I work at an animal clinic that doubles as a kennel. We board dogs and cats. A younger woman whose dogs have recently been boarded walks in, absolutely SCREAMING.

Customer: “My dog started having diarrhea when they got home! You’ve poisoned them!”

Me: “Ma’am, sometimes this can happen when a dog is left in a place they don’t recognize. It’s called stress diarrhea.”

Customer: “That’s impossible! My dogs are immune to diarrhea!”

No one is up front except her and me, so I reply:

Me: “Oh, really? Your dogs are immune to diarrhea? That’s incredible. Perhaps you should breed them!”

She then threw a slew of profanities in my direction and then stormed out the door. I haven’t seen her since.

I’m a bridal consultant at a very popular bridal salon in my town. I have many years of experience and love what I do. Most of the bridal gowns in my shop are “special order”, meaning they must be ordered before they are made by the designer, and lead times can be anywhere from four weeks to eight and a half months. Not everyone knows this when they come shopping for a gown. That’s the whole point of me being there. I make sure we can get the dress in time, that any desired customizations or alterations are possible, and that the price is within the bride’s budget.

When this particular bride and her mother stepped into the store, they immediately went to the racks and started ripping through the neatly hung gowns.

Me: “Hi, I’m [My Name]. I will be your consultant for your appointment.”

This bride had a fairly short engagement — about four and a half months — and I knew that only some of the gowns would be available in time. As I tried to explain the process to her and her mother, she sharply cut me off.

Bride: “Just let us shop and leave us alone!”

I was STUNNED to be spoken to so rudely. So, I did as I as told: I left them alone, even when I saw them looking at dresses twice the bride’s budget that wouldn’t arrive until months after her wedding. I never took any of the gowns back to a dressing room or asked the bride if she’d like to actually try them on. Even after they stood by for a while, clearly waiting for me to take the bride back to the dressing rooms, I just continued on with my other work as if they didn’t exist.

Eventually, they realized that I had no intentions of acknowledging or helping them in any way, and they left without getting to try on any gowns.

The owner asked me about it after they left, and I told her the whole story.

Owner: *Laughing* “Good for you!”

I’m checking out at the grocery store. I put my items on the belt. Ahead of me, checking out, is a woman in her twenties wearing all Gothic clothing, with piercings everywhere and chains hanging from her belt loops.

I hear the exchange between her and the checker.

Customer: “If I put this back, do I have enough now?”

Checker: *With a disgusted tone* “NO.”

Customer: “If I put this back, also, do I have enough for the rest?”

Checker: *More disgusted* “NO!”

I intervene.

Me: “How much does she need to pay for everything?”

Checker: *To me, somewhat snottily* “You don’t need to help her.”

Me: “That’s not your call. Just tell me how much she needs to pay and I will make up what she lacks.”

Checker: *Very put out* “You shouldn’t be doing that for the likes of her.”

Me: “Since it is my money, what is that to you? Now, run the rest back through and tell me how much she is short.”

I paid for the rest — less than $20. The young woman thanked me in a very sincere way. She was buying fruit, apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes!

I work in a clothing store. I arrived at work the other day and was greeted by one of my supervisors telling me, “Keep an eye on anyone who comes in; we had some weirdness earlier.” She couldn’t tell me any more than that. Of importance, though: we had a roof leak, and because of that, our public restroom was closed for safety reasons.

A little while later, I was in the back room grabbing something and greeted a coworker who was doing some work on one of the store computers. She immediately gave me one of those looks and told me the story.

Apparently, a customer had taken extreme offense to the restroom being closed. He got extremely angry and aggressive, swearing at my coworker — a tiny little thing who wouldn’t hurt a fly — and refusing to accept any explanations. He refused to hear that there was a [Popular Coffee Chain] location literally in our parking lot and a [Gas Station Chain] right next door, both of which very likely had accessible restrooms. He just blew up and eventually stormed off.

Shortly after, my coworker saw the customer looking through the shorts and shirts we had on display. She assumed he perhaps didn’t really have to “go” that badly after all. The customer then selected a few things and took them to the fitting rooms. A bit after that, he bought some things and left.

End of story, right?

Nope.

Apparently, this sterling example of humanity decided that the perfect protest of our restroom being closed was to leave us a gift in the fitting room… which was discovered by my poor coworker when she went to clear them out after the guy left. And she discovered the rest of the items he had taken into the fitting room with him in a heap on the floor, soaking wet. Yep. He had relieved himself in our fitting room. On our merchandise.

My poor coworker was rather put out by all this. I’m not sure what the manager was doing about it; if they did anything, we weren’t told.

Seriously, though, who thinks this is okay? That an acceptable form of protest is… that? I don’t understand people sometimes.

Last summer, I went on vacation in Greece with my family for a whole month. It was so great to see all of my friends again after a year. I am half Greek and half Dutch, and I have been living in the Netherlands for five years.

Flying back home took a whole day because of connecting flights and such. We booked a whole row of seats for the family and an aisle seat for me. Cue the Greeks who asked me to move one row back and to the opposite side so the wife could sit next to the husband. As they were flying to a foreign country, I was nice, gave up my seat, and went to the aisle seat where the wife had been sitting.

After a while, the couple said:

Couple: “Oh, you have the middle seat.”

I was confused because the wife had been sitting at the aisle.

Me: “That was not the agreement. I want my seat back.”

Couple: “Oh, well, now that we have switched, there’s nothing you can do.”

They grinned and laughed thinking, that they had played me. I was pissed, as was my family, but I noticed that the attendants were shutting the plane doors, so I just smiled and told my family to calm down and that everything would be all right.

This was a three-hour flight, so it wasn’t that short.

After we took off, I was still in an empty row. I had all the space to myself and was comfortably lying over three seats.

The couple noticed and made sour faces.

Couple: “Can you move back to your original seat?”

Me: “Oh, well, now that we have switched, there’s nothing you can do.”

It was amazing to see my whole family and the surrounding seats trying to cover their laughs; even the flight attendants were grinning.

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