just drove for over an hour to get for them. I just set the gas can on the ground, got back in the truck and left feeling like a giant idiot.
Some people are never satisfied.
Valentine’s Day, 2004. Now, I’ve never cared about Valentine’s day, but my girlfriend at the time had never been in a serious relationship and wanted a special Valentine’s Day. I was more than happy to oblige.
That day, I went to the local nursery (flowers, not babies) where I used to work and bought two dozen red roses and grabbed an unused delivery invoice. I still had the uniform – just a t-shirt and hat, but enough to make me look like a legit delivery person.
I then spent my entire paycheck on gifts for her, and food for dinner. Everything: balloons, decorations, red and pink cutesy stuff, and several expensive gifts including an iPod and a new camera. I went back to her house and decorated everything, transforming her kitchen and living room into what looked like a display at the mall. I even did the rose petals on the bed thing, because I was sure my efforts would lead to a romantic evening.
I looked up her class schedule to figure out where her class was (we had different majors) and proceeded to burst in, pretending to be a delivery person. I gave her the roses and a teddy bear in front of her entire class, even going as far as making her sign the fake delivery invoice. It was her last class of the day so I knew she’d be heading home. I raced out of there so I could get there first, change, and start cooking dinner. I got there maybe twenty minutes before she did, and everything was going to plan.
She was upset when she walked in the door. “Why didn’t you wait for me after class?” she asked. I told her I wanted to start dinner before she got home and finish decorating the house. “Oh, I really wanted to go out to dinner tonight. Can we go out to dinner?” I explained that I was going to make something special at home, and had, in fact, already started cooking. She looked at the table full of presents and the house full of decorations and just sighed, disappointed.
“I really wanted this to be a special Valentine’s Day. Just this once. I was really hoping we could have a special day together but I guess not.”
They deleted us on Facebook after letting them stay rent-free.
My wife and I had just moved into our first place on our own. After being on our own for about 3-4 months, my wife’s sister calls my wife crying. Her sister, husband, and daughter had lost their home in a fire about a year prior, and had been staying with some friends who where kind enough to let them stay with them. Apparently relationships had deteriorated with the friends so they had to leave immediately. We had an extra bedroom so we decided to let them come stay with us until they got back on their feet. It was supposed to be only a few weeks but it turned into 8 months. 8 months we let them stay with us rent free, the only thing we asked them to pay was the difference in the electric bill each month, which amounted to only like $30-$50 per month. I should mention that we were violating our lease by letting them stay with us, we hid them from our landlord for a while but eventually she figured out we had them staying with us. Fortunately she felt sorry for them and said it was alright for them to stay a little longer. But after the 8th month she sent us a letter saying that if they weren’t out in a week then we’d be in violation of our lease. So we had to ask them to go. Almost immediately after they left they deleted us off Facebook, and never talked to us again. When we tried to get into contact with them to see why they were mad at us, my wife’s sister claimed she was angry that we asked them to help out with the electric bill. And because of that they weren’t able to buy tickets to go see A Perfect Circle. But my wife and I had bought ourselves tickets and I’d bought my own little sister a ticket too since she’d never seen them live before. And apparently they were upset about that.
When a kind stranger helps you deal with petty coworkers.
I once had two different waitresses at a restaurant. If you’ve worked in the food industry, you will know that many of the girls try taking other waitress’ tables.
My girlfriend and I are seated, and our original waitress comes to our table and takes our orders. From the beginning she’s really nice and friendly with both of us so I knew she’ll get a good tip right away. As we’re eating I notice another girl walk up asking if there’s anything she could bring us, and I said no. Well the two waitresses kept checking on our table, refilling drinks and our original waitress was getting flustered.
Apparently the other girl had been taking her tables (or trying to) the entire night. I told her not to worry, and asked to speak to the manager. He came out to our table asking what was wrong, but he obviously knew the situation. I told him to have the other waitress stay off the other girls’ tables. He smiled and said okay. And she did for about ten minutes before coming back to ours with the bill. I sighed and put $65.01 on my card and said the penny was her tip. She had the most agitated look I’ve seen in a while. As we were leaving, our original waitress came over asking about the bill. I said we had paid it and she frowned, but before she walked away I pulled out a fifty and handed it to her saying, “I only gave her a penny.”
Probably made her night.
Spoiled kids are the worst.
I worked in the cell phone department at an electronics store for quite a while. When the new iPhone 4S came out I saw a lot of pretty astounding things (16-year-old girls routinely cried because I wouldn’t let them make changes to their parents’ family plans or sign them up for new contracts, etc.). But one of the most unbelievable things I ever witnessed was a man who came in with his daughter who looked to be about 14. The daughter was dressed in showy designer clothes from head to toe. Her dad walked up to me and said, “She wants the iPhone 4S 64GB in white.” I’m an avid disliker of Apple products and I saw the dad squirm when I told him that even on a brand new 3-year-old contract it would still be around $300 and because it was an Apple product if he needed any warranty work done he’d have to send it away (my little corner of nowhere doesn’t have an Apple store). I showed him the Samsung Galaxy S II which was new at the time and how it was faster, had a more durable screen, better internet capabilities, etc. He called his daughter over to see the Android device and that’s when everything fell apart. This kid starts screaming at me, “You’re trying to trick my daddy into getting me this loser phone so I’ll be an outcast, you jerk!” Needless to say I may not have gotten the sale that day, but I did get the amusement of watching a 14-year-old girl get dragged out of the store by security.
Imagine being this ungrateful!
I made the mistake of being nostalgic while at my uncle’s house and watching an old episode of Sailor Moon online. My younger cousin who’s about ten watched it with me and was instantly obsessed. Her birthday is in August and I’ve been babysitting her for years, so I’ve seen her ridiculous ‘birthday lists’.
That year she demanded that she get a full-on Halloween Costume of Sailor Moon complete with red boots, scepter, and long-flowing blond hair. My aunt searched tirelessly online – but to order one of those really nice cosplay costumes with custom measurements can be hundreds of dollars.
Instead she made it! Slaved over stitching this costume and creating this wig and little leg covers all for one day of my younger cousin’s life. It was honestly very good, and much better than some of the stuff they sell online.
She presented it to her on Halloween, and my cousin just cried, threw down the costume and started screaming and stepping on it and telling her mom how much she hated it and how it wasn’t even close to what she wanted.
I was shocked.
Being old is no excuse!
I have an aunt that’s very petty and unappreciative. No matter what you get her, she will complain. And no matter what you get the rest of her family, she’ll complain too. So while everyone else gets a $50 limit on their presents, she has a $150 MINIMUM. We have gotten her D&G sunglasses, over 10 expensive purses, and a bunch of other stuff she outright stated she hated. What did me in was on Mother’s Day when she told me she hated the hand drawn card I made her.
“You messed up on the present and I don’t even get a pretty card to make up for it. Am I not important to you?”
My parents tell me to put up with her out of respect and that she doesn’t know any better because she’s old, but I am so done with her.
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Comments have been edited for clarity.