I am working on upgrading one of my computers and am picking up parts for it. I am wearing a suit as I was meeting with clients all day. The store doesn’t have a uniform, but the dress code is essentially dressed up minus a suit jacket. While I’m shopping, I hear a commotion at the end of the aisle and see a former client yelling at an employee.

Customer: “I demand to see a manager about your s***ty service!”

Employee: “Of course. Let me radio one for you. Is there anything else I can help with while he comes?”

Customer: *Seeing me* “No! I see one over there! I’ll get him myself, you lazy b****!”

Employee: “Um… He doesn’t wor—”

Customer: “And it’s [My Name]! I’ve worked with him before! He’ll be sure to fire you for me!”

Employee: “But he’s not a mana—”

Me: “I got this. [Customer], as you are aware, all conversations must be recorded per your contract, so if you don’t mind, I’m going to start a recording on my phone now.”

Customer: “Sure!”

Me: *Starting recording* “It is currently [time] on [date]. This is [My Name], along with [Customer’s Full Name] and…” *Looks at employee*

Employee: “Er… [Employee’s Full Name].”

Me: “Thank you. Now, [Customer], does this have to deal with [system I built for him]?”

Customer: “Um… no?”

Me: “Ah, well, then, I’ll have to charge you the ‘Out-Of-Scope’ rate as a base. And you are aware that this is outside the contract window, so this will have the ‘Emergency’ multiplier?”

Customer: “Er… okay, I guess?”

Me: “Excellent. As well, it is now [time], which means this is ‘Off-Hours Support,’ which means the rate will go up even higher?”

Customer: “Do you really have to do that?”

Me: “Only if you demand it.”

Customer: “WELL, I DEMAND THAT HE BE FIRED!”

Me: “I’ll take that as a yes, then. All in all, that will come out to [five-figure number] an hour, and as you know, I bill in increments of half-hours. Now, how can I help you?”

Customer: “FINE! THIS B**** NEEDS TO BE FIRED FOR NOT HELPING ME!”

Me: “Certainly. Let me find a manager for you.”

Customer: “YOU’RE GOING TO CHARGE ME JUST TO FIND A MANAGER?!”

Me: “I have here, on recording, you agreeing to pay me for this support. If that’s all I can do in support, then yes.”

Customer: “I… YOU… FORGET IT!”

The customer runs out of the store.

Employee: “Are you really going to charge him that much?”

Me: “Nah. I only put that stuff in the contracts so I can say that stuff and get them to leave me alone. Why was he upset, anyway?”

Employee: “He wanted me to find him an organic keyboard.”

I work in a museum and I was specifically hired to work in a special temporary exhibit that sells extra tickets. I have just finished selling tickets to this guest and her children.

Guest: “So, how long is this exhibit going to be here?”

Me: “Honestly, I don’t know. Originally, I was only hired to work for three months because that’s how long the exhibit was supposed to last. But it’s been almost a year now and the exhibit’s still here, and so am I!”

Guest: “Oh, that’s wonderful! And it’s not even a real job!”

Cut to dozens of flashbacks of ten-plus-hour shifts on my feet as I rolled my eyes and she walked away.

The elementary school I attended had an annual Halloween party where teachers, parents, and the oldest students would host games, scares, and general candy giveaways. There was everything you’d expect: a “feel the scary spaghetti” booth, bobbing for apples, group trivia, and, of course, a haunted house.

Well, haunted music room, really. They brought in partitions and covered them with decorated butcher paper to create a small haunted house experience. Students wanting to go through would be led through in groups by a guide who would tell us about all the spooky things we were seeing. Again, it was all fairly typical. A witch with a boiling cauldron, a skeleton pretending to be dead until we got close, and so on.

About halfway through, we came to a stretch where there was a gap at the bottom of the partition walls. Older students lying on the ground on the other side would reach through to grasp at our legs and spook us. Notice I say, “grasp at,” not, “grab.”

I was at the back of the group, so nobody noticed when one of the hands locked on my ankle, yanked me off my feet, and pulled me under the wall. It happened so fast I didn’t even make a noise and just lay there feeling stunned.

Eventually, my seven-year-old mind concluded that I must have been selected to help scare other groups and that I’d be grabbing at legs, too. This lasted up until the guide came back and hustled me out to my bemused parents.

Looking back, they probably thought I got scared and hid. I never did tell anybody about being volunteered to join the haunted house.

I’m a young teenage girl working as a lifeguard to earn some extra money. I’m at the bottom of the stairs to the water slides, measuring kids to make sure they reach the height requirement.

I’m twirling my whistle around my finger when four men in their late twenties, maybe early thirties walk by me. Three of them keep walking, but one of them just stops and stares at me. I wait to see if he’ll walk away, but he just keeps staring at me, so I speak up.

Me: “Hello, sir! Is there anything I can help you with?”

Guest: *Laughs* “Yes, I think there is.” *Steps closer* “Those are some pretty deft fingers you’ve got there.”

I immediately stop twirling the whistle.

Me: “If there’s nothing I can help you with, please continue up the stairs to the slides, or turn around and enjoy the rest of the park.”

Guest: *Inching even closer* “You can help me by telling me when your shift ends, and then show me what else you can do with those fingers.”

This man is more than ten years my senior. I lean forward and look him dead in the eyes.

Me: “You want to know what I’ll be doing with my fingers once my shift ends?”

Guest: *Nods eagerly*

Me: “Pleasuring my girlfriend.”

Guest: *Violent whole body recoil* “You… you’re a f****** [homosexual slur]!”

He thrusts his finger at my face.

Guest: “You should have told me you were a [slur], you dirty b****!”

Me: *Smiling smugly* “If there’s anything else I can help you with, please let me know; otherwise, you can continue up the stairs to the slides, or enjoy the rest of the park.”

Guest: “This is ridiculous! This is f****** ridiculous! You’re going to Hell, you ugly b****.”

He turned around to storm off, and he got maybe five steps away before slipping and falling.

After my shift ended, I learned that he demanded to see my manager, and then he was removed from the park after my manager told him that half the staff were “f****** [slurs]” and he’d been interacting with them all day.

We are a couple of middle-aged Brits who decide to take the holiday of a lifetime in Colorado and the Rockies. This is in the early 1990s before the Internet, and bookings have to be made by telephone. My husband’s first name sounds the same in the UK and the USA but is spelled differently.

We stay one night at a hotel in Denver which is part of a well-known international chain. It doesn’t go well! To start with, the key card will not unlock our room door, and we have to be helped by a member of the cleaning staff who is working nearby.

The next morning, around 8:30, we go into the restaurant for breakfast; we’re the only guests there. We are seated by the busboy who brings us coffee and disappears out the back. So, we sit, and sit, and finally, we call out:

Us: “Is there anyone here?”

No one appears, so we walk out. As we go through the door, a woman appears from nowhere, holding my husband’s spectacles case which he left on the table, hands it to him, and walks away!

We decide we will have coffee in the lobby, but no, all the containers are empty and all the cups are dirty.

We load up our car and go to the desk to check out. Eventually, someone comes to the desk and prints our bill, quoting the room charge and a forty-seven-dollars bar charge, spoken very quickly and quietly.

As we have been nowhere near the bar, we ask to see the bar bill, and we find that it is signed using the American spelling of my husband’s name. As soon as we point this out, the charge is immediately taken off the bill, so quickly that we get the impression that this scam happens all the time.

We have since had several holidays in the area — and love it! — but never would we stay at this hotel again, and the next time we drove past it, we saw that it was no longer part of the well-known international chain.