(I work in a Mexican restaurant, and a couple of months ago our prices increased, leaving many of our customers angry. One evening, while I am working as a cashier, a customer calls in to order food to go. I take down her order, which involves about three orders of cheese dip, three dinners, two extra bags of chips, and some other things.)

Me: “All right, it should be ready in about 15 minutes!”

Customer: “Thanks, I’ll be there in ten! I’m at [Restaurant right down the road].”

(Five minutes later, a young boy walks in for the to-go order. Because people always send others for their food, I think nothing of it and proceed to charge him out.)

Me: *finishing adding up the bill* “All right, sir, it is going to be $50.43.”

(The boy proceeds to look at me and at the register before handing me his card.)

Me: “Thank you! Now your order is finished, but I need to go back to bag it up. I will be right back!”

(He smiles and nods and I go back into the kitchen. I bag up his order quickly and walk back to him. He says nothing, and takes the bag and leaves. About four hours later, my manager comes up to me with a phone and an annoyed expression. He wordlessly hands the phone over to me.)

Me: “Hello?”

Customer: “Hi, yeah, I was charged $20 extra on an order you took earlier.”

Me: “Oh, of course! I remember! Let me find the check.”

(I find it and look through it for about a minute.)

Me: “I can’t find any mistakes… Do you mind telling me what you ordered again? To make sure?”

Customer: *sighs* “Sure, it was…” *tells me her order*

Me: “I see. Well, everything you told me is marked, and it is priced correctly. Let me add it up on the register to make sure.”

(I add up the check. Twice.)

Me: “Well, ma’am, everything is okay with this order. I can’t find anything that is wrong.”

Customer: *getting angry* “No, it is wrong! Your menu says that your cheese dip is $1.50. I paid almost $4 for each one! My bill should have been around $30!”

(As she’s talking I finally realize what happened.)

Me: “Ma’am, do you by any chance happen to have an older menu?”

Customer: “Yes? Why?”

Me: *breathing in a sigh of relief* “Because our prices raised… a couple months ago, actually.”

Customer: “You mean to tell me that your cheese dip isn’t $1.50?”

Me: “Yes.”

Customer: “Then why is it on the menu?”

Me: “Ma’am… that menu is outdated. So is the one online.”

Customer: “But the menu says that it’s $1.50!”

(She is very angry and proceeds to tell me all the prices of the old menu.)

Me: “Ma’am, there is nothing I can do. I am sorry you did not have the updated menu at the time of your order, but there is nothing I can do. I cannot give a refund because you called hours after I gave you the food. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do except pass along the complaint.”

Customer: *very tersely* “Bye.” *hangs up*

(I looked over at my manager and saw that he was trying hard not to laugh.)

(I’m working at a well-known makeup store. It’s a Saturday so the store is busy. I have a line and I’m about to help the next guest when this happens.)

Me: “I can help the next guest.”

([Customer #1] is walking up to my register when [Customer #2] runs and cuts in front of her.)

Customer #2: “Excuse me, but could you—”

Me: *cutting her off* “I’m sorry, but this other customer was first. I’ll gladly help you if you get in line, please.”

Customer #2: *walks away and puts back her things, yelling* “I was just asking a question!”

(She then heads out the door but not before screaming:)

Customer #2: “YOU’RE RUDE!”

Customer #1: *laughing as she shakes her head* “She didn’t think cutting in front of everyone else was rude, though.”

(I am standing in line to get a seat assignment for a flight from Vienna to New York. A young woman in front of me is called to the agent and immediately starts in on a sob story.)

Woman: “I need to be upgraded to first class. I get air-sick if I don’t have enough room.”

Agent: “I’d be happy to upgrade you. The difference in fare is [price]. I can charge that to a credit card if you’d like.”

Woman: “You don’t understand. I cannot pay that. You need to upgrade me at no charge so I don’t get sick.”

Agent: “I understand that, ma’am, but if you want to be upgraded, you need to pay the fare difference.”

Woman: *starts crying* “But I need to be upgraded.”

(This goes back and forth for a while with the agent calmly responding to her demands as she gets more and more agitated. Finally, she starts yelling at him.)

Woman: “I see you don’t care and you want me to be sick! When I’m sick on the plane, it will be your fault because you didn’t upgrade me.”

(The agent has had enough.)

Agent: “Ma’am, the only way I can upgrade you is if you pay the price difference. I’m happy to do that for you, but otherwise I cannot upgrade you. Unless you want to pay that, I’m going to have to insist that you take the seat I’ve assigned you and stop wasting the time of everyone behind you.”

(She stomps off, still crying, and I am called to the counter. The agent greets me with a huge smile and says:)

Agent: “Sir, it’s your lucky day. I’ve got an exit row seat available with no seat in front of it and extra room with priority boarding. Would you like that seat?”

(I gladly accepted it and looked over to see Little Miss Entitled glaring daggers at me and the agent. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any evidence that she had learned that treating people with respect rather than demanding things with patently phony requests might serve her better.)

(I am working as a cashier. A customer says that they want to pay their bill for their in-store credit card before checking out. I process the payment and then begin their transaction.)

Me: “Okay, your total today is [amount].”

Customer: “No, I should get a discount for paying my credit card bill up front.”

Me: “Ma’am, it doesn’t matter where you pay your bill. You can pay it at any register, online, or even over the phone. I can’t give you a discount on your transaction for paying your credit card bill.”

Customer: “They have done it before! You just don’t know since you’re new.”

Me: “I am kind of new, but in the six months I’ve been working here, I have never heard of this.”

Customer: “You’re just lying to get more money out of me!”

(An assistant manager thankfully was nearby, and I pawned the customer off on her. I still have no idea why she thought she was entitled to a discount for paying her bill up at the front registers.)

(I work tech support in a software company. Our clients are other companies whose employees use our software. If there is a technical issue, the clients’ employees call us directly. In order to help, we naturally need to know which client company they’re calling from.)

Me: “Hello, [Company] tech support. How can I help you?”

Caller: “Hi, I’m having a problem with your software.” *describes problem*

Me: “I see. This issue requires some investigation; please let me look into it and I’ll call you back later. Could you tell your name, and where you are calling from?”

Caller: “I’m [Caller]. I’m calling from my office.”

Me: “No, I mean which company?”

Caller: “Oh. It’s [Major Telecommunications Company].”

(That company is indeed one of our clients, and I’ve been told to give them first priority if they have any issues. After I hang up, I begin to look into the issue, but I can’t find a record of anyone with that name working there. Since their usage history is required to see what caused the problem, that means I can’t do anything about it. Fearing it is taking too long, I let my boss know, but he can’t find the user, either. After a while, he comes to talk to me, looking a mix of amused and annoyed.)

Boss: “So, this [Caller] you spoke to? In fact, she works for [Other Much Smaller Company].”

Me: “So, why did she say they worked for [Major Telecommunications Company]?”

Boss: “She called from her mobile phone, and thought you were asking which provider she uses.”