I used to work at a popular fast food chain. About a year into my tenure, the store underwent a massive remodel of the dining room and exterior. This meant that until the remodel was complete, our store was drive-thru service only.

The lobby was gutted practically to the foundation and was encircled with temporary fencing. Construction vehicles traversed our parking lot as they stripped and rebuilt every part of the store that wasn’t the kitchen. Signs and tarps were everywhere indicating that the lobby was under construction and the store was drive-thru only. Obviously, not even restaurant staff was allowed into the construction area.

Despite this… literally every single day, without fail, we would find at least one customer in what remained of the lobby. They had somehow failed to notice beeping and rumbling construction vehicles, snuck behind a six-foot fence, gone through a doorway that had the doors and glass removed, walked through a darkened maze of support beams and bare concrete, and gotten all the way to the gaping hole that used to be our counter without ever realizing anything was amiss.

This continued, I repeat, literally every single day until the lobby reopened. (Of course, that brought its own set of problems, but those are a story for another time.)

There are levels of obliviousness that I didn’t think even existed, and people like this exemplified them.

Related:
Not So Closed Minded, Part 31
Not So Closed Minded, Part 30
Not So Closed Minded, Part 29
Not So Closed Minded, Part 28
Not So Closed Minded, Part 27

I am the dumb customer in this one, but not until my second visit to the electronics store.

On my first visit, I was looking for a laser printer. The only model that was less than $700 was from [Brand #1], a brand that is disliked by everyone in my family and most of my friends. But I really needed a printer, so I bought it.

I use Linux instead of a more popular OS, and the printer company says they are compatible with all distro’s of Linux, but I could not get it to recognize the WiFi signal on the printer. Worse, after a few days, it refused to print via USB cable because the WiFi was not installed properly, and no amount of installing or diagnostics could get that to change. So, I decided to take it back to the store. Here’s where I got dumb.

The clerk who helped me pick a new printer was great! Unfortunately, no other store in the Metro Denver area had my selected [Brand #2] printer in stock, but I could order one and have it by the following Monday. Great! He took me to the order kiosk and we filled out my information. I was already in the system because I had signed up for toner refills and the warranty program on the [Brand #1] printer.

The clerk asked me to confirm my credentials and then put my address on the payment screen.

Clerk: “Is your address all correct?”

I glanced over it and said yes. He did some more things, then put my address back on the payment screen.

Clerk: “You’re sure this is correct?”

I laughed and confirmed. He explained that there was a woman who came in recently and screamed at him because, after he asked her to confirm, she had her package delivered to the wrong house.

Me: “It’s amazing how people don’t listen, isn’t it?”

Clerk: “Yeah. It gets pretty crazy.”

One more time, he splashed my address up to make sure I got it right. I glanced over it and agreed, so he closed the order and printed it. Then, something twitched in the back of my head. Still smiling as he handed me the order confirmation, I decided to check the address a fourth time, and… sure enough… I had missed that the apartment number was wrong!

When I gave it for the warranty on the [Brand #1] printer, I hesitated a moment as I gave it. The first half of the number is a multiple of ten, and the second is a little higher but in the same tens. Let’s say it’s 5057, for example. And when I said it, I put a bit of a pause, like “Fifty… fifty-seven.” So, when I bought the [Brand #1] printer, the clerk must have thought my number was just 57, and I was trying to remember the second digit.

Me: “Oh, shoot!”

The clerk cringed, knowing exactly what it was.

Me: “Totally not your fault. I missed the apartment number. I am such an idiot! After all that laughing at other customers, I did the same thing!”

The clerk apologized and explained that he couldn’t make the change from the kiosk in the back of the store and directed me up front. I again apologized for being that guy after all, assured him it was totally my fault, and headed up front.

There, the manager trained a cashier on how to change an address. It was a long and involved process, and I kept apologizing for my idiocy, and then I gave high praise for the clerk and his sales skills because he also got me to raise my intended price limit by about $100. The manager said she would be sure to reflect that to him and include it in his review.

I’m a self-checkout attendant. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had this conversation.

Customer: *Waving me down* “Hey! Miss! Hey!”

Me: “Hello, what can I help you with?”

Customer: “I put my card in, but it’s not going through! The reader says, ‘Card recognized,’ but nothing’s happening!”

I hit the giant, glowing, animated, bright red PAY button and the machine immediately starts processing the payment and printing the receipt.

Customer: *Embarrassed silence*

Me: “Have a good day!”

Sometimes I’ll explain how the system works and tell them that plenty of people make the same mistake.

I work for a small engineering business. The car park isn’t particularly big, but because of the layout, it requires two car entrances. There are no pedestrian-only entrances; we all just walk through either of the gates, which are of the large metal railing sort with pointy bits on the top to dissuade people from climbing over. When you’re standing on the pavement, you can see both gates. When you get up close to either of the closed gates, you can’t see the other one, but you can see traffic passing through it.

This happened early one morning in December 2022. As it was getting to the end of the year, people were using up their holidays, and on this particular day, the usual person who opens both gates was off. The technical manager had a key to just one of the gates; we’ll call this Gate #1. As he was unlocking it, a labourer was walking past; he was going to the nearby food truck before going to work. [Technical Manager] and [Labourer] exchanged a greeting, and [Technical Manager] added something else:

Technical Manager: “I’ve only got the key for this gate, so you won’t be able to use the other one.”

Much later on, we all wondered if what [Technical Manager] said was the trigger for what followed. But none of us have any idea, as [Labourer]’s actions defied all logic…

Fast forward a few minutes, and other members of staff had arrived, parked up, and were sitting in the break room passing time before the bell rang to indicate that work had begun. There was a lot of noise coming from outside, so they looked through the window and saw [Labourer] violently shaking the locked gate — Gate #2. He was also screaming, “Let me in! Let me in!”

They also saw other staff driving in through Gate #1 and parking up. They would look at [Labourer] and then just walk inside. At this point, I should add that [Labourer] is not much liked, as he seldom does the big cleaning tasks that he should be doing but instead cleans simple stuff that doesn’t need cleaning. He also spends a lot of the time he should be working interrupting people whilst they are working with inane topics (like the weather) and insane topics (like aliens building the pyramids) and ignoring them telling him to leave them alone.

After a few minutes of this going on, one of the assembly guys went outside to tell [Labourer] to come in. [Assembly Guy] walked through the open gate and out onto the pavement, and called out to [Labourer]. [Labourer], by this point, was now hanging completely onto the gate with his feet resting on the lower horizontal rail and was really letting rip with the screaming and shaking.

Assembly Guy: “Come inside, you daft [expletive]! This gate is open!”

[Labourer] just looked at him and then turned his head back to the building and resumed his shouting and shaking.

[Assembly Guy] went back inside and found [Technical Manager].

Assembly Guy: “Can you hear all that?”

Technical Manager: “I can hear some metal rattling around, but I thought that was the sheet metal company over the road being noisy. Why? What’s up?”

[Assembly Guy] explained what was going on, and [Technical Manager] went outside.

Technical Manager: “What the [expletive] do you think you’re doing, making all that noise and disturbing everyone?! Get off the [expletive] gate and come inside this instant! Think yourself lucky I haven’t got the authority to send people home from work; otherwise, I would be sending you home right now!”

The message finally got through, and [Labourer] went inside.

On the walkie, a call goes out for two workers to take an item out to a car. We get to the front of the store ready to take it out, but the customer stops us.

Customer: “I’m sorry, but the car isn’t here yet. My sons will pull right up in front of the doors so you can load it there.”

Me: “Actually, we cannot load anything in front of the doors due to it being a fire lane. We’ll take it to wherever they’ll park.”

The woman does not like this and proceeds to throw a fit the entire time we wait for her sons. Finally, she asks for a manager.

Customer: “This is ridiculous! I don’t even know where the car will be parked. Every other store lets us load at the front of the store!”

Manager: “I’m sorry, but we have to take it to where the car is parked. Other stores may allow you, but this is our policy.”

Customer: “And why is that?! You’re all the same store, just different locations!”

Manager: “There was an incident here.”

After that ominous message, the customer leaves, and eventually, the sons park the car and we take the item out. The entire time, she’s swearing that she’ll never shop here again and that she organizes the local toys for tots and they won’t use our store ever again, either — a total lie.

After dealing with the woman, my coworker asks me a question.

Coworker: “What did [Manager] mean by ‘There was an incident’?”

Me: “Oh, you didn’t get this during orientation? A worker was unloading something and a car pulled up behind. They forgot to put the car in park, went to get out, realized the car was moving, and slammed on the gas instead of the brakes. They pinned the worker, and they had to be life flighted. That’s why our store is the only one with that rule — because we’re the only one that had something happen.”

Coworker: “No… we were not told that in orientation! We were just told about the fire lane!”

Me: “Well, now you know and be extra careful just in case!”