I am in a store whose uniform includes red T-shirts. I’m carrying a tray of coffees. I am wearing my pajamas, with an oversized black sweatshirt with a large gaming logo on it. A woman shopping in an aisle calls out to me.

Woman: “Excuse me, ma’am!”

I stop and look over at her.

Me: “Yes?”

Woman: “Are you a manager?”

Me: “Um, no.”

Woman: “Oh, sorry! You just look like one carrying all those coffees. Are you sure you’re not a manager? If you’re off the clock, that’s fine.”

Me: “No, ma’am, I don’t work here.”

Woman: “Oh, well, could you get me someone who does?”

Me: “I’m with my family, so…”

Woman: “It won’t take you even a minute. I’ll stay around here. Thank you, sweetheart!”

She goes back to shopping. I continue to the back of the store to my family and completely forget about the woman as my family and I look at the games.

When we get up to check out, I see the woman wandering nearby. When she gets near, she spots me.

Woman: *Sternly* “You didn’t tell anyone where I was, did you? I was waiting for fifteen minutes, and no one came by! I had to find someone myself!”

My family looks at me weirdly for a second, wondering what is happening.

Me: “Sorry, but I told you I didn’t work here and that I was with my family.”

Woman: “Hmph! So much for chivalry and respecting elders.”

She walks away.

Sister: “What the f*** was her deal?”

Me: “She wanted me to get someone for her, and she’s mad I didn’t.”

Dad: “Okay, f*** her, then. Not your problem.”

Me: “Yeah, well…”

Related:
Some People Have Never Been Told “No” And It Shows, Part 2
Some People Have Never Been Told “No” And It Shows

I work in a police dispatch department. Since we operate around the clock, we also get to cover a few other duties that would otherwise necessitate someone else to be kept on call. One of these duties is responding to the intercom of the only publicly-owned underground parking in our city. Said parking garage has a toll bar at the exit, so you pay for the time you’ve parked there after you return and then insert your paid parking ticket to lift the toll bar and exit the garage. Most people don’t realize that the intercoms on the pay machines and toll bars connect them to the police.

A guest who parked his car in this garage walks up to the pay machine and rings the intercom.

Me: “Good evening. How may I help you?”

Guest: “Hi, I’ve parked my car here and I would like to pay, but I can’t figure out how to pay with my card.”

Me: “Unfortunately, the pay machines in that parking garage don’t accept cards. The only way you can pay is with cash.”

Guest: “Well, I don’t have any cash on me. What should I do?”

Me: “I guess you’ll have to find a way of procuring cash somewhere.”

Guest: “That’s no good. I’m in a hurry and I have to leave.”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m unable to help you here. I can’t just let you out without paying simply because you don’t have cash on you.”

Guest: “Well, if that’s the case, then I’ll just have to drive through the toll bar to get out of here.”

Me: “I wouldn’t advise that, since we have surveillance cameras all around the premises.”

Guest: “Okay, then. Still, this is ridiculous. Who has heard of a pay machine that doesn’t accept cards nowadays?”

Me: “I agree that it’s inconvenient, but it’s far from the only parking lot that only accepts cash payments.”

Guest: “Nonsense, I’ve used many a parking space around this country, and they all accept card payments. In fact, I’m pretty certain that it’s illegal to only accept cash and no other means of payment.”

Me: “I’m not so sure about that.”

Guest: “But I am. I’m absolutely certain that it’s illegal to only accept cash.”

Me: “Sir, do you have any idea who you’re connected with?”

Guest: “No.”

Me: “You’re talking to the police. And I know for a fact that it’s not illegal to only accept cash payments.”

Guest: “You’re wrong. I know the law.”

Me: “Oh, well, in that case, can you please tell me what law states pay machines are required to accept card payments in addition to cash payments?”

I guess getting called out like that threw him for a loop, but after stammering for a bit, he told me that he’d figure out a way to get out of there.

I’d mentioned that we had surveillance cameras all around the parking garage, which was true. However, what I didn’t tell him is that we were not allowed to record any of it. It was just used for real-time surveillance on our large video wall, not as a means of recording video evidence. I decided to pull up a couple of views of that parking garage, specifically the exit, in case I managed to get a good look at his license plate if he decided to make good on his threat of running over our toll bar.

I also had another view visible of the pay machine he talked to me from. Not five minutes passed before I saw him walking back to that pay machine and paying for his parking ticket with cash. That wouldn’t be a big deal, except this was after all the nearby shops had closed and the nearest ATM was at least ten minutes walking distance away, so he either had some spare change in his car and just wanted to try his luck with me, or he begged someone else he encountered there to help him out.

I went to see a movie. At some point, I noticed that there was a horrid foot smell. I shrugged it off as old popcorn or something.

Sometime later, a very bright scene happened in the movie, illuminating a guy in the row in front of me: no shoes, old socks, feet up.

I wanted to gag.

I work the registers at a big box store. Our registers have a screen that sometimes pops up when coupons are scanned, basically saying that it isn’t valid and asking if we want to accept it anyway.

One day, this terrible woman comes through my line. I scan her items and all of her numerous coupons. Almost all of them go through just fine, but one coupon gives me that screen. As a courtesy, I click the button to accept the coupon and then finish the transaction. After the receipt prints, she stands by the end of the register to look at it. I don’t think anything of it, checking out the next customer in line, who leaves.

She then comes back up to me.

Me: “Can I help you?”

Customer: “Did that coupon go through?”

Me: “Yes.”

Customer: “Okay, because I saw that screen that said it was denied. Can you show me where on my receipt it’s listed?”

I look and I can’t find it, which doesn’t mean it didn’t go through. There are a lot of coupons and it’s possible it’s just part of the dollars off at the bottom. I try to explain this, but she does not like that. She keeps trying to hand me the receipt and have me point it out. Meanwhile, my line is building. Finally, she comes up with this gem.

Customer: “I don’t actually care about the money; I just want to make sure you’re doing your job right.”

If I was doing my job “right,” I wouldn’t have accepted that coupon at all. The screens said it was denied, so I had no obligation to approve it.

She kept needling me about the coupon and I tried to send her up to guest services for help. I tried telling her that I couldn’t do anything for her from my register; I don’t have return powers and even if I did, it has to be done at guest services. I pointed out that my line was building, and the woman behind her said that [Customer] had every right to make sure she was charged correctly. By this point, I was literally in tears.

Thankfully, my register was right by the self-checkouts, and the lovely woman manning the self-checkouts that day noticed me crying and came over. She sent me into the back with a manager and took over.

My manager let me sit in the break room until I calmed down, and thankfully, I didn’t get in trouble for any of it. I don’t know what happened with the customer, but I never saw her again.

The coupon was literally for fifty cents off a large purchase.

I experienced this incident when I was younger and went grocery shopping with my mom. We were a big family, so weekly shopping easily filled a whole cart to the brim. Usually, she’d go with my dad, but this time, he couldn’t go, so I went with her to help carry all the stuff.

The shop was packed. We were lucky to even find a parking space and to top that off, it was a hot day, and none of us enjoyed having to haul all the stuff into the car. I would’ve loved to have an ice cream from the café next to the grocery store, but my mom said there wasn’t time.

While we were packing the car, this huge Mercedes appeared behind us and started honking. The guy inside then rolled down his window and started berating my mom because she wasn’t fast enough for his taste. 

We finally got in the car and my mom started to slowly reverse out of the parking spot when we heard the guy call out of his open window again.

Guy: “Can you go any slower? Geez, women shouldn’t be allowed to drive at all!”

My mom hit the brakes so hard I slammed into my seat, despite us going so slowly. She then pulled back into the spot and signaled for me to roll the window back up.

We got out, and she marched straight toward that guy and shouted in his face.

Mom: “You know what? I definitely won’t drive anywhere now! Good luck finding another spot to park!”

She then marched off and left me scrambling behind her.

I got my ice cream in the end. We both sat in the outside area of the cafe, got a nice, big ice cream each, and watched him driving in circles for quite a while until he found a spot. He gave us the stink-eye whenever he passed us.

It so happened that we just finished and left when he finally had found a spot and just rushed past us when we got up to leave.

I’ll never forget the nasty look he threw us. But he didn’t say another word to my mom, who just grinned at him in passing, since he now knew my mom wasn’t afraid to get in his face if he dared. It was epic.