This is not my story; this happened to my friend. When they told me this, I had to share because I love it and I’d never expect it from the friend who did it.

I work as a server. This one guy always comes to the restaurant, and he is usually pretty quiet and never tips too well. Most of the time, he comes with a couple of friends or by himself, sits at the bar, and watches a sports game. I’ve never had a problem with him until he came in one time with a date. I’ve never seen the woman before so I assume they were new to dating.

They sat at a table this time in a quieter part of the restaurant, and they were seated at one of my tables. I had no problem with them, and everything was going fine. They asked for the check, and I went right around the corner from their table; it was close by so I was quick. As I was coming back to the table…

Guy: *To the woman* “Watch this.”

And he put a hundred-dollar bill down on the table. Then, he saw that I had seen him.

Guy: *Jokingly* “Oh! You weren’t supposed to see that!”

I was ecstatic either way, even though it was so obvious that he was trying to impress the woman. I didn’t care.

I waited until they left to go grab the hundred-dollar bill. When I unfolded it, it was one of the fake $100 bills — I guess for pranks. That means this freaking guy planned this out to impress this woman. It was so frustrating because I needed the money, but at the same time, I thought it was because I had done a great job. Either the woman was in on it, or he decided to be a jerk in two different ways.

I told my manager, who said the guy’s behavior was ridiculous. I decided to hold on to the bill because I knew the day would come when I could get back at this guy.

Two weeks later, the guy came back and my manager recognized him. While I was working at the time, I was on a different side of the restaurant which was already full.

Manager: “The fake-hundred guy is back. Do you want his table, as well? He’s with the woman from last time.”

I often joked with my manager about throwing the fake $100 back on the table in front of that woman to embarrass him if he ever came back. I thought to myself, “Yeah, I may be busy already, but sure. What’s one more table?”

Me: *Smirking* “Absolutely, no problem.”

Before I went over to their table, I ran out to my car to grab the fake $100, which was sitting in my cup holder for this exact moment.

I got to their table and they instantly recognized me. The woman seemed normal, but the guy looked like he was nervous. I pretended nothing had happened all the way until I got their check.

When I brought the check back, I placed it down on the table as well as the fake $100, but I left it unfolded so the fake part was showing.

Me: *To the guy* “Hey, I’m not sure if you remember me from last time, but I believe you forgot this. I’m just returning it because I believe it was too much.”

The woman looked very confused, so I instantly knew she was not a part of it, but the guy got all nervous.

Guy: “I don’t know what that is!”

Me: “Oh, my mistake!” *Laughing and turning to the woman* “Have a good night!”

And I walked away.

When I came back, they were both gone. There was a big $0.00 on the signed receipt and a $50 bill — real this time — where the woman had been sitting. One can only assume that the guy didn’t want to tip on his card, so he wrote obnoxiously big zeros on the tip, and that $50 just happened to be where the woman was sitting, so I’m hoping she had placed it there.

I don’t know what happened with the couple or if they stayed together, but I haven’t seen them back since, and it’s been a few weeks. I really hope she looks for his red flags now.

My grandpa was a successful man, and in his mid-sixties, he decided he wanted to take a step back, so he started selling off his various businesses and spent the next few years traveling.

As he approached seventy, he got bored. He also had a few new grandchildren, so he needed a bigger house. He sold the old home that he had bought after he got back from Vietnam and bought this massive house on this large piece of land. This property also came with a massive steel barn.

I’m not sure if he had ever told anyone about his plans, but right after he got the property, he dumped a ton of money into tools and equipment and converted his barn into a mechanic’s dream. Some things I remember:

• He had a professional lift, capable of lifting full-size trucks.
• He had those professional oil catchers you see at quick lubes.
• He had a dedicated air compressor system that was designed to power all his power tools.
• He had a tire machine to mount new tires.
• He had so much equipment.
• His tool corner was a massive corner of this massive barn.

His plan? To fix cars, especially for people in need. He lived in a rural community; if you didn’t have a car that was a big problem. So, he let everyone at his local church know that he was willing to work on their cars if they provided the parts.

He only took a few jobs a week; he was doing this to enjoy himself and help those that needed it.  He changed oil, changed the transmission fluid, and did all kinds of various repairs. My grandpa was a talented mechanic. However, he kept the amount of work limited. He was also selective; if you were in need he’d want to fix your cars. If you had the means to pay, he’d decline and ask you to go elsewhere.

One day, the owner of the local car dealership came by and told my grandpa he needed to stop fixing other people’s cars because he wasn’t properly licensed, didn’t have the proper insurance, and was hurting his business. Grandpa explained that this was just his hobby; he only did a few cars a week. The owner told him he needed to cut it out, or he was going sue Grandpa out of business.

Grandpa laughed over this. What business was this guy going to sue him out of? The owner walked out.

A little while later, my grandpa got served; he was being sued by the owner of the car dealership. Grandpa thought he’d take a trip down to the dealership to try and reason with the man, hoping they could come to an understanding.

Grandpa spoke to the owner and basically explained:

• He only worked on cars for people who were down on their luck. The fact was that the people whose cars he fixed probably couldn’t afford to pay a professional dealership to fix their vehicles.
• He only did a few cars a week.
• He was not all that interested in getting into a fight over his hobby, but he wasn’t going back down.

Well, they ended up in court. By this point, my grandpa had hired a lawyer, who was able to get the city to approve a commercial garage on his property. It helped that he lived on the outskirts of town and had six acres of property.

The court told my grandpa that his auto repair shop was operating illegally, and if he wanted to continue, he needed to get a business license and the proper insurance. If he did that, he would be good to go.

Now, what do you think a man who has nothing but time and money in this situation is going to do? He’s going to get his business license and insurance, of course. He did, and that surprised no one… but he went further.

• He got a dedicated phone line run into his shop.
• He hired a full-time mechanic.
• He put up a professional sign.
• He set up a little waiting area with a water cooler.

What shocked everyone even more?

• He ran a local TV ad saying he was a pay-what-you-can mechanic shop, reservations only.
• He put ads in the local paper saying the same thing.

Yes, folks, that’s right. My grandpa was now not only a licensed, legal auto repair business, but he had a certified mechanic on his payroll… and he was running ads. As for his prices? They were quite simple. You either:

• Brought the parts yourself and paid the mechanic whatever you wanted — the mechanic got a separate wage from Grandpa, so if you couldn’t pay anything, that was fine — or;
• Had Grandpa source the parts, he’d charge you the cost of the parts, and you’d pay the mechanic whatever you wanted.

Grandpa started taking jobs, and boy, did that shop get busy. It was impossible to beat Grandpa’s prices. Grandpa was essentially paying to fix your car for you. He would spend his days with the mechanic that he had hired working on cars. He loved it.

The owner of the local car dealership was furious, and he sued my grandpa again. They went to court, and the judge basically said that my grandpa owned a licensed, insured auto repair business, and what he charged his customers for his services was completely up to him — even if that meant doing the work for free.

About a year or so later, Grandpa got a call from a lawyer who said he was representing a potential buyer of the local car dealership; however, the buyer wanted to speak to Grandpa. My grandpa agreed, and he sat down with the new potential buyer who expressed his concerns about buying the dealership. Service is a major profit center for a dealership, and he was considering buying the local dealership. However, he didn’t want to buy the dealership if my grandpa was going to keep operating the way he did because a for-profit business couldn’t compete against someone selling their services for free.

Grandpa agreed that there was no way someone looking to make a profitable business could ever compete against him. So, they came to an agreement.

• The potential buyer would buy the dealership.
• Grandpa would only work on a few cars a week, maybe five or six.
• He would only work on cars for people who were down on their luck and probably too poor to be able to pay a professional dealership to fix their car.
• Any parts he needed, he would buy from the dealership.
• Any work he declined, he’d refer to the dealership.
• The buyer would let Grandpa be and stay out of his way.
• The buyer would hire Grandpa’s mechanic.

They shook hands, the local dealership was bought out, and for the next nine years, my grandpa continued to fix cars for people who were down on their luck, and if he had to buy parts, he’d buy from the dealership. As for the mechanic Grandpa had hired? He ended up becoming the service manager and did quite well for himself.

As for my grandpa, when he was eighty, he had a heart attack in his shop. Luckily, one of his grandkids was there, they got him to the hospital, and he made a full recovery. But the doctor told him his body couldn’t handle working in that garage anymore. He ended up shutting down after that.

For the next three years, he looked out his kitchen window at his shop and remembered all the fun he’d had in his garage. He passed away at eighty-three surrounded by friends and family.

I work audit at a hotel. We are dog-friendly — for a fee, per the norm — and for the most part, the dogs and their owners are very well-behaved.

A lady comes to check in.

Lady: “I have a pet: one dog.”

Me: “Okay, ma’am, that’ll be an additional $25.”

Lady: “He’s a service animal.”

Me: “Okay, and what function is he trained to perform?”

Lady: “…He’s an emotional support animal.”

I can feel a hissy fit incoming.

Me: “…Okay. So, unfortunately, under the ADA, emotional support is not a function I can waive the fee for.”

Lady: *With a good-natured and wry smile* “Well, all right. Here’s my card.”

On one hand, I could be mad at her for trying to make that basic blanket statement. On the other hand, I respect that she didn’t try to escalate or b**** me out. She just resigned to it and paid like a well-adjusted member of society.

Five minutes later, the funniest little froufrou dog comes prancing into the lobby and starts sniffing around.

Me: “Good evening, sir! Do you have a reservation?”

He pranced back out.

Probably trying to get free coffee out of me. Shaking my head…

I used to work retail at a year-round costume store, and we would get some pretty interesting customers.

I was closing on a random Friday night. About an hour before we were going to close, a regular customer walked in with a guy. I happened to know from past experience that this customer was a lady of the night. The guy came in with this huge black duffel bag. The store was a mom-and-pop shop and had a strict policy about not carrying large bags or purses around the store to help curb shoplifting.

Me: “Sir, we have a policy against large bags in the store. Please either take it out to your car or leave it up front with me.”

He was kind of squirrely, but after some back and forth, he finally agreed to leave the bag up front.

Guy: “I have a lockbox in this bag with some loose diamonds in it. I don’t want to leave it unattended.”

He pulled out the lockbox to show me, and since it was small and would be cumbersome to get into, I told him it was fine to carry it around the store with him.

I then found out from the woman that they were going to be driving out of town to get married. They were stopping by the store so that he could buy her a wedding dress. We didn’t sell wedding dresses, but I told her that we had some really cool corseted dresses if she wanted to take a look at those.

She went to do that while the guy wandered around with his lockbox. He was constantly going on to me and all the other employees about how rich he was. He also told us that in addition to being a diamond dealer, he was an “astrologist” who worked for NASA.

After trying on a few dresses, the woman finally found one she liked and brought it up to check out. The dress rang up at about $180. When the dude saw the price he completely lost it, and an argument ensued.

After about ten minutes of arguing with him, the woman decided to go back and get a different dress, but she reminded him that they also needed a ring and that he should pick something from our costume jewelry while she found a new dress. I showed him some rings, and he picked one.

Me: “Okay, that one is $12.”

Guy: “Oh. Can you show me something cheaper?”

He finally settled on the $2 ring.

I told everyone to go ahead and start on closing duties while the couple finished shopping.

About twenty minutes after we closed, the woman came up with a $40 vintage-style dress. After a little more arguing, the guy finally agreed to pay for the dress. However, she also wanted a pair of shoes and flatly refused to leave without them. She was wearing a ratty pair of canvas tennis shoes. He kept insisting that they would “look great” with the dress and that she didn’t need shoes.

They continued to argue, and by that point, we were coming up on almost a half-hour after closing. My coworkers and I were supposed to be clocking out, and I still needed to close the drawer. Sick of listening to them argue — and wanting to make staying open later as worthwhile as I could — I told the guy:

Me: “Since you have a case full of diamonds, surely you can afford to pay for the shoes.”

The guy got angry, grabbed his bag, and stormed out. The woman ran out after him and dragged him back to pay for the dress and ring. She then bought the shoes herself.

I wished her the best of luck, and she was on her way.

After they were gone, I locked up and finished closing. About fifteen minutes later, when I was leaving, I noticed that they were still in the parking lot arguing. I’m fairly sure that wedding didn’t happen.

I don’t trust what customers say anymore. I have lost count of how many times I’ve asked a customer to try a quick fix or try something over the phone, and they’ve either agreed to do it but really didn’t, or they’ve said that they or an IT person have already done it.

I’ve just finished a job with a printer. The customer says there are lines when making copies from the ADF (automatic document feeder) unit.

Me: “Can you take a lint-free cloth and spray LCD/glass cleaner on the cloth? Then wipe down the small strip of glass that is above the bigger piece of glass and test to see if that fixes the issue?”

Customer: “[IT Person] and I already tried that.”

Me: “Okay…”

I set up a day and time to go out to look at the printer.

My job requires that we take at least one part with us, regardless if that fixes it or not. This printer does not let you open the glass and clean the inside; I have to replace the whole scanner unit.

I go on-site with the scanner assembly in hand. I open the scanner, and what do you know? It’s dirty. I clean the glass and run two copies. No more lines!

I show the customer the test copies, and they are happy.

Customer: “What did you do to fix it?”

Me: “Cleaned the scanner glass.”

Customer: *Surprised Pikachu face* “I cleaned it, and so did the IT person.”

Me: “Do you have any questions or other concerns with the printer?”

Customer: “It freezes sometimes.”

I checked the energy settings, and its sleep timer was set to one minute. I switched it to thirty minutes, and the customer was happy.

A few days later, the customer emailed me to say that the lines were back and I needed to replace the part… and the scanner unit. I told her she needed to try cleaning it again since that was what had fixed it last time, and if that didn’t work, she needed her IT person to submit a service request.

That was a week ago, and I’ve had no new call from them.

Some people don’t try the simplest things. They would rather wait a few days or weeks and have me do it. Luckily, this was close to home base. The worst ones are paper jams that anyone could obviously see and easily pull out. I can easily travel two hours for a customer one way.