I own my own business making custom jewellery and accessories. I also take commissions for replicas of movie and video game jewellery and accessories. To help advertise my business, I am on social media, including having a Facebook page.

My business has my name in it. For simplicity, let’s say my name is Anvi. That’s not my real name, but like my real name, it is Hindi.

My business name is something like “Anvi’s Custom Jewellery and Accessories,” sometimes shortened to “Anvi’s”.

I get a message from a woman.

Woman: “Why have you named your business ‘Anvi’s’? You are breaking my copyright! I demand you change your business name immediately!”

When I registered my business, I made thorough checks to be sure there were no other businesses with the same name or a similar name. I didn’t find any.

I explain this to the woman, asking when she set up her business with this name.

Woman: “Since I was born! You can’t just steal somebody else’s name and use it for your business! That’s illegal!”

I check the woman’s profile and realise her name is Anvi, as well.

I write back and inform her that we have the same name. I didn’t steal her name; I didn’t even know she existed until she messaged me. I used my name for my business; I didn’t steal hers.

Just to be safe, I do a bit of research and find that you cannot copyright a person’s name. I inform the woman of this, as well. She does not take it well.

Woman: “No! My parents came up with that name themselves so I would have a unique name. Your parents probably stole the name from them! I do not give you permission to use my name for your business. You have twenty-four hours to change it or I am suing you!”

A further check of her Facebook profile showed that I was seven years older than her, so my parents most definitely did not steal the name from her, not to mention that I was named after my grandmother, so the name had been around well before her parents “came up” with it.

It is certainly possible that her parents thought they made it up and were unaware the name already existed. Based on this woman’s profile picture and other photos on her account, she appeared to be white, so it was also possible she’d never come across anyone with the same name as her before and therefore thought she was the only one with that name.

Rather than waste time explaining this to the customer, I repeated that you couldn’t copyright a name and I had no intention of changing my business name, and I capped it off with several links which confirmed the name’s origin.

The woman continued to send me threatening messages demanding I change my business name. She didn’t want her name associated with, in her words, “s***ty jewellery nobody wants.” She also started demanding I change my name — not just my business name but my actual name. She said if I didn’t, she’d make sure I never did business anywhere ever again.

I reported her for abuse and blocked her. She responded by trying to report my business, and she left bad reviews which said I was a thief and a liar, I was illegally using her name, and my jewellery was ugly.

Luckily, it didn’t hurt my business in any way. In fact, it actually got me more business as customers found the woman’s complaints hilarious, so they shared the page and screenshots of the reviews, which got more traffic to my page.

This led to more jewellery orders and commissions, including a big job from a customer who commissioned a Final Fantasy-themed engagement ring for his girlfriend. Both he and his girlfriend were big fans of the games. He asked me to make the ring gem look like materia (an item in the game), which I did. He proposed, she said yes, and they loved the engagement ring so much that they commission me again to create their wedding bands and her wedding jewellery, all of which were Final Fantasy-themed.

This was one of the biggest jobs I had ever done at the time, and it was all thanks to this woman! So much for putting me out of business.

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My train home is cancelled, so I decide to grab some food while I wait for the next one. I find a nice-looking Chinese place and walk in.

Server: “Table for two?”

Me: “Huh?”

I look back and a woman also on her own is stood there.

Me: “Oh, no, just for one.”

Server: *To the woman* “Are you for one, too?”

Woman: “Oh, yes. Table for one, as well, please.”

Server: “Okay, I seat you together.”

She doesn’t wait for an answer and strides off, wanting us to follow. We sit and order separately. While it’s awkward at first, I strike up a conversation and we actually have a good time. She finishes her food and leaves as the bill comes.

Me: “Oh, sorry. There has been some mistake. I didn’t order this; the woman who was sitting there ordered that.”

Waitress: “Are you not together? I saw you talking?”

Me: “No, we ordered separately and don’t know each other.”

Waitress: “Oh, no! Sorry, I will be right back.”

She rushes off and speaks to someone who disappears out the door. She comes back to me with the new bill.

Waitress: “Sorry about that — some miscommunication. Could you check that this is right for me, please?”

It was, and I paid. I grabbed my coat and headed out. I saw the woman walking back to the restaurant with the server from earlier. They were arguing furiously. She saw me and swore at me but was told to go inside and pay. I’m not sure if she was trying to scam me or if she somehow believed she was entitled to free food, but it didn’t work this time.

I worked at a specialist medical clinic for the first six months of the health crisis. After we made masks mandatory for all patients coming in, we saw the usual paper and cloth masks, as well as some more makeshift ones, such as bandanas and scarves. One makeshift mask, however, really took the cake. A male patient came into our office wearing…

…a bra!

That’s right, he literally had one of the cups over his nose and mouth and the straps wrapped around his head and neck.

We offered him one of our masks for his appointment, which he accepted!

I was working in a gift store in a mall. There was a dude by the incense, and when I walked by, I overheard him say:

Customer: “They make fun of my rituals now, but we’ll see who’s laughing when I burn down that g**d*** mountain!”

And I sometimes wonder what he’s up to. For anyone wondering, despite living in a very dry region, and despite that mountain being one that does catch fire somewhat often during fire season, the mountain did not catch fire that year, despite that crazy dude’s attempts.

For Christmas, my mother ordered some blue light-filtering glasses online as a gift for my dad. Package theft isn’t a major concern in our area, but some delivery drivers had been leaving packages by the garage door, so she chose an option for the driver to take photos of the delivered packages so we’d know for sure when they arrived.

Lo and behold, she gets a photo of the box with the glasses on a neighbor’s porch across the street. No big deal, though it is odd that the neighbor doesn’t call us about it or drop it off. Once my mom figures out which house it is, she calls to ask for it. At first, our neighbor is genuinely confused, though.

Neighbor: “I didn’t get any mistaken packages! What was in it?”

Mom: “A pair of blue light-filtering glasses.”

Neighbor: “Oh! I know what happened!”

Her daughter and son-in-law had been visiting from out of state, and in a total coincidence, he had ordered the exact same glasses to their house! The neighbors were getting a lot of packages at the time, so they hadn’t bothered checking the address before opening it. When they opened the box, he figured they were the ones he ordered. By the time Mom called, he’d already returned to his home state, taking the glasses with him.

Our neighbor was mortified and apologized profusely. My mom was totally understanding, and I think she just took the pair the neighbor’s son-in-law ordered when it arrived or ordered another pair. The glasses were fairly cheap and not a “major” gift, just something she ordered on a whim, so even if she hadn’t been able to replace them it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Still, what are the odds that they’d deliver it to someone who ordered the same thing?