In the days when self-serve checkouts in supermarkets are new, my husband goes to buy some groceries and a gift voucher.

He is able to scan everything, voucher included, just fine, but when it comes for him to actually hand over money, the machine asks for “cashier approval”. 

He gestures to the assistant who comes along and swipes her swipey thing without a glance, and then my husband concludes his purchase and goes home.

A month later, he gets a call from his mother — the recipient of the gift voucher — to tell us it isn’t working.

I retrieve it from her and take it back to the supermarket along with the receipt.

Me: “Hi! My husband bought this a month ago and it’s not working. I’m wondering if it wasn’t activated?”

Cashier: “Let me check.” *Swipes the card and checks* “Yeah, it hasn’t been activated. Did they do it when you went through the checkout?”

Me: “My husband bought it at the self-serve, so he swiped it and paid for it—”

I show the receipt with the matching serial number.

Me: “—so I don’t know what happened.”

Cashier: “Well, you aren’t supposed to buy gift cards at self-serve!”

Me: “Oh. Well, how was he supposed to know that?”

Cashier: “Everybody knows that. You aren’t supposed to.”

Me: “Well, the assistant at the self-serve checkouts approved it for him, so that sounds like something your staff needs to know. How would he know? What possible indication did he have?”

Cashier: “Look, I can fix it for you this time, but just so you know, you can’t buy gift vouchers at self-serve.”

She activates the voucher and gives me the activation receipt.

Cashier: “Just be careful with that next time, okay?”

She cocks her head and gives me a ridiculously patronizing look.

Cashier: “Gift vouchers can only be bought at the main registers.”

Me: “Perhaps that’s something you should inform your staff of, as well.”

So sorry, Giant Supermarket Chain, that we don’t know your magical, mystery rules that your staff don’t seem to know, either.

Related:
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 13
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 12
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 11
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 10
The Gift Card That Keeps On Giving, Part 9

Today at work, I was tidying up a basket of junk that was under my desk and I found a large, black paper number two that had been nicely cut out for an old display and not thrown away afterward.

I held it up to show my coworker and said, “I found a number two in my basket! Wait…”

Definitely gotta find a new job now. Can never go back there again. Nope. Definitely not.

This is a story my uncle told me after he decided to switch cell phone carriers due to terrible customer service. He has closed his account and started with a new company; about a month later, he receives a final bill in the mail.

Uncle: “Hi. I have canceled my service with you and just received a bill in the mail for eight cents. I was wondering if you could write that off.”

Agent #1: “No, sir, we expect full payment. If you do not pay the remaining balance, we will charge you a late fee and eventually turn you into collections. I can process the payment over the phone but there will be a $3 service charge, or you can mail a check.”

Uncle: “But it’s eight cents; it will cost more to mail a check than that. Are you sure you can’t just clear out the balance?”

Agent #1: “No, sir, and if we do not receive payment by [date], you will be charged a late fee.”

Uncle: “Okay, I guess I will mail you a check.”

My uncle then mails them a check for sixteen cents and waits for a month to pass when he receives his next bill.

Uncle: “Hi. I just received my bill and I have a credit on my account for eight cents, but since I have closed my account with you I would like a check mailed to me for the remaining balance.”

Agent #2: “But sir, it’s only eight cents; it costs us more to print a check than that, plus the cost to mail it. Could we just close out the account?”

Uncle: “When I called a month ago about just writing off the eight cents I owed, you threatened to charge me a late fee and turn me into collections over eight cents, forcing me to write and mail a check, so no, I will not allow you to just close the account. I want my check for eight cents, and if I don’t receive it, I will file with small claims court and you can pay legal fees on top of it.”

Agent #2: “But it’s only eight cents.”

Uncle: “It was also only eight cents last month when you demanded I pay my bill. I’ll be waiting for my check, thanks. Have a nice day.”

A week later, he received a check in the mail for eight cents, which he happily deposited next time he went to the bank. The company has since gone out of business.

This story is part of our July 2020 Roundup – the best stories of the month!

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Read the July 2020 Roundup!

My family and I had just flown from the US to Ireland for a ten-day vacation. We were spread out over two hotels across the street from each other. Our flight came in at around five or six in the morning, so we were exhausted and just wanted to curl up in a bed and sleep.

My aunt and I were sharing rooms for the trip, so we checked in, went up to the room, and started to explore the room. We were having trouble figuring out how to turn the lights on. There were no wall switches, but some of the lamps had knobs. We tried turning them over and over and over, but no luck. We searched all around the room for a switch but came up empty.

My aunt went down to the front desk to ask about how to turn on the lights, and they told her it was on the wall. I found some odd-looking contraption on the wall near the door with what looked like a button. When I pressed the button, the lights came on, but as soon as I took my finger off, they turned back off.

We could not figure out how to keep them on, so we went back down to the desk. They were never rude to us, but you could tell they thought we were idiots who didn’t know how to operate a simple light. They came back to the room with us, took our key card, slid it into the contraption, and walked off. We stood there, dumbfounded.

We had never come across this in our one or two hotel stays a year in the US. We told my other uncle about our troubles that night at dinner. He, being a more seasoned traveler than us, chuckled at us, remembering his first time. Apparently, these key card contraptions to activate lights are in the US, but they are definitely not frequent.

Due to the current health crisis, I’ve been ordering food for delivery more often. Most of it has been great. In particular, I’ve found a nearby burger restaurant that offers egg on the burger, which is something I love thanks to family dinners growing up. So, I’ve ordered it a few times. 

This particular time, however, I got the order and found it lacking the egg, despite the fact that I had paid extra for it. More than that, that particular line on the receipt had been scribbled over with a pen. So, I call to figure out what happened.

Worker #1: “Hello, this is [Restaurant]. How may I take your order?”

Me: “Hi. I just got delivery from you guys, and I noticed that the egg was missing from my burger. I just wanted—”

Worker #1: “Egg is disgusting! It doesn’t belong on a bur—”

There is a brief sound of scuffling.

Worker #2: “Hi. We’re sorry for the inconvenience; I’ll make sure that your burger gets refunded.”

Before I could say anything else, they hung up. I was left staring at the phone. I considered calling back again, but ultimately, it was just something like sixty cents, so I wasn’t going to make a big stink; I just wanted to figure out if they’d forgotten somehow, or if they’d run out of egg, and if so, if they could refund the extra amount.

They did end up refunding the entire amount of my order, which made me feel a little guilty, but I’m still going to order from them again, so I guess it worked out.