It is early in the pandemic, and even through lockdown, our telco stores are open with restrictions on customer limits. Enter elderly female customer.

Customer: “I’m having issues with my phone. It keeps going slowly, and I get these pop-ups.”

I request the customer to wipe down the phone as per protocol.

Me: “Ah, I see, it looks like your phone has a virus. This is easy enough to take care of.”

I proceed to start looking into the app that may be causing this.

Customer: *Leans in close and whispers.* “Is it… contagious?”

Me: “I’m sorry?”

Customer: “The virus… is it contagious? Do I need to contact my family and friends?”

I realise at this point that we are dealing with the pandemic, and of course, someone who isn’t familiar with technology and its viruses would get confused. I explain this as simply as I can to the customer, and even though I’ve assured her it’s not THAT type of virus, she wasn’t convinced and left the store muttering about needing to let people know.

An elderly lady brings her phone into the computer/phone repair shop where I work. My coworker initially serves her.

Customer: “Something really strange has happened to my email, and I need you to fix it. This ‘dot com’ has appeared on my email address, and I don’t want it.”

She then proceeds to open the mail app on her phone and shows us that one of her recent emails in her inbox was sent to [Customer’s name]@gmail.com.

Coworker: “Um… That’s pretty normal. Most email addresses end in a .com or sometimes .net.”

Customer: “But I never used to have it! My email address was always just [Customer’s name]@gmail. I never had that.”

At this point, my coworker just looks at me as he’s not entirely sure how to tell her without arguing, so I take over.

Me: “[Coworker] is correct. Gmail addresses have always had and always will have a dot-com at the end. It’s never been possible not to have it.”

Customer: “But people have been emailing me, and I’ve always told them that it’s just [Customer’s name]@gmail!”

Me: “I really hate to break it to you, but the only reason your friends and family can email you is because they know that Gmail addresses always have the dot-com and they’ve just been adding it for you the whole time.”

Customer: “So, you can’t take it off?”

Me: “I’m afraid not, sorry. Not only do I not work for Gmail, but even if I did, what you’re asking for simply isn’t and never was possible.”

Customer: “Fine, I guess I’ll just have to live with it.”

I still don’t entirely understand how one could have an email address for years and completely fail to notice the dot-com, as that would have had to have been entered into the online form when setting it up and in the settings on every device she has used it on. I can only assume that her kids or grandchildren must have set it up and just managed everything for her. I’m just glad we didn’t go round in circles for too long.

I’m another customer, waiting to order behind this one.

Customer: “I want a lamb burger, no bun, without salad, with a salad on the side.”

Cashier: “So, the salad from the burger on the side or one of the other salads?”

Customer: “No, no salad.”

Cashier: “Just the hamburger patty?”

Customer: “Yes, with salad.”

Cashier: “Just double-checking, you want the hamburger patty and a side salad.”

Customer: “I don’t want salad.”

Cashier: “Okay, did you want fries on the side?”

Customer: “NO, I want SALAD on the side.”

Cashier: “Lamb patty, with salad.”

Customer: “No, lamb burger, no bun, no salad. Side salad.”

The cashier takes a deep breath, writes down the order on the pad.

Cashier: “Anything else?”

Customer: “A latte.”

Cashier: “Do you want plant milk?”

Customer: “No, thanks.”

The customer sits down, and a few minutes later, her coffee arrives. She sips it.

Customer: “Um, this isn’t oat. I wanted oat.”

Me: “You didn’t order oat!”

Customer: “I shouldn’t HAVE to order it!”

Her food order was, apparently, correct as she had no other complaints.

I frequently order groceries online, which are delivered through a third party.

One time, the delivery guy turns up, and starts unloading bags full of nappies, baby formula, etc, NONE of which I ordered, being a mid-fifties spinster with no children.

I politely tell the delivery guy:

Me: “That’s not my order.”

I assume this will be a simple conversation.

Nope.

Cue several minutes of me reiterating that information, that this is NOT my order, that is NOT my name on the bags, and, oh, this order would actually be about three times the value of what I had paid for.

Driver: *Insistent.* “This is the order I collected FOR YOU, and you MUST accept delivery.”

Round and round we went, with me refusing to accept delivery of an incorrect order, and him refusing to put it back in the car to take it back to the shop.

I eventually had to phone the store helpline while he was still at my door, to confirm that MY order was still in the shop, before he begrudgingly agreed to return this other person’s order.

Dude, I get that you are probably earning minimum wage doing deliveries, BUT in the time you spent arguing with me about the error, you could have probably returned the delivery and picked up another job. 

I did eventually get my correct groceries, delivered by a different driver.

Related:
It’s All In The Delivery, Part 7
It’s All In The Delivery, Part 6
It’s All In The Delivery, Part 5
It’s All In The Delivery, Part 4
It’s All In The Delivery, Part 3

The shop I work at mostly repairs computers, phones, and tablets, but we do occasionally get asked to work on other electronic devices (e.g., audio equipment). This was the case this one particular afternoon, when a lady brought in a new-looking cassette tape player (bear in mind, also that this is recent, so these are getting a bit harder to find, as many local appliance stores have long stopped selling them). The manager served her, but the conversation went something like this:

Customer: “I have this tape player, as I have a lot of old tapes which I want to play. I bought it online from the USA and paid good money for it, but I can’t get it to work. I plugged it in, but just heard a pop, and it won’t do anything.

My boss and I can already see where this is going. To understand what happens next, it’s worth remembering the two big differences between the electrical system in the USA and Australia. First, in the USA, the pins on the mains plugs are straight, but in Australia, they are at a 45-degree angle, so an appliance with a USA plug won’t fit into the mains here. Second, the voltage is higher: 120V in the USA and 240V in Australia. 

Now, this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to run appliances made for the USA market here. You can buy step-down transformers with USA outlet plugs from many electronics stores (including one that is only a block away from our shop) and online, but unfortunately, that’s not what this customer did. 

Manager: “Okay, so did you use an adapter or transformer to plug it in here?”

Customer: “No, I just plugged it straight in. It didn’t fit very well into the plug, but we bent the pins with pliers, and it went in.”

Manager: “Um… okay. One of our technicians will have a look at it for you.”

After having more of a look, I can’t emphasise how dangerous this actually was. I could see that the two pins on the mains power plug indeed had marks on them from pliers and had been bent and twisted to force them to fit into an Australian plug (at least if you really forced it) – but they would only go in about half way – just enough to make contact, but not enough to push the plug all the way into the wall. There was a twisted section on the pins, which was still exposed, and there was enough of the plug hanging out of the wall to fit your fingers behind and potentially touch a live pin!

Of course, after opening the appliance up, the main transformer was completely burned out and melted to a crisp, thanks to having twice the rated voltage fed to it. The silver lining here is that the damage was limited to the power supply section, and I was able to repair the device and modify it to make it safely run here in Australia.

If an electrical plug doesn’t fit, don’t twist it and force it. Thankfully, this customer didn’t end up electrocuting themselves or causing an electrical fire. But I do worry that the next person to try this might not be so fortunate.