Customer: “Hey, I don’t have my glasses, can you tell me where this perfume was made?”
Me: “Sure thing.”
I start looking at the outside of the box.
Me: “It says here ‘Made in PRC’, which I’m pretty sure stands for People’s Republic of China.”
Customer: “Are you sure it’s a ‘C’? It could be a ‘G’?” *Gasps.* “Maybe it’s made in Prague!”
Sure, you keep thinking that, buddy.
I’ve been working reception at this auction house for about three weeks, and today I had a truck driver come in to collect a client’s purchase. As I’m getting the paperwork ready, we’re having a casual chat about the weather.
Truck Driver: “It’s hot in this office!”
Me: “Is it still chilly outside?”
Truck Driver: “Not too chilly, but windy.”
Me: “Yeah, it always seems to be windy in this area.”
Truck Driver: “You know why, right?”
Me: *Not sure where this is going.* “I’m really not sure.”
Truck Driver: “Well, you’re right near the airport here, you’ve got all those planes around!”
Me: *Confused.* “I don’t think the planes cause wind.”
Truck Driver: “Haven’t you heard about chemtrails?
At this point, I see where he’s going. I try hard not to roll my eyes, but there is definitely an eye-roll in my voice when I say:
Me: “Yeah, I’ve heard about chemtrails.”
I’ve finished up his paperwork, and I hand it to him and send him on his way, then the other receptionist says to me:
Receptionist: “He’s in here all the time, he’s always full of crap like that. I was looking anywhere but at him, so he couldn’t draw me in!”
…Well, thanks for leaving the nutcase for me to deal with!
I’ve just finished checking in at the airport, which took much longer than it should have – I had my boarding pass in Google Wallet, and the kiosk wouldn’t scan my QR code. An older lady stops me to ask for help, and she’s having the same problem, so I try to see what I can do.
I check the phone’s settings quickly and hand it back. She hits the App Overview button to find her pass, but its window only appears as a white screen, and she closes it.
Lady: “What have you done?!”
Me: “Huh?”
Lady: *Frantically searching her open apps.* “It’s gone! You’ve ruined it!”
Me: “…You can get it from Google Wallet—”
Lady: “—I don’t have Google Wallet! It’s gone forever now!”
She opens Google Wallet. The button leading to her pass is on screen, clearly marked.
Me: “That’s it. Just tap that.”
She leaves Google Wallet and begins searching her emails for her boarding pass.
Lady: “You’ve helped enough!”
I consider making an obviously stressed-out airport patron feel like an idiot, but I decide it’s better to apologise and walk away.
Me: “I’m sorry?”
Lady: *Relaxing.* “It’s fine. It’s my fault for asking you.”
She checks in another way and heads to the bag drop kiosk, which also asks to scan your boarding pass. The last I saw of her, she was getting help from airport staff. I hope they had better luck!
It’s near the end of the day. A couple has just entered.
Me: “Just letting you guys know, we’re closing in fifteen minutes.”
Husband: “No problem, we’re just gonna have a quick look.”
About five minutes later, the husband says he couldn’t find anything he wanted, and decided to wait in the car while his wife finished looking. At closing time, she’s still looking around when her phone goes off.
Wife: “Oh, that’ll be my husband. I can ignore it.”
Ignore it she does, only for it to ring again. She ignores it again, and it rings a third time.
Wife: “Oh, for God’s sake.” *Answers the phone.* “WHAT?!”
Pause.
Wife: “Yes, I know they’re closing, but—”
Pause.
Wife: “But I’m still looking.”
Pause.
Wife: “But I—”
Pause.
Wife: “Ugh, whatever.”
She hangs up her phone and grouchily buys the handful of items she picked out.
An elderly lady brings her phone into the computer/phone repair shop where I work. My coworker initially serves her.
Customer: “Something really strange has happened to my email, and I need you to fix it. This ‘dot com’ has appeared on my email address, and I don’t want it.”
She then proceeds to open the mail app on her phone and shows us that one of her recent emails in her inbox was sent to [Customer’s name]@gmail.com.
Coworker: “Um… That’s pretty normal. Most email addresses end in a .com or sometimes .net.”
Customer: “But I never used to have it! My email address was always just [Customer’s name]@gmail. I never had that.”
At this point, my coworker just looks at me as he’s not entirely sure how to tell her without arguing, so I take over.
Me: “[Coworker] is correct. Gmail addresses have always had and always will have a dot-com at the end. It’s never been possible not to have it.”
Customer: “But people have been emailing me, and I’ve always told them that it’s just [Customer’s name]@gmail!”
Me: “I really hate to break it to you, but the only reason your friends and family can email you is because they know that Gmail addresses always have the dot-com and they’ve just been adding it for you the whole time.”
Customer: “So, you can’t take it off?”
Me: “I’m afraid not, sorry. Not only do I not work for Gmail, but even if I did, what you’re asking for simply isn’t and never was possible.”
Customer: “Fine, I guess I’ll just have to live with it.”
I still don’t entirely understand how one could have an email address for years and completely fail to notice the dot-com, as that would have had to have been entered into the online form when setting it up and in the settings on every device she has used it on. I can only assume that her kids or grandchildren must have set it up and just managed everything for her. I’m just glad we didn’t go round in circles for too long.
