(I’m working the customer service desk at a movie theater. This theater offers loyalty cards; every time you spend $100, you receive $10. After every purchase, we print a receipt with how much you’ve spent towards your reward and how many rewards points you have.)

Customer: “I need the info for your corporate office!”

Me: “I’d be happy to get that for you. I just need to know why you need to get that information.”

Customer: “Why do you need to know?”

Me: “Our corporate headquarters require us to ask this every time a customer asks for their information so that we can send reports out that prepare them for your coming phone call. It is to make your experience better.”

Customer: “Oh. Well, the reason I need to contact your corporate headquarters is because your idiot employees charged me when they shouldn’t have. I have one of your rewards cards, and I was charged $2.59 extra, even though this receipt says I have $3.19 on it.”

(I take a look at all the receipts and her loyalty card and log into the loyalty balance system. She has a spend balance of $3.19; she used her $10 reward towards the cost of her ticket but still had a balance left over.)

Me: “You don’t actually have any rewards on your card. It looks like you had $10 and spent it, and you spent $2.59 today.”

Customer: “No! It says right here that I have $3.19 on my card. I demand to speak to your corporate headquarters about this!”

Me: “I will call my manager over and he can get you that information, but ma’am, you don’t have a reward; you have a spend balance towards a reward.”

(This goes on back and forth for some time, and when my manager gets over to the desk, he goes back and forth trying to explain the same thing to no avail.)

Manager: “Look: you earned those $3.19 after this purchase.”

Customer: “Oh, that makes sense. I don’t know why you didn’t say that in the first place.” *walks away*

Me: “You do know you’ll just send her confusion on to the next person, right? She still doesn’t have a reward.”

Manager: “I know, but it was easier than dealing with another twenty minutes of that.”

Me: “I’ve met six-year-olds who understood this better than her.”

(At our movie theater, our emergency exits have an alarm that will go off if you even move close to the door; you don’t even have to touch it. I am doing a theater check and see a man on his phone close to the door. Not wanting to speak and interrupt his call, I make a “come here” gesture. The customer quite clearly sees me but ignores me.)

Me: *out loud* “Sir.” *come hither gesture again* “You need to move away from the door or else the—”

Customer: *cutting me off angrily* “What?! Can’t you see I’m doing business?”

(He turned away from me and headed closer to the door. At this point I was just willing to let him set off the alarm, which he did. His sheepish look when he set off the very loud alarm in a quiet movie theater was all I hoped it would be.)

(I’m an attendant at a movie theatre, and we offer a service for people who are partially or fully deaf. They can utilise a piece of equipment that either enhances the volume through personal headphones, or displays captions on a personal monitor. However, the equipment is quite expensive, and thus we retain the customer’s license when we hand it out.)

Elderly Lady: *with husband* “Hello, we would like two senior tickets to [Movie], and may I have the audio enhancement?”

Me: “Of course. That will be [total], and do you have your driver’s license on you? I just need it to be able to hand over the equipment to you.”

Husband: *beginning to fume* “Her license?!”

Me: *a bit confused at his outrage, but happy to further explain* “Yes, the equipment is quite expensive, so we just need to retain the license while it’s in use; you will get it back as soon as the feature concludes.”

Husband: “That’s discrimination! Do you ask for other’s people licenses?!”

Me: “Yes, we require everyone to hand over their license.”

Husband: “So, because people have hearing difficulty, you need their license? That’s discrimination.”

Me: “People who have difficulty hearing are generally the people using the equipment, but the protocol would be the same for anyone who wished to use the equipment, also.”

(The wife, who remained placid throughout the exchange, now talked quietly to husband, who stepped aside again, still angry. She slid her license across the counter. I retrieved the equipment and completed the transaction, still a little unsure why he became so angry. She came out afterwards, praising both the movie and the equipment. He glared at me from across the foyer.)

(I am working the box office at a small indie movie theater. Two girls with giant coffee drinks walk past three signs saying that we don’t allow outside food or drink and come up to the counter.)

Me: “How can I help you?”

Girl: “Can we get two student tickets to [Movie]?”

Me: “Sure! But just so you know, we don’t allow outside food or drinks in the theater, so you’ll have to finish those down here before you go up to the theater.”

Girl: “Ugh! But we just bought these!”

Me: “I’m so sorry, but we do have signs up saying we don’t allow outside food or drinks.”

(I point to the signs.)

Girl: “But… We’re from Ohio!”

Me: “Do they not read in Ohio?”

(The girls laughed nervously and left.)

(I work in a movie theatre. It is reasonably busy today, and we have three lines operating: a line for just tickets where I am the cashier, a line for online pre-bookings, and a line for tickets and candy bar. The line for just tickets is significantly shorter than the other two.)

Customer: “Hi! I’d like one ticket to [Movie].”

Me: “Here you go; you’ll be in [cinema]. Have a nice day.”

Customer: *in hushed tones* “Dear, would I also be able to have a small Coke Zero?”

Me: “I’m afraid you will have to queue in the line on the far side.” *gesturing*

Customer: “But it’s so long!”

Me: “I know, but all those people over there are also wanting tickets and candy bar. It would be unfair to serve you before them, from the incorrect line.”

(She disappears, and I serve the few people left in the queue. Then I go to assist with the candy bar and online pre-bookings queues. I notice she has stepped in the front of the online bookings queue, which has also thinned out, to have a go with another cashier. I intercept.)

Me: *leaning over the counter near the online pre-bookings queue* “Hi, was it just the small Coke Zero?”

Customer: *she thinks she’s hit the jackpot, and smiles gleefully* “Yes, just the Coke, no ice.”

Me: “Great, just in the candy bar queue there. Thanks.”

(She finally moved into the correct queue, grumbling.)