Customer: “I lost my CD key and I need a new one.”

Me: “I’m sorry about that, sir. In order for me to provide you with a replacement key, I need you to email me a picture of the CD as proof of ownership.”

Customer: “What? But I only need a CD key. I paid for it last week!”

Me: “I’m very sorry, sir, but due to piracy issues, I have to get proof that you own an original copy of the CD or anyone could call and claim they bought the game, yet have an illegal copy.”

Customer: “This is ridiculous! I paid forty f***ing dollars for this game and I need a CD key for it?”

Me: “I can provide you with a key if you will simply email me a picture of your CD.”

Customer: “No! This is America! If I say I paid for it, you should trust me! I’m going to report your company to the Attorney General! You ripped me off and won’t provide me with the product I paid for!”

Me: “Sir–”

Customer: “Oh, wait… the CD key is here on the plastic case.” *hangs up*

Customer: “I think it’s very rude for you to talk on your cellphone while you’re at work.”

Me: “No, ma’am, this isn’t a cellphone; it’s a headset. We use them to communicate with the other employees.”

Customer: “That’s VERY rude.”

(Many years ago, in an electronics store far, far away…)

Woman: “I just bought this computer and I can’t connect to Prodigy.”

(eMachine had offered a $400 rebate for users who signed up for a year of Prodigy ISP, but the modems in their PCs wouldn’t work with Prodigy. Doh!)

Me: “Yes, there’s a problem with some of the eMachines not working with Prodigy. I’ll put a new modem in for you and it will work. You can come back in about an hour to pick it up.”

Woman: “I don’t want you to do that!”

Me: “Uh… what?”

Woman: “I don’t see why I have to get this fixed!”

Me: “Unfortunately, your computer has a faulty modem, and the problem was found after it left the factory. However, I can replace your broken modem with a brand new one for free, and that will take care of the problem.”

Woman: “But I don’t want you messing around in my computer!”

Me: “This is my job–I install computer components all day.”

Woman: “Well, I don’t want you messing around in there breaking things!”

Me: “Replacing a modem is not that complicated. It’s like putting a new tire on a car.”

Woman: “But if I just bought a new car, I shouldn’t need to have the tires changed in order to get it to work!”

Me: “Yes, I understand that. I apologize about the faulty modem, and I’m offering to fix it for free.”

Woman: “Well, I changed my mind. I don’t want that! Just cancel my Prodigy subscription.”

Me: “…so you’d want to keep the broken modem?”

Woman: “Yes, I want to keep it. Cancel my Prodigy subscription.”

Me: “Ok, you got a $400 rebate for signing up for a year’s worth of Prodigy. If you cancel it, you’ll owe us $400.”

Woman: *yelling* “WHAAAATTTTT? I’M NOT PAYING EXTRA MONEY FOR A BROKEN MODEM! I SHOULDN’T HAVE TO PAY MORE MONEY! YOU’RE JUST TRYING TO RIP ME OFF!”

Me: “You got $400 off of your computer because you signed up for a year of Prodigy. If you cancel, then you have to pay the full price! How can you not see that?”

Woman: “THIS IS B*LLSH*T! YOU’RE TRYING TO STEAL FROM ME! I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER!”

(We got her security instead.)

Customer: “So it says ‘message sent’… does that mean it’s been sent?”

Me: “Yep.”

Customer: “Oh okay. So they should receive that, then?”

Me: “Yep.”

Customer: “Okay. And I mean, if they received it, will they get back to me right away?”

Me: “Well, it depends how long it takes them.”

Customer: “Oh. So how do I know if it’s sent?”

Me: “It says ‘message sent’ on the screen.”

Customer: “Oh okay. So when should I expect a reply?”

Me: “…”

(Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time this routine has been carried out, with the same person.)

Me: “Hi, sir, how may I help you?”

Customer: “Uhh, yeah, I need some CDs.”

Me: “Sure, we’ve got all kinds: CD-R, CD-RW, and regular music CDs.”

Customer: “Umm, I just need CDs with lots of RAM.”

Me: “RAM? CDs don’t have RAM, computers do.”

Customer: “Oh…” *turns around and ambles out of the store*

(He then comes back a month later with a MacBook.)

Customer: “Uhh, yeah… I put a Linux on it.”

Me: “That’s wonderful; you made a great choice.”

Customer: “But, like, I can’t use my Apple OSX anymore.”

Me: “Issues with Mac OSX? Okay, well. Let’s take a look.”

(I turn the laptop on, and I see that he has installed Ubuntu. I go into the GRUB loader to basically boot OSX and I find that it is no longer there.)

Me: “Sir, did you reformat your hard drive in order to install Ubuntu?”

Customer: “Uhh, I don’t know, I just followed the directions.”

Me: “I’m sorry, sir, it looks like you reformatted your hard drive, got rid of anything and everything you had on your MacBook, and installed Ubuntu.”

Customer: “So, can you fix it?”

Me: “You got rid of everything, including any backups you may have had. I cannot get anything back.”

Customer: “But I can get my files back, right? I only formatted my Apple, right?”

Me: “No, nothing can be done. You can either become a Linux user or, if you have restore discs, you can use those.”

Customer: “Oh, okay. I’ll talk to my brother; he can probably get all my stuff back…”

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