I was already in the shop for some time, sufficient to check the teas. I picked one flavour I was curious about and was rescanning the others, hoping I missed one, when an employee came up to me.

Employee: “Can I help you?”

Me: “I don’t think so. I was actually looking for something refreshing to make iced tea this summer, but I can’t have strawberry, peach, or mango.”

At this point, I already knew that all their summer teas contained one of those and they all let me break out in hives, so I like to avoid them.

Employee: “I have something, do you know hibiscus?”

I do; not my favourite. I’m willing to keep an open mind, but she continues without giving me time to answer.

Employee: “It is sour, that makes it refreshing, yeah, really sour.”

She kept on pressing the sour quality of hibiscus and took a box containing a tea with “berry” in the name. Surprised that I missed one, I take a container to check the ingredients as in my experience, “berry” does not necessarily mean strawberries, only in ninety percent of the cases or so.

Me: *Clearly angry, not shouting, but the emotion shows.* “I just told you that I can’t have strawberries.”

Employee: *Surprised Pikachu face.* “It has three percent strawberries…”

I was ready to just walk out in that moment, but my curiosity for the strawberry-free tea I selected earlier won out.

Related:
Reached Your Tea-Total

This story reminded me of something that happened when I was a young teen. My mom’s house has a big yard, as well as a deck that has a pool and a grill set up. One day, we were getting ready to host some friends, she turned the grill on and went back inside to get the food and fixings. 

I’m helping set up the patio table and other assorted things for our get-together. Our grill included an attachment on the side that had a hotplate/warmer type feature that’s wired into the side. 

While setting the table, I notice flames coming out of the SIDE, against the hotplate. I run inside.

Me: “Mom, the grill’s on fire.”

Mom: “I know, I turned it on while I finished getting the meat ready.”

Me: “No, Mom, the grill is actually on fire.”

Mom: “It’s fine, I’ll be right up. Just close the lid so it won’t catch.”

Me: “MOM! The OUTSIDE of the grill. Is… On… Fire!”

This seems to do the trick, as she drops the food and runs outside. She gets it put out, the hotplate piece is absolutely ruined, apparently the wires had come loose and ignited, but luckily the main grill is fine. Even more luckily, neither the propane tank, the wooden deck, nor the giant tree nearby caught fire.

Mom: “…okay, maybe I’ll stay with the grill, and you can go get the food.”

Me: “That sounds like a great idea.”

I work at a popular fast-food restaurant where we call your name once your food is ready. In this case, I prepared two dishes for dine-in. Notably, you can see every item on the platter.

Me: “Order ready for [Name]!”

Woman: *Taking the food.* “This was meant to be take-out.”

Me: “Oh, I’m sorry about that. For [Name]?”

Woman: “Yes.”

I take the order back to the kitchen, having them place them into to-go containers. I bring it back…

Me: “Here you go, ma’am!”

Woman: “I’m missing food. I was supposed to have [Dish #1] and [Dish #2].”

Me: “Oh, could I see your receipt, please?”

The woman shows a receipt for a completely different order.

Me: “And your name is [Name]?”

Woman: “No, it’s [Other Name].”

Me: “…”

Coworker: “You know, they’re pretty similar. They both have [vowel] in them.”

One-syllable versus three, from different cultures, and with the one shared vowel being pronounced differently. But yes, they both contained [vowel].

Customer: “Excuse me, I need to speak to a manager. This is ridiculous! I just bought these apples two days ago, and now they’re already soft and mushy. This happened to me last week, too! What kind of quality are you selling here?!”

Me: “I’m really sorry that happened. Let me take a look at them for you. It sounds like you might have gotten a batch that wasn’t up to standard.”

Customer: “I paid for them, didn’t I? And now I’m stuck with bad apples? I can’t use these for anything!”

Me: “I completely understand your frustration. We do try to ensure that all our produce is fresh, but sometimes a few pieces slip through the cracks. I can issue a refund for you or help you find a replacement.”

Customer: “This is unbelievable! I’m just trying to buy food, and now I’m dealing with this nonsense! How hard is it to sell good, fresh fruit? I don’t have time to be dealing with this every week.”

Me: “I truly apologize for the inconvenience. Let’s get this sorted out right away. I’ll make sure we get you a fresh replacement.”

Customer: “Every week this happens to me!”

I’m trying to move things along, but every time I try to suggest a solution, he finds a new way to complain about this happening to him every week.

Customer: “I shouldn’t have to deal with this in the first place!”

Me: “I agree, sir. The only thing more disappointing than these apples is having to hear how many times this seems to happen to you.”

I’m not sure if it was my passive-aggressive comment or not, but that finally seemed to jolt him out of his negative cycle, and we proceeded to finalizing his refund.

In the past, visitors had to ask for a key to use our public bathrooms. We did away with that many years ago in order to be more accessible. Around the same time, we also made all our bathrooms gender neutral (they’re single occupancy). Some visitors have yet to understand this.

Lady: “I need the key for the ladies’ room.”

Me: “We don’t lock the bathrooms anymore, they’re free to use.”

Lady: “But the ladies’ room is locked!”

Me: “If a bathroom is locked, it’s because it’s occupied. Maybe see if the other one is free?”

Lady: “That’s the men’s room, I can’t go in there! You need to unlock the ladies’ room for me right now!”

Me: “The person who’s currently in there probably wouldn’t like that very much. Also, we don’t have ladies’ and men’s rooms anymore, they’re all free for anyone to use.”

Lady: “No, you need to have a ladies’ room! That bathroom was always the ladies’ room before, and I need to use it right now!”

Me: “If you absolutely want to use that bathroom, you’re going to have to wait your turn.”

She goes to stand and wait outside the locked bathroom door, trying the handle now and then as if the door would somehow magically unlock itself.

Finally, the door opens, and a rather annoyed man comes out.

Man: “What’s the d*** hurry, couldn’t you see it was occupied?”

The lady’s face turns a shade of red I have never seen on a human being before.

Lady: *Screams.* “I hate everything here!”

She then turns on her heel and walks right out the front door, without using the bathroom. I guess she thought she would catch cooties or something.