(We are disembarking from a fairly large cruise liner, having just been on a ten-day cruise to New Zealand. I am a fairly young teen girl travelling with my two-years-younger sister, my mother, and my wheelchair-bound grandmother. Of course, we have a large suitcase each which we need to pick up after disembarking. Being the strongest, I am in charge of pushing my grandmother, especially since my mom has arthritis and shouldn’t be helping with heavy pushing. When getting the suitcases, there are a few helpful staff assisting with gesturing and helping the crowd disperse. My sister and I are in charge of getting the luggage. I park my grandmother in her wheelchair in a corner with my mother to watch while my sister and I take two suitcases each. A Caucasian staff member approaches my mother and my grandmother. My grandmother does not speak English and we are not Caucasian.)

Staff: “Hi. Could you please move out of the way to allow my disembarking passengers through?”

Mother: “Oh, yes, of course.”

(The staff member proceeds to stand right in front of the wheelchair, blocking its accessibility with her back facing the wheelchair. My sister and I are able to see everything from a distance but are unable to help due to the many suitcases separating us. My mother tries her best to move the wheelchair away towards us with the limited amount of space between the staff’s back and the suitcases without injuring anyone but ends up brushing the leg rest against the staff’s leg.)

Staff: “EXCUSE ME! DID YOU JUST RAM YOUR WHEELCHAIR INTO MY LEG?!”

Mother: “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to brush against your leg. If you would allow me some room to move, I will be out of your hair as soon as possible.”

Staff: “HELLO! YOU CAN’T JUST RAM YOUR WHEELCHAIR AGAINST ME! THAT IS EXTREMELY RUDE! NOW YOU’VE INJURED MY LEG AND I WILL NEED TO SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION!”

(My mother is a general practitioner.)

Mother: “Oh, I see. If you believe you need medical attention, I am a doctor. I can see if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Staff: *turns away and walks away* “I WILL GET SECURITY IN HERE FOR THIS ASSAULT!”

Mother: *keeps silent because there’s no point arguing*

Staff: *walks towards superior staff and probably complains*

Superior Staff: *nods but does nothing*

(My sister and I manage to drag our suitcases to join my mother. My sister is fuming. I am, too, just silently.)

Staff: *turns to other Caucasian passengers and points to us* “CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT THEY JUST DECIDED TO RAM THE WHEELCHAIR INTO ME FROM THE BACK, UNPROVOKED?!”

Passenger #1: “How rude!” *sympathetic noises*

Staff: “I know. Now I think my legs are injured because of what they did!”

Passenger #2: “How could they?” *more sympathetic noises*

Staff & Passengers: *shoot us a dirty glare*

(Honestly, I have no idea what made her target us — maybe it was because we were not Caucasian in a largely Caucasian area? — but that was highly uncalled for, especially gossiping about it to other random passengers. Whenever I think of this, I fume internally because I thought that racism was less prevalent, especially when there are actual laws against it. But I guess you will always meet these kinds of people. The best way to deal with it is to be the bigger person and ignore it.)

I am in a relationship where we live far apart, but my boyfriend is trying to find work to transition to live with me full time. There is a regular customer at my place of work who mentions that he has a fabrication studio. My boyfriend is a welder and carpenter, so I ask if he might need any extra hands.

I introduce them, and my boyfriend works there for about a week, putting in long days. In that time, the studio owner tells him that he likes coming to the store where I work to ogle the girls, belittles my boyfriend every chance he gets, and in the end tells him the quality of his work isn’t up to his standards and never compensates him for his time. My boyfriend takes pictures of his work progress and sends it to some of his old coworkers, and they all agree they are solid pieces.

We realize that what I mistook for friendliness was actually him hitting on me, and that he was trying to use the situation to pull some alpha moves.

So, one day I’m at work, up on a stepladder stocking a drink cooler while it’s slow. There’s no one around, so I let out a fart, and it’s absolutely heinous. A real spicy one. A moment later, who should come around the corner but the guy. He acts as if he is picking out a drink, but stands directly behind me almost face level with my a**. I smirk as he starts to make casual conversation and asks how my boyfriend is doing in a snide way. Then, he coughs a few times, gags, and quickly leaves.

Later, I call my boyfriend and tell him how I avenged his honor, which cheers him up a lot. 

Word of mouth spreads from my boyfriend’s work crew about how that guy does business, and now he has a negative reputation in the local industry. I also tell my other coworkers who were swooning over him what a jerk he is, and they are all cold to him from then on.

It may be a small and juvenile victory, but it’s not every day you get to fart in your nemesis’ face!

(A woman and her daughter are browsing the store, picking up various shirts from different areas. The woman wants to take a shirt outside to show her husband, and instructs her daughter to stay in the store. While people sometimes stand in the doorway to show things to people outside, we can see her walking past our store, completely out of sight. Not only that, but her daughter is wandering dangerously close to the door. Luckily, the woman comes back into the store.)

Me: “Can you please not take unpaid-for merchandise out of the store?”

Customer: *starts shouting* “What? I left my daughter here! She said it was fine!” *points to my coworker* “She said I could go outside!”

(The woman dumps the clothes on a shelf and storms out, and we think it’s the end of that. It should be noted that my coworker said that the woman could stand in the doorway with the shirt, not go outside. About an hour later, she comes back. I am currently folding the clothes that she dropped.)

Customer: “Is that the shirt I had before?”

Me: “Yes, would you like to buy it?”

Customer: “Okay, but you should know that you really embarrassed me.”

Me: “What?”

Customer: “Yeah, you shouted at me in front of everybody and embarrassed me. I wasn’t going to steal anything!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but I don’t know you. Most stores don’t let you take merchandise outside.”

Customer: “You embarrassed me in front of my daughter! You should apologize! I was going to spend $500 here! You just lost a valuable customer.”

(She left, and I called our sister store to warn them about her.)

(I work in a pharmacy and occasionally, due to computer errors or just because the dispensary staff are being flooded with customers, there is a mistake in a customer’s script.)

Coworker: “Hi, how are you today?”

Customer: *cheerily* “I’m good, thank you!”

Coworker: “That comes to [total].”

Customer: *getting more agitated by the second* “No, that’s not right!”

Coworker: “I’m sorry, did you not want to take one of these scripts?” *gestures to medication*

Customer: “No, this is bulls***! I always get these scripts and they never cost this much!”

Coworker: “I apologise for the inconvenience; sometimes we do have system errors. I’ll call up the pharmacist and sort this out.”

Customer: “This is f****** stupid. I just want my medication. Just let me have my medication! I want my s*** for the normal f****** price!”

Coworker: *now calling the dispensary to get the issue sorted, replies calmly* “I understand, ma’am, but I can’t fix it from here; I can only bring up your script from your file. However, I am calling to get this fixed right now.” *manages to stay composed and continue smiling*

Customer: *now in a frenzy* “Just change the f****** s***! I’m never going to f****** shop at [Store] again! I’ll go to [Other Store — actually our sister store with same owner]!”

(The customer then turns to me, standing at the next till over doing a few jobs.)

Customer: *to me* “I can’t f****** believe it, and he says he can’t fix it!”

Me: “I am really sorry for the inconvenience, ma’am, but he can’t do anything from the tills. He is trying to fix it up now, though. The dispensary has to fix it up, but don’t worry; we will get everything sorted! It is actually quite common for this to happen.” *gives her the warmest smile I can muster*

Customer: “This is bulls***!”

Coworker: *hangs up from the call with the dispensary* “Okay, that’s all sorted. Sorry about the inconvenience. That comes to [new total].”

Customer: *smiles* “That sounds better!”

(My coworker finishes the transaction and apologizes yet again for the inconvenience, giving the customer a tired smile.)

Customer: “Oh, no, no, it’s not your fault! Thank you so much! Have a wonderful day!”

Coworker: “You, too, ma’am.”

Customer: *to me* “Bye!”

Me: “See you later!” *to my coworker* “Guess it’s that time of the month for her, too.”

(I have a massive kidney stone trying to pass. I’m in the hospital, waiting for surgery to reduce the size. I suddenly have massive pain, bad enough my vision goes fuzzy. I’m crying, unable to really form words. I press my call button. After a moment, a nurse comes in.)

Nurse: “Can I help you?”

Me: “Pain… bad…”

Nurse: “On a scale of one to ten?”

Me: “Ten!”

(Because of the pain, I practically shout the number.)

Nurse: “You don’t need to raise your voice! I’ll get you something!”

(She leaves and comes back a minute later with a pill.)

Nurse: “Here’s some Tylenol.”

(All I can do is look at her, since that won’t be anywhere near enough for how my pain is.)

Nurse: “Well?! Take it!”

Me: “Need more…”

Nurse: “Ugh, you’re probably just a drug seeker! I’m not giving you anything else!”

(At this point, I just break down sobbing. She storms out. A few minutes later, my doctor comes in.)

Doctor: “Are you okay?!”

Me: “Pain bad… help…”

Doctor: “Okay, sweetie, I just need to know if you can tell me what number you’re at.”

Me: “Ten…”

Doctor: “All right. Do you want me to wait here while I have someone bring you medication?”

Me: “Please!”

(She does stay with me. After she calls the pharmacy, she holds my hand and talks to me to calm me back down. Once the medication is brought up and put into my IV, she makes sure it starts working.)

Doctor: “Your nurse said you were asking for drugs?”

Me: “No, I pushed my call light and told her I was in pain. She yelled at me saying that’s all I wanted and then left.”

Doctor: “She apparently thought you were faking something to get pain meds for an addiction. There’s no way you could fake a kidney stone on the imaging results. I’ll make sure you don’t have to deal with her anymore.”

(True to her word, I didn’t see that nurse for the rest of my stay.)