Me: “Thank you for calling [Company]. This is [My Name]; how can I help you?”

Caller: “I want you to know that I’m very upset. I got my order delivered today and one of the items was missing. No one bothered to tell me that it was out of stock, and now I won’t get it for another two days!”

Me: “I am so sorry about that. Let me take a look at the order to see what we can do about that. Do you have your order number?”

She gives me the order number. I pull up the order and don’t see any items out of stock, but one item was drop-shipped from the supplier. It’s possible that an item had been cancelled from the order and then a new order entered when it was back in stock, but I suspect she’s referring to the drop-shipped item.

Me: “I apologize, I don’t show any items that were out of stock, but I do see that [product] was shipped directly from the supplier and is estimated for delivery tomorrow or Friday. Is that the product you were calling about?”

Caller: “Yes, no one told me that it was out of stock and hasn’t been shipped yet.”

Me: “I’m sorry for any confusion; [product] was not out of stock. It ships directly from the supplier. It has shipped, and it is still expected for delivery tomorrow or Friday as was originally quoted on your checkout page.”

I have already pulled up the copy of her online confirmation page to confirm before I told her that.

Caller: “This is really poor customer service. When I started ordering from [Company], the sales rep really talked up how everything is always delivered the next day, and then my order is out of stock and no one even bothered to tell me.”

Me: “I apologize, ma’am. Most items deliver within one to two days, like the rest of your order was, but we do have some items that ship directly from the supplier. And those items do take longer to deliver, but in order to keep you aware of that, we do list the expected delivery date in your shopping cart, on the checkout page, and in your email confirmation.”

Caller: “I’m a busy person. I don’t have time to read emails!”

Me: “I understand. And since a lot of people prefer to know that information before they place the order, we also list the expected delivery date in your shopping cart and on the checkout page. You can also enter your delivery zip code on the product page before you even put it in your shopping cart to see the estimated delivery. We try our best to keep people informed, so if you have a suggestion about anywhere else we can include that information, I can certainly pass it on to see if can be added.”

Caller: *Silence*

Me: “Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Caller: “No, you obviously don’t care all at or you would’ve already transferred me to someone who can actually help me.”

I give a mental sigh because there is no one who can help her. It’s not like you can call up [Shipping Company] and say, “Hey, go through all your millions of packages and find this one and deliver it faster.”

Me: “Would you like to speak to a supervisor?”

Caller: “Yes. And you should have offered to do that from the start!”

I got hold of a supervisor and explained the issue. Before I conferenced in the customer, the supervisor asked me, “Really? What does she expect us to be able to do?”

This morning, I leave for work ten minutes early so I can swing through the drive-thru of the pharmacy on the way and pick up my allergy medicine. The medicine I’m picking up does not require a prescription, but my doctor actually did a prescription anyway so that my insurance would pay for it. I got a text message last night that my prescription was ready.

I pull into the empty drive-thru and pull up to the window, and no one comes to help me. I press the call button, a voice says that they will be with me shortly, and no one comes to help me.

I wait five minutes and press the call button again, and no one comes to help me, or even answers this time.

I wait another five minutes, give up, and try to phone the store, and an employee finally comes to help me. I give her my name, birth date, and address so she can confirm my identity, and she scans my prescription, staples a receipt to it without telling me how much it is or asking whether I want to use the card on file, and sets it on the counter inside the window where I have no way of reaching it.

Employee: “The pharmacist will come give this to you.”

And she vanished before I could say anything.

I waited another seven minutes for the pharmacist to hand me the prescription that was already paid for, and, remember, did not actually require a prescription to purchase. I could see about half of the inside pharmacy counter from the drive-thru window, as well as most of the pharmacy waiting area, and there was exactly one other pharmacy customer.

Eventually, the pharmacist came to give me my medication, did not do anything that actually merits waiting for a pharmacist, and offered no explanation for the wait other than that he was on the phone with a doctor, which doesn’t explain why I had to wait for him in the first place.

As I had wasted an additional fifteen minutes on what should have been a two-minute stop, I was barely on time to work and had to rush to get myself clocked in and start working.

I was working at my first dealership job. I was the receptionist, but I am a gearhead. A man came in.

Man: “Do you have any coupes?”

I didn’t hear him the first time because, frankly, I was daydreaming.

Me: “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?”

Man: “Do you even know what a coupe is?”

Me: “Yes. Would you be purchasing the [$40,000 Coupe] or the [$200,000 coupe]?”

Man: “The [$200,000 coupe], of course. Where is it?”

Me: “Sir, it’s behind you. You passed it on your way in. Do you know what a coupe is?”

He walked away.

A middle-aged woman comes into the store holding a single-use disposable film camera.

Customer: “Hello, do you do 35 mm film development?”

Me: “Yes, we do. We can send them off to get developed.”

I go through the options available to develop her single-use camera.

Me: “You will pay a £6.00 deposit to send it off, and that comes off of the total £11.99 you will have to pay the rest of when you come to collect.”

Customer: “Okay, well, I’m not sure whether I’ve used this camera properly as I couldn’t always get it to fire.”

These cameras are pretty straightforward to use as there are clear instructions printed on the cameras themselves. 1) Press the shutter button to take a photo, or 2) you pull a trigger on the front to activate the flash, let a light blink on to show it’s ready, and then take the photo with a flash, as well. That’s it.

The customer starts to fiddle with the camera in front of me, clearly not understanding how to use it. Not only that but she’s used the camera up fully somehow despite her confusion, so anything she tries now won’t work anyway. She gives up despite me trying to explain and show her this.

Customer: “Can I get this camera developed anyway and buy another to use?”

Me: “Sure, no problem.”

I hand her a new one for her to look at and get her head around as she’s still struggling. I grab another of EXACTLY the same product off the shelf to scan into the till, and she looks up at me doing so.

Customer: “Hold on. That’s a different one!”

Me: “No, miss, this is the same product; I’m just using this one to scan it into the till whilst you’re holding that one.”

Customer: *Getting very snippy all of a sudden* “No, it’s not! That’s different!”

Me: “I assure you, miss, this is the same product with the same barcode, so it makes no difference if I scan this one or the one in your hands.”

Customer: *Condescendingly* “Are you sure?!”

Me: *Confused and annoyed* “Yes.”

Never, in the fifteen years that I’ve worked in retail, has someone questioned me if I knew how barcodes work before, so this throws me a bit.

Customer: “Can I see them both?”

Me: “I’m sorry, but why?”

Customer: “Can I just see them?!“

I give up and don’t want to cause a scene, so I hand her the second camera. She then pulls out her reading glasses and directly compares the barcodes and packaging on both products despite the fact they look EXACTLY the same.

Customer: *Still not sounding convinced* “HMPH! Okay fine!”

She hands one of the cameras back. Carrying on whilst shaking my head, I total the payment for both the new disposable camera (£10.00) she’s bought and the deposit for getting her used camera processed (£6.00) which comes to £16.00 total. She hands me £20 to cover the total and I give her £4.00 change.

Me: “Please, may I take your name and phone number so we can contact you when your film is back?”

Customer: “Oh, well, when will they be back? I have a phone but I don’t use it, so I’ll just come back around the time they should be done.”

She says this whilst thoroughly shaking her head in disapproval of her own phone and any technology like it. Of course, she has a phone she doesn’t trust, either.

Me: “Okay? That’s fine, miss. Feel free to check back late next week.”

Over a week passes. The customer comes back. My colleague serves her, she pays for the rest of the charge for processing her camera, and she then leaves without any issues. A few minutes later, she comes stomping back into the store and speaks to me.

Customer: “Excuse me?! It says here on the receipt I paid a deposit for my film development. I did not pay a deposit. I will not be seen as someone who didn’t pay for what I owe!“

At this point, it’s been a busy past week and I can’t remember off the top of my head how exactly she paid for the deposit previously, as we get so many film processing orders, but I know for a fact she definitely did.

I double-check on the till to be sure though as I don’t wanna shoot myself in the foot by calling her out.

Me: “Okay, that’s strange as that doesn’t normally happen. Let me just make sure.”

Customer: “I definitely didn’t pay a deposit!”

Me: “Well, after looking through the till, nothing has been inputted incorrectly; you did pay the £6.00 deposit.”

Customer: “No, no, no, I didn’t. Here!“

She gets £6.00 cash out of her purse and slams it on the counter.

Customer: “Take it! I don’t want to be seen as someone who doesn’t pay when they should have!”

Me: “With all due respect, miss, we don’t want your money because you don’t need to pay anymore.”

Customer: “No! Take it!”

Me: “No, miss, you don’t owe us anything. If we have made a mistake somehow, then that’s on us and you get to keep £6.00.”

Customer: “I can’t accept that; check your CCTV and you will see that I did not pay £6.00!”

Me: “I don’t want to be rude, but we don’t want your money and you’re simply wrong, miss. I’m trying to save you your money. The till literally will not let us process a film development order without a deposit, and our till total wasn’t out at the end of the da—”

Customer: “Well, I don’t want to be rude, but no! I will not be seen as someone who doesn’t pay. Check your CCTV! You are wrong!”

She then stormed out, leaving the money. We ended up putting her now overpaid £6.00 into a charity pot. The funny thing is that my colleague told me later that she looked at her camera prints before leaving and most of them were blanks or bad quality.

Our hotel is not pet-friendly, so every time I check a guest in, I end my welcome speech with, “We are non-smoking and non-pet-friendly. My name is [My Name]; enjoy your stay.”

I do the normal check-in for a guest, and she starts unloading through our side entrance, which is still visible from the front desk. I’m not paying much attention to her until I hear a weird choking sound coming from the side entrance. It’s three small dogs pulling on their leashes hard enough to choke themselves. I approach her.

Me: “Ma’am, we are not pet-friendly.”

Guest: “You never told me that!”

Me: “I did specify, ma’am, but even if I didn’t, you didn’t ask!”

I proceed to start checking her out, and she keeps arguing with me through the checkout process.

Guest: “Will I be charged for the room?”

Me: “No. Because you just checked in, we won’t keep your money, but the authorization I put on your card could take a few days to come off.”

Guest: “You lying b****! You’re not only kicking me out but also keeping my money!”

Then, she left. Later, she left a review saying that I lied to cover my a** and needed to be fired.