My new wife and I recently took a trip to Denver on a plane. I fly often, but not as often as some other people. When I booked the flight, the plane was fairly empty, so I booked the window and aisle seats in the premium economy section right behind first-class seats, leaving the middle seat empty. By the time we actually flew, the flight was nearly full, so I checked the seat chart and noticed someone took the seat between us. No biggie, when we got on the flight, we would just offer the window or aisle seat to whoever booked the middle seat.

Boarding time came and we were in group two, so the pre-boards and group one got to go before us. When it was our turn to board and we got to our seats, there was an older man seating in the window seat. I thought it was kind of a rude move to just take someone else’s seat without asking. Obviously, this guy had flown before since he had pre-boarding status. I let it go since we were going to switch seats anyway.

Soon after the flight took off, the attendant came up to me with a gift bag.

Attendant: “Congratulations on achieving 1K status!”

The gift bag wasn’t for me; it was for the guy that took the window seat without asking. He obviously knew what he was doing and has probably done this before. The guy was looking out the window all through boarding and never turned his head to acknowledge us until the flight attendant came over with the gift bag.

I accepted his gift bag.

Attendant: “Would you like a complimentary drink, as well?”

Of course, I said yes, and I even got a free glass of wine for my wife, too. I glanced at the guy and could see the anger in his eyes. But he didn’t say a thing. A petty win for me over this guy that took the seat that I would have given him, but instead he took it without asking.

My local supermarket has a deli counter where you take a paper ticket and wait your turn. There’s a digital display that shows the next number, but when it’s quiet, the staff often just serve the next person without advancing the number of the display and it gets out of whack. Today was one such day.

I pulled ticket #87 and the display said, “29”. There were two people ahead of me at the counter, some guy who was apparently #85 and a lady at #86. While the young girl behind the counter was helping man #85, lady #86 launched into a tirade directed at the employee.

Lady: “This display is on number twenty-nine! You’re so lazy! And you’re just causing confusion!”

I just rolled my eyes and threw a look of understanding sympathy to the girl behind the counter as she finished up with guy #85. What happened next was priceless. The lady saw #85 leave and launched into her order. The deli worker cut her off with a saccharine-sweet smile.

Employee: “One moment, please, ma’am.”

She picked up the clicker for the display and clicked it over, and over, and over again until it reached #86. It took quite a while. The lady was pissed! She GLARED at the girl behind the counter the whole time, while I stood there with a huge grin on my face. She couldn’t even criticize, because she was the one going off about it being wrong.

After finishing the lady’s order, the employee tried to apologise to me for the delay. I told her that she’d absolutely made my day! It’s not often you see service staff being able to deliver a customer service slap-down, but when you do, it’s glorious to watch!

At my job at a convenience store, we sell cigarettes, and because of that, we must ID people that look under thirty to see if they are eighteen years of age to buy them. Of course, there are some rules with ID. It must be a photo ID, so no health cards. It must be government-issued, so provincial ID, military ID, and driver’s licenses work. We do not accept Treaty Status cards. And finally, the ID must be up to date, so if you are twenty years old but your card expired even one day ago, we cannot sell to you.

Of course, we also have to make sure the ID is real. Failing things could mean a loss of license, a fine, the employee getting fired, or all of the above, with some stores closing because of it.

I was working the last fifteen minutes of my shift, getting ready for the person working the night shift coming in, when a customer came in asking for cigarettes. He looked to be over thirty, so I grabbed the cigarettes he wanted.

He took his ID out. I put the box to the side and checked it, and lo and behold, I saw that the ID he used, a driver’s license, had expired in 2018.

Me: “I’m sorry, but I can’t sell to you today. Your license is expired.”

I put away the cigarettes.

Thus opened the gates of Hell as the customer got pissed.

Customer: “You never asked for my ID, and you were going to give them to me!”

Me: “But you did show me your ID, and it was expired. I cannot accept it as valid.”

He then tried to get my coworkers on his side, but they all agreed that it did not matter. He had shown ID, it was expired, and by law, I could not sell the cigarettes to him. After he realized that he was not getting his way, and we explained that it was the law, he flat-out stated:

Customer: “You don’t need to follow the law!”

My assistant manager barred him from the store and had the phone ready to call the cops if the customer didn’t leave. He did leave, and my assistant manager congratulated me.

Me: “You know, I would have sold them if he hadn’t shown his ID; he looked to be over thirty.”

Assistant Manager: “Yeah, but he was a moron.”

I am the sole scale operator for a waste facility in a small town. Some of my regulars can be… obnoxious. Every now and then, I’m able to call them on their crap.

Customer: *Ranting about politics*

Me: “Okay, you’re all set!”

Customer: “What, don’t you agree? Or are you just not allowed to discuss politics around here?” *Begins to rant about free speech*

Me: “It’s not that, it’s that this place is literally a dump. We deal with enough trash around here!”

The customer shut up and left, speechless.

I was loading up my groceries after my weekly shopping trip. I was in the space behind my car, loading them into my trunk, when another car suddenly pulled up to pull into the space, immediately slamming on her horn.

Now, this was unusual, because the parking lot was half-empty. In point of fact, the spots on both sides of my car and both sides of the space I was standing in were all empty. There were also at least a dozen spaces further down the row, closer to the store, that were also all empty. So, this lady ignored all of those empty spots, deliberately drove up to the spot I was in, and then honked her horn at me.

No, I’m not playing that game. After glancing up at her and seeing her waving her arms at me, I turned around and went right back to loading my things into my trunk. She laid on her horn again and then leaned out the window.

Woman: “Ya need to move!”

Me: *Firing back* “You need to f*** all the way off!”

She jerked back like I’d walked over and slapped her. After a few moments of her just sitting there, she pulled back and then sped off down the row, fishtailing a bit as she went, before sloppily pulling into one of the spaces further down the way. She climbed out of her car, hiked up her purse, and then turned as if to stomp over toward me.

However, she immediately spotted me pushing my cart toward her. In truth, I’d finished loading up and was pushing my cart over to the return stall, which just happened to be in the direction of her car. The moment she made eye contact with me and saw me approaching, she practically tripped over herself spinning around and scurrying toward the store.