I purchased two bottles of liquor for a party we were having. The price was 465 Norwegian kroner (NOK). I paid with a 500 NOK note, realized I had 15 NOK in coins, and asked if the teller could change it for a 50 NOK note. 

Teller: “Of course! I do appreciate the extra change!”

In a bit of confusion, she handed me the 50 NOK note together with the 500 NOK note. I looked at her for a little while, and she was just staring at me. Being a decent human being and having a history in retail myself:

Me: “I don’t think I should have both?”

Teller: *Now shocked* “Oh, my God, you are right. Thank y—”

She couldn’t finish her sentence before the person behind me started yelling:

Next In Line: “YOU ARE SOOO F****** STUPID!”

She was pointing at me, all red in the face, still yelling:

Next In Line: “That is your money now; she gave it to you. You idiot! You could have had this for free! Workers learn this way! This is how workers learn!“

I was too stunned to reply and just stared at her, dumbfounded. The customer turned to the teller and started on her:

Next In Line: “This isn’t your money anymore. You need to hand it over. She—” *still pointing at me* “—is too stupid to take it, but I’m not. Give it to me now! It’s not yours anymore. It’s mine. You need to learn from your mistakes!”

She kept up this logic until another worker came up to escort her out. She was still insisting that the liquor store owed her for their mistake.

The teller and I shared a gaze and a “wow” before resuming our days.

Some years ago, I read in an ad that a chain of hardware stores was having a sale on an electric drill. It looked really good, so I went over to the local store to buy one.

Once I got there, I looked around but couldn’t see the drill. There was a big sign placed on the floor near some pallets, and it looked like the store was sold out. Since they were still advertising it, though, I picked up the sign and went over to an employee.

Me: “Do you have any more of these drills?”

Employee: “No, they’re all sold out. We have some other ones, though.”

Me: “Sold out already? That was quick.”

Employee: “Yeah, we didn’t get as many as we thought.”

Me: “Okay, but shouldn’t you take these signs down, then? They’re still placed both in the store and outside.”

Employee: “Nah, they can stay up.”

Me: “Oh, so you’re getting more of the drills coming in?”

Employee: “No.”

Me: “But then why are you keeping the signs up?”

The employee just shrugged and proceeded to take the sign back and put it up again. This bothered me. While this store clearly couldn’t be blamed for the online and newspaper ads running despite their local stock being empty, keeping those signs up around the shop was a “lure”. Several different chains had been busted using similar tactics: advertising a product they don’t actually have in stock, hoping to lure customers into the shop, and pushing to sell them something more expensive.

I used my camera phone to take a photo of the employee rehanging the sign — he actually posed for the photo — and sent it to the chain’s corporate office along with a complaint. I also gave the store a negative online review.

A couple of years later, the shop closed down as part of a major relocation. All that time, I never returned there. When I boycott a store, it’s forever.

When I was eighteen, I noticed an ad in the paper saying that a gas station was hiring. I decided to head down to the local branch and talk to the owner.

Me: “Hi. I read that ‘Help Wanted’ ad of yours in the paper.”

Boss: “What ad?”

Me: “Uh… the… ad? In the local paper?”

Boss: “I didn’t post any ad.”

Me: “No?”

Boss: “No. Are you sure it wasn’t [Franchise Location ten miles away]?”

Me: “Oh… I guess it could have been.”

Boss: “However… now that you mention it… I kind of do need some more people…”

I ended up working part-time there for two years. And yes, the ad was for that other station.

Back in the early 2000s, I had a summer job as a service representative for a phone tech company. Specifically, the company sold and serviced ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) telephones. My job was to fix phones that had been sent in, and if I couldn’t fix them, just take one that had already been fixed down from the shelves and send that out instead.

A man called the repair shop, having been searching desperately for someone who could fix an issue with his phone. Apparently, he had been given the run-around by all the salespeople who sold him this thing, making him more and more desperate for actual assistance.

At this time (in July), most people were on vacation, so it was even harder to find anyone who could help. There I was, a temp in my teens, alone in a repair shop, taking his call.

As he explained his problem to me, though, it did sound like a fairly simple fix; the issue he was experiencing should be fixed with a software update. The way to do that was to open up the phone, extract one chip from the circuit board, and put in a new pre-programmed one. I wasn’t quite sure about the next step, though, seeing as he lived in a city an hour’s drive away.

Me: “Would you like to send me the phone? Or maybe I can send you the chip you need if you’re able to fix it yourself?”

Customer: “No, I’ll be right down!” *Click*

Sure enough, an hour later, a car pulled up on the industrial estate. I went out to greet him and let him in (even though there was no customer reception area, just a warehouse). Once I got hold of his phone, I fixed his issue in about two minutes. It was as I thought: just open it up, extract the chip with a special tool, insert a new chip that we had ready on the shelves, test the phone, and screw it back together.

Customer: “How much do I owe you?”

Me: “Oh, nothing. That was so simple; I couldn’t charge anything for that. Plus, you drove all the way down here.”

The man insisted and left me some cash anyway. He then departed, ecstatic that he’d finally found someone who’d been able to help.

I learned a lot about customer service in that job — to be polite, helpful, and patient. Whether the customer is an ignoramus, unlucky, or just plain desperate, there’s always some way to help them. When you’re in the service sector, that’s the job.

As a student in the 2000s, I worked part-time at a supermarket — specifically, in the fresh meat and fish department. One evening, a lady came in.

Lady: “I have a moose that I need cut up into pieces. Can you guys do that for me?”

Me: “I’m sorry, we can’t. We’re not allowed to cut anything that hasn’t come from an authorized slaughterhouse. The food and health authorities have very strict guidelines for what we’re allowed to cut with our saws.”

Lady: “But it’s just one moose. It’s not really that different from cutting up a sheep, is it?”

Me: “It’s not about the type of animal, ma’am. It’s that we don’t know where the animal has come from, and it could potentially contaminate our equipment.”

Lady: “Is there someone else here I can ask?”

Me: “I’m the only one working here right now, ma’am. The head cook works daytime if you want to ask him, but he’ll just tell you the same thing I have.”

Lady: “Okay, I’ll come back and ask him later.”

She did come in another time and asked the head cook, who told her the same thing I had. To this day, I still don’t understand why some customers just refuse to believe what the workers in a store tell them.