I worked at a Visitor Information Centre in a popular rural tourist spot where icebergs drift close to shore throughout the summer.
A woman from the southern US is asking me questions.
Tourist: “Where do they get all the Styrofoam to make the icebergs?”
I work at a crappy local convenience store, which is awful for many reasons, and rude customers just make it worse. I was told by my manager that when someone places items on the counter at the cash, I should start scanning them.
A woman comes up with many items and places them right next to me at the cash, so I begin scanning them. She looks at me in horror.
Woman: “What are you doing?! I was not ready yet!”
Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am. I can unscan them until you’re ready.”
Woman: “No, no, continue! whatever!”
Me: “Okay, ma’am.” *Continues to scan items* “Would you like a bag for these items?”
The woman stares at me and doesn’t speak. Because she has about eight items, I assume she would like a bag, so I begin to bag her items.
Woman: “Did I say I want a bag? Take them out now!”
Me: “Yes, ma’am, of course.” *Takes the items out* “Your total is $16.90.”
Woman: “I had more stuff to get and I could have gotten it if you hadn’t forced me to start this yet! I wasn’t ready! This younger generation is so rude and bossy.”
Me: “I’m sorry, ma’am. You could still get your other items and I could place these to the side for you.”
Woman: “NO! You ruined my shopping experience! Also, can’t you do your job and put my things in a bag, at least?! You expect me to carry all that out in my hands?”
I put the items in a bag, even though she’d scolded me for doing so before. She then paid for her stuff and muttered under her breath the whole time before leaving.
I’m the customer in this story and I’m quite pregnant, so I’m not as sharp as I normally am.
Cashier: *Taking my order* “Hi, what can I get for you today?”
Me: “Hi. Can I have a medium half coffee, half hot chocolate?”
Cashier: “Sorry, we don’t have that here.”
The cashier points to available selections on the menu above her head.
Me: “Sorry, some places call it a mocha.”
I normally don’t just ask for a mocha because some places put whipped cream on it.
Cashier: “We don’t have the machine for it.”
Me: *Still not getting it* “So, you aren’t able to just mix a coffee with hot chocolate?”
Cashier: “I’ll tell you what. I can use this [Hot Chocolate] mix and stir it into your coffee for you. We can’t normally do it because it’s not a menu item.”
Me: “Oh! Oh, my gosh! I’m so sorry! I just figured it out. Thank you! I’m so sorry for being so stunned!” *Laughs*
The cashier was so gracious and patient with me. I literally had no idea what she was talking about until she reached for the packet of powdered hot chocolate. I felt like such an idiot leaving and immediately thought of Not Always Right.
I work — well, technically “worked,” since I was laid off when the hotel temporarily closed until the world goes back to normal — as a hotel night auditor, and one of the other clerks has rubbed me the wrong way since he was hired last fall. From the get-go, he has come across as smarmy and arrogant. He’ll always compliment you to your face, while back-biting other employees, in a way that tells you he is doing the exact same thing about you to the others.
Even months after training, he still makes mistakes — entering guest information wrong, not following established procedures, and that sort of thing — and whenever I try to show him the right way to do it, he’ll tell me that someone ELSE told him to do it the way he IS doing it.
There were other things that annoy me about him — like his habit of reorganizing the front desk every few days — but nothing that’s really pertinent to this story.
A few weeks ago, when the pandemic was still in the early stages, after the shift change in the morning, he coughed without even trying to cover his mouth. We had a group of travellers sitting in the lobby. I called him out on it, and the conversation went something like this:
Me: “Dude, you should really cover your mouth when you cough.”
Coworker: “Yeah, whatever.”
Me: “Seriously. I mean, with that outbreak on the go, you need to be more careful about that.”
Coworker: *Smirking* “Yeah, like I’m just coming back from China or something.”
Me: “Look, there are people in the lobby that are travelling who knows where, and the last thing they need in the middle of an outbreak is to see you coughing all over the place.”
Coworker: “Hey, if I’ve got to cough, I’m gonna cough.”
I could see I wasn’t getting anywhere with him, and frankly, if I’d kept at it, it would’ve turned into a shouting match, so I dropped it.
I had that night and the next one off. When I went back to work a couple of nights later, I found out that the owners had closed our sister hotel and laid off most of the staff. Our manager had laid HIM off, as well, apparently for coming to work sick.
They closed our hotel about a week later, and from what I understand, that coworker won’t be asked back when it reopens. Apparently, the owners liked him even less than I did, and coming in sick at the start of a worldwide outbreak was the last straw. I can’t honestly say I’ll miss him.
(My father works at a local radio station selling ads. One day, he receives a call from one of his clients. This client is a very well-known and wealthy businessman, as well as a person who doesn’t take any crap from anyone, customer or not.)
Client: “You are playing the wrong ad on the radio.”
Dad: “We played the ad that you folks sent to us.”
(The client slams the phone down. My father calls back, but the client won’t take any of his calls. After a week of trying to get a hold of him, my father finally asks the receptionist.)
Dad: “What happened? Did I do something wrong?”
Receptionist: “You insulted him.”
Dad: “What?! How?”
Receptionist: “You said ‘folks.’ To [Client], the word ‘folk’ is referring to the common folk. He thinks he is too rich to be considered common folk.”
(Eventually, my father did get to talk and apologize to the client, and they had no more problems, although my father had to really watch what words he used.)
