(I get a cold transfer, which means the other rep didn’t talk to me before transfering the client)

– [Company], [Name], good morning.
– Good morning.
– How may I help you?
– I was waiting for the answer from the other rep.
– Well, ma’am, I’ve just gotten your call. I dont know about it. What can I help you with?
– *silence*
– Ma’am?
– I guess I’m just gonna call you later. *in an angry tone*
– You doesn’t have to. Just let me know what you need and I’ll be happy to help you.
– *click*

(In Brazil, voting is mandatory by law. We may annul our votes, but we need to be physically present at our designated voting center or have a good reason not to be. Otherwise, we pay a fee and there might be some legal repercussions. In the last election weekend, I was in Canada for work, and only took the plane back Sunday. I go to justify missing the election.)

Me: “Hi. I need to justify missing the last election, as I was traveling. Here’s my documentation.”

Clerk: “This says you left your trip at 10:00 am. You still had plenty of time to come and vote. This justifies nothing.”

Me: “Perhaps you’re not aware, but it’s a twelve-hour flight from where I was, so I arrived in Brazil after the voting was already over.”

Clerk: *condescendingly* “Then you should have planned your little trip better, shouldn’t you?”

Me: “Can you just please put the documents through? I’m sure if…”

Clerk: “That’s not my problem! I’m not submitting a justification that doesn’t even cover the election times, just because you think you’re special and can break the law.”

Me: “Can I speak to a supervisor?”

(She calls one, mumbling about stupid, entitled people. I explain to the supervisor.)

Supervisor: “She’s very right. It’s not our job to fudge a justification so you can get off easy.”

Me: *now totally perplexed* “But it’s not fudging! I wasn’t in the country!”

Supervisor: “We’re not doing this. You’d better go now before I call security.”

(I left, very irritated and confused, and tried again at a different center a couple of days later. Believe it or not, I had almost the exact same conversation at the other center! My company decided to pay the fee for me, figuring it was better than to keep having me miss work to deal with it, or have any legal hassle later. I tried complaining up the government chain, but the sad thing is that these are all public servants, and for them to get even a write-up it needs to be an offense you could pretty much get arrested over, so nothing came of it.)

I heard this story from a bookstore clerk. He told me he had been working in the bookstore for a couple weeks when, on a Saturday morning, this couple came in. The wife started browsing the shelves, while the husband, a French gentleman, stood by the counter chatting with the clerk. When the wife came back to speak to the husband, the clerk noticed how rude she was, speaking loudly, almost screaming at him.

Later, he talked about the couple to the bookstore owner, saying how impressed he was with the husband, who had a very interesting and intelligent conversation, and the wife’s manner, mainly the way she yelled at him. The owner said, “Oh, that’s my friend, Mr. [Friend]. His wife is annoying as h***, so to avoid as much conversation with her as he can, he pretends to be deaf.”

(I work at a technical school where we sell courses and books on different software tools.)

Customer: “I bought your [Software] book and it was outdated! I wasted money on that! I want my money back!”

Me: “Sir, all our books are updated whenever a new version of [Software] has major changes. Mind sending me a screenshot of the book you have?”

Customer: “Okay.”

(I receive the screenshot. It is a badly scanned copy of an old version.)

Me: “Can you complain to the person who sold you this pirated copy of one of our books?”

Customer: *no response*

Me: “Can I redirect you to sales? I’m sure they can give you good deals on our books.”

One day I was walking with my dog while waiting for my mom, who was shopping some stuff for our house. I was looking at some things in vitrines while my dog was lying down on the floor.

Suddenly, I saw some guys trying to get my dog’s attention. They were calling her, waving at her and some stuff. I started to giggle at how cute was that scene and how my dog was unaware. I started to pay more attention and I saw a little boy with those guys (they were mostly around my age 17-20 and the boy looked like he was in his 13 years) so I decided to approach them.

Soon as I got there, the little boy started to pet my dog and his friends too. I started to giggle even harder when they started to say cute stuff like “woah, she is so calm”, “she is cute” and stuff like “you are a good girl”. Noticing me, one of them asked me why I was laughing.

So, with the most serious face, I told them the true. My dog is blind and deaf.