Dot Net Fret

(We have a free event where people can bring in their animals to get a picture with Santa, and the picture is emailed to them. Because every store is doing this during the same weekend, the servers are busy and the pictures take longer to get to the recipients. We tell customers to expect their photos within 24 to 48 hours. Unfortunately, due to people giving incorrect email addresses or general technological issues, some pictures don’t arrive. However, we have an app that allows us to look up their pictures using the email provided. I’m ringing on register when a lady stomps up to me.)

Me: “Hi. Can I help you?”

Customer: “I came in for that Santa event, and you people never sent my picture! I have been in here four times trying to get my picture, and I’ve talked to all the managers, and nobody knows what they’re doing! I want my picture!”

Me: “I’m a manager, ma’am, and I do know what I’m doing. Let me grab an iPad to pull up your picture.”

(I go to the cabinet, get the iPad, and pull up the proper app.)

Me: “Okay, ma’am, what email did you give us that day?”

Customer: “I don’t have an email address.”

Me: “Well, people were required to submit their email addresses when the pictures were taken. You didn’t submit an email address?”

Customer: “I gave you my friend’s email.”

Me: “Great. What was her email?”

Customer: *gives me her friend’s name, with a last name that has multiple ways to spell it*

Me: “[First Name]. Can you spell the last name?”

(She repeats the last name. I ask if it starts with a P or an F, and she tells me it starts with a P. So, I start to spell it how I think it’ll be spelled, and she corrects me. I ask if she can just spell out the name for me, and she goes through this dramatic presentation of pulling out her phone, looking up the contact, and spelling it out for me.)

Customer: “[Friend] at dot net.”

Me: “At what dot net?”

Customer: “[Friend] at dot net.”

Me: “Ma’am, that isn’t a valid email address. There has to be something between the ‘at’ and ‘dot net.'”

Customer: “No, that’s her address.”

Me: “Ma’am, it isn’t a valid email address. It has to be Gmail or Hotmail or something.”

Customer: *annoyed* “Do you want me to call her?”

Me: “Yeah, that’d be great.”

(The customer is making a show of having to call her friend, commenting that she hopes she picks up because she’s so busy, etc.)

Customer: “Hi, [Friend], I’m at [Store] trying to get my picture, and this girl is saying your email address isn’t real…Yeah, I don’t think anybody here knows what they’re doing. Okay, so, it’s [Friend] at dot net, right? Okay.” *looks at me* “She says it’s [Friend] [number] at TT dot net.”

Me: “At ATT dot net?”

Customer: “At TT dot net! The at is that A with the circle around it. Honestly.”

Me: “Yes, I know. Is it ATT dot net or TT dot net?”

Customer: “Do you want to talk to her? You don’t seem to be understanding me.”

Me: “That’d be great.” *takes phone* “Hello, [Friend], do you have an AT&T email? You do? Great, thank you. Okay, ma’am, I just resent it to her. She should receive it in 24 to 48 hours. Probably less.”

Customer: “Now, was that so hard?”

(It SHOULDN’T have been. I hate when people have absolutely no concept of how the Internet works.)