This is Christmastime in the late 1990s, and I’m shopping for a present for my brother-in-law. He just purchased a CD player for his home and I want to get him something for it. I decide on The Beatles’ “White Album.” There’s only one record store in my town, a now-defunct corporate chain.

I can’t seem to find the album on the CD rack, so I ask a sales clerk, who doesn’t look a day older than twenty, for some help.

Me: “I can’t seem to find the White Album by the Beatles.”

The clerk gets a dumb look on her face.

Clerk: “What’s it called?”

Me: “The Beatles’ White Album.”

Clerk: “So, the cover’s white, but what’s it called?”

Me: “It’s the White Album. It’s by the Beatles. It’s kind of famous.”

Cue an “older” clerk, about thirty.

Older Clerk: “Let’s look it up in the system.”

The older clerk goes to the computer.

Older Clerk: “Nothing is coming up. Maybe it hasn’t been released yet?”

Me: “Never mind.”

I wound up making a few phone calls and found a small record store the next town over — about eighty miles away — that had it. They offered to ship it, but I made the drive over anyway. I love small businesses with competent staff.

Customer: “I would like to order a pack of Martin Strings in the gauge of 9-46.”

Me: “Great, do you have an item number or SKU number for those strings?”

Customer: “No, I don’t, I just thought you would have that already.”

Me: “Well, sir, we sell thousands of different musical items every single day and it’s hard to keep record of everything. I would be happy to look that up for you, though.”

Customer: “Okay, thanks!”

As I’m pulling up the item on our website, the customer is mumbling something under his breath.

Me: “Okay, sir, I believe I found the set you’re looking for?”

Customer: “Now make sure it comes in the right tuning of EBGDAE, okay?”

Me: “Well, sir, the strings come how they come and it is up to you to tune them correctly.”

Customer: “So, you mean to tell me that they don’t come tuned?”

Me: “Sir, you have to put the strings on the guitar before you can tune them.”

Customer: “Well, I believe that is bad customer service. If you expect me to order, then you must make sure they are in the correct tuning.”

Me: “Sir, the strings don’t come in a tuning; the term ‘tuning’ refers to the tension you set the string on the guitar that creates a certain pitch. There is no such thing as strings that come in a standard tuning.”

Customer: “Fine. Then I will order from a different company that will tune them for me, so I can play my guitar without sounding like a [disabled slur].”

Me: “Okay, sir, make sure the next company you order from gets the standard tuning for you on the strings!”

Customer: “Can you show me a rhythm guitar, please?”

Me: “I’m sorry, there’s no such thing. Rhythm guitar is the role you play in a band or group, not the type of guitar.”

Customer: “You’re such an idiot. Of course, you can find rhythm guitars! They have four strings instead of six!”

Me: “I think you mean a bass guitar.”

Customer: “No, a bass guitar is what you play with your foot on the drum kit.”

Me: “That’s bass drum, not bass guitar.”

The customer is suddenly blushing as people around him are laughing.

Customer: “Okay, so can I check a rhythm guitar, please?”

Me: “Do you mean a six-string one?”

Customer: “No, that’s a lead guitar; rhythm guitars have four strings!”

I’m in high school and just got hired at a music/movie store. On my first shift, I am wearing the uniform but only doing training. This includes watching videos on one of the small machines customers can use to listen to music. I’m wearing headphones and focusing on the video when a customer approaches me. 

The woman asks for help finding something in the store. I haven’t even gotten to that part of my training yet so I tell her I’m new and in training, and I can’t help her. I go back to my video thinking she’ll find someone else. That’s where I am wrong. 

She does find someone else, but not to help. She immediately seeks out the store manager and complains about me. They come back to find me together and the woman continues yelling about me to my manager in front of me. She goes on about my horrible customer service and how I am just standing there doing nothing, not helping anyone. 

My manager tells the woman she’ll deal with me later, helps her find her CDs, and checks her out. My manager does talk to me later in the back, but it’s to say that I should’ve helped the woman from the beginning.

That’s how I got yelled at and written up on my first day of work… for not knowing something I wasn’t yet taught.

A few years ago, I was working two part-time jobs in different companies: one as a receptionist in an office and one in a CD/DVD store. One day, our area manager came into the store with forms for us all to sign. She explained that it was not a big deal, just some “dumb government thing,” and we needed to sign it, and once we did, we’d get a $50 bonus in our next pay “for our trouble.” This sounded pretty good to us; all of us were struggling with low wages and an extra $50 would make life a little easier.

It was extremely long, with pages and pages of complicated jargon I couldn’t make heads or tails of. Then, in bold at the bottom, written in plain English, was a line about the extra $50 in our next pay if we signed. My area manager hovered over me the whole time I was reading, literally standing in my personal space, arms folded, huffing and sighing and checking her watch.

Something didn’t feel right, so I told her I was going to take it home and read it properly. She didn’t like that one bit. She complained that I was making her life difficult, that everyone else had already done it, why did I have to cause such a fuss, the company was being so generous, and it would be rude for me not to get it back ASAP, etc. I dug my heels in and took it home. 

I showed it to my parents and friends, and none of them could make any sense of it, either. I took it to my office job and asked if the HR manager could look over it for me.

She did, and she was furious. She boiled it down for me: the company had been caught underpaying its employees and was now supposed to pay back the wages we were owed. The form we were asked to sign was basically us forfeiting our rights to claim that money, in exchange for a $50 “bonus”.

I called my area manager and told her that I wasn’t signing and I wanted my backpay.

Even though I had only worked for the company for a few months, I was entitled to over $800 in wages. My coworkers were devastated when I told them; they had signed without reading, took the managers at their word, and had probably missed out on a few thousand dollars.