She’s Only 93% Sure

(I work at a Register Office; a wedding is due to begin in the next half hour. A woman dressed in a formal gown comes into the office.)

Customer: “I’m singing at my friend’s wedding and my laptop battery is about to die! Can I plug it in here?”

Me: “I don’t think we can do that, but I’ll go and check for you.”

(I go and speak to my manager, who tells me that we’re meant to have any electronic device tested and certified before we can plug it in. She says to tell the customer this, but if the laptop is nearly dead and the customer is upset, to come back and talk to her again. I go back out to the customer.)

Me: “I’m very sorry, but we’re really not supposed to plug anything in that hasn’t been tested.”

Customer: “I just need to plug it in for a few minutes!”

Me: “How low is the battery? There are some things you can do to make the battery last longer, like dimming the screen, and there might be a setting to maximise battery power. Here, let’s have a quick look.”

(She opens her laptop and points to the battery display.)

Customer: “It says it has twelve hours on it; is that okay?”

Me: *pause* “Yes, it has over twelve hours of battery on it and it says 93% remaining. You’ll be fine. I take it it’s working okay; you haven’t had any problems with the battery…?”

Customer: “No, it’s fine!”

Me: “Then it’ll be fine.”

Customer: “Okay, thanks. I wasn’t sure what it meant!”

(She did look a little embarrassed as she left.)