Your Drive Me Crazy! This week, we share five stories of customers who drive employees nuts—and the brave workers who are driven to serve them just the same!

1. Drive Hoo:
   Woohoo! Drive-thru customers can really drive you crazy!
2. Preserving Life, 1-Up At A Time:
   Proof that Pokémon-players take “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” VERY seriously.
3. Copycats…and Copy Dogs, Copy Sheep…:
   A customer wanting to clone his dog? Just another day at the bookstore!
4. That Was Random:
   One coffee shop customer takes a random walk on the weird side.
5. We Can Thank Hollywood And “Hacker” Films For This:
   Tech support can fix your hard drive, but not the car you drive!

PS #1: check out our new Extras section, with pictures, videos, and news galore!

PS #2: Read more roundups here!

(I work for an online retail store. When customers send orders to addresses different from their card, we e-mail them a Word document form. This form requires they fill it out and e-mail it back to us.)

Customer: “I don’t understand. I’ve sent this form to you several times now.”

Me: “Sir, I saw your e-mail, but the form wasn’t attached to it.”

Customer: “Attached? How do you do that?”

Me: “What program or e-mail provider do you use?”

Customer: “I don’t know. I just write e-mails.”

Me: “Well, is your e-mail through Outlook, or is it something in a browser, like AOL, Yahoo, or Gmail?

Customer: “Yahoo.”

Me: “Okay. Well, you need to look for—”

Customer: “Hold up! I don’t even have my e-mail open. Why do I need to do this? I used your program and sent you the file.”

Me: “What program, sir?”

Customer: “Microsoft Office. And now it’s opening a bunch of files! 1, 2, 3, 4…20!”

Me: “Did you click on our file a bunch of times?”

Customer: “No! I just clicked on what you sent me! Your program is really stupid.”

Me: “Sir, that’s not our program. We sent you a document. The program to open it is someone else’s.”

Customer: “Well, your ‘document’ has a virus! There are 20 things on my screen now!”

Me: “It’s not a virus, sir. Just close those windows down, and we’ll start from scratch…”

Customer: *a few minutes later* “There. I filled out the form. You should have it.”

Me: “Sir, did you save it and attach it to the e-mail?”

Customer: “What do you mean? I filled it out! You should have it.”

Me: “You have to save it and attach it to the e-mail.”

Customer: “That’s stupid! Your program should just send it to you!”

Me: “Sir, again, that’s not our program. That is just a Word document that you save your information in.”

Customer: “You should use a program that just lets you fill it out and it sends the information.”

Me: “Sorry, our documents don’t do that.”

Customer: “This is ridiculously complicated. I’m about to cancel my order!”

Me: “If you wish to do that sir, it’s up to you.”

Customer: “I mean, how do you run your business? I have a Master’s in Computer Science! If I can’t figure this out, who could?!”

Spelling Disasters! This week, we share five stories of customers with spelling so bad, they need it spelled out for them!

1. Their Spelling Is Wrong, But They Are Sticking To It:
   E is for Elmer’s Eskimos—you know, the ones that live in Eglues!
2. It’s Spelled I-d-i-o-t:
   Welcome to Indiamimbindokiamn, Indiana. Population: Stupid!
3. I Have Lost A Dream:
   A lost customer does battle with an abbreviation—and loses.
4. Congra-duh-lations:
   Congra-du-lations, your cake’s spelling is a lie!
5. Spelling Gone Rogue:
   Somehow, “going rouge” doesn’t have the same ring to it.

PS #1: check out our new Extras section, with pictures, videos, and news galore!

PS #2: Read more roundups here!

(I’ve just started on the floor for customer service for a cable company. A customer calls in saying his TV is “muddy”.)

Me: “Sorry, sir, I’m not understanding what is wrong with your TV. Is it pixelated, blue, or fuzzy?”

Customer: “No, it’s muddy.”

(After a few minutes of trying to figure out exactly what he meant by muddy.)

Me: “Sir…do you have mud on your TV?”

Customer: “D*** it! I said it’s muddy. M-U-T-E…MUDDY!”

Me: “Sir, do you see a muddy button on your remote?

Customer: “Yes. ”

Me: “Press the button.”

Customer: “That fixed it. Thank you so much!”

Me: “Thank you for calling sales and support! This is [name]; how can I help you?”

Caller: “Yes, I received this letter telling me to call you.”

Me: “I’d be happy to help. Can you tell me what the letter states?”

Caller: “For 24/7 customer service, call [number].”

Me: “Okay, sir, did you need any assistance with your account?”

Caller: “No, the account is fine. This letter says to call.”

Me: “What you read to me indicates that you should call our number should you need customer service. Did you need any help today sir?”

Caller: “No.”

Me: “Have a nice day, sir.”

(I work at the college IT department. One day, I get a phone call from a professor.)

Me: “Thank you for calling the help desk. How may we help you?”

Professor: “My computer is making a beeping sound. I can’t get it to stop. Can you send someone to fix it?”

Me: “Sure, I’ll be right over.”

(I arrive at the professor’s office.)

Professor: “I don’t understand why it is doing this. It has never done this before.”

(I notice a rather large book on top of his keyboard.)

Me: “Sir, you can’t leave objects on top of your keyboard. That is what causes the beeping.”

(I remove the book.)

Professor: *embarrassed* “Oh.”

(This professor is the department chair of the Computer Science division of the college. He has a Ph.D in Computer Science.)

Related:
Ph.Duh

Customer: “Do I have signal where I live?”

Me: “I would be happy to check for you. What is your city and state?”

Customer: “I live in Alamb-ma.”

Me: “What is the zip code where you live in Alabama?”

Customer: *gives me a zip code*

Me: “That zip code is a Georgia location. You wanted coverage for Alabama, correct?”

Customer: “Yes, but I don’t know the zip code, so I made one up.”

Me: “That’s fine. Let’s try searching by city name instead.”

Customer: “It begins with T-A-L-L…but…I don’t know the letters after that.”

Me: “Why don’t I just pull up the map for the entire state for you…”

(I work for a broadband provider that has a package for 10GB in usage. This is normally for those who use the internet very little. If you hit 7GB, we will send you an e-mail to let you know. If you go over the 10GB, we will e-mail you and advise you to move up in packages to avoid being charged for going over.)

Me: “Hello, you’re through to [name] at [ISP]. How can I help you?”

Customer: *angrily* “You’d better help! I’ve just seen one of my bills and it says you are charging me for going over my broadband usage.”

Me: “Okay, sir, sorry to hear about that. Let me just have a look into this…”

(I check his broadband usage and he has used about 70GB. He has an average usage of 60GB for the last 12 months.)

Me: “Okay, sir, I can see that there has been a lot of high usage for the last year. If you move to an unlimited pack, you wont be charged for going over this month.”

Customer: “The last year? I better not have been charged for that.”

Me: “I’m afraid you have been, sir. We have sent you many e-mails to let you know when you got near and went over the usage.”

(He has been sent so many e-mails, the first 20 are not even shown on the list.)

Customer: “Bull***t! I check my e-mails 10 times a day and not once have you ever e-mailed me!”

Me: “Sir, we have sent the e-mails to [e-mail address].”

Customer: “I don’t use that e-mail address anymore, so of course I didn’t get them!”

Me: “Did you ever update your e-mail with us so we can send them to the correct e-mail?”

Customer: “No, but you should have checked if I have opened them or not. You should have let me know that I was near my usage limit in the post!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but [ISP] wouldn’t know you have swapped your e-mail unless you inform us. In regard to letting you know by post, it takes 5 working days for a letter to be sent out, sir. In that time, you would have gone over the 10GB and still would have been charged. Also, you are on monthly paper billing, so we have actually informed you via post every month on your bill.”

Customer: *very angrily* “Well, I don’t open my bills! Just by chance, my wife opened this one and showed me these charges!”

Me: “I sorry, sir, but like your e-mails, we don’t know if you have been opening your mail or not. So, we have informed you via post and e-mail but you have not opened either. What else would you have us do?”

Customer: “Well! Have you ever thought about telling me over the phone?”

Me: “I am doing that now, sir—”

Customer: “Well, it ain’t good enough!” *hangs up*

Related:
The Notified And The (Not)ified

(I work at a university library and we sometimes get calls about our online databases not working. 90% of the time, it’s due to cookies not being enabled.)

Me: “[Library], this is [name], how can I help you?”

Patron: “Yeah, hi, I can’t get [database] to work.”

Me: “All right, do you know if you have cookies enabled?”

Patron: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Okay, ma’am, open the internet and click on—”

(I proceed to walk her through enabling cookies. After each step, I wait for the confirming “okay” from her.)

Me: “…and that’s it! Does the page work now?”

Patron: “No.”

Me: “Did you enable the cookies?”

Patron: “No, but I did close the internet! It should work when I open it again, right?”

Me: “No, ma’am. We need to apply a setting.”

(I proceed to explain the process a second time, this time asking if she completed the step after each one.)

Me: “Okay, try to open the page again. Does it work?”

Patron: “No.”

Me: “Did you allow the cookies?”

Patron: “No. I closed everything.”

Me: “Okay, ma’am, please click—”

Patron: “This is frustrating! It should work if I restart the internet. I need [database] for class. Why won’t it work?”

Me: “As I’ve already said, you need to enable cookies.”

(We go through this process a third time.)

Patron: “I can’t do this. I need to speak to someone else. I don’t want to talk to you anymore!”

Me: “All right, ma’am, the librarian is right here. I hope she can help. Have a nice day.”

(I happily give the phone over to my boss, who at this point is giving me the “I will kill you for making me talk to this person” glare.)

(The customer was having trouble accessing his e-mail. I am walking through the steps.)

Me: “Now, if you could just type in the address bar—”

Caller: “Oh, you’ll have to give me a minute. I’ve only got one arm. I was in the war.”

Me: “Oh, it’s okay. Take your time. I actually had a cousin that just got back from Afghanistan. He had lost both of his legs. I couldn’t imagine.”

Caller: “Actually, I didn’t lose my arm in the war. I lost it in the shower.”

Me: *in shock*