A lady comes up and asks for a small coffee with ten milks. I know from previous experience — a college kid ordered a 10×10 on a dare — that that will fill the cup right to the top with milk and leave no room for coffee. I decide it will be more effective to SHOW her instead of telling her, so I put eight shots of milk into her cup and put it on the counter.

Me: “I just wanted to show you that this is what eight shots of milk looks like; I could put more in, but there won’t be any room for coffee.”

The customer stares at the cup for a moment and then looks at me.

Customer: “Are you going to put coffee in that?”

Me: *Pause* “Yup.”

I take the coffee pot and pour the inch worth of coffee that would fit into the cup, where she can see it, and stir.

Customer: “That’s too white!”

I take a breath to calm myself.

Me: “How much milk would you like, then?”

Customer: “Like, half that!”

I pour out half the cup and fill the rest with coffee, and put it on the counter before putting the lid on.

Customer: “That’s better!”

This happens in 2018, not during the health crisis when shipping times are delayed.

I have been looking for some polo shirts in two particular colours for some time. I decide to order them online through a well-known retailer as they are not carried in their store. I place the order and receive an email stating they will be delivered by mid-April. By the beginning of June, I am concerned because they have not come but my credit card has been charged.

I check the email to see if there is any information about the delivery company but there is none, so I email the shipper, who turns out not to be the large retailer as I expected but a small, unknown company. After two weeks of no response and multiple emails, I finally decide to contact the helpline for the large retailer. I explain the situation.

Agent: “Sorry to hear that, ma’am, but there is nothing we can do as that shipper is not our company. We cannot access their information.”

Me: “But I bought the products from your website. Do you not stand by items purchased from your website?”

Agent: “Sorry, ma’am, but you will need to contact the shipper.”

Me: “As I’ve said, I have contacted the shipper by email but have had no response. Do you have a phone number for them?”

Agent: “All their contact information is provided on the email.”

Me: “There is no phone number, just an email address, and they do not respond.”

Agent: “Sorry, ma’am, there is nothing we can do. You need to contact the shipper.”

Me: “So, you’re telling me that [Store] does not stand by products sold on their website? I gave you money, but there is nothing you can do to make sure I actually receive the product I paid for?”

Agent: “Sorry, ma’am, there is nothing we can do.”

In the end, I never did receive the shirts and ended up contacting my credit card company to have the charges reversed, which they thankfully did. And that’s how I learned never to buy online through a large, well-known retailer.

I am out with some friends at a restaurant’s patio. Our table has an umbrella that is slightly shading us from the hot sun.

We order our drinks first and we all chat with each other. The waitress comes to take our food order, but none of us are hungry. She looks surprised, but she takes our menus and leaves. 

Soon after, the manager comes by and starts rolling down the umbrella. I think he is adjusting it for us, but as he keeps rolling it down, the sun fully hits my face and we realize he is taking it away. He somehow looks surprised that by taking away the umbrella, the sun is fully shining on us. He leaves with this one and places it two tables down at another table where the customers are ordering food.

Manager: “I’ll try to get you another umbrella.”

My friends and I glance at each other, but we hope that he will, indeed, bring us another one. The waitress comes by again to ask how we’ll be splitting the bill. We tell her.

Us: “Can we also have a new umbrella, please?”

Waitress: “I’ll go ask the manager.”

She comes by shortly again, but it’s to give us our bill. We aren’t even done with our first drinks yet.

At this point, we decide to just cut our losses and leave. 

I understand the need for customer turnover, but we would have been happy to order food or more drinks — as we were planning to — had they mentioned it to us. Instead, we received passive-aggressive service.

I overhear this in the fitting rooms as I’m dealing with a giant mound of customer clothing to put away.

Customer: “Don’t waste time putting those back on the hanger; the girl needs something to do all day.”

I work for a famous coffee shop in Canada that sells donut holes. They come in packs of ten, twenty, or fifty, which was recently changed from forty a few years prior. I’m taking orders in drive-thru.

Customer: “I’ll have a forty-pack of [donut holes].”

Me: “We don’t have a forty-pack; we have a fifty or a twenty.”

Customer: “Oh, fifty is too much. Give me three twenties.”

Me: *Pause* “Your order is [total].”

Related:
Math Is Your Friend, Part 5
Math Is Your Friend, Part 4
Math Is Your Friend, Part 3
Math Is Your Friend, Part 2
Math Is Your Friend