I go to the gas station and pull up at one of the pumps. It’s morning, and the gas station is empty. I get out of my car, run my card at the pump, select my fuel type, and put the nozzle in the gas tank. It clicks but nothing happens. The pump is clearly not running. I check the pump to make sure I actually selected the fuel type; yes, I did select the fuel type I wanted since that one is showing the price, whereas the other two are no longer showing the price. I try again; nothing comes out. I check to make sure my credit card was read by the machine; the screen does not indicate anything is wrong. I try to get the pump started a few more times, each time checking both the fuel screen and the payment screen to see if I missed a step. There is no sign indicating that the pump is out of order. Finally deciding that the problem may be the attendant failing to activate the pump, I finally go inside.

The attendant is standing at the counter, looking at me. Considering that I am the only customer at the station and the pump I used is in her direct line of vision, I am wondering why she would not activate the pump.

Me: “Hi, pump two appears to not be working, and I checked everything—”

Attendant: “Yes, there was a sign on there before, but someone took it down. It only works on Premium.”

There is a long pause after she speaks. I stare at her, waiting for her to offer further assistance. I am incredibly confused as to why she would not replace the sign or put a bag over the pump. By all appearances, she seems to have literally NOTHING to do, and there were no cars around when I pulled in. In the past, I’ve even had attendants alert me over the intercom if something was wrong with my pump or the card reader as I was using it. This particular attendant makes absolutely no move to help, and her response does not offer a solution, like suggesting that I move to a different pump.

Me: “Um… are all the pumps like that?”

Attendant: “You can move to pump four if you want to use Regular.”

I sputtered a bit because I was frustrated and trying very hard not to take it out on her, even though I felt like she did nothing to prevent the situation from happening and seemed to not be interested in helping further. I just walked out of the gas station, moved my car, and tried again with pump four, which works perfectly.

I kept looking at the broken pump; the attendant was not coming out with a sign. I went to my car to make my own sign since I felt like she was going to let this happen to everyone who came to that pump. However, the second I was done making my sign, she came out with a sign and put it on the pump. We both made eye contact for a long moment before she turned around and went back inside. I just got back in my car and drove to work, making a mental note to never to go to that gas station if I could avoid it.

Caller: “Hello, this is [Caller] from [Company]. At no obligation to you, would you be interested in hearing about a program for your gifted child?”

Me: “Sure.”

The caller goes on to explain the program. It’s one of those programs where you get activities every month.

Caller: “So, at no obligation to you, would you be interested in receiving the first month’s activities for your gifted child?”

Me: “Sure.”

Caller: “Okay, how many children do you have?”

Me: “Two.”

Caller: “And how old are they?”

Me: “Five and ten years old.”

Caller: “And which one is gifted?”

Me: “Both.”

Caller: “Both?”

Me: “Yes.” 

The ten-year-old is in the gifted program at school. The five-year-old is reading at a fourth-grade reading level and their kindergarten teacher is going to recommend them for the gifted program.

Caller: “Okay.”

The caller continues to take my information.

Caller: “Now I just need your credit card number.”

Me: “What?”

Caller: “I need your credit card number.”

Me: “Why?”

Caller: “To complete the sign-up for the program.”

Me: “But you said there was no obligation to me.”

Caller: “There isn’t. I just need your credit card number.”

Me: “You said there was no obligation to me.”

Caller: “I need your credit card number to send the program to you.”

Me: “If there is no obligation to me, then I’m not obliged to give you my credit card number. Send me the information and the activity so I can decide if I want to purchase the program.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone and then the caller hung up. I never did receive the activity or any information about the program.

I work for a telephone service that occasionally takes overflow calls from a pest control company. There were wasps everywhere and our client is slammed with calls, so we have to take quite a lot of them. In fact, we have to take so many of them that we have to hire new temp staff and every corner of the office where there is space for a desk and a phone has a desk and a phone.

One of our new temp staffers was our boss’s eighteen-year-old nephew. He was great on the phone, completely unflappable, and very good with the customers. However, he had only had a few hours’ worth of training on the telephone system and wasn’t 100% comfortable with the button-pushing.

The policy when we got abusive customers on the line and couldn’t handle them on our own was to transfer them to our boss, and if he couldn’t handle them, he’d transfer them to the client and let them deal with them.

It was late in the day and we were all completely exhausted from taking non-stop calls. The boss’s nephew got a call from an irate customer who was screaming so loud that I could hear it from across the room.

The poor nephew asked the boss for help, and the boss told him to transfer the customer to his phone.

The nephew tried to do exactly that, but unfortunately pressed the wrong button and the abusive customer was transferred… directly to our fax machine.

Please bear in mind that we were all extremely exhausted at this point and just waiting for the moment when we would be allowed to close the switchboard, but we all had to excuse ourselves, mute our calls, and break down into hysterical laughter.

We never heard anything more about it from our client, but from that day on, whenever someone had an abusive customer, we just told them to “transfer them to the fax.”

I just started at a new company. I needed a second mouse for travel and was told by my manager to call [Employee] to get one.

Around 1:00 pm, I called [Employee].

Me: “I need a travel mouse. Where are you? I’d be happy to come by your office to pick it up.”

Employee: “No. I’ll come to your office to drop it off.”

She insisted. I had not seen her by 5:00 pm but chalked it up to her being busy.

The next afternoon at 1:00 pm, I still didn’t have my mouse, so I called [Employee] and asked about the mouse, again offering to come to her office. She became somewhat agitated on the phone.

Employee: “I dropped one off already!”

Me: “I didn’t see it anywhere. Maybe you dropped it off in the wrong office? My office is—”

Employee: “I couldn’t possibly have put it in the wrong office. Look behind your desk, under your chair, and in your desk drawers.”

I couldn’t find it anywhere, so she said she’d bring me another one and rather blatantly implied that she thought I just hadn’t looked hard enough.

By the next afternoon at 1:00 pm, I still had not seen [Employee] or my extra mouse. I called her again asking about it. This time, she blew up at me.

Employee: “I’ve brought you two mice! What keeps happening to them? Maybe your officemate is stealing them!”

Me: “Are you sure you’re not going to the wrong office? My name isn’t on the door yet.”

She became livid and said, loudly enough that my officemate heard her through the phone, that she would be in my office in five minutes, and then hung up before I could verify what office she was going to go to.

Fifteen minutes later, she walked in, announced that she had been putting the mice in the wrong office, handed me a mouse, and left again.

My doctor orders an overnight oxygen saturation test for me. I’ve done this before but,  unfortunately, the company I used to use for oxygen supplies is no longer in my insurance coverage, so I’m assigned to a new company and their policy states that they need a test done on their own monitor. I’m on the phone with the representative as he is explaining it to me.

Representative #1: “Have you done this before?”

Me: “Yeah, I’ve done a few.”

Representative #1: “Oh. Are you on oxygen now?”

Me: “At night.”

Representative #1: “With us?”

Me: “Oh, no, I was with [Other Company], but my insurance won’t cover them anymore.”

Representative #1: “Ohhh, I see. Yeah, okay. Well then, I don’t have to explain it to you! So, when can you pick it up?”

My last company shipped everything to me, so I’m thrown by the change. But a different company has different rules, so I go along with it.

Me: “Oh, um… Well, I work 7:00 am to 6:00 pm so—”

Representative #1: *Suddenly unhappy* “We’re open nine to twelve and one to four, so you’d have to come get it then.”

Me: “I guess I could come over my lunch. What’s your—”

Representative #1: *Happy again* “Great! When?”

Me: “What’s your address?”

Representative #1: “[Address thirty-five minutes away from work].”

Me: “Oh. I would have to ask my boss for an extended lunch, but I guess either Wednesday or Friday. Is that okay?”

Representative #1: “Perfect. See you then!” *Hangs up*

On Thursday night, I’m out for dinner with a few friends when the oxygen company calls again. 

Me: “Hello?”

Representative #2: *Sharply* “[My Name]?”

Me: “Yes?”

Representative #2: “Are you coming to pick up your test?”

Me: “Yes, as I told the—”

Representative #2: “You told [Representative #1] that you would be here yesterday.”

Me: “No, I—”

Representative #2: “We have other people needing this test. We can’t just hold it for you.”

Me: “I told [Representative #1] that it would be Wednesday or Friday.”

Representative #2: “It says here Wednesday.”

Me: “I distinctly said I would have to take an extended lunch and it would be Wednesday or Friday.”

Representative #2: “Well, that’s not what your file says.”

Me: “I know what I told him.”

Representative #2: “Our calls are recorded, ma’am. I could check yours.”

Me: “Go ahead.”

Representative #2: “What?”

Me: “Go check it. I’ll wait. You said [Representative #1] was his name, right?”

I hear him take a deep breath.

Representative #2: “So, you’ll be in tomorrow?”

Me: “Yes. Between twelve and one.”

Representative #2: “We close at one. Don’t be late.”

He hung up on me. I left work fifteen minutes early, got there at about 12:20, got my monitor, and left.