For children under a certain age, our province take off a portion of the taxes of the clothes; however, the parent purchasing the clothes has to let us know before we ring them through that they’re buying these clothes for a child.

*Customer storms back into the store and throws the receipt on the counter*

Customer: You didn’t take the tax off of my purchase! I’m purchasing these for my SON. He’s only TEN.

Me: Sorry about that, but it’s always best to tell us before we ring you through. It will take me a minute to fix this.

Customer: It shouldn’t be my job to tell you! You should ALWAYS ask! It’s ridiculous for us to have to pay these taxes in the first place.

*Our tills are old and don’t make it easy for us to refund, and then re-ring through her entire purchase, while removing the tax from her purchase.*

Me: Our till doesn’t allow credit card refunds, so I’ll have to give this back to you in cash.

*I hand her the $1.75 that was charged to her in taxes. She snatches it out of my hand*

Customer: Every penny counts!

*Cue eye roll as she leaves the store*

(I am a hostess at a busy restaurant. We only take reservations for a private room that can be booked with the front desk. The customer calling in question speaks perfect English.)

Me: “Hi, thanks for calling [Restaurant]. This is [My Name] speaking. How may I help you this evening?”

Customer: “I’d like to book the private room for [date] for twelve people.”

Me: “Of course, just let me check our reservations calendar to see if that day and time is available.”

Customer: “I’d like to book it.”

(I check our calendar and see that the day in question is fully booked all evening.)

Me: “Unfortunately, that evening is fully booked. Is there another time I can check for you?”

Customer: “No, I’ll just book it for [same date], at dinner.”

Me: “I’m sorry, that evening is actually unavailable. Is there another day you would prefer?”

Customer: “No, I want that day. Book it for 7:00 pm, twelve people.”

Me: “Ma’am, [date] is unavailable. Is there another day I can book for you?”

Customer: “Put it under [Customer]. It’s for a birthday party.”

Me: “I am sorry, ma’am, but I cannot book you during another reservation. Perhaps you can have the party the day before or after? I would be happy to check our availability for you.”

Customer: *clearly agitated* “I don’t understand. Why aren’t you booking [date] for me? Why can’t I book it?!”

Me: “The room is already booked. We cannot book two parties at the same time.”

Customer: “So, I can’t book it?”

Me: “Not for the day that you would like, no.”

Customer: *pause* “I can’t book it?”

Me: “No.”

Customer: “I don’t understand.”

(This goes on for a few minutes. Eventually, the customer seems to understand that she is unable to book the room for her requested date.)

Me: “Is there anything else I can help you with this evening?”

Customer: “Yeah. I have another event I’m hosting. I don’t know for how many people or what time, but it might be next week. Can I book that?”

(Shockingly, I was unable to make the reservation, and as far as I know, she didn’t call back!)

I witnessed this on TV over 30 years ago. It was the time where taxes on cigarettes in Quebec got very high. There were a lot of robberies of convenience stores, and they were stealing only cigarettes. Then, in the news, they showed a video of a robbery captured on security camera footage. A group of guys broke into a convenience store carrying a large trashcan, and while two of them grabbed all the cigarettes they could and put them in the trashcan, one, all smiling with a face saying, “D***! I’m so smart!” approached the camera with a pair of snippers and cut the video wire.

Apparently, Mr. Genius thought that cutting the wire would “erase” everything. Of course, they never took the videotape out. Police caught them a few days later.

During the same period, I was working as a service rep for a copier company. I got a call because there had been a break-in at a customer’s convenience store and the copier was damaged. It turned out that glass shards from the front door had fallen into the copier when the cigarette robbers broke in. Their location was slightly remote.

The police were still there when I arrived.

I asked the manager if he had them on a security camera.

He said, “Actually, it’s our third break-in. They figured out the schedule of the police rounds and hit when they were the farthest from here. The first two times, they managed to break into the office and grab the cassette. But not this time. We secured the VTR and jammed the cassette in. The police are looking at the footage as we speak. Smiling.”

I work in a popular coffee shop. Out stores products vary from store to store so we may not have a specific product. At out store we don’t and never have sold apple cider

One afternoon I’m working drive thru with two other co-workers and we all hear this on our headset;

Man: Hi I’ll take a two large double doubles and two medium apple ciders.
Coworker: Sorry we don’t carry apple cider here, can I interest you in something el–
Man: (cutting off my coworker, yelling) that’s bulls***!!
We all look at him not knowing what to do. He apologizes again and gives him his total. He angrily accepts his oder and drives off. Guesso he really wanted that apple cider.

(The pharmacy I work at offers a drive-thru service. A customer pulls up, looking irate and holding his medication bag up to his window. Keep in mind I’m very obviously a teenager, voice cracks and all.)

Customer: You f***ing idiots overcharged my medications!

Me: I’m sorry about that, give me a moment and I’ll take care of this.

Customer: You better! If you bunch of jacka**es can’t handle something as simple as charging the right amount, I’ll take my business elsewhere!

(This customer has a complicated billing arrangment between us and his insurance company. The pharmacist who knows the situation is at home, so I call this pharmacist from the drive-thru window. Every few seconds, the customer starts shouting about how stupid I am, how long I’m taking, and that he’s going somewhere else. I assure him I’m working on it, but his shouting gets so loud it overpowers the pharmacist on the phone, making this take even longer. Finally, I have enough.)

Customer: I CAN’T BELIEVE –

Me: *hand over the receiver, almost growling* Shut. Up. Now.

(The customer sputters to a stop, clearly surprised that a teenager still voice cracking would stand up to him like that. But he stayed quiet for the rest of the transaction. I understand being frustrated when a business screws up. But once the employees start fixing it, just be quiet and let them do their job!)