(I work at a members’ bar inside a well-known stadium. A “footy” game is currently on, and the home team doesn’t seem to be doing well, thus making everyone at the stadium cranky. Which is not fun, especially when you’re serving drunk people.
I should also note that Brisbane has a local beer brewery called XXXX and we stock three different types of their beer: XXXX Gold is a mid-strength beer and is the most popular product in the bar, XXXX Bitter is a dark lager, and XXXX Summer is a pale ale.)
Me: “Hi, what can I get for you?
Customer: “Get me XXXX!”
(Since most customers ask for the XXXX Gold, I grabbed a bottle and uncapped it for him.)
Me: “That’ll be $7.50, Sir.”
Customer: “No! Not that! XXXX!” *pointing angrily to a different side of the fridge*
Me: “Oh, did you mean the Bitter, Sir?”
Customer: “No, that’s XXXX! This is Gold!” *pointing to the opened bottle of XXXX Gold in front of him*
Me: “Very well, Sir. $7.50 please.” *uncaps the XXXX Bitter*
(The customer paid and left. We ended up having to throw away the opened XXXX Gold bottle because we closed up not long after that customer left. Luckily my supervisor was very understanding and wrote it off as spoilage because “the bottle was broken”!)
My better half booked a two-week cruise for us both. She is fastidious when it comes to paperwork. We board after showing our tickets and are directed to our room.
While we are unpacking, there’s a knock on the door. We open it to see one of the cruise workers and a lady. The lady reminds me of an owl by the way she is peeking around the employee, looking into my room. I shut the door a tad so she can’t peer in, and I am informed that there seems to be an issue with the booking.
The employee asks if I could make my way to the purser’s desk with any paperwork we may have. We get the folder containing the paperwork and I head off with Mrs. Owl to get this sorted.
After ten minutes of listening to Mrs. Owl complain how unprofessional everything is, we get to the front of the line and are asked by the purser for any documentation we may have to help clear up the matter.
I hand her the folder saying, “This is every piece of correspondence between my partner, me, and your company, in chronological order starting with my partner’s first inquiry up until yesterday morning confirming our room number.”
The purser looks to Mrs. Owl. Mrs. Owl hands her a sticky note with a handwritten number on it.
Ten minutes later, I’m back in my room with my feet up drinking an extremely alcoholic cocktail.
Not sure what happened to the Owls.
Caller: “Can I get a [premium service] taxi?”
Me: “Well, we do require a half-hour notice for that and—“
Caller: “But it’s my wedding day!”
Me: “…”
Me: “Hi folks, we’re very sorry but our coffee grinder is currently not working, so we are unable to serve coffee for another 2-3 hours while we wait for the repairman to get it fixed.”
Customer, a female in early 20’s: “So… you can’t do any milkshakes?”
Me: “…”
This all happened about a week after the Sydney siege in January 2015While working behind the till, an elderly gentleman comes to my till with a few items to ring up.
Me: Hello sir, how are you today?
Elderly gentleman: I see you guys sell Vegemite. Is it an Australian product?
Me: Yes sir.
As Vegemite is an Australian brand, I am already quite amused by the gentleman.
Elderly Gentleman: You people should stop selling it.
As the gentleman is speaking with a very heavy Australian accent, I get very confused.
Me: Excuse me sir?
Elderly Gentleman: See this ticker?
Shows me a Halal sticker.
Elderly Gentleman: This is Halal approved, which means Kraft (the manufacturer) supports Muslims, which means they support ISIS, which means by selling this, you people are supporting ISIS.
My manager hears what is happening, and knowing I am very outspoken about freedom of religion, comes over.
Manager: Sir, what is the problem?
Elderly gentleman tell him the story.
Manager: We’ll see what we can do.
