(I’m a driver for a particular rideshare company. I have a passenger in my car who’s been quiet, for the most part, until I approach an intersection where I’m to turn right. The light is red and there’s a blind corner, meaning I can’t see what’s approaching from the left until it’s right in front of me. For this reason, I’m waiting for the light to turn green before I make the turn. I mean, duh.)

Passenger: “Uh, I don’t see a ‘no right turns on red’ sign here.”

(I’m about to say something like, “Excuse me?” when all of a sudden a wave of cars comes zooming along from the left. There was no warning. If I’d been in the intersection they definitely would have hit me.)

Me: “Yeah, as you can see, the corner’s blind.”

(Later on, she berated me for pulling over on the right side of the street to let her out instead of making an illegal — and dangerous — U-turn. Sadly, she’s not even the first passenger I’ve had who seems to think I’m immune to the laws of physics and traffic. One star for her.)

(I work as a barista in a grocery store. I get a lot of hard customers, and I’m pretty patient, but this one takes the cake for me. A woman comes up to the pastry case near the other register next to mine. After asking from my register how I can help her, and her not moving, I walk over to the pastry case to help her.)

Me: “Hi! What can I get for you today?”

Customer: “Do you have any more of those dark squares?”

Me: “You mean… a brownie?”

Customer: “Yes.”

Me: “Well, we have that one in the case, and the others we have are frozen right now and thawing.”

Customer: “Hmm, okay. I’ll just take a frozen one; it’s fine.”

Me: *starts to grab a frozen brownie*

Customer: “You know what, I’ll take the one in the case.”

Me: *sets the frozen brownie down and starts to get the one in the case*

Customer: “You know what? I’ll take the frozen one.”

Me: “Okay, no problem.” *opens the pack of frozen brownies*

Customer: “Wait a minute. Are you able to thaw that?”

Me: “Well, I can heat the brownie up, but since it’s frozen, I can’t guarantee it’ll be warm all the way through.”

Customer: “Okay, then let me get the one in the case.”

Me: *sets the frozen brownies down again and goes to grab the one in the case*

Customer: “Wait, never mind. Just give me a frozen one and I’ll deal with it.”

Me: *grabs the frozen brownies again*

Customer: “Yeah, I just don’t know how long that’s been in the case.”

Me: “We put our pastries in every day, so it’s only been in there since this morning.”

Customer: “Oh, okay, let me go ahead and take the one in the case, then.”

Me: “Okay no problem.” *grabs the brownie from pastry case* “Would you like it heated up?”

Customer: “Hmm… no, I’ll just take it home.”

Me: *goes to put the brownie in a bag*

Customer: “You know what? Let me have it warmed.”

Me: “Okay, ma’am.” *puts the brownie in the oven and starts to press the button to warm it*

Customer: “Wait! Actually, I’ll just take it as is.”

Me: *takes the brownie out of the oven, puts it in a bag, and hands it to her*

Customer: “Actually, can you warm it? Sorry.”

Me: “Sure.” *puts the brownie in the oven again*

Customer: “But only a little bit!”

Me: *sets the oven on a low setting and warms the brownie* “Okay, ma’am, here’s your brownie.”

Customer: *pays and walks away*

Coworker: “Wow, I am so glad you had her. I would’ve lost it on her.”

Me: *sighs*

(I work at a bakery and coffee shop in my hometown. It is one of about five locations in the city. Our bakery specializes in freshly made cookies and various cakes and bars, along with a pretty good selection of coffee flavours and espresso machine drinks. One afternoon, I’m working at the store with my shift partner when a lady comes up to order a latte. I go on to ask about the type of milk she wants and if she wants a flavour shot or cinnamon or chocolate powder on the top. The conversation that follows is a head-scratcher.)

Me: “Okay, so, a medium latte with 2% milk and no toppings.” 

Customer: “Ooh, I have to ask. Are your beans fresh?”

Me: “The beans come in a vacuum-sealed bag, and the machine is filled from the bottom up every day to ensure the beans never sit in the machine for too long.”

(The machine dispenses beans from the bottom so the beans are never old as we add new beans to the top unless the machine has been idle for a few days, at which point we toss the beans and wash the container out before refilling it with fresh beans.)

Customer: “No, no, I mean when were the beans made? Are they fresh, as in picked recently? I only want the freshest beans!” 

(At this point, I’m slightly confused and show the lady the bag of beans we use, pointing out the “best before” date, which is something like eight months from now, and the packaged date, which is a couple of weeks ago, which is pretty good considering the beans are picked in COLUMBIA and packaged in some small town in ITALY and then shipped to CANADA.) 

Customer: *throws her hands up* “This is unacceptable! I only drink the freshest coffee and espresso. Cancel my order; I’m going to the coffee shop that I know has fresh beans!”

(My coworker mutters behind the lady’s back after she leaves:)

Coworker: “Have a nice trip; don’t come back!” 

(We were beginning to think the lady was expecting us to pull out this coffee plant from the back garden and roast and grind the beans right there. Some people.)

(I work in a call center for a clothing store. A customer calls and gives me a very long-winded description of how we made an error on her previous order and reshipped it and included a prepaid return label to send the error back. When her elderly husband went to the post office to return the item, he forgot the label, and instead of returning home to get the UPS label we sent and returning it to the correct shipping company, he just paid $20. Now she wants us to refund that.)

Me: “Yes, um, no. We did everything we could to alleviate the error but the prepaid label should have been used.”

(We negotiate lower rates with some carriers and don’t pay for stupidity.)

I take care of lost and damaged books in our library.

When a patron loses or damages a book, they can either buy a new copy themselves and bring it to us or we can buy a new copy and then send them an invoice.

One patron, in particular, has been a big problem. She borrowed six books that were very, very late. After months of trying to reach her by email, phone, and physical letters, she finally brought five of the books back. Those books were all very damaged — torn pages and covers, some coffee spills inside, scribblings everywhere, etc. We knew for sure that she was the one responsible because those were all new books and she was the first patron to borrow them.

We told her that she would have to bring back the last book she still had and that she would have to pay for all the damaged book,s as well as the late fee.

She finally did pay her invoice, after months of constant reminders once again.

She still hadn’t brought back her last book, though. But she finally did bring it back, weeks after paying her first invoice, this one also very damaged.

So, I told her that once again, she would have to pay for it. She then sent me an email saying the following :

“Dear Madam,

This book is actually written by a group that has it available for free on their website. To avoid cutting down more trees and to do something for our planet, I suggest you could put the PDF on your catalog instead of making me buy a new copy.”

Obviously, I’m going to send her an email back saying that even if we decide to take the PDF instead of buying a physical copy, she still has to pay for the book she damaged. But I am just baffled at the nerve she has. If she cares so much about trees, then maybe she should take care of the books she borrows.