I work at a small hotel in a small town. We get a lot of tourists during the summer but the winter is usually pretty dead, except for hockey teams. I’m still relatively new to the job and this is my first time dealing with a youth hockey team staying in the hotel. There are all the usual expected issues — noise complaints, kids running in the hall and through the lobby, etc. — but in general, they’re a pretty decent group. 

Shortly after my shift begins, one of the parents comes up and asks if they can use our breakfast room to serve their kids dinner. I say sure and let them in. Later, my boss comes in and tells me they aren’t supposed to be in there without an employee because it is a food safety issue. However, he does allow them to finish their meal and the room is well cleaned when they are done. Shortly after, they leave for their game at 8:00 pm.

When they return, the parents come back and ask if they can get into the breakfast room again. I tell them they can’t and explain why. They understand and don’t give me a hard time or anything. Shortly after, they come back and ask if there is any other room they can use, even if there is just an extra room they could rent to keep the kids out of the halls.

I show them our suite and tell them the price. They agree and take the room. One of the other rooms had an issue with the toilet around the same time, so instead of charging them for the suite, I move that room to the suite at no extra cost to the group. 

I finish my shift and all is well with the hockey team.

Then, the next day happens…

Apparently, my system override of the price on the changed room didn’t take, so when my coworker — who is also new-ish and just lost her grandfather so is emotionally vulnerable — checks them out, she charges their card for the full amount of the suite. They also kept the keys to their old room and used it through the rest of the night. By rights, my coworker should charge them for the second room but doesn’t. When they notice the price difference, they come down and berate her while she gives the refund for the full amount of the room. However, our system doesn’t call it a “refund” but a “correction,” and the guest doesn’t believe her when she says it is a refund. So, she goes in and does another transaction on our terminal that actually says it’s a “refund” of the difference in price.

At this point, we have actually paid this woman about $11, so we have to go in and charge her the actual price she should have paid, plus the $11 she was over-refunded by mistake.

Now, here in Canada, refunds can take up to five business days to show up on your statement, but charges show up right away. Now the guest is upset because she’s been charged twice and still hasn’t gotten a refund.

Eventually, my coworker gets so upset and shaken they have to make an emergency call to one of our managers to fix the issue. The issue gets fixed and everything is worked out on our end, but of course, the refunds still don’t show on the guest’s statements. The guest proceeds to spend all afternoon calling the hotel nonstop, to the point where my coworker refuses to answer the phones because she just can’t deal with her. 

By the time I arrive for my shift, my coworker is practically in hysterics because of the way the people who were upgraded to the suite treated her.

Just as she is getting calmed down and ready to leave, the woman walks into the hotel. With me and our head of housekeeping behind the desk with her, she begins to explain the whole process of what she did to the guest, who feels the need to interrupt after every single step is explained.

After almost twenty minutes, we finally get the guest to understand that refunds take time to show up, and they definitely don’t show up immediately on a Saturday.

She’s still upset, and when she leaves, my coworker and the head housekeeper go back to the laundry room while she cries again. While this is happening, the guest’s husband and son come in to use our bathroom. The husband stands in the lobby the whole time, awkwardly listening to my coworker’s tears and complaints about his wife.

Finally, the kid comes out and they leave.

I really hope the refunds show up sooner rather than later because she’s already planning to call the manager on Monday morning to complain.

(If you work at my store, you get a discount card that entitles you to 10% off. You also get a partner card for a family member, but the holder of the partner card must live in the same household as you. Our tills are very old, and if a card doesn’t swipe you can simply type it in. To avoid colleagues just giving their discount card number to everyone they know to use, company policy states you must have the card with you in order to use it. Typing it in without the card is a fireable offence for both the cashier doing it and the holder of the colleague discount card. A guy walks up to the customer service desk with two jumpers.)

Customer: “Hi. Can I pay here, please? I have a [colleague rewards coupon].”

Me: “Yes, that’s fine.”

(I scan his jumpers and tell him the total. He picks up his phone and shows me the screen.)

Customer: “Oh, and this is my colleague discount number, as well. You can just type it in.”

Me: “Do you not have your discount card on you?”

Customer: “No.”

(I look at his phone screen. The number has been texted to him as part of a conversation with who appears to be his partner.)

Me: “Okay, well, without the colleague card present, I’m not allowed to type in the number. It’s company policy. Sorry.”

Customer: “No, it’s fine. [Nearby Store] does it for me all the time.”

Me: “Okay. Well, I still can’t do it. I have nothing to verify you are the colleague or partner. The company policy is in place to stop everyone just using one colleague’s number.”

(He stared at me and just repeated that [Nearby Store] does it all the time for him. We ended up repeating the conversation twice before I went to find my section leader and get her to reiterate that he wouldn’t be getting his discount today. He walked off in a huff and maintained we were “just being silly.” I’ll never understand why people can’t understand that company policy can’t be ignored. Just because the store you work in knows you and doesn’t mind typing in the number, it doesn’t mean any store will!)

(I am walking around a local clothing store when I overhear an argument with a cashier and a customer.)

Cashier: “Hello, sir, how can I help you today?”

Customer: “Hi. So, I bought this shirt. I like it and all but I didn’t really like what it was made of; can you remove the cotton from it?”

Cashier: *tries not to laugh* “Sir, that is not how shirts work.”

Customer: “You work at a clothing store, so you must know how to recreate this shirt. Just make it without the cotton.”

Cashier: “Sir, I don’t know how to sew, and most of our shirts are imports from bigger companies.”

(The customer refuses to listen and insists that the cashier try to remove the cotton and remake the shirt several times.)

Cashier: “Sir, I cannot sew; I have told you this several times, so either buy a different shirt or leave.”

Customer: “WELL, HOW THE F*** DO YOU WORK AT A G**D*** CLOTHING STORE AND NOT KNOW HOW TO F****** SEW, HUH?!”

Cashier: “Sir, there are children here, so leave. Have a good day.”

(The customer left muttering something under his breath. Some people don’t understand how clothes work, I guess.)

When I was in high school, I also worked at a local supermarket on checkout. As a self-conscious and non-confrontational two-meter-tall — 6’5″ — male, I always greeted everyone with a smile and a “G’day, mate,” just on pure reflex, which is perfectly acceptable in Australia.

But there was one middle-aged man who, every time he came through, got upset at me for calling him “mate” because he went to some high-end English university and he felt he should be called “doctor” and that I was not his mate. 

I wasn’t going to change my normal habits just for him, so I thought nothing of it until one day he just snapped and started to scream at me.

I’d never had anyone scream and berate me for something that is understood as a perfectly normal Australian greeting. After he finished yelling, saying that he would never return, and I shakily finished ringing up his goods, I accidentally said, “Have a good day, mate,” on pure reflex as he left.

He paused for a second and I froze in my spot, but thankfully, he continued walking.

My supervisor gave me some time to calm down and said that I should ignore him and not change myself based on one person.

I took her words to heart and, when he came back a week later, I gave him a nice big, “G’day, mate!” as he came through my checkout. He just ignored me and after that avoided me every other time he came in.

Guest: “Hello, I’d like to check in.”

Me: “Okay.”

Guest: “Here’s this coupon.”

Me: “We don’t accept that coupon.”

Guest: “The other hotel said that you do.”

Me: “We don’t. The other hotel on [Street] five miles away does.”

Guest: *looking angry* “Well, can I have money for the taxi to take me there?”

Me: “We aren’t responsible for what another hotel says about us.”

Guest: “Yes, you are; hotels are hotels, aren’t they?! You’re all together! Anyway, just give me the money!”

(There is a line forming behind him, so I decide to be nice and give him the taxi fare. I only give him enough for the fare and that’s it.)

Guest: *counting money* “What, no tip?”