A Complete Lack Of Order

I work for a well-known china manufacturer. There are about 100 different patterns of china in the range. A woman comes to the counter and aggressively slaps down a till receipt.

Customer: “Can you find out what’s happened to this order? Someone phoned and told me it would be in three weeks ago.”

Me: “Okay, do you have your copy of the order?”

Customer: “No, it’s at home on my pinboard.”

Me: “Okay, what was it you ordered?”

Customer: “Some cups and saucers, I think.”

Me: “What pattern?”

Customer: “I can’t remember.”

Me: “What’s your name? I’ll have to look it up in the order book.”

Customer: “Don’t you know? You’re supposed to know about orders.”

Me: “Madam, we have about twenty or thirty orders at any one time. I can’t be expected to remember them all.”

She’s getting very annoyed now at my lack of mind-reading skills.

Customer: “Well, that’s convenient, isn’t it.”

Me: “No, it’s not convenient at all. You don’t know what you’ve ordered, so now I’ve got to go through all these orders to find yours.”

She huffs and goes silent. At this point, my colleague comes in from lunch and senses an atmosphere.

Colleague: “Everything all right?”

Me: “Yes, this lady has ordered something, but she can’t remember what, so I’m trying to find out for her.”

Colleague: “Don’t you have your copy of the order, madam?”

Customer: “No, I left it at home on my pinboard.”

Colleague: “…”

Finally, I find the order.

Me: “Oh, yes, the pink cups and saucers. They’ve been here for a couple of weeks.”

Customer: “So, why didn’t anyone phone me?”

Me: “But madam, you said someone did, three weeks ago.”

There wasn’t another peep out of her while I wrapped her stuff and sent her on her way.