I work in a pet shop. A customer approaches me and looks a bit dazed, but there are no other red flags.
Customer: “Hello! I need a parrot.”
As we sell several breeds of parrots, I naturally ask:
Me: “Of course! What kind of parrot are you looking for?”
Customer: *Still looking like they’re somewhere out of this world* “A live one…”
I work at a retail chain. This particular day I am working at the register when a customer I have never seen before comes along with his purchase. As I’m ringing it up, he asks for a discount.
Me: “Do you have our rewards card?”
Customer: “No, but can’t you give me your employee discount?”
Me: “Sorry, but the use of those is tracked by the management. If I used it on a customer, I could lose my job.”
Customer: “Oh, stop bluffing! I need that discount!”
Me: “Sorry, but I can’t do that if I want to keep my job. Your total is [total].”
Customer: *Now angry* “Outrageous! I’m spending so much money right now! Have you no loyalty to your customers?!”
The grand total I should be willing to lose my job over? About €30.
Related:
Don’t Discount The Customer’s Ability To Discount, Part 23
Don’t Discount The Customer’s Ability To Discount, Part 22
Don’t Discount The Customer’s Ability To Discount, Part 21
Don’t Discount The Customer’s Ability To Discount, Part 20
Don’t Discount The Customer’s Ability To Discount, Part 19
This isn’t even the most-cringe way a customer has demanded a discount! Check out these 10 Stories About Customers Who Will Do Anything For A Discount!
In Latvia, we don’t have Social Security Numbers, but each citizen is assigned a Person Identity Number which is used to uniquely identify people. It’s an eleven-digit number and it used to be that the first six digits represented the birth date. With the advent of privacy laws, however, a few years back, it was changed to contain just random digits, and anybody who wants can change theirs ONCE to the new version. A colleague of mine has done this.
Recently, [Colleague] had trouble with her Internet connection and decided to switch from mobile Internet to cable. She filled out the online form, and today they called her back.
Representative: “Hello. Can I speak to [Colleague], please?”
Colleague: “Hello! Yes, I’m [Colleague].”
Representative: “I’m sure you’re not. I can tell by your voice.”
Colleague: “What? What’s wrong with my voice?”
Representative: “Stop fooling around! Either give me [Colleague] or I will terminate this call!”
Colleague: “I’m not even your client yet. How can you possibly know my voice?!”
There’s a long pause, and then the representative proceeds sheepishly.
Representative: “Oh, you have the new person number. I only looked at the year digits and thought you were eighty-nine.”
My colleague — who is in her early thirties — also shared that she managed to get vaccinated early because seniors were a prioritized group.
My grandparents own a camping site near a lake and offer to rent pedal boats and cabins. They are the only workers there, so I, a fourteen-year-old girl, decide to help them during the summer and look after the reception.
It’s kind of a boring day and only one of the pedal boats is being used. A middle-aged woman comes into reception.
Me: “Hello!”
Customer: “I would like to rent a pedal boat. How much for an hour?”
Me: “3€. But I will need a pledge.”
Customer: “A pledge?”
Me: “It can be anything you don’t want to lose during your trip.”
This is a standard process for safety and we add tiny papers with their start time to them. She hands me 20€ cash.
Me: “Sorry, I can’t accept cash. But people usually leave some documents—”
Customer: “Documents? I won’t give my passport!”
Me: “I can’t accept passports, either. You can leave your driver’s license, ID, wallet, phone, etc.”
Customer: “But I’m renting a cabin in this camping area and I left all my belongings there.”
Me: “It’s our policy.”
Customer: “Actually, how old are you? Can you even work there?”
Me: “I’m fourteen, and from this age, you can legally work with parents’ permission.”
She starts asking for some “grownups” and so on. My father comes into reception and sees me almost crying.
Father: “What’s the problem?”
Customer: “She doesn’t want to accept my pledge or my passport!”
Me: “I said that neither cash nor passport is an acceptable pledge.”
Customer: “I’m staying there. Why can’t she just accept the money?”
Father: “Because the money doesn’t give a guarantee that you won’t go across the lake and steal the boat.”
I don’t remember what happened next because I was crying, but at one moment, my grandfather came into reception. It turned out that the customer’s kids had rented one water bike just a few minutes before and left their phone as a pledge.
(I’m attending a crash course along with twenty other people. The lecturer starts off by asking each of us to tell others a bit about ourselves. The course is in Latvian, the only official language of Latvia, but about a third of attendees are of Russian-speaking minority. This minority is infamous for expecting to be able to converse in Russian everywhere, although these particular people, obviously, must understand Latvian language well enough. Still…)
Lecturer: “I think we’ll allow everyone to introduce themselves in their native language; does everyone agree?”
(People nod and make agreeing noises, but I prick up my ears. When my turn comes, several minutes after the previous non-Latvian speaker…)
Me: “May I speak in my native language, too?”
Everybody: *nodding toward me in a friendly way* “Yes, of course!”
Me: “But… do you all understand Estonian, then?”
Everybody: “Hahaha, no! You will need to translate your introduction for us afterward.”
(So much for equality.)
