Our son’s college orientation is held at a posh hotel. The first group of parents and students are entering when I hear a woman asking for money for the bus.

A few give her some. Just the three people around us who do give her over fifty dollars total. Most of us, though, just shake our heads and move on.

As we do, I hear her muttering.

Woman: “D*** stuck-up rich b****es can’t even give me money for the bus.”

That is the last straw for me.

Me: “Lady, most of us are working class. We all have kids entering [Prestigious Local College]. We don’t have money to spare. I know you’ve gotten more than fifty dollars in the last five minutes. I haven’t had that in my wallet since the college application process began.”

I wish I could say she slunk off in shame, but as we left, she was begging the second wave of parents for a little money for the bus.

A drive-thru customer begins by ordering a burger.

Me: “And for your drink, sir?”

Customer: “I’ll have an unsweetened tea with lemon on the side.”

Me: “How many lemon packets would you like?”

Customer: “I said lemon. I want lemon slices on the side.”

Me: “I’m sorry, we only carry lemon juice packets on the side, not lemon slices.”

Customer: “I don’t want any of that.”

Me: “Okay, how else can I help you?”

Customer: “[Fast Food Restaurant #1] has lemon slices.”

Me: “I’m sorry?”

Customer: “[Fast Food Restaurant #2] has lemon slices.”

Me: “Well, we don’t. Are you ordering anything else?”

Customer: “I’m going [Fast Food Restaurant #1].”

I am out dress shopping with my mother and grandmother, as grade-eight graduation is approaching. After picking out a few dresses to try on, I line up outside the change room while my mom and grandmother are browsing the store. It comes to the point when I am the only one left in line.

While I am waiting, a woman and her daughter — about my age — come up to me. The woman points to the changing rooms.

Woman: “Are they all full?”

Me: “Yeah, I’m just waiting.”

I assume that she will just line up behind me, but instead, she takes the ten or so items that she has and puts them on a nearby rack. They’re mostly dresses; I am guessing they are for her daughter as they are obviously too small for her.

She then tells her daughter to stay put as she goes around and starts knocking on the doors of all of the changing rooms. At this point, my mom and grandma have returned and I inform them of the situation. It appears that the woman has found what appears to be an empty changing room and calls her daughter over to wait by the door while she receives the clothes that she had set on the rack and proceeds to get an employee. The changing rooms are always locked from the outside and you need an employee to open them, even if they are empty.

The employee comes over and, since we are now sure of what is about to happen, my mother speaks up.

Mom: “Excuse me? I think that my daughter was first.”

Woman: *To the employee* “I have been putting all of the work in to check all of these rooms and I have found one that I can use, so I have the right to use it!”

Employee: “Sorry, but we must let her go first—” *gestures to me* “—because she was waiting in line.”

Woman: “No! I found this room and therefore I am entitled to it!”

The employee gives us an apologetic look.

Employee: “Okay, but just for next time, remember that you must wait in line.”

While this is happening, the woman’s daughter is looking uncomfortable and I don’t think that she is very happy about her mother’s actions. I myself am in shock, as nothing like this has ever really happened to me until now. I read a lot of Not Always Right stories, so I am able to recognize this as one of THOSE situations, if you know what I mean. As they enter the change room, the employee comes over to us.

Employee: “I’m so sorry about that. Come with me; I’ll see if I can find you a room.”

We thanked her and she led us to an empty change room where I tried on my dresses. I decided on the perfect one and we went out to pay for it. We were checked out by the same employee who had helped us in the change rooms and she apologized again. We thanked her and told her how we appreciated how calmly she handled the situation.

The dress ended up being about 40% off! I was very happy with my purchase, and it made everything worth it. A huge thanks to that employee for being so helpful.

I work at a craft store. I’ve just come back from a vacation and am running the registers. A woman comes in with six glass vases with decorative bark barely hanging onto them.

Customer: “I’d like to return these, please.”

Me: “Sure! Anything wrong with them?”

Customer: “Oh, they’re in too poor condition. I didn’t realize quite how bad until I got home.”

I check her receipt, which we do before any return, to check for anything that could prevent us from returning the item and that we don’t have to manually enter the receipt info. I notice all the vases are marked with a damage discount.

Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am, I can’t return these as they were sold as damaged.”

Customer: “What?! No, they weren’t!”

Me: “They were, ma’am. Right under the original price, they took another 40% off.”

Customer: “They said it was a bulk discount!”

My coworker on the next register over speaks up.

Coworker: “Actually, ma’am, you tried to argue for 70% off and then settled for 40%, saying you could at least fix them.”

The customer glares at my coworker.

Customer: “Well, they’re too hard to fix! So, I want my money back!”

Me: “Ma’am, as it was sold as damaged, and you were aware of how damaged it was, I cannot refund you.”

Customer: “THAT’S ILLEGAL! YOU HAVE TO REFUND ME!”

Me: “No, it’s not. If we sold it to you at the regular price, and then you found out they were damaged, we could. But as you bought them knowing the damage, and we gave you a discount on it for the damage, you agreed to no refunds or exchanges.”

Customer: “Well… I… ILLEGAL!”

She practically threw the vases back in her cart and stormed off.

I am an admin at a pharmacy school. I get a phone call from a coworker who works in the dean’s office; she is transferring me a call.

Me: “[School] of Pharmacy, this is [My Name]; how can I help you?”

Caller: “Wait, what?”

I repeat myself.

Caller: “What’s your name?”

I repeat my unusual name for the third time now.

Caller: “Well, that’s a dumb name.”

Me: *Slightly annoyed* “How can I help you, sir?”

Caller: “I don’t want to talk to you. Here’s my wife.”

Caller’s Wife: “Hi there! I hope you can help me. I started a new medication and it’s making me feel awful, and I’m really stopped up.”

Me: “Wow, I am so sorry to hear that, but I am actually not a pharmacist. I am an admin at [School] of Pharmacy. Was one of the faculty the prescribing doctor?”

I’m thinking that maybe she is a patient from the clinic or the hospital that the faculty work at. The wife then tells me that she isn’t a patient of ours or affiliated with the school at all. She’s insisting that, since we’re a school, we have to help her. I urge her to go to her doctor for help. There is no one here who knows her history or medications, so it would just not be okay for me to just send her to one of the faculty for advice. Since I’m not a doctor, and she’s not our patient, I simply cannot help her. After telling her this in my best customer service phone voice…

Caller’s Wife: *To her husband* “No, she’s refusing to help me!”

The husband gets back on the phone.

Caller: “I am very disappointed in you!”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that, sir, but your wife needs medical help that I cannot provide. Please consider going to the doctor.”

Caller: “So disappointing! You are clearly a real disappointment. How do you live with yourself not helping an old, sick woman? What are you going to do about being such a disappointment?”

Me: “I have done all that I can do, so—”

Caller: *Cutting me off* “GET ME THE DEAN, YOU DISAPPOINTMENT!”

Me: *more annoyed* “Sir, that is highly inappropriate. I am not going to go bother the dean, who is busy running the school, with this. I will, since I am such a disappointment, write down your information and pass it on to my boss who is the chair of the department. If he thinks this clearly inappropriate interaction is worth him following up on, he will call you.”

Caller: “Finally, you are being helpful.”

He then starts ranting about my generation being lazy and ungrateful, and about how my name is stupid.

Me: “Okay, bye-bye now!”

I asked my coworker why she transferred me the call, and she said it was because she “thought I would be more helpful than her.”