I work in a tax accountant office. Around 10:00 am on Sunday, I had two clients come in to do their M1PR, a rebate of your rental fees through the state of Minnesota.

They were physically disabled and in power wheelchairs with oxygen apparently built in; they both had cannulas. One of them was legally blind, and the other was hard of hearing. They were a married couple. They were brought to my office in the mall by the paratransit buses. They weren’t very mentally present, but we did our best to accommodate them.

We asked if they had cell phones as part of the tax process, and they said they did not.

I did their M1PRs and sent them on their merry way. Supposedly, their pick-up was at noon. Their pick-up bus did not arrive. They puttered around the mall for a while waiting for pickup until 2:00 pm.

Around that time, we figured something was wrong, and after some discussion, we tried to call the paratransit organization. They were closed for the weekends and not taking any calls.

Next, we called mall security to let them know about the problem. Mall security sent someone to check up on the couple but said they couldn’t do anything except not throw them out when the mall closed at 5:00 pm.

At this point, it was about 4:00 pm, an hour before the mall closed. The two customer’s wheelchairs were making distressing “low battery” beeping noises. We called 911 on their behalf. The police didn’t show up until 5:00. The police officer was very upset about the inability to get in touch with the paratransit people and said she was going to send someone over to the paratransit headquarters to physically speak with dispatch.

The medical personnel came next but said that they were not permitted to transport the clients in the ambulance unless they were taking the clients to a medical facility, so the only thing they could do was remain on site and make sure that the clients didn’t choke to death by checking on the oxygen tanks. 

They said they could take the clients to the hospital if something went wrong with the oxygen tanks, of course.

At 6:00 pm, the wheelchairs fully ran out of power. Some investigation revealed that they needed proprietary charging devices which were back at the clients’ house. The clients no longer had any mobility at all. I stayed late with the police officer, the mall security officer, and the medical personnel to keep an eye on the situation. At this point, the clients were waiting in our office instead of in the mall proper.

At 7:00 pm, the police officer told us that a paratransit vehicle was on the way and that the company would be fined for forgetting about the client.

At 8:00 pm, the paratransit vehicle arrived, but the driver of the vehicle didn’t bring the equipment to load unpowered wheelchairs and refused to load the wheelchairs without power. The police officer really laid into the driver, and she and the security guy offered to help carry the wheelchairs into the vehicle, but the paratransit guy refused to touch the wheelchairs until they were charged. 

The police officer made a run to the client’s apartment to bring back the charger andd told the paratransit driver not to go anywhere.

At 8:15 pm, five minutes after the police officer left, the paratransit driver went somewhere.

At 9:00 pm, the police officer returned with the chargers, and we started charging the client’s wheelchairs. The police officer radioed headquarters and told dispatch to send another officer to the paratransit headquarters.

At 11:00 pm, the paratransit driver arrived on site again and got into a shouting match with the police officer.

At 11:30 pm, the clients were loaded onto the vehicle to go home.

At 12:00 am, midnight, I finished the closing procedure, clocked out, and went home.

I worked as a tier-two representative in a call center. My primary job was to take escalations and irate customers. We were not allowed to hang up on a customer unless they directly threatened us.

We had a promo running where, if you bought a certain item set, you would get an extra item for free, but you had to purchase the entire set.

I got a heads-up from a representative that they had an extremely angry customer who wanted to talk to a manager.

Me: “Hi, I’m one of the service managers. I got a brief description of your concern, but I would prefer to hear from you what’s going on.”

Caller: “I have PTSD and a heart condition; if you don’t give me what I want, you could give me a heart attack.”

Me: “Um, okay. Well, let’s see what the problem is, and I’ll do my best to help.”

Caller: “I bought items [items #1, #2, and #3] and did not get my free item.”

Me: “Sir, unfortunately, that is because you must buy [items #1, #2, #3, and #4] to qualify for that promotion.”

The free item was pricey — over $150 — so if he didn’t buy the whole set, it almost put us below cost for the set.

Caller: “I don’t care; I want the free item.”

Me: “I can offer a $25 discount on the set, but again, I am not able to give you the item for free as you do not qualify.”

Caller: “I want the item now, or I will call and talk to your boss and your boss’s boss.” 

Me: “Let me put you on hold for a minute and see if there is anything else I can do.”

Caller: “If you can’t get me what I want, I want to talk to your boss.”

I mute him and talk to my boss, who is now listening in on the conversation.

Me: “Listen, I don’t think this guy’s going to back down. I am going to give him $50 altogether, but what do I do if he doesn’t back off?”

Boss: “Do not give him the product; he does not qualify. He is not a long-time customer, and he made the rep before you cry.”

Me: “All right, but I don’t think he’s gonna give up.”

Back to the caller.

Me: “All right, sir, I’ve worked it out to where the best I can do is $50 off your order. I am not able to give you that other item for free.”

Caller: *Now screaming like a toddler* “I told you that if you couldn’t give me the item, you should put me on with your manager! All I want to hear is ‘yes’!”

Me: “Sir, I am—”

Caller: “‘Yes’! Only ‘yes’!”

Me: “I am trying to—”

Caller: “YES, YES, YES, YES! That’s all I want to hear! Put on your manager, put on your manager, put on your manager!”

Me: “Let me see if he’s available.”

I mute the customer.

Boss: “I am not talking to him; he isn’t getting the item, period.”

I unmute the customer.

Me: “Sir, I spoke to my team here, and unfortunately, there is no way we can work out to get you this item unless you buy the complete set.”

Caller: *Actually screaming louder* “Get me your manager! I said to say ‘yes’! I said to say ‘yes’!”

This run-around, with him screaming like a child and swearing and losing it and me apologizing and trying to work him back to the $50, goes on for almost fifteen minutes.

Finally, I put him on hold again and look at my boss.

Me: “Listen. Either you’re going to talk to this guy, or I’m going to give him the d*** item. What would you prefer?”

Boss: “I’m not talking to him. Just deal with it.”

At this time, blaming the lack of support from my own management, I put in the order for the new item.

Me: “Sir, I pulled some strings and am sending out the item. It will ship today and arrive on [date]. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Caller: “I told you to just say yes! Now I have to call the ambulance! You’ve f****** killed me! I hope you’re happy!” *Hangs up*

I triple-checked the order, put a high-priority flag on his account, and watched it for a few days until the crazy guy signed for it. I didn’t want there to be any issues or to have to talk to him again. 

Since then, I have been promoted, and I am the end of the line for customers like this. I have never let one of them get their way like this ever again.

I’ve had this friend for years who refuses to get her driver’s license but complains constantly about how hard it is to get anywhere by using public transport, walking, or having to rely on friends or family who have cars. [Friend #1] is completely capable of driving; she just chooses not to learn.

[Friend #1] and I have been friends since high school, so when our mutual group of friends reached the driving age and started getting vehicles, [Friend #1] was stoked because she suddenly had all of these people who could drive her places. It quickly became apparent that she expected us to become her personal chauffeurs and to be available to transport not only her but her family members, too. (A lot of them also don’t drive.) She would never offer gas money and only sometimes would pitch in if you insisted on it because, more often than not, she was completely broke. Apparently, she couldn’t get a job because she couldn’t drive herself and it was too difficult and/or expensive to take public transport.

[Friend #1]’s worst offence happened near the end of high school. Another friend, [Friend #2], ended up getting in an accident and needed to replace her car. She showed us an ad on a local marketplace for a car she wanted to look at after school.

[Friend #1] took one look at the car and told [Friend #2] that she shouldn’t get that one because it was a two-door. Apparently, [Friend #1] doesn’t like having to crawl in and out of the back of two-door cars. [Friend #1] explained that she should have some say in the car because [Friend #2] drove her around so much (despite not contributing toward the purchase and getting most of her rides for free). She ended up really pressuring [Friend #2], and she was quite publicly upset when [Friend #2] decided to go with the two-door.

This happened almost eight years ago, and [Friend #1] still hasn’t learned to drive, but I guess she did finally cave to using public transport more often.

A friend of mine is a manager at an office. One of her workers was having some trouble with his computer, which their helpdesk was refusing to help with; according to his testimony, [Helpdesk Person] arrived at [Worker]’s cubicle and then immediately turned around and walked away without trying to help.

[Friend] quickly discovered that the monitor was not plugged into the tower. After getting [Worker] sorted out, she then sought out [Helpdesk Person] and asked why he had refused to help.

Helpdesk Person: “He didn’t have his monitor plugged in! That is the most basic of basic-a** computer checks! If he can’t think to check that for himself, why should I be helping him?”

Friend: “Your job is to help the workers here when they have problems. Refusing to even try to help is not acceptable.”

Helpdesk Person: “If he doesn’t know—”

Friend: “I don’t care if he doesn’t know what that giant yellow ball is that crosses the sky during the day! If he asks you for help, you tell him, ‘That’s the sun.’ If he argues about your solution or actively stops you from trying to help him, then you can walk away, but you refusing to actually address the problem means that you are a bigger obstruction to productivity than his lack of knowledge.”

[Helpdesk Person] was later fired after several more instances where he refused to even address the problem because he thought it was too low-level to be worth his time.

Part 1: The Broken Oven (Day Shift)

I worked at a pretzel shop, and our oven used gas to fuel the flames. The motor that powered the fans was shoddy (the entire oven had been bought used when the store was opened), and one day, it shut down on us, allowing gas to fill the store. Our manager called “Corporate” and let them know what was going on, but they wouldn’t let us close the store (we just opened the doors to “air the place out”), even though our cashiers (two girls, one of whom was pregnant) were on the verge of fainting for the entire day. Obviously, I was upset; they could use the cameras to spy on us remotely and get pissed when we had a few sodas, but they didn’t care when our employees were about to pass out.

Part 2: WTF, Man?! (Night Shift)

For some reason, our manager was so incredibly whipped that he agreed to make 1,000 pretzels for some guy after the store closed. Guess who got to do the baking all by himself when the only people walking the streets were drugged-up lunatics? If you guessed anyone other than me, you should probably seek professional help. Anyway, I knew the fans were broken, but there was no way I was leaving the door open; I’d have had to argue with all sorts of dangerous people who would have had no problem literally killing me just to take a few pretzels.

So, I baked for perhaps thirty or forty-five minutes. My eyes were burning, but I didn’t know why. I just kept baking. I’d gotten about 600 pretzels finished when there was this loud banging on the door. I was annoyed and thought it was just some idiots looking for free pretzels; if I ignored them they’d go away eventually. Then, I noticed the flashing lights.

I opened the door, and there was this firefighter yelling in my face like, “ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!”

I was like, “Yeah?” I was just absolutely confused about the situation.

Apparently, the gas was leaking into the stores next to ours (it was a strip), and people were complaining of feeling light-headed.

They measured the atmosphere of the store and found that where I was standing, the atmosphere was 45% gas, and in the back of the store it was 65%. Yet my own blood was only 4%, which was below safe levels. (One of the firefighters threw up because of all the gas.) It took some doing, but I convinced them that I was of sound mind and did not need to be hospitalized.

I called my manager and told him what happened, and he called Corporate and told them what happened.

The next day, we had people fixing the oven.