Receptionist: “[Company] Publishing; how may I direct your call?”

Caller: “I need to speak with the representative for trade.”

Receptionist: “What is this in reference to?”

Caller: “Just connect me.”

Receptionist: “Sir, to connect you, I need more information.”

Caller: “JUST. CONNECT. ME.”

The receptionist puts him on hold and asks our office manager, who sits behind her, what she should do. The manager tells her to transfer the guy to her. By the time she gets back to the call, the man has hung up, but he calls back almost immediately.

Receptionist: “[Company] Publishing; how may I direct your call?”

Caller: “LISTEN HERE! JUST CONNECT ME TO YOUR CEO! I NEED TO SPEAK WITH HIM IMMEDIATELY!”

Receptionist: “Sir, I am going to connect you to someone who can assist you now.”

Caller: “You f****** whore! How dare you do this to me?! You are a useless whore.”

Receptionist: “I guess I will not be helping you after all.”

The receptionist terminates the call. The office manager, who only heard the receptionist’s side, comes over:

Office Manager: “What happened?”

Receptionist: “He called me a f****** whore.”

Office Manager: “I’m glad you hung up.”

The guy never called back, but my boss has given our receptionist permission to hang up on him if he does. We’re somewhat lax here. I had an issue with an agent once who was harassing me and my boss told me I could tell him to “Go f*** yourself!” if I needed to. I didn’t, but I appreciated my boss saying I could!

I work as a manager in a grocery store, where members of management wear polo shirts. We have three different colors to choose from: red, royal blue, and navy. On this occasion, I was wearing my red shirt. 

We had been having some issues with our phones, so I walked to the [Office Supply Chain] in the same plaza as my store with the phone that was broken and quickly grabbed a replacement.

As I was heading back to the registers to make my exchange, I was stopped by a customer asking for the location of flash drives. I must have looked baffled, because he repeated his question, at which point I glanced down at my shirt where my store name and job title were embroidered.

I looked back at the customer, looked back at my shirt, and then back at the customer once more, hoping he would clue in. It wasn’t until he asked a third time that I finally explained that I worked in the grocery store, and his wife and son started cracking up.

Beware of khakis and polos; in certain combinations, you become a customer magnet.

I am a customer at a well-known fast food restaurant. I’m also a single mother with a four-year-old son. We’ve sat down to eat in a booth when a customer takes exception to a rather well-mannered and happy worker. He is swearing very loudly so that everyone can hear him. I don’t hear most of it but there are a lot of obscenities.

Another customer turns to the angry customer and says, gesturing to my son:

Other Customer: “Hey, there are young children here. Have some respect.”

The angry customer is still loud but now a little sheepish.

Angry Customer: “Oh, there are kids here?”

This customer soon left. Afterward, the worker who was the “cause” of this came over to my booth and apologized, followed by the cashier and the assistant manager. I was so impressed with how the workers handled the whole situation that I called the 800-number to give feedback, and I ended up getting coupons for free milkshakes.

It made my week to see people in such terrible circumstances care about all their customers enough to apologize over a situation that was not their fault.

I’ll start off annoying all servers by saying that I’m not a standard tipper. Average service will get you an average tip, outstanding service will get you an outstanding tip, subpar service will get a crappy tip, and awful service will get you a shiny penny.

That said, years ago, my mother, kids, and I frequented a Chinese buffet that was, at the time, highly regarded. Although it was a buffet, they had workers coming to clear plates, refill drinks, etc. As such, it was our custom to only tip 10%. Also, since tips paid with a credit card are counted toward your income tax in our state, we always tipped cash.

One night, we had a fairly inattentive person assigned to our area of the dining room. Plates piled up, waters went dry, and napkins never appeared. We weren’t messy customers. Usually, if a plate was getting the same dish or only had dry foods on it, we’d bring it back to reuse it, and I always cleaned the table after my messy boys.

We decided our attendant was only getting 5% instead of the usual 10% we’d leave, but we realized no one had change to leave the tip, so as Mom and the boys wandered off to pay the tab and get change, I was a little behind sweeping up crumbs of the table.

As I grabbed my coat and turned around, the attendant swooped down onto the table and loudly exclaimed, “No tip?!” in a nasty tone. So, I turned around and looked her right in the eye and said, “Not now that you’ve said that.”

I have intentionally left 25-30% tips in my life, and I have made sure a truly awful waitperson has seen me place a penny on the table. But never before or since have I had anyone try to insult me into giving a tip.

To be fair, in my state, if your tips don’t add up to minimum wage by the end of the week, your employer is required to make up the difference. So, it’s to your advantage to provide the best service you can so as to earn more than that.

I am an upperclassman running the freshman orientation. As an icebreaker, we’ve decided to play the adjective name game, where each person thinks of an adjective that starts with the first letter of their name.

Me: “Everyone think of an adjective that starts with the first letter of your name and share it when it’s your turn!”

Freshman: “What’s an adjective?”

Who knows how she got into college!