Dealerships are franchises, meaning Bob’s Ford dealership in [Town #1] and John’s Ford dealership in [Town #2] are not connected. People sometimes are confused, though, and think that all dealerships in a brand are connected. For instance, customers might get the promise of a free oil change at one dealership and then come to our dealership and get upset when we know nothing about the free oil change.

One evening, I am the closing cashier. Parts and Service have been closed for about half an hour now. A man comes up to me and puts a part and the receipt on the counter. I can immediately tell there’s going to be a problem because the receipt looks nothing like our receipts.

Customer: “I bought this from [Other Dealership] in [Other Town], and I want to return it.”

Me: “Parts is closed now, but we can’t take that here anyway. You have to go to [Other Dealership].”

Customer: “But [Brand] is [Brand].”

Me: “No, we’re franchises. We’re not associated with [Other Dealership] at all.”

Customer: “But [Brand] is [Brand].”

Me: “No. We are our own thing, and they are their own thing. You have to go there to return the part.”

Customer: “But… But [Brand] is [Brand]. I don’t know why you can’t return it. It’s like if I go to [Big Box Store] and go to another [Big Box Store] and return something. It’s the same thing.”

Me: “No. Parts is closed now, so you couldn’t even return that today. You can come back tomorrow and talk to the parts manager if you want, but he’s probably going to tell you the same thing.”

I know for a fact that the parts manager will not accept the return because he has a spine and is not afraid of offending customers when they’re clearly wrong.

Customer: “You’re making me drive all the way to [Other Town] thirty minutes away for a $20 part?

Me: “You can come back and talk to the parts manager at that counter.”

I point to the Parts counter, which has a giant metal curtain pulled down. The customer seems to notice this for the first time.

Customer: “They’re closed now?”

Me: “Yes.” 

The guy came back the next day and talked to the parts manager, who was not as nice as I was by the end. The guy stormed off, saying something about “wasting his time” on his way out.

I have a perfect view of the women’s bathroom from my desk. Our bathrooms are single-stall, so if I see someone go in and then a second person tries to go in, I will let them know it’s occupied.

One day, I see a woman enter the bathroom. A minute later, a second woman tries to open the door, but it’s locked. She immediately starts knocking nonstop on the door and calling, “Hello!”

Me: “Ma’am, someone is in there.”

Woman: “There is?”

Me: “Yes.”

Woman: “Oh, okay.”

As soon as I turn around, the woman immediately starts banging on the door and yelling at the person inside.

Me: “Ma’am! There is someone in there right now.”

Woman: “I know.”

I give up and return to my work. Less than a minute later, the woman inside the bathroom comes out, looking super annoyed.

I had half a mind to start banging on the bathroom door after the second woman went in. Maybe if I hadn’t been at work.

I work for an equipment dealership that sells, rents, and repairs heavy equipment. It’s just after 7:00 am, which is when we open. I’m the only one in at the moment to answer the phones, and I’ve only taken a single service call so far. I’m not even able to get my greeting out before this caller goes off on me.

Caller: “You’d better not transfer me to another d***ed voicemail! I need to talk to someone right now!”

Me: “I’m… sorry? I only just got here. What is it you need?”

He lets out an irritated sigh and starts talking to me slowly like I’m an idiot.

Caller: “Look, sweetheart. I’ve called several times over the last hour. I talked to you every time, and you keep sending me to someone’s voicemail. I want to talk to an actual person.”

Me: “We only just opened, so I can assure you it wasn’t me you spoke to. Likely it was our automated system. But if you’ll let me know who you need, I can get someone on the line for you.”

Caller: “I need a person.”

I resist the urge to tell him he’s talking to a person right now.

Me: “Right, and what do you need help with? Were you looking to rent or purchase, or do you need service?”

Caller: “I need a salesman. I want to a buy a brand-new piece of equipment.”

Me: “Great. I’d be happy to get you over to one of them. However, they aren’t in for another hour, so—”

Caller: “You’re telling me you don’t have anyone willing to sell me equipment?”

Me: “None of our salesmen get in until 8:00. I’m sorry. But I can get you one of their voicemails so they can call you—”

Caller: “No! I don’t want no d***ed voicemail! I have $50,000 cash in hand, and if you don’t wanna sell to me, then I’ll take my business elsewhere!”

I silently wish he WOULD go somewhere else just so I don’t have to deal with him anymore.

Me: “As I said, none of our salesmen are in yet, so I have no way of getting one for you. They work bank hours since many of our customers need financing. If you’d like, I can take down your name and number and pass it on to one of the salesmen as soon as they get in.”

Caller: “Fine. But you make sure they call me right at eight o’clock, sweetheart, or I’m taking my cash and going to someone who actually wants to do business.”

I did take his information and pass it on to our sales team, who said they’d call him. He called back multiple times later that day, and my newest coworker got him one of those times. He gave her the same “I’ve been calling for so long and have cash in hand and I’ll go somewhere else” spiel. She came to me in a near panic because she couldn’t get a hold of a salesman; she didn’t want to be blamed if this guy went to a competitor. I told her to try them again just in case and then move up the chain to a manager if she had to.

She managed to get a salesman on the second try. After she finished with the call, she relayed to me that they had, in fact, called him first thing that morning and talked to him, and if he called again, we could send him to voicemail. Apparently, he wanted to buy a brand-new excavator and refused to finance it; he thought he should be able to buy a (minimum) $100,000 machine for $50,000 because he was willing to pay in cash, and he wasn’t taking no for an answer.

As far as I’m aware, he either moved on to harassing a different company, or he finally agreed to finance (or buy a cheaper piece of equipment); we didn’t get any more calls of that sort after that day.

I built a website for a car dealership a couple of months back, and I got a text about a month after the project was done.

Client: “We are going to be expanding into motorcycles and other stuff. Can you update the site?”

Me: “Great! I am happy to help you! Do you mind sending photos of your inventory and product specs/descriptions so I can add them?”

Three weeks went by with no reply. Then, I received this email.

Client: “Where the h*** is my web page? This is ridiculous! How are my customers supposed to know that I’m selling motorcycles now if it’s not on my website?!”

I do IT networking for a dealership. I had been having trouble with users watching TV streams and using up a lot of bandwidth on an older network — so much trouble that some policies were implemented by me to slow down this practice.

A few months later, the owner, the manager, several sales guys, and I were chatting it up when the conversation took a turn.

Sales Guy: “Hey, when you have a chance, could you look at my connection? I can’t watch The View anymore.”

Me: “You do know you just asked me that out loud, right? In front of your manager?”

The manager walked away shaking his head. Everyone else laughed their a**es off.

Me: “Sure, I’ll have a look.”

I didn’t.

It was never spoken of again.