(I work in a pharmacy in Stockholm, Sweden, helping customers with their presciptions. Most prescriptions are electronic and also individual. To find a persons prescriptions in the computer I need to have their full personal identity number (date of birth plus four additional digits that you recieve when you’re borne) and a picture ID. One day a woman comes in.)

Me. “Hi, how can i help you?”
Woman: “I’m here to pick up some medication.”
Me: “Of course. Can I please see some ID?”
Woman: “ID? I don’t have any ID. It’s for my grandson.”
Me: “Oh. Can I have his personal identity number then, and your ID, please?”

(The woman gives me her grandsons date of birth, and starts looking in her cell phone to see if she has the last four digits there, but it doesn’t seem that she does.)

Woman: “Do you really need his personal identity number? The doctor told my grandson to get [medicine].”

([Medicine] is an OTC drug, which means you don’t really need a prescription to buy it. A lot of times doctors just recommend their patients to buy a medicine without sending a prescription. Thinking that may be the case here I say:)

Me: “Was the doctor going to send a prescription? Because you can buy it without a prescription.”
Woman: “I’m so not going to come back to this pharmacy. I wanted to help my grandson, but I think I’ll go somewhere else where they won’t question me!”

(The woman then angrily leaves. Me and a woman who is next in line stare in disbelief.)

Woman next in line: “Well, some people sure don’t know how to behave.”
Me (in order to act professional resisting my urch to say something bad about [Woman]): “Well, I really don’t know why she got so upset, but what can you do?”
Woman next in line: “Oh well, you shouldn’t care about her. You guys are always so nice and helpful whenever I come in here.”
Me: “Thank you, we try our best.”

(I still don’t understand why [Woman] took offence, she could have called her grandson or his parents to ask for his four last digits, but maybe she just had a bad day. I hope he got his medicine in the end.)

I work as a night manager in a hotel. I just started my shift, and I get information regarding a guest who is acting a bit shady, has a connection-reservation coming up which he has not paid for yet, and still has a few bar bills to pay.

One of my colleagues dialed him at 6:00 pm.

Colleague: “I was wondering when you’re planning to come down to finalize your payment?”

Guest: “I’ll be down in just a moment.”

At 9:00 pm, my colleague saw him run out of the lobby without saying anything to the front desk.

I start my shift at 10:30 pm and get all the info I need. I pay a visit to the room he has departed from. I stumble upon one of the dirtiest rooms I have ever witnessed. He has smoked a lot in the shower, and there is ash everywhere; we are a smoke-free hotel.

I go back to the front desk and try to charge his card for the bar bill and as well as the smoking fee. It is declined. I remember overhearing from a colleague that he opens and closes his card however he wants to avoid late payments.

Anyway, I tell myself that if he walks back in, I will make him pay for the bar bill and the smoking fee and then refuse to check him in again.

At 11:30 pm, the madman walks in again and orders me to finalize his connection-reservation.

Me: “I will finalize the payment from your previous stay, in addition to a smoking fee; I found evidence that you smoked in the room.”

Guest: “I’m not paying any smoking fee! I didn’t smoke in the room!”

I show him some pictures of the room.

Guest: *Shrugging* “The ashes must have fallen off of my clothes from when I smoked outside.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but we have evidence.”

He gives up.

Guest: “I’m just gonna call a friend.”

And he takes off running.

I stand there confused. I know that his card will decline, and I feel like it’s not worth it to call the cops etc. After two minutes, I see that he has borrowed one of these electric bikes you can rent around town, and at the same second that he drives past our entrance, I realise that he has activated his card to be able to rent the bike! So, I pull up his folio and try to charge his card once again, and the missing payments go through! He tried to flee, but I feel like I outsmarted him.

He called us later and said that we did not have the right to charge his card after his stay. I simply answered that we do have the right to charge a card if there are missing payments. That is what he signed when he registered. He just said, “See you in court!” and hung up.

Source: Reddit (Credit: Tapico18, Original Story)

I work in a restaurant in the tourist district; therefore, we still accept cash payments, a rarity in Stockholm. This means that we take out whatever card tips we’ve received in cash at the end of the night to divvy up. On occasion, we get tips in foreign currency; they’re usually small amounts so not worth the exchange fee.

American Tourist: “Do people tip here?”

Me: “Well, if they feel they have received good service, yes, they are welcome to, and it is much appreciated. Standard is five to ten percent.”

American Tourist: “Would you rather have the tip in USD, Euros, or on the card?”

Sweden uses the Swedish Krona.

Me: “Card would be great, thanks!”

American Tourist: “Okay, let me just try to work out how to do ten percent. It’s so difficult with other currencies. Can you help me work it out?”

Me: “Let me teach you a life hack; if you move the decimal one point, you get ten percent, regardless of what currency it is.”

Lovely people, but their minds were blown. This was a common question, with many conversions taking place turning it into dollars, working out the percentage, finding a new total, and then changing it back into krona. What kind of maths you learn in the States will always be a mystery to me.

It’s important to know that Swedish alchol laws are very strict and we are not allowed to give away any type of alcholic beverages under any circumstances for free, we can replace a bad product(unless youve drank it anyway) but if you simply don’t like what you order there’s no way for me to compensate with new alcohol.
I used to work at the bar of a restaurant located at a mall, when one evening as the slighty more upscale restaurant next door to us closed for the evening, their guests wandered over to us.

3 women came up to the bar and I could tell they had already had a few glasses of wine at the other restaurant.
me: Welcome, how can I help you today?
woman 1:(not looking at me) give us 3 mojitos.
I make their mojitos and hand them over, and they sit down at the closest table from the bar. I can clearly hear everything they say as theres next to no customers in the restaurant.
woman 1: Ugh there’s no alcohol in this!
woman 2: Yeah! they’re not very strong these drinks!
I dont pay them any attention as I start cleaning up for the night and I’m used to people trying to lure their way to more alcohol.
Soon they come up and order more
woman 1: Make them strong this time!
woman 2: Yeah!
Me: actually if you want more alcohol in the drinks it costs extra
woman3: fuck that!
woman 1: yeah, were not paying any extra
I’m seriously considering not serving them as they are now starting to slurr their words and are behaving like children, but give them the benefit of doubt, but I’m not pouring any extra in like they want me to.
Shortly thereafter woman 3 comes up to me to order once more.
woman 3: give me a beer!
me: ok which type of beer would you like? we have 3 draft beers and several bottled ones.
woman 3: just give me a beer!
I pour her my favourite of the drafts even though I know it’s a slightly darker lager then most people usually go for but most are pleasentry suprised by.
She sits down with her friends and shortly after I hear them exclaim quite loudly and in baby-like voices.
woman 3: UGH! gross beer!
woman 1: let me taste! Yuck! that’s gross!!
woman 2: thats absolutely disgusting!
woman 3: gross beer!!
I don’t pay them any mind as I have more imprortant stuff to do, even though I know they are being deliberatly loud so that I will hear them. I walk by their table on my way to the dishes several times and everytime I walk past them they exclaim similar things louder and louder, still using baby voices. this goes on for about 30minutes but they never come up to me to complain but simply keep shouting it in silly voices as I walk by and I just look at them daring them to come up to me, but they never do.
finally as we close fo the night they go to the register and pay all the while sipping their shared ‘gross’ beer and once they leave the hostess comes up to me while holding thir half drunken beer.
hotess: Wow they did not like you! They keept accusing you of serving them bad beer.
Me: yeah well I don’t let complaints from 30 year olds who talk behind my back in baby voices get to me…

I work at the frontdesk at a hotel and one morning during check out I had one of the strangest complaint I’ve ever heard and I’ve previously worked in bars…
a woman aproaches me and during the whole conversation she never looks up at me and is facing slightly away from me.
woman: I’d like to check out.
me: certainly,(she has already paid for the room at check in) let’ see yes you have a roomcharge from the dinner restaurant, it will be 580SEK(about 65$)
woman: yes. *pays* I didn’t eat any of the breakfast you know.
me: ok
woman: Im very upset!!
Me: oh? ok, what’s wrong?
woman: I didn’t have any breakfast!
me: ok, well the breakfast buffé is still open.
woman: we’re gonna have breakfast with the conference!(aparantly she’s here for a seminar with a conference)
me: ok..?( I have absolutely no idea what she’s getting at at this point)
woman:I did not eat any of the breakfast buffé! I’m having breakfast with the conference!
me: yes I heard you, but I’m not sure what you want me to do with this information?
woman: you should remove the breakfast cost from my bill!
me: oh! I’m sorry but I can’t do that, the breakfast is included in the accomodation, we can’t split it.
woman: all the other hotels do!
me: perhaps but at our chain its is included in the price, and the sum is very, very small so it’s basically a complimentry breakfast buffé. (it’s about 3.5$, external guests who buy breakfast pay about 16.5$)
woman: BUT IM HAVING BREAKFAST WITH THE CONFERENCE!!
me: yes, well the conference might have booked a coffebreak with snacks in the morning but that is seperate from the room which you have booked on your own and not with the conference.
woman: THIS IS A DISGRACE! I AM NEVER EVER STAYING AT ONE OF YOUR HOTELS EVER AGAIN AND NEITHER IS ANYONE IN MY COMPANY!!! I OWN MY OWN BUSINESS YOU KNOW! I WANT THE NAME OF YOUR HOTELDIRECTOR!!
me: fine, her name is ***** ******
woman: YOU WILL HEAR ABOUT THIS!! I AM SO DISPLEASED!!!!! *walks away*
me: *quietly to myself* what the hell?? (the entire time she’s yelled at me she never once looked up at me but stared at the frontdesk)
I later told my colleagues about the woman so if she calls they are aware of what happened and my coworker who’s in charge of that conference she was part of contacted their company to also let hem know they may receive a complaint from this lady. Our contact with them were very confused as to why she was so upset about a complimentary breakfast.
I later found out she’s from the same town as me which is about a 15min car ride from the hotel, so why she paid for a hotel room and a expensive dinner and then complain about the complimentary breakfast is beyond me.