My employer has an automatic prompt every time someone pays with a card, asking if the customer would like to donate to local pet shelters. I am finishing a transaction with a man in his forties who has not acknowledged my existence once.

Me: “Okay. Your total is [amount]. Is that cash or card?”

He puts his card on the reader to use tap-to-pay.

Me: “Okay, card. There is a donation—”

Man: “Did it go?”

Me: “No, not yet. You have to select—”

Man: *Moving his card all over the reader* “It’s not working.”

Me: “You still need to select whether you’d like to donate to local animal shelters. If not, you—”

Man: “No.”

Me: “Okay, just go ahead and press ‘No, thank you’ on the screen.”

Man: “Why isn’t it working?”

Me: “You have to hit ‘No, thank you’ at the bottom right of the screen.”

Man: “I want to use credit.”

Me: “You cannot pay until—”

Man: *Finally looking at the screen* “Is this asking for a f****** tip?! Are you serious?”

Me: “No, it’s asking about—”

Man: “I can’t believe you think it’s okay to ask for a tip for ringing me out!”

He goes on like this for a good minute. I’ve decided to just wait and let him run out of steam. As loud as he’s being, everyone around us knows he’s talking out his a**, so they just watch, either amused or glaring daggers at him.

By the time he finishes, the prompt has timed out and moved on to the payment screen. I haven’t touched the register or even been close enough to the keyboard to do so since the first time he interrupted me.

Man: “…it’s so d*** disrespectful— Oh. Good, there it goes. See, how hard was that?”

Me: “Here’s your receipt. Have a nice day.”

Man: “Get your manager. This tipping culture is obscene. You cannot—”

Me: “Sure. You can step to the side here and she’ll be right up.”

I call the manager over the loudspeaker and address the woman who has been waiting in line behind the man.

Me: “Hi. How are you?”

Woman: “I’m good. Honey, do you really ask for tips? I’ve never seen that here.”

Me: “No, it’s about donating to local pet shelters.”

Woman: “Oh! That’s good! I’ll donate $10 if that’s okay.”

Me: “That’s wonderful! Thank you!”

The man is still there, turning red as we talk. He grabs his purchases and walks out.

A moment later, the manager does arrive. 

Manager: “You called?”

Woman: “That was a man who left. But I will tell you that this girl has the patience of a saint. That man was going on about tipping when he wasn’t even reading the screen.”

Manager: “Tipping?”

Me: “The donation prompt. “

Manager: “Oh. Well… Okay, then. Um… carry on?”

Me: “Thank you!”

I know a lot of places are asking for tips for things that people don’t believe should be tipped, but if he had taken two seconds to read the screen, he would have seen it.

I work in an office full-time while I am also in full-time education. I am earning barely above minimum wage (hence the push for my education), and I’ve been denied a raise by my boss twice due to some fake, made-up reasons; the real reason is that he is a cheapskate.

This is fine, as I don’t intend to be here forever, so I accept the stability of the workplace and the fact that I can fit it in around my studies.

The boss hired another manager from outside who is totally his type. She is admittedly beautiful, but she has no idea she was hired because of her looks, not because of her competence. Thankfully, she is a very nice lady and she does her work with few issues.

She is also one of those people who volunteers a lot and raises money for lots of charitable causes. Our boss has never donated to charity before, but whenever she comes in stating that she’s raising money for a specific cause, he’s suddenly very generous!

With my barely-above minimum wage and my need to make rent, I have very little disposable income. However, the cause she’s raising money for this one is one I feel strongly about, so I am able to hand over five dollars when she sets up a donation box in the break room. (She doesn’t go desk to desk, thank God!)

My boss witnesses me putting in a five into the box while he is trying to look good in front of the pretty office manager.

Boss: “Was that $5?!”

Having my poverty called out like that makes me angry.

Me: “Uh… yes, it is.”

Boss: “Why aren’t you donating more?”

Me: “Why aren’t you paying me more?”

That was the quickest I have ever seen my boss shut down in the middle of his stride!

He didn’t bring it up again, and the new office manager thanked me genuinely for anything I could donate.

Related:
The Donation Perturbation

I used to work for a company that traced people who had shares they didn’t realise they owned, usually from the time when loads of UK building societies became banks. We would spend our days calling people to tell them they had money they didn’t know about coming to them, and most people were pretty happy to hear from us.

We would send them a claim form, which had the option to donate the whole lot to charity.

Me: “Hello, sir, I am calling from [Asset Tracing Company], and—”

Client: “Who?! Where did you get this number?”

Me: “From [Building Society], sir. We are calling on behalf of them. Last year, they became a bank, and you were automatically given shares in said bank. You would have received several letters at the time that—”

Client: “Yes, I remember those, but I threw those out! Did you go through my rubbish and fish out my details?!”

Me: “No, sir, like I said, we are an asset tracing company calling you on behalf of [Building Society]. I understand if you have security issues, so I can arrange for [Building Society] to send you a letter to—”

Client: “Okay. If you’re real, what’s my full name and bank account number?”

Me: “Am I speaking to [Full Name, Middle Name, Surname]?”

Client: “Sure.”

Me: “And your account number is [Account Number]?”

Pause.

Client: “I don’t know how you got that information, but I know you guys aren’t real!” *Click*

This reaction is fine. Honestly, it can be suspicious if you get a call from someone claiming to give you money. We got the bank to send him another letter, along with the claim form.

He thought it would be funny to fill out the claim form anyway and donate the money, because y’know, it’s all fake and he doesn’t need it anyway. 

He started to believe in it when he got a thank-you letter from the charity, and he decided to sue them for his donated £60,000.

I worked for a shop that was run by a Protestant charity. We had some spreads open for tasting with wooden sticks for trying that were disposed of after use. Our pastor of all people dipped his pretzel directly into each jar after taking a bite!

When I told him we had to throw out the spreads now, he was totally clueless about what he did wrong!

This story reminded me of a time my mouth got me in trouble.

Caller: “Hi. I’m calling from [Charity], and you’ve donated to us in the past.”

Me: “Yes?”

Caller: “Well, we’re trying to raise a hundred thousand dollars, and—”

Me: “But I can’t donate that much!”

Caller: “—and if you’ll…” *Breaks down laughing*

By now, I was laughing, too. It took a couple of minutes for both of us to stop setting each other off.

Caller: “And, ma’am, if you were to do that, I would immediately hang up my hat and quit this job because I would have heard everything.”

I felt guilty about breaking the caller’s script that badly, so I donated even though I don’t normally donate over the phone.

Related:
Going Off-Script Is Disrespectful To Your Castmates!