My mobile phone contract is with a company that uses telesales to set up contracts. To ensure that any changes to your contract can only be made by you, your account is protected with a security password. Someone with that password can set up a new contract or change your existing one. The company regularly reminds us with security emails not to give out our passwords.

I’ve been receiving calls a few times a day from a withheld number that doesn’t leave a message, so I’m not able to block them or call back. Usually, I can’t pick up as they call during work hours, but today, I’m able to answer.

Me: “Hello?”

Caller: “Hello, I’m calling from [Mobile Phone Provider.]”

Me: “Right, you’ve been calling several times a day for weeks and not leaving a message. Is something wrong? Why haven’t you emailed?”

Caller: “I’m calling with some exciting new deals—”

Me: “Stop. My contract isn’t due for renewal and, even if it was, I opted out of marketing calls.”

Caller: “These deals are to take on a second contract, maybe for a child or your husband—”

Me: “No. You are not allowed to call me with marketing. Take me off your list.”

Caller: “I can only take you off if you give me your security password.”

Me: “No. I’ve got no proof of who you are as you called me, and my password would let you do anything you like to my account. You don’t need it to take me off your dialer.”

I’ll spare you, but here follows a long exchange where he keeps on insisting that I give him my password, and I keep refusing to give confidential information to a stranger.

Me: “I want to speak to your manager.”

The caller immediately hangs up. I assume at this point that it’s a scam, but I want to make sure that my account is still set to not receive marketing. I restart my phone to make certain that the caller is no longer connected, and then I call the provider on their official number.

I get through security verification and explain the situation.

Customer Service: “Okay, I can see from your notes that that was our sales team. I can transfer you back to them now if you give me a moment.”

Me: “No. I’m not supposed to receive marketing. I don’t want them to be calling me. They’ve been calling multiple times a day for weeks on a withheld number.”

Customer Service: “Okay, yes, I can see that you have opted out of marketing, but the sales team is calling with very special offers that you won’t want to miss out on.”

Me: “Under GDPR (US translation: information protection laws), I have control over what you can use my information for, and I’ve opted out. I’m also registered with the Telephone Preference Service.”

Customer Service: “But they’re very good offers!”

Me: “Get me your manager.”

Again, I’ll spare you, but I had the same conversation with the manager, who only agreed to stop the calls when I asked to be transferred to the cancellations team. I’ve got no idea why they thought that “very good offers” meant it was okay to break the law or why they asked their sales agents to ask for a confidential password when making unexpected calls from a withheld number. Thankfully, the calls then stopped.

I’ve spent a bit over a year as a technician fixing all types of issues on copiers and printers.

One day, I’m working my side gig (where I’m not in any sort of support role) and I’m in the office of one of my bosses. He’s one of those guys who can’t be wrong, knows everything, and regularly makes a fool of himself with his “knowledge.”

[Boss] is trying to print out a document and keeps getting the same result. The first page prints, then the back side has a line of odd random characters, and then the third page will print normally. [Boss] is getting increasingly annoyed with this, thinking his printer is broken.

I decided to pipe up before he gets too angry and explain his issue to him.

Me: “[Boss], you’re using a generic default driver for your printer, which is fine for some basic stuff, but with everything on this document, including the duplexing, it’s not going to work correctly due to the computer and the printer not communicating properly. Due to the setup of our systems, you’ll need to contact IT and have them install the correct driver since we’re locked out of all admin functions.”

The entire time I’m talking, this guy just keeps going on with, “Nah,” and, “That’s not it,” and, “It’s something else.” He even goes so far as to tell me, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I finally just give up and sit there staring at him with a blank face. After a moment, he just fully stops, and slowly, I can see the realization dawning on him. He is fully aware that my other gig is as a copier technician. He finally gives me a sheepish look and says:

Boss: “I just remembered who I’m talking to.”

All I could say was, “Yup.”

Spoiler alert: this did nothing to correct his general attitude toward technicians. Oh, well.

My fiancé works as an assistant at the self-checkouts for a market downtown. Yesterday was a busy Sunday, and there were lines at the registers. Two young women were at the front of the line to check out. They had a full cart and began scanning their items. Slowly.

They scanned a few things, changed their minds, and asked my fiancé to take an item off the order. Then, they changed their minds again and put it back on. They scanned a few more items and then needed another item taken off. Then, they took a break to text. This went on for twenty minutes.

Fiancé: “Do you need any help?”

Women: “Nope, we’re fine!”

Finally, after all the items were scanned, one woman went to use Apple Pay and found out that her account was low on funds, so the other went to use her Apple Pay and also found out that her account was low. They stood there, frozen. My fiancé approached them again.

Fiancé: “Can I help you ladies?”

Woman #1: “We’re working on transferring some funds to pay for our items.”

Fiancé: “Would you like me to suspend the order until you get your accounts straightened out?”

Woman #2: “It’ll be just a minute and we’ll have it figured out.”

The lines were still long and getting longer.

Ten minutes later one of the women disappeared from the checkout area. The other stood at the register texting someone. My fiancé AGAIN approached the remaining woman.

Woman #2: “My friend will be right back!”

Ten minutes later, he looked up. They were both gone — nowhere in the area. It appeared that they’d just up and left. Unsurprisingly, this does happen. They had left the cart and all their items at the register. So, my guy gathered up their stuff, put it back in the cart, and wheeled it out of the way to the liquor counter, canceled the transaction, and let another customer take their place to keep things moving.

Over ten minutes later… they both CAME BACK into the store and demanded to know where their cart had gone.

Fiancé: “It’s over by the liquor counter. I’ve canceled your order since it’s been an hour since you started it.”

One of the women was furious.

Woman #1: “I only went to my car to charge my phone for twenty minutes! You should’ve known I’d be back!

She started yelling and threw a tantrum.

Then… my fiancé went off on them.

Fiancé: “You were being incredibly self-centered and held up other customers for a full hour. You should have figured out your payment method and charged your phones ahead of time. If you knew you were going to hold people up, you should’ve just suspended your order, gotten yourselves together, and come back to complete the transaction after you resolved the situation.”

He then sent them to the back of the line to start over. And they did. No f***s given — that’s how he is sometimes.

This was the tipping point. My fiancé is done there — not going back. He already had other work lined up, anyway.

I’m working a nine-and-a-half-hour shift on a very busy overnight at the convenience store. Seven am finally arrives, and I clock out, grab my keys, and head to my car, which is across the parking lot. I still have my nametag on.

An older woman comes up to me.

Older Woman: “Would you like to go to church with me?”

Me: “Thank you, but I will have to politely decline; my wife is waiting for me at home.”

Older Woman: “What church do you go to?”

This is not an altogether uncommon question in the South.

Me: “I prefer not to give out information about my life outside of work.”

I then say goodbye, thank her for her offer, and go home.

Three weeks later, at my one-on-one meeting with my manager, he tells me that someone complained to corporate about me and asks if I remember a customer inviting me to church.

He hands me the complaint, which I still have hanging on my fridge.

Complaint: “Dear [Company],

“I want to express my concern regarding one of your employees. He works Saturday overnight at [Location], and his name tag said [My Name]. On August 26, as he was leaving, I met him in the parking lot and invited him to come with me to church.

“While he was polite enough, he declined, and then he refused to answer me when I asked him which church he attended. It is clear to me that he is an atheist, and I must ask that he be fired. It is a terrible thing to be giving non-believers jobs when there are plenty of good Christian-folk who do not have them.

“Thank you for your time, [Older Woman].”

I look up from reading it, and even my manager is shaking his head at it. The response from my company is something along the lines of offering her a gift card, apologizing for the inconvenience, and dancing around the issue that they cannot fire me for not going to church with a customer.

Manager: “Good job at being called polite in a complaint, and remember not to do that thing again.”

Me: “What thing?”

Manager: “I have no idea.”

That’s still the most ludicrous complaint I’ve ever received.

I teach art to kids, and I also do illustrations and sell original art. The father of one of my students noticed some of my artwork one day when picking up his kid.

Client: “Oh, you paint!”

No s***, Sherlock. I teach your daughter painting. 

Me: *Forcing a smile* “Well, that’s why I’m here!”

Client: “Are any of these for sale?”

Me: “Yeah, these two here. They’re [price] apiece.”

Client: “Hm. I’ll give you [a tenth of the price] for both.”

Me: “Bye!”