I am Icelandic and live in America. My mom was buying a couch, and the saleswoman was trying to sell her a cleaner that had a multiple-year warranty.

Mom: “We are only planning on staying here for a year, and then we are going back home to Iceland, so I don’t need that.”

Saleswoman: “The warranty works in all fifty states.”

Mom: “Oh, but we’ll be going to Iceland.”

Saleswoman: “It works in all fifty states.”

Mom: “It’s in Europe.”

The saleswoman was clearly getting annoyed by how dumb she thought my mom was being.

Saleswoman: “ALL FIFTY STATES!”

I drive passenger trains for a living. This story took place very early after I started driving on my own. I drove a train going south. They were switching out a bridge between the third and the fourth station. No trains could pass, so we would empty the train at station three, and we’d all take a bus to station four where we would continue the journey south on a different train. It was a planned job, and everything had been planned and arranged meticulously.

When we left my starting station, we made announcements about the bus. As my coworker told me later, she even told everyone affected in person as she took their tickets.

When we got close, we made another announcement, and to be absolutely certain that no one would be left, we made one more after we had stopped. My colleague helped the passengers find their way to the bus while I switched the driver’s compartment for the next driver. I also walked through the train after the doors were closed to make certain it was empty. 

There, I found an entire family obliviously waiting for the train to continue on its merry way.

Me: “Excuse me, but you have to switch to the bus now. I’ll open the door for you.”

Mother: “What?! No one told us about this!” 

Me: “We made several announcements.”

Mother: “We didn’t hear anything, right?”

There were nods of assent from the family.

Mother: “It is absolutely unacceptable for you to suddenly have us switch to a bus without any warning.”

Me: “It isn’t sudden. We’ve made several announcements, and it’s even on your ticket. This has been planned for at least half a year. Now let me show you where the bus is; I don’t want to be late.”

There was some more arguing before I got them to leave the train. I don’t recall exactly what was said since, at that point, I started to lose my temper and got very snarky. But I still don’t get how an entire group of people could miss all that information; it wasn’t a language barrier, they all seemed to hear me perfectly fine, and the kids were ten or older.

I work in an Escape Room as the person who greets you and helps you throughout your room. Our store, whilst in an awkward spot, has signage around saying it is an escape room. Nowhere nearby is there any signage about being a hotel or motel because there isn’t even a hotel or motel nearby!

Me: “Hi! Welcome to [Escape Room]. How can I help you?”

Customer: *Quietly* “Have you got any rooms for tonight?”

Coworker: *Thinking they are a walk-in* “Sure, we have a few. Any particular room?”

Customer: “Any. I just need a place to sleep.”

There’s a moment’s pause. 

Coworker: “I’m sorry, we are an escape room. We don’t do accommodation.”

Customer: “Huh?” 

Me: “Yeah, our rooms are puzzle rooms for entertainment, not for sleeping. We’re really sorry.”

Customer: “Oh, okay. All right.”

Cue my coworker and me looking at each other in complete bafflement while this lady walked away into the evening. I do hope she found somewhere to sleep; while we have moving bookshelves, crawl spaces, and working TVs in our rooms, we do not have beds!

I’m a very extroverted and affectionate person when I feel comfortable around people — which is most of the time if you’re a nice human. I often hang up with friends and family by saying, “Love you, bye!”

The medical practice I go to is filled with kind receptionist ladies and professionals with excellent bedside manner; whoever is helping me will chat and be friendly whenever I go in.

The receptionist called to confirm my appointment while I was at work. I was a bit distracted because I was multitasking while talking with her. I confirmed my appointment and said:

Me: “Okay, thanks. Love you, bye!”

We both started cackling.

Receptionist: “I love you, too, [My Name]. Bye.”

This makes me laugh every time I think of it.

I’ve just been laid off from a job, and I need to ship some equipment back to the company. They sent a QR code and instructions to bring the items to a [Shipping Company] office location, where the staff will scan the code and take care of packaging up the items as well as actually shipping them.

I’ve never used a service like that, so when I get there, I open with this as I speak to the guy at the desk.

Me: “Hi! I’ve got this QR code to scan, and I’m told you provide the packaging service as well as the shipping. Does that sound right?”

Guy: “No.”

Me: “Oh, no?”

Guy: “We only do the shipping. You have to package it.”

Me: “Oh. Let me double-check the email.”

Guy: “Well, let me scan the code. Each company does it differently.”

He scans the code, types into the computer for about a minute and a half, scans the code again, and then gets a tape measure and begins measuring the items.

Me: “So… you are handling the packaging?”

Guy: “Yup.”

Me: “Why did you say no?”

Guy: *Coldly* “I told you, every company’s setup is different.”

Me: “Then perhaps ‘maybe’ would have been a better answer?”

Guy: “Mmmm… No, I like the word I used.”

Me: “Oh. Uh… I don’t.”

Guy: “Okay.”

He finishes with the items and gives me my receipt. I notice that it says, “Number of pieces: 1.”

Me: “Sorry, is ‘number of pieces’ the number of packages or the number of items in the packages?”

Guy: “Number of items.”

Me: “Okay, I just noticed that it says one piece on the receipt, but there were two.”

Guy: “There’s only one package.”

Me: “…Have a great day.”