(I’m in seventh grade. I ride the bus to and from school, which leaves at 3:20 sharp every day. One day, my homeroom teacher doesn’t let us out until 3:20 — which is a whole other frustrating story in and of itself, believe me — and, of course, this causes me to miss the bus. So, I go to the office and meet with one of the secretaries.) 

Me: “Excuse me. [Teacher] didn’t let us out until pretty late, so I kind of missed the bus.”

Secretary: “Well, I’ll call and have them send in someone to pick you up, but I’m not gonna be able to bug them every time. It’s your responsibility to get down to the bus on time.”

Me: “But I just told you, my teacher let us out really late. I didn’t really have a choice.”

Secretary: *deadpan* “Okay.”

(She goes into her office and talks with the bus company on the phone for a few moments before coming back out.) 

Secretary: “They’ll send someone to pick you up as soon as they can.”

Me: “Thank you.”

Secretary: “No problem, but next time, it really is important that you get to the front door on time.”

Me: “I tried to, but once again, my teacher let the class out ten minutes late.”

Secretary: “Well, okay, but still.”

(The bus comes a few minutes later, so I gather my things and go down to the front door.) 

Secretary: “Have a good rest of your day, [My Name]. But remember, you need to manage your time better. It’s your responsibility to be down here on time for the bus.”

Me: *giving up at this point* “Yes, ma’am. I’ll keep that in mind.”

(Luckily, both my dad and the bus driver understood the concept of “teacher error” a lot better than the secretary.)

(I’m the assistant manager of a retail store and am setting up a new starter. Our tills have a four-number operator ID and a four-number password.)

Me: “What’s the day and month of your birthday?”

New Starter: “28th of November.”

Me: “Okay, so your Op ID is 2811. Year of birth?”

New Starter: “2001.”

Me: “Okay, so, that’s your operator number set to 2811 and the password is 2001. Change the password to something else you can remember when you sign on so no one else knows your password.”

New Starter: “Hey, can I write this down if it’s important? Just in case I forget it?”

Me: “Dude, it’s your birthday. If you forget that, we’ve got bigger issues to deal with.”

(It’s Black Friday, a few minutes before the store opens. The employees are all in their specific departments waiting for the rush of customers that are lined up outside. The store is set up so that whatever department someone wants to go to, they have to line up in that department. We’re trying to keep it from being a free-for-all. I work in the service department, which is near the door, so we have a direct line of sight, but there is a huge line of carts that sits between the doors and us. The line of carts is about three wide and goes back about twenty feet or so from the wall.)

Coworker: “This is my favorite part; we watch the idiots that try to skirt the system fail.”

(As if on cue, the doors open and a flood of customers comes in. Most immediately see how the set up is and go to the departments they want product from. One, though, sees he won’t be able to just go straight into the computer department and will have to wait in line. He then sees the line of carts. He takes a running start and tries to jump the three-wide line of carts. He actually clears the first cart, but lands face-first on the second and falls to the ground. A few police officers that were hanging around due to the size of the line outside rush over and arrest him.)

Coworker: “See? Idiots like that guy.”

(My coworker then went back to doing his work like nothing had happened.)

This story is part of our Black Friday 2023 roundup!

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(It is Black Friday, 5:30 am, and I am one of the first shopping in the store. As I am standing in the very, very long line, I see a woman come in and rush towards the back. Behind her are her husband and her son, moving a bit slower.)

Mom: *yelling* “Hurry up! I have a schedule to keep to today. We have to be at [Other Store] at six!”

Dad: “Did you schedule standing in line in your plan?”

Mom: “NO!”

(I was so glad I wasn’t going to be with that family at 5:30 pm.)

This story is part of our Black Friday 2023 roundup!

Read the next Black Friday 2023 roundup story!

Read the Black Friday 2023 roundup!

(I work for a call center that does tech support for the devices the company makes and I help with the printer calls. Sometimes customers wish to register their products.)

Me: “Thanks for calling [Company]. This is [My Name] speaking; how may I help you?”

Customer: “Yes, I’m trying to register my printer and I’m having trouble. I type in my username and password and it says it’s invalid.”

Me: “Have you ever registered a [Company] product before?”

Customer: “No, this is my first time… I just bought this. I want to know why it says my information is invalid. It doesn’t even recognize my email when I try to recover my password.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but you would have had to register a product with us before for that to work. You want to click on the left there, where it mentions new registrations or says, ‘register now.’”

Customer: “I don’t have time for that. I just want your stupid page to accept my username and password. Can’t you help me do that?”

Me: “You can’t recover something that doesn’t exist.”

Customer: “You just don’t want to help me; get me in touch with someone who wants to do their job.”

Me: “No one here can help you with that. You need to create a new account if you wish to register your product since one did not exist before.”

Customer: “I’m through with you not helping me. I’m going to call back and get someone who knows their job.”

Me: “You can certainly do that. Is there anything else I can do to help you?”

Customer: “No.”

Me: “Then thanks for choosing [Company]; have a good day.”