(In the store I work for, there’s a café area that has smoothies, cold teas, coffee, and the like. It’s across from where I usually stand as a cashier. Most customers either order first and then pay me, or they pay me and walk behind them to order. Sometimes, there is a wait because the café team is understaffed, and they all have plenty of other things to get done. Some people, mostly regulars, are less than understanding. A regular — usually a nice one that I talk to frequently when she’s in — is waiting by the café after paying. She’s been there maybe twenty seconds and has repeatedly claimed she is in a hurry.)

Regular: “Is this even open?!”

Me: “Yes, ma’am. I’ve already called someone up.”

Regular: “I hate the system here!”

(My coworker gets her drink. As the regular is leaving, she says more to me.)

Regular: “I hate the system you guys have here! It’s why I stopped coming back!”

(I’ve seen this woman very frequently throughout my working history there. The last time I saw her was two days before, where she complimented a dress I wore.)

Me: “You did?”

(She just scoffed and hurried out after that. Two days later, she was in again with her husband. They both complimented a necklace I was wearing that my mother gave me.)

(I moved to Florida two years ago. My driver’s license expires this year, but I can’t renew it in my home state, so I just decide to go ahead and get a Florida driver’s license. I go to the DMV a few days before my license expires. When you arrive at a Florida DMV, you are told to check in to an automated terminal with your phone number. I do so and find out that issues involving a driver’s license are by appointment only. I sign up for the earliest appointment, which is about a week away, and receive an email confirmation for my appointment. I know that my license will expire by that time, but it’s the soonest I can get a license, so I just ask a friend to take me the following week. I return the following week and check myself into the terminal. I wait until I realize it’s been fifteen minutes since my appointment time, and my phone number isn’t showing up on the queue on the monitors. I go to the reception desk.)

Me: “Hello. I checked in about 25 minutes ago for an appointment to get my driver’s license at 1:00 pm. It’s 15 minutes after that, and I know things probably run a little behind, but I’m not listed on the queue for appointments above, so I just want to make sure I checked in correctly.”

Receptionist: “What are the last four digits of your phone number?”

(I give her the four numbers.)

Receptionist: “I don’t have any appointments under that number. You checked in incorrectly. You just added yourself to the main walk-in queue. You have to schedule an appointment ahead of time for driver’s-license-related things.” 

Me: “I did do that. I came in last week and signed up for an appointment today at 1:00 pm.”

Receptionist: “I’m not seeing anything in the computer under your number. I need to see your confirmation email.”

Me: “Okay, fine.”

(I try to find the email on my phone, but for some reason, it won’t come up when I scroll through my inbox. I spend a good minute trying to find it to no avail.)

Me: “For some reason, I can’t find it. But I know I got one last week.”

Receptionist: “Without an email confirmation, I can’t help you.” 

Me: “Well, can you at least tell me what my wait time would be if I’m stuck waiting, since it seems like I won’t be able to get the appointment I signed up for?”

Receptionist: “You should have received a confirmation text message when you checked in today giving you your wait time.” 

Me: “I saw that the screen said I was going to get a confirmation text message, but that was 25 minutes ago and I still haven’t received anything.”

Receptionist: “Give me your full number and I’ll manually have the system message you.”

(I give the receptionist my full number and wait for a full minute without receiving a text message before showing the receptionist my messages that don’t include one from any unknown number.)

Receptionist: “Something is wrong with your phone. I do this all day and it always works for people. You’re just going to have to wait.”

Me: “Clearly something is wrong with your system, not my phone. Not only did I not get either of my confirmation texts, but your system isn’t showing the appointment I signed up for today.”

Receptionist: “I can’t help you. You’ll just have to wait.”

Me: “Can you tell me how long the wait will be?”

Receptionist: “Probably over two hours.”

Me: “From now or from when I checked in twenty-five minutes ago?”

Receptionist: “At least two hours from now. Probably longer.” 

(At this point, I’m too angry and fighting tears of frustration to continue, so I go back to sit down and just wait, since I can’t go any longer without being able to drive. I start looking through my phone after I calm down a little and start trying to find the confirmation email again, because I know I received it. After five minutes of searching various terms in my email, I find the confirmation email, hidden away in my archive folder by mistake. I march back up to the receptionist to show her the email.)

Me: “I found the confirmation email!”

Receptionist: “Well, your appointment was at 1:00 pm and it’s now 1:30 pm, so you missed your appointment and will have to wait.”

Me: “Are you serious?! You said you could help me if I found the email! I found the email and you still won’t help me.” 

Receptionist: “There’s nothing I can do.”

(Thankfully, at this point, one of her coworkers comes up behind her before I start screaming at this woman. The coworker’s cubicle is next to the receptionist, so she heard the entire exchange.)

Coworker: “I’m about to go on break, but I can take you real quick before I go. You just need to get a new driver’s license, right?”

Me: “Yes, just a new license. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your help!”

Receptionist: “You really shouldn’t take her without an appointment.”

Coworker: “Well, she would’ve had an appointment half an hour ago had she checked in correctly, so I don’t think she should have to wait another two hours for a simple mistake people commonly make here.”

(The coworker was so kind and got me through all the paperwork and vision test within ten minutes. The receptionist, on the other hand, was still very rude when she was calling out the names of the licenses printed, which included mine. She purposely misread my easy to pronounce name and snottily asked me to make sure the information was correct before mumbling something I didn’t catch under her breath and turning away to hand out the next license. I get that life may be a little hard working in a place like that, but don’t take it out on me, lady. And thank you to the kind employee that was able to help me so I didn’t have to wait around all day.)

(A customer comes to my register with a forty-pound bag of dog food and a coupon on his phone. I see that it is a manufacturer coupon for “$10 off one XL bag of dog food.” I’m suspicious, because nowhere on the bag does it say, “XL.” Other brands have bags marked as “XL” as a promotional offer, but this brand does not. The whole thing smells like fraud, but I’m not allowed to call him on it.)

Customer: “I have this, too.” *shows me his phone*

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, manufacturer coupons must be printed to be accepted.”

Customer: *waves me off* “Yeah, they usually just scan it or punch it in if it doesn’t work.”

Me: “I can’t take a digital manufacturer coupon. You’re welcome to print it out and bring it back with the receipt on your next trip and we can refund the amount at that time.”

Customer: “No. You can do it.”

Me: *still smiling politely* “No, sir, I’m afraid that’s fraud and I could lose my job.”

Customer: “Get me your manager.”

Me: “Okay.” *calls for the manager* “She’ll be here shortly.”

(The manager arrives.)

Customer: “She’s trying to tell me you don’t take manufacturer coupons.”

Manager: “Of course we do!” *holds out her hand*

Customer: “I’m not giving you my phone!”

Manager: “Oh, it’s not printed?”

Me: “I said we don’t take digital manufacturer coupons.”

Manager: “I see. You want an override, then?”

Customer: “Yes! Jesus! And train your employees better!”

Manager: *smiles and nods while overriding the coupon* “There you go!”

(The customer leaves, looking smug. As she is walking away, the manager says my name over the headset, which every employee in the store hears.)

Manager: “[My Name], we do not accept digital manufacturer coupons.”

Me: “That’s why I said no. You’re the one who said yes.”

Manager: “The coupon policy is clear. I’m not sure what you don’t understand.”

Me: “You broke policy, not me.”

(The same manager came back to me about an hour later with a printout showing fraudulent coupons that had recently been accepted at other stores. Wouldn’t you know it, the XL bag coupon was on the list! I still got a writeup for my attitude and for accepting a fraudulent coupon, despite management acknowledging that I was the one following policy. When I asked what I was supposed to do in that situation, management just kept dodging the question by repeating the official store policy. I found a new job ASAP.)

I start dating a guy in high school, and we really hit it off. However, once we graduate, we go to different colleges in two different states. We begin a long-distance relationship. Our first year of college, it’s fine. We call a lot, talk over Skype, email frequently, and still manage to spend time together when we visit our hometown.

At the beginning of our second year of college, his parents divorce. It really hits him hard. I try to be as supportive as I can, but he begins to withdraw. We schedule times to Skype, but he begins to log in less and less often. Longer time passes between emails. Whenever he digitally stands me up, he always apologizes and gives me his reason: “I was so tired, I just had to nap,” “I was feeling really fried from finals and couldn’t talk,” “Stuff was going down at home, and I just don’t want to talk about it.”

As this goes on for months with communication between us becoming increasingly infrequent, I begin to voice that I feel neglected and that it hurts whenever he goes for weeks without talking to me. As always, he apologizes, but nothing ever changes. He says if I “just pick a date and time,” he’ll do his best to Skype with me. I do, but he always winds up canceling or not logging in. I can see the signs of the relationship failing right there, but I really like this guy. When we do talk, he has a great sense of humor. We also share the same quirky interests in some really niche stuff.

Into our third year of college — yes, I did wait two years for him to come to terms with his parents’ divorce — it becomes months between contact. I send emails and texts and leave voicemails when I can. I even agree to watch his favorite television show with him in its entirety — well over 100 episodes — just to spend time with him. We have simultaneously streamed shows before and talked over Skype while we watched them. It is something we enjoyed doing together. However, even that doesn’t change how infrequently he contacts me.

He apologizes again and insists that if I “just pick a date and time” he will do better this time. At this point, I tell him any time is fine as I will clear my schedule just to talk to him. It’s now two weeks until my birthday. He makes a promise: “I absolutely promise that I will be online before your birthday so we can talk.” He makes it sound like this will be a long conversation, possibly streaming a television show, and that we’ll be able to catch up on lost time. However, he doesn’t give me a date or time.

For the next two weeks, I spend as much time as I can on my computer because I want to talk to him as long as possible — as he made it sound. It eats my life. As soon as I’m done with dinner on campus, usually 7:00 pm, I’m online. I stay online until midnight or 1:00 am, just to see if he’ll speak with me. Some nights, I’m online as early as 5:00 am. Yes, I’m the fool who waited for six hours a day for my boyfriend to Skype me.

It’s the night before my birthday at 11:30 pm. At this point, I am so frustrated and sleep deprived that I’m sobbing. I move my mouse over to click on “Log Out” as I figure he has completely flaked again. It’s at that exact moment the notification pops up and he logs in. He gives me a huge string of smiley emojis and says, “See, I told you I’d be on before your birthday!” He has no idea why I am mad at him. After all, he made it “just in time” for my birthday even though we can’t talk for more than half an hour because of classes.

His birthday is the following month. I wait until 1:30 am the night after his birthday ends and send him an email breaking up with him — it’s not like I can even get a hold of him face to face anymore. He replies back, furious, “How dare you ruin my birthday like that?!” I reply with, “It wasn’t technically your birthday anymore.”

And that is the last I’ve ever heard from him. I have no regrets about how I broke up with him.

(I am at the movies with my sister and boyfriend. I am paying for my sister and myself, and my boyfriend is waiting behind us so he can pay for himself. As I’m paying, a middle-aged lady walks in and stands behind my boyfriend. It is a slow day and there is only one employee.)

Lady: *interrupting my transaction* “Has [Movie] started yet? I think I’m late!”

Employee: “I’m not sure; it might still be finishing up the previews.”

(I finish paying and tell my boyfriend that we are going to go sit down while he pays and we will meet him in the theater. The other lady is still talking about how she’s late and going to miss her movie.)

Lady: *to my boyfriend* “Are you going to be long?”

Boyfriend: “Can I have a ticket to the same movie as them in front of me? Let me take a look at the drinks.” *after a moment* “Can I have a bottle of water, please?”

Lady: “I… I’m late for my movie. It already started. I have to go. I’ll pay later.”

Employee: *calling after her* “Ma’am, I, uh…”

(She LEAVES to go find her movie WITHOUT PAYING. The theater recently switched companies, and the new one does not display which movies are playing in each room. I double-check my ticket and am most of the way down the hall to my theater when the other customer calls after me.)

Lady: *realizing she has no clue where her movie is* “Ladies! What movie are you seeing?”

Me: “[Kids’ Movie that we arrived early for].”

Lady: *huffs away*

(The best part is that her friend came in looking for her while my boyfriend was paying. Why would she not wait and buy a ticket, especially since she had someone else with her?! My boyfriend would have let her go in front of him if she had just asked, but instead he took his time since she was rude about it. Either arrive earlier or deal with missing the first few minutes.)