A customer cuts in my line to ask me a question.

Customer: “Where do you keep those little lighters?”

Me: “We actually don’t have those. We just have the big BBQ kind you cou—”

Customer: “YES, YOU DO! I’VE SEEN THEM HERE!”

She immediately walks away yelling and looking for lighters, leaving me in exasperated silence.

Customer I’m Ringing Up: “Wow.”

Me: “Yeah…” *Finishes transaction* “Have a good one!”

Customer I’m Ringing Up: “I’ll at least have a better day than her.”

Customer: *Cutting in front of my line again* “See! Here it is! Let me train you! IT’S RIGHT HERE!”

She produces a small utility flashlight and wiggles it at me before walking away, continuing to yell.

Me: *Sighs* “That’s a flashlight.”

I work in the paint department for a major hardware chain. I come back from my break to find my coworker dealing with a customer he apparently helped earlier. I step in to see what the situation is and to see if I can provide maybe some kind of insight or solution to the problem at hand.

The customer bought a special type of deck paint we sell. It has a type of sand or mud in it so when you apply it to your deck, your feet, clad in shoes or not, will have something to grip on to despite most weather conditions and you won’t slip. It comes in “Smooth” (which still has grit in it for the same reason), “Textured” (extra grit), and “Extra Textured” (same amount of grit as textured but there’s a special roller with little hooks in it to pull it up more as you apply it).

This man tried to run it through an airless spray gun. These things generally struggle to spray our most basic paints without cutting them with water or a flowing agent, and this bonehead tried to effectively run colored mud through it. And now he wants a refund.

After some fighting (thankfully no screaming or demanding a manager) I manage to tell him:

Me: “No, you cannot return it. It’s already been tinted and that makes it impossible to resell.”

Customer: *Points to a bucket* “Well then, give me some free paint so I can run it through my sprayer.”

Me: “No, I’m not going to give you a free five-gallon bucket of stain so you can run it through your sprayer.”

While not the happiest camper, he agrees to buy a whole new bucket of stain, but as he’s leaving, he has the audacity to tell me:

Customer: “You should have told us that it had grit in it.”

A week later, I found out he had come back and gotten an assistant manager to do the return for him, even though I explicitly told him HE COULDN’T, forever placing him on my s*** list.

Wherever you may be, I hope your sprayer broke and you had to buy a new one.

Customer: “Can I speak to a man?”

Me: “I can help you with your query, sir.”

Customer: “No, I need a man. A woman wouldn’t understand.”

Me: “If I’m not the one to help you, then I can find someone who can.”

Customer: “I need to talk about things that were invented by men, so women wouldn’t understand.”

Me: “So, you’re saying men can only understand things invented by men? Does that mean women can only understand things made by women?”

Customer: “That’s right.”

Me: “Well then, I have some bad news for you, sir, since that means you shouldn’t know anything about circular saws, life rafts, fire escapes, coffee filters, windshield wipers, Wi-Fi, and space rocket propulsion systems!”

Related:
Can’t Hear You Over The Sound Of Your Ovaries, Part 25
Can’t Hear You Over The Sound Of Your Ovaries, Part 24
Can’t Hear You Over The Sound Of Your Ovaries, Part 23
Can’t Hear You Over The Sound Of Your Ovaries, Part 22
Can’t Hear You Over The Sound Of Your Ovaries, Part 21

We employees carry a walkie-talkie/smartphone-type device in our work vests so that we can radio employees in other departments and look up in-store products. I have just clocked in for the day and logged into said device. I have just arrived in my department when two men approach me.

Customer: “I want waterproof.”

Now, I am thinking, “Does he want waterproof paint? Waterproof epoxy? Some waterproof lumber? What does he want?”

Me: *Politely* “I just got here; my walkie-talkie is still loading up. I’ll look it up when it loads up.”

Customer: “Why don’t you know where anything is?!” *Turns to his friend* “This stupid f***er doesn’t know where anything is!”

I am a patient guy, but talking down to someone like they are an animal does not fly with me at all.

Me: “Sir, we sell over 25,000 items here. Could you keep up with 25,000 items?”

I do a 180 and walk away. As I am leaving, I hear the other customer say:

Other Customer: “Hey, [Customer], I think you were a little harsh on him. He was just trying to help you!”

There was a locally-owned hardware store close to where I worked. This place had the most amazing selection of fasteners — nuts, bolts, screws, etc. — down to M2 Allen screws, the kind of stuff you’d never find at a big box store. Everything was always in its place; you would never see a bag of M3x5 screws in the M3x8 slot. It was heaven for a tinkerer like me.

One evening, I complimented the manager on how immaculate the section always was, and she started laughing.

She told me that section used to be a mess, but one day, everything was in the right spots, but none of the employees would take credit. They all hated having to organize the section, and she couldn’t blame them. Everyone was confused, and they started joking about being visited by the “Bolt Fairy”.

A couple of days later, she noticed a teen boy intently looking through one of the drawers, and then he moved a few bags around and closed it. She realized she was witnessing the “Bolt Fairy” in action. He noticed he was being watched, so he muttered a timid apology and started to leave. The manager stopped him.

Manager: “Don’t be sorry, but I can’t have you working here unless you work here. Can you come back later with your mom or dad?”

Boy: *Shyly* “Okay.” *Leaves*

About an hour later, he came back with his mom. The mom was looking apprehensive and apologetic, the teen looked like he knew he was about to be in big trouble.

Mom: “[Boy] is autistic, and he loves organizing things. He doesn’t get stressed about things that are disorganized; he just enjoys sorting stuff.”

Manager: “For insurance, legal, and moral reasons, he can’t work in the store unless he works for the store.”

Mom: “It won’t happen again.”

The teen’s eyes started to water. That’s when the manager pulled out an application and a uniform polo.

Manager: “What hours do you want to be scheduled?”

The mom just started laughing and the boy exploded into tears of joy.

I found out later that the boy worked there for about two years until his family had to move across the country. When he put in his notice, the owner found out where they were moving, went online, and found another locally-owned hardware store with good reviews, contacted them, and gave a glowing recommendation.

This story is part of our Highest-Voted-Inspirational-Stories-Of-2023-(so far!) roundup!

Read the next Highest-Voted-Inspirational-Stories-Of-2023-(so far!) story!

Read the Highest-Voted-Inspirational-Stories-Of-2023-(so far!) roundup!