I work as a tour guide for a cavern. This particular day, I am helping the cashier as well as being the base operator for the radios. It’s spring break; naturally, the park is full of people. We’re a day park only and close at six; our last tour goes down at four. Tours are usually an hour and a half long.

I’m ringing up a customer when I hear a frantic radio call from a guide. It’s partially garbled so I have to ask her to repeat a few times. A guest has left her tour and run for the gates. This is a no-no; guests can’t be alone and are only able to leave groups when escorted out. It’s a safety reason and usually, everyone understands.

It’s important to note that once you leave the cave, there is no going back down to rejoin a tour. After you pass a certain point in the cave, there are also no refunds issued.

Twenty minutes later, a woman approaches the register with a child in her arms.

Guest: “Hi, so, we were on [Guide #1]’s tour and my son had to go to the bathroom, but we’re ready to go back down now. We were at [Room far past the refund stop].”

Me: “I’m sorry, but unfortunately, once you leave the cave, you won’t be able to rejoin the tour you left; they are pretty far into the tour now.”

She stares at me like I’m stupid.

Guest: “But he had to go to the bathroom. Would you rather him go on himself? He’s five!”

I point to the rules on the TV behind me.

Me: “I do understand, ma’am; however, the rules here state that once you pass [refund stop], there is nothing we can do.”

My manager, having overheard, comes over.

Manager: “What’s wrong?”

I explain the situation and she’s shaking her head before I finish.

Manager: “Yes, ma’am, I’m sorry, but there is nothing we can do at this point. I do apologise, but your tour is almost over as it is, so we won’t be able to send you back down.”

Guest: *Scoffs* “Well, put me on another tour, then! I paid a lot of money and you’re telling me that, because he had to go to the bathroom, he has to suffer! No one mentioned that we couldn’t come back up!”

My manager is shaking her head again.

Manager: “Yes, ma’am, we actually tell everyone at the time they buy their tickets, so my cashier here would have told you. And we make two announcements before the tour starts. There are also signs everywhere. The last tour of the day went down ten minutes ago and there will be no more.”

The woman turns on her heels without another word and storms out the back doors. My manager and I shrug our shoulders at each other and continue on, thinking it’s over.

Almost thirty minutes later, when the woman’s tour comes up, her husband — who had stayed behind on the tour — comes marching to the counter directly to me. He shoves his finger in my face.

Guest’s Husband: “I need to make a complaint!”

He goes off on a rant about how horrible we have been to his wife and that their five year old is so heartbroken. We have ruined their whole day and they want to speak to a manager now.

Me: “Well, sir, your wife spoke to a manager earlier, who told her she couldn’t rejoin the tour.”

Just at that moment, the big boss, even higher up than my manager, appeared next to me and told me to just issue a refund. I resist the urge to bang my head into the desk repeatedly as my manager showed back up. I told her what the big boss said, and she pursed her lips and issued the refund without a smile or any hint of kindness.

She handed him the money and he walked off. She looked like she was about to explode with anger because the big boss didn’t even know the whole story and he just wanted to please the guest.

Later, we found out what had really happened in the cave. Apparently, the woman abandoned her tour and walked herself halfway out of the cave before she came in contact with another tour. The other tour guide wouldn’t let her continue by herself and she ran for the exit, pushing another guest out of her way in the process.

I work in a fast food restaurant that’s known for its quick and courteous service. Because of social distancing, we’ve closed down the dining room and are only using our double drive-thru or pickup via mobile order. As it is still early in the morning and we are not fully staffed, we’re taking orders on the speaker box instead of the usual iPads. 

Coworker: *On headset* “I’m so sorry, ma’am, but I didn’t hear what you said. Would you mind repeating your order?”

Guest: *screaming* “I’m speaking as loud as I can! Just forget it!”

The guest then proceeded to pull out of line and angrily blow on her horn all the way around the building, stopping at the window, and recklessly leaving the parking lot.

My coworkers and I just stood at the window, jaws dropped. We would’ve happily taken her order at the window, if she’d only given us a chance. Instead, she decided to treat us with utter disrespect, and unfortunately, she was just the start of a day filled with angry, petty people who thought it was okay to vent their passions on a group of workers largely composed of teenage girls. This health crisis has opened the door to society’s true nature, and it breaks my heart to see it.

I’m working as an assistant manager of sales in the photo department. A guest bought a camera yesterday; it was a water-, dust-, shock-, and freezeproof model, a very nice camera that I also own myself, being in the Caribbean and all.

The guest comes back the following day, as soon as we open the photo gallery. He shows me the camera, which looks like it was dragged behind the car for a few miles. It is badly scratched all over the body, with a broken LCD screen and lens, missing battery cover, etc. It wasn’t dropped; it was SMASHED.

Guest: “I bought this camera yesterday here and it doesn’t work anymore! I want a new one!”

Me: “Sir, let me inspect the camera.”

I go through the camera and see all the above-mentioned damage.

Me: “Sir, what happened? Did you drop the camera from somewhere? Did it fall under the car or something?”

Guest: “No! I just put it in my bag and this is what happened! I want a new one now!“

Me: “Sorry, but I can’t accept that. This isn’t a factory damage, nor is it covered by the warranty. The camera is damaged quite extensively and I can’t accept it for replacement.”

Guest: “What?! You have to replace it right now! I paid for a working camera and this one isn’t working anymore!”

Me: “Sir, your camera was fine when we took it out of the box and set it up for you. Somehow, you managed to damage it quite extensively and no, we can’t replace it with a new one. Sorry.”

Guest: “I’ll complain! I’ll get you fired for this!”

Of course, the guest goes to the guest services desk, makes a big drama, and complains to officers. Some ten or fifteen minutes later, I get a call from — surprise, surprise — the hotel director.

Hotel Director: “[My Name], I have a guest here complaining that the camera he bought isn’t working and that you don’t want to replace it. He’s really upset. What’s happening?”

Me: “[Hotel Director], please ask the guest to show you his camera.”

Hotel Director: “Hold on.”

I hear the hotel director lowering the phone and talking with the guest. About a minute later, he picks up the phone again.

Hotel Director: “Hey, [My Name], I see what you mean. It’s all right; I’ll deal with him. Thanks and sorry.”

The guest got a free dinner for two in a specialty restaurant but no new camera. The hotel director and I always shared a good laugh when we talked about it afterward.

I’m on the committee that organises a professional conference. I take a phone call at home.

Delegate: “You sent me an invoice for extra cleaning of my room. I don’t see why I should pay that.”

Me: “Because you smoked in your room. There was an announcement at the start of the conference and a warning in your delegate’s pack, and there were ‘no smoking’ signs in your room. You made the choice to smoke anyway, and so the venue charged us a penalty which I’m passing on to you.”

Delegate: “I blew the smoke out the window. I didn’t set off the fire alarm.”

Me: “The staff could smell stale tobacco smoke when they came in to prepare the room for the next conference. It needed extra cleaning.”

Delegate: “Whatever. You should cover it out of conference funds.”

Me: “I’m not going to add a little to everyone’s conference fees next year to cover something that was charged because of your action. You chose to smoke, so you get to pay the cleaning bill.”

Delegate: “If you don’t waive this invoice, I won’t come to [Conference] ever again.”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that, but if you insist, that proposal is acceptable to me. When can I expect your cheque?”

I had major back surgery during seventh grade. I was out of school for three months having the surgery and then doing in-patient physical therapy and occupational therapy to learn to walk and do things like dress myself and use stairs again. I still had to do schoolwork, which my teachers sent in monthly packets and which I worked on daily for four hours in a “classroom environment” at the hospital.

Before my return to school, there was a meeting with my principal, vice-principal, teachers, and mother. We checked that I was caught up in all of my classes and then discussed the plan going forward. One of the teachers present was the gym teacher, and the principal explained that since I was still having trouble dressing myself and took a long time, and because I was forbidden by my doctors from doing anything physical, my PE grade would be purely attendance-based. I merely had to go in and sit down on the bleachers. I was told that I was welcome to bring a book and read, so I did that for the rest of the year.

At the end of the year, grades came out, and I’d been given a failing PE grade. I went to my teacher to ask why, since I’d only missed two days — which were excused, as they were follow-up appointments with my doctors. She snottily said, “You did nothing all year! You sat and read and didn’t participate! You didn’t even dress out!”

I reminded her of what we had discussed at the meeting and she said, “That didn’t happen.” I had to go to the principal to get my grade changed, and the teacher ended up being fired from the middle school.

Because I had a 504 plan for my accommodations, her attempt to ignore it was an ADA violation. Under her terms of employment, that resulted in an automatic dismissal. It was not something I requested at all.

Unfortunately, on my first day at my new high school, guess who I saw in the hallway! That summer, my doctors had given me documentation to excuse me from the state’s high school PE requirement completely, as it consisted primarily of contact sports. I had gone through the process of getting the documentation signed by the county superintendent and filed with his office and with the office at my high school. So, while I saw the gym teacher around occasionally for four years, we never interacted.

Three weeks before graduation, I was called into the principal’s office and there was the gym teacher with a smug look on her face. The principal said they couldn’t graduate me because I’d never taken the required blocks of PE. I reminded him that I had paperwork on file that showed that the superintendent had personally waived the requirements based on information from my doctor. He didn’t remember, so they pulled my file and there it was. The principal apologized and said that he would have my graduation approved.

The gym teacher tried to murder me with her eyes all the way out the door. Nearly twenty years later, I will never forget that look of pure hatred.