(I work in a large office building with multiple floors. Each floor has several small break rooms scattered around it, each with a commercial-sized by-the-cup coffee machine, an ice maker, a sink, and so on. Each floor also has a single much larger break room with all that plus refrigerators, microwaves, vending machines, and lunch tables. We have an online ticketing system to alert the maintenance team to any building maintenance issues we notice, like leaky faucets or restroom problems. One of the things the ticket requires is your desk number. I put a ticket in a while back, and this morning it was marked “closed complete,” but the problem hasn’t been fixed. This conversation happens in text-chat with the person who was handling my ticket.)

Me: “Hey, I saw you closed my maintenance ticket [number] about a coffee machine that’s under-serving, but I went over there and tried it just now, and it’s still doing exactly the same thing as before. I ordered a large and I got about four ounces of coffee. It doesn’t look like it’s been touched at all.”

Maintenance: “Yes, I can look into that for you. The company that handles the coffee machines did come out and do maintenance on that unit.”

Me: “Well, it’s not fixed.”

Maintenance: “Okay, I’ll inquire further. What’s the desk number?”

Me: “Break rooms don’t have desk numbers.”

Maintenance: “I meant, what’s your desk number? The ticket says you sit right next to the large break room on the third floor.”

(I realize what happened.)

Me: “No, this isn’t in the break room that’s closest to my desk. It’s the small break room in zone 12 on the third floor, like I said in the ticket. It’s on the south side of the building, right next to [conference room].”

Maintenance: “Oh, okay. They did maintenance on the one in the large break room.”

Me: “I was very clear in the ticket about which break room I was reporting”

Maintenance: “Calm down; there’s no need to get upset. We get a lot of tickets with no details in them.”

Me: “Okay, I wasn’t upset until you said that. I know you normally don’t get a lot of details; that’s exactly why I was very specific about which machine I was talking about! I went out of my way to give you lots of detailed information, and you just ignored it all because I sit somewhere else on the floor?”

Maintenance: “I have entered the maintenance order. Have a good day.”

(They disconnected.)

(We are a manufacturing company making products for customers who install them for clients. One of our oldest, but smallest customers is obnoxious and constantly complains about things that happened months or even years ago. Our owners hate him and refuse to talk to him. Everybody else hates him, too. Why they haven’t dropped him, I have no idea. This is a series of conversations I had with him this week. I’m in accounting but also do shipping notices. Wednesday:)

Order Entry Coworker: “Hey, [My Name], [Customer] is on line one.”

Me: *mild swearing*

Order Entry Coworker: *laughter from order entry as she puts them through*

Me: “Hi, [Customer], how can I help you?”

Customer: “My order came wrong! You screwed up.”

(Cue a long rant about our products and how, when our company was started two decades ago, he warned the owner he couldn’t play games or he’d go out of business, and if he doesn’t fix everything we’ll soon go out of business.)

Me: “I’m sorry about that, but I can’t help you; I’m the accountant. I’ll give you to production to reorder it.”

(I put the customer on hold and turn to the order entry coworker:)

Me: “Why did you vote me as the sacrifice?”

(Friday morning:)

Me: *to customer’s voicemail* “Hi, [Customer], we will be delivering [order] next week. I don’t need a call back, so have a good day.”

(I’m thinking, “Please don’t call me back. Please don’t call me back.” Two hours later:)

Me: “Hi, [Customer], how can I help you?”

Customer: “Your invoice still hasn’t come from my delivery six weeks ago!”

Me: “I’m sorry, it came back here. I’ve sent it back out in the mail. I wish you had email or fax; we’d be able to avoid these problems, then.”

Customer: “No, I don’t do any of that new stuff like fax! I don’t understand why my mail didn’t come.” *cue a long rant about the postal system* “Now, this delivery for next week — where is my other [products from Wednesday] order? We talked about this. Why isn’t it on next week’s truck?”

Me: “That was only reordered on Wednesday; there is a rush on it, but it still takes three weeks to make, minimum.”

Customer: “Fine! Don’t send my delivery next week. This is for the same client and there’s no point giving part to them!”

Me: “Okay. I’ll put it back in the drawer for later.”

Customer: “Good. I’ll call you back next week to talk about its status.”

Me: “I’m accounting; I can’t do anything related to production status. You need to talk to production.”

Customer: “Well, we’ll talk more about it Monday.” *click*

(I’m going to be sick Monday, I think.)

(One of our customers is a little old-fashioned, though not very old. He used to be a fax/phone-only guy, but when his fax died I talked him into getting email. He’s a small, one-man operation, working out of his house. We’d been using the email for seven months when I got this call.)

Customer: “Hi, [My Name].”

Me: “Hi, how can I help you?”

Customer: “You can start using my fax again, that’s how.”

Me: “Your fax? I thought it broke?”

Customer: “Yep, I bought a new one!”

Me: “You bought a new fax machine?”

Customer: “Yep! Personal fax machines are hard to find now, but I got one! So you can get rid of the email account!”

(Why would you replace your email with a fax machine?!)

On my way back to the office after going to grab a tea and some food, I decided to take the underground route as opposed to going the outside route. I was on the escalator going down watching two ladies at the bottom. The up escalator was off for maintenance and blocked off so we were required to take the stairs.

The two women stood at the bottom looking rather confused. Finally, one of them moved forward, walked up a couple steps, stopped and looked around, and turned to the other and asked, “Why is it not moving?” Her friend, looking equally perplexed, shrugged her shoulders in response.

One of the women looked at me for a moment as I turned my gaze to the clearly out of service escalator on the other side. She followed my gaze and it suddenly dawned on her. She looked at the other woman and exclaimed, “Oh, it’s broken; that’s why it’s not moving,” and proceeded to run up the stairs. The other one looked around and said, “Well, it should be more clearly marked!”

It’s my first day working at a very small office. I don’t really have a specific role; I just do whatever is needed. My boss asks me to make a “shopping list” with all the office supplies we’ll need during the month, and their respective prices taken from the stores’ websites. I present a list of $208 worth of items. 

The next day, my boss takes the list but goes to a completely different store that I hadn’t considered in my research, and ends up buying other things. Between these discrepancies and some sales, her total spending comes up to… $208.10. She laughed and said she should’ve taken me to the casino for good luck.