Me: *answering a phone* “How can I direct your call?”

Customer: “Get me [Department].”

Me: “All of [Department] is tied up on the phones right now; can I have them call you back?”

Customer: “I need [Department].”

Me: “As I said, they’re all on other lines.”

Customer: “…”

Me: “Would you like to leave your name and number?”

Customer: “No one’s free?”

Me: “No, I’m afraid not.”

Customer: “How many people you got there?”

Me: “There are three people, and they are all on other lines.”

Customer: “Ain’t none of them can come to the phone?”

Me: “No, sir.”

Customer: “Oh.” *long pause* “Have them call me.”

Me: “Sure, what was your name—”

(The customer hung up.)

I work in a retail-flooring store that also has a warehouse attached. Earlier this afternoon, we had a large propane leak in our warehouse and we’re in the process of evacuating the building.

A lady walked into our store as we were evacuating the employees out. She looked around and asked us what was going on, so we explained. She then ignored what she had just heard about the gas leak and started asking questions about the flooring that she was looking for.

After trying to guide her to the front door while answering her questions, she started to get very upset. She couldn’t comprehend why we wouldn’t let her back into our showroom to view all of our available products. We once again explained the situation and how dangerous it was for anyone to be in the building, but she wasn’t having it. She wanted to look at every hardwood sample that we had in the building because she had driven 15 minutes across the city and her time was very precious.

Apparently, she really needed that hardwood today if it was worth putting her life at risk. My manager stepped in to prevent her from pushing us out of the way to go look at the flooring. Needless to say, she did not purchase any flooring from us today.

(At my store, we have a digital-prints-only photo center. Customers can download an app for iOS, Android, and Windows smartphones to be able to print pictures from their phones. This happens every single time someone new is using the app.)

Me: *while the app is downloading* “Do you have all the pictures you’re looking for saved on the phone or SD card?”

Customer: “Yes.”

(Once the app is downloaded, we connected it to the kiosk, which is a very quick process but generally frustrates the general public.)

Me: “So, what you’re going to do is go to choose photos here, and your photos will come up, or you can hit ‘send all.’ You’re going to select all the photos that you might want, because once you send them, you have to go through that whole connecting process again if you want to send more. It’s much easier to select them all now.”

Customer: “Okay” *selects pictures, as most people prefer this to sharing all their pictures*

Me: “Okay, before we send them, did you get all the pictures you might want, even if you’re not sure? You’re not obligated to print them if you’ve selected them, and we have to go through the whole connection process again if you want more.”

Customer: “Yeah, I selected everything I wanted.”

Me: “Okay, hit ‘send.’”

Customer: *hits “send,” and all the selected pictures go to the kiosk* “Oh, I had pictures I wanted that are in my emails and texts. How do I access those now?”

Me: “You have to finish with these photos, and then I’ll show you how to reconnect.”

Customer: “YOU MEAN I HAVE TO DO THAT ALL OVER AGAIN?”

(I work in the electronics department. A female customer comes up to the desk I’m standing at, asking to buy a TV. As we’re heading towards the back wall, she keeps repeating that she knows absolutely nothing about TVs, but knows she wants a smart TV — a smart TV means it can connect to the Wi-Fi — even though she doesn’t know what a smart TV is. I help her find the one she wants, and I scan the barcode to get the DPCI number and head to the back to pick up the TV. I’d like to note that each product has a unique DPCI number, and no two items will have the same number unless it’s a children’s toy. I bring it out, and we go through the sale really smoothly with no problems. She even thanks me for being so helpful. About an hour later, a call comes through the department, and I answer it.)

Me: “Hello, thank you for calling [Store]. How may help you?”

Customer: “Hello, I came in earlier to buy a TV, and I was sold the wrong television.”

(She doesn’t seem to recognize my voice. I know for a fact that I sold her the right TV since not only was it the same brand and size, the DPCI number was the exact same.)

Me: “I’m sorry, do you—”

Customer: “I’m just really upset, because I told the girl who was working there that I knew nothing about TVs, and she seemed to want to help, but she disappeared, and then came back with the wrong one!”

Me: “I believe I remember the sale. The TV was a 40-inch [Brand] smart TV, right? Is that not the TV you wanted?”

Customer: “I don’t know. The one I have is [same Brand], but I’m not sure if that was the one I wanted. I know nothing about TVs, and the girl knew that!”

Me: “I’m very sorry that you do not have the TV you want. Fortunately, since you bought it today, you can still return it in store and get a full refund.”

Customer: “But what are you going to do? The TV on the box doesn’t even look like the one I wanted. This is just incredibly unprofessional; that girl completely lied to me. She sold me the wrong TV on purpose; I’m so surprised that [Store] would employ someone so deceitful. It’s really unprofessional.”

(I have to take a moment to calm down after this woman called me a liar and unethical because she didn’t think the picture on the box was right.)

Me: *trying to keep my cool* “I’m sorry, but the only thing I can do, if it is not the TV you wanted, is have you return to the store and get a refund.”

Customer: “But what happened was just extremely unprofessional.”

Me: “Again, I apologize and can only offer a refund. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Customer: “No.”

Me: “Then I hope the rest of your day goes well. Goodbye.”

(I never hung up so fast on a customer in my life. I had to take my break early after that.)

(I am a Mexican male, born in Mexico but living in New York. I am working in a fast food chain for the summer, before I enter university. My English is not broken, and my natural accent has almost faded, so I sound like I was born in New York, but I still look Mexican. I am ringing up a customer when two young customers in their mid-20s enter the store. They really look and sound Mexican. Suddenly, they glance at me and speak in Spanish. I still speak flawless Spanish.)

Customer #1: *in Spanish* “Look at that idiot, dude.”

(The other customer looks at me.)

Customer #2: *in Spanish* “Yeah dude, he’s one of those [slurs] who think they’re American just because their daddies crossed the border.”

(I came to America legally, and I wasn’t even planning on staying.)

Customer #1: *in Spanish* “Tell you what; we order everything in Mexican to piss him off. Let’s see how good he thinks his Mexican is.”

(They walk up to me and the only thing they say is:)

Customer 1#: *in English* “Good morning.”

Me: *in Spanish* “Hi there! What would you like to order today?”

(The customers go silent and stare at me for five seconds. Suddenly, [Customer #2] goes red.)

Customer #2: *in Spanish* “YOU’RE NOT MEXICAN! YOU’RE NOT AMERICAN! YOU’RE JUST A F****** [SLUR]!”

Me: *trying not to laugh* “Okay, are you going to order anything?”

Customer #2: “F*** YOU!”

Customer #1: “I’m sorry… We’ll never do that again.”

(They both leave. This would’ve been a good ending to the story, with two bigots owned and me happy, but it gets even better. Two days later my manager takes me into her office.)

Manager: “So… [My Name], I customer told me yesterday that a bigot told them that they were… [slurs]… Do you have anything to say about that?”

(I then tell her what actually happened and who called who what. She starts to laugh and tells me to not worry, then. Later on, [Customer #1] comes in and walks up to me.)

Customer #1: “Yeah… Sorry about my friend… Did he really complain about you?”

Me: “He did, but don’t worry; it’s all fine.”

Customer #1: “Well, if it makes you feel better… I punched him in the face when he told me.”

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