(Driving to work for my shift, arrived at parking lot and proceeded to try to park car into space when another driver was driving through the parking lot and almost collided with me head on, after being cussed out through hand motions, i backed up and parked in another spot. I proceeded inside where i began my cashier shift)

Me: “How are you doing today?”

Customer: “Horrible, since you almost hit me head on today in the parking lot.”

Me: “Oh i apologize, i was only trying to park in order for me to arrive for my shift today”

Customer: “YOU WERE TRYING TO CUT THROUGH THE PARKING LOTT!!!”

Me: “No, i was trying to park into a space, you came around three rows of parking space before you almost collided with me.”

Customer: “I NEED TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER ABOUT THIS”

Me: “Okay” (Calls manager over speaker: “I need manager to the front to speak to a customer about a parking lot issue, thank you!”

Customer: *embarrassed* “YOU DIDNT HAVE TO PHRASE IT LIKE THAT” (she then assures other customers in line there was no problem.

(Eventually my manager comes up and assures the customer that unless their associates are clocked in and working that anything outside the store was not there problem.

Some customers are quite a handful to deal with and will not let go of you if you dare listen to their story. It is okay sometimes and those times we will listen and respond and enjoy the conversation, but other times it is a monologue in which we do not understand everything, or some crazy ranting of people that will not let you go back to your job and will stay for hours if you do not put a stop to it. Sometimes there are other customers so we can excuse ourselves and go to the other customers, but more often than not, there are no other customers. We are only two employees and if that kind of situation, after a while, the one who is not caught in the tale has to go in the office and call the one in the front to “save” the other. One day, an elderly man comes in, ask for an information and then go on explaining his whole life (most of the story being probably imagined by him) and how he used to live in our town to my boss that politely listen to him. After about 10 minutes, I go to the office and call her on the phone, amused.

Me: In need of some life saving?

Boss: Yes, of course.

Me, mockinly: Do you have any blue spotted pink elephants?

Boss: Let me go see, I will be right back. (Adressing the customer:) Sorry I must go look for what my client wants.

She excuse herself and proceed to go as far away as she can from the counter to look at ink cartriges for some time. Usually, customers say it’s okay, say their goodbyes and go. This one does not. I can hear my boss trying to keep the act of fake looking, going back and forth between a few places. I, on the other hand, stuggle not to laugh. After a while she goes back to the front and take the phone again.

Boss: I can’t seem to find what you want, I will need to do some more research, is that alright?

Me: It’s quite alright, I enjoy quite a lot to see your efforts, it’s really funny.

Boss: Alright, I will look it up, stay on the line I might need some more information. (Talking to the customer) I’m very sorry, I really need to go search for what they asked me, it will probably take a while…

Customer: Okay, go, don’t worry, I will come back another day. Goodbye!

Boss: Thank you, have a nice day!

He leaves and my boss comes back to the office where I burst out laughing as soon as I see her face.

Me: Got a new friend? He really didn’t want to leave…

Boss: Thanks for the call, I think I would still be there.

After a lot of teasing, we both went back to what we were doing. The customer was actually from out of town and in vacation, so we never saw him again that week, but I’m sure he’ll come back next time he’s in town.

(This happened to me during the first weeks at my new job, the conversation was in French so I translated it. An elderly lady comes in, so I greet her.)

Me: Hi! May I help you?

Customer: Yes, I would like those things for a tablet…

Me: A stylus?

Customer: No, no, those things to touch the tablet with, you use it instead of your finger…

Me: A stylus.

Customer: No, you can use it on a tablet…

Me: … It looks like a pen but to use on a tablet or a phone or anything with a touchscreen?

Customer: YES! Exactly!

(I show her some of the products we have.)

Customer: Yes, that is exactly what I wanted! What is it called?

Me: A stylus.

(As I know she will argue, I show her on the packaging where it is written in both French and English. She looks at it for a moment.)

Customer: Really? That does not sound right, it must be a bad translation, those English people are so weird sometimes. It has to have a real name.

Me: …Who knows…

(I do not want to argue so I just go to the register so she can pay and so I can go back to what I was doing.)

Me: Thank you, have a nice day!

Customer: Thank you, you too. I will go home and try to find out how it is really called. Stylus cannot be right.

(She gets out still going on about it and I look at my boss, telling her what just happened from the beggining.)

Boss: Get used to it, some people will never believe you even if you show them all the proofs in the world.

Me: Seriously?..

(She goes on to tell me some of the stuff she encountered through the years. Since that time, that kind of things happened so often that I just go on as if nothing happens.)

I worked a bake sale my high school was having, during parent-teacher interviews. We’re also selling raffle tickets to win things like gift baskets. A woman walks by, and my friend who was working with me says hi. The woman responded with the coldest “no” you could ever imagine. I wanted to say something but I thought she had said hi at the time.

Eleven or twelve years ago, I lived in a small basement apartment. On the same floor, near my apartment, there was a washer and dryer for the residents to use.

My new neighbor, living in the apartment above mine, was a young student, about eighteen years old. When he used the washing machine the first time, I kept hearing weird noises I had never heard coming from the machine. I went to check on it because if something went wrong with one of the machines I relied on for my clothes, it could end up being my problem.

As soon as I opened my door, I noticed a strange smell coming from the washer like something was starting to burn. I opened the lid and saw that the machine was crammed with clothes and towels. It was so full, it could not even spin, and there was not much water in it. I unplugged the machine to try and stop the damage and called my landlord who lived nearby.

When she saw how crammed the machine was, she got mad at me. I reminded her that I was not the one who did this; I only called her to inform her of the problem since my neighbor who caused the problem was gone. I helped her empty the machine and we filled two garbage bags with clothes and towels, leaving about a normal load.

Just before she could plug the machine back in, she saw my upstairs neighbor entering the building. She called him over and asked him if the clothes in the machine were his. He said yes and he asked why she took them out of the machine, as if the smell coming from it was not a clue enough!

I don’t remember exactly what she told him, but she was practically screaming at him. It turns out he had never used a washing machine before moving out of his parents’ home, but he could have at least looked at the instructions printed on the inside of the lid that clearly explained the point to which you could fill the machine with clothes.

Many weeks after this, he was still mad at me for calling the landlord, even though he did not have to pay for any repairs because the machine worked fine after that. He even told me that it would not have been the end of the world to go to his parents’ house to get his clothes washed while the machine was broken. It clearly did not even cross his mind that it could inconvenience other people besides him.