I had just bought a drink at the movie theater. I have a thing about bugs, so it seemed perfectly logical to smack a fly that had landed on the lid of my drink. The drink flew into the garbage can where it luckily made no mess. I couldn’t help myself, so I looked at the man (an older fella) manning concessions.

Me: “Probably not the stupidest thing you’ve seen in your life, but did I make the top ten?”

Concessions Worker: “It’s not even a contender.”

The look on his face said it all…

We recently got a new puppy, and a friend bought her a lovely box full of toys and treats. Both the puppy and our older dog loved the large femur bones filled with flavors and chewed them almost into nothing.

I went to the pet store to grab some more and a treat bag for training purposes. All the employees wear blue shirts with the logo on the left chest, and I had seen several walk past the aisle I was in. After searching all over, I finally decided I would have to ask someone where the training treat bags were. I saw a gentleman in a blue shirt walk past the aisle and called out.

Me: “Excuse me, I’m so sorry to be a bother and disturb you. But I was hoping you could help me find something?”

Man: *Half turning to me but not facing me fully* “Ah, sure?”

Me: “I’m sorry, I was hoping you might know where the training treat bags are?”

Man: *Looking off to his left and waving a little* “Ah, I have no idea. I need help finding stuff, too.”

My heart dropped into my stomach as an employee came up beside the man. The man’s shirt was maybe one shade lighter blue than the employee’s, and the logo was the same size and color but obviously different.

Me: “Oh, my God, I’m sooo sorry! Oh, God, I’m one of those people!”

My face was burning and I imagine it was a shade of red from embarrassment.

Man: *Now laughing* “It’s okay! At least you weren’t rude about it! Besides, I was looking for an employee to help me find something, too!”

Employee: “Yeah, he can help you find the pet products, and you can give me a call if you need telecommunications and fiber optics help!” *Now laughing, as well*

The actual employee helped us both find what we needed while teasing me the whole time in a good-natured fashion. I’m embarrassed, but at least it all turned out okay in the end!

I have a rather large friend group from college that started as a weekly board game group with eight members and grew over time to a group with (currently) eighteen members. Over the last several years, however, many of our friends have graduated and moved out across the US. These close friends have since been missing out on getting to hang out, and a lot of the original group members have never met some of the newest members.

As a result of missing our friends, we start planning a get-together for early next year. As my husband and I were the first in the group to get married, we are the sort of de facto “parents” of the group, so we get put in charge of planning and setting up the hangout.

I start looking on a popular app for rentals for a weekend get-together that will fit with our lowest-budget members. I find a couple I like and send everyone some options.

We pick a place and a date, and I reach out to the host to explain what we’re doing and make sure they’re on board with our plans. Everything is a go, and all my friends, being decent people, send me their share of the cost of the rental.

I go to my computer and set up the rental with the right number of guests (seventeen), the dates (two months away), and the location (five minutes from where I live and the college we all attended). I put in my payment information and hit submit.

The rental returns an error message, informing me that my reservation has been flagged as a “party risk”, so I can’t book this stay. For context, [Rental App] doesn’t allow parties to be hosted at any of their locations due to the high risk of damage to the host’s homes.

Okay, no problem. I reach out to the host again, tell her that the site wouldn’t let me book, and ask her for a pre-approved booking invitation to allow me to book. The host agrees and sends me the invite.

I follow the link, set it up again, and hit “reserve”. The same error message pops up; I’m not allowed to reserve the stay.

Okay, fine, the system’s a little buggy. No big deal. I reach out to the support team and tell them what’s going on. The host knows about the friend reunion and knows we accept responsibility for any damages that occur during our stay, etc.

I get connected to a support member via live chat.

Support Member: “The error you’re seeing is an automatic flag because you hit certain conditions for ‘possible party’. Namely, you’re booking a short stay in a large house for a lot of guests, you are under twenty-five, and you live locally.”

Me: “Okay, I understand. The host is on board, though, and is willing to let us stay. We just want to come to play board games and eat junk food with our long-distance friends for a weekend.”

Support Member: “This flag is not reversible. There is no possible way for you to book this stay. Neither the [Rental] host nor I can override this restriction.”

Me: “I want you to know that I don’t blame you for this, but this is really stupid.”

I ended up having to reach out to one of my friends, who is twenty-four and lives in a different state, to book the stay with her account instead. She booked exactly the same location for exactly the same dates and price with the exact same people attending. But she lives in a different state, so it’s fine. Dumbest system I’ve ever heard of.

I work as a receptionist for a well-known RV dealership. They bought a well-known but defunct outdoors chain, and I was moved across the road to be the receptionist over there. I had a single desk with a phone and a computer terminal and a chair out in the middle of a big open area right where you came in from the outside.

People would come up to me CONSTANTLY wanting to check out and pay for whatever they were buying, and over and over and over, I kept having to point to the cashier lines, of which there were several.

These were people who felt entitled; they did not want to wait behind a couple of other customers to pay for their purchases. But I kept having to show them with a very polite look on my face and kind words, pointing over to the cashier lines, saying, “I’m sorry you’ll have to go to the cashier.”

After a year and a half of this, with a sign on my desk that said, “RECEPTIONIST,” and nothing on my desk but the computer and the telephone, a young man came up behind me during a very busy time of day with a handful of items and asked me if he could check out there.

After eighteen months of this, I finally broke.

Me: “Pardon me, sir. I’m not trying to be rude, but do I look like I have a cash register in front of me?”

And I pointed over toward the cashier line which was less than twenty feet away.

Of course, within fifteen minutes, my supervisor was breathing down my neck asking me if I actually said that to a customer because, of course, the entitled jerk had called and filed a complaint.

Me: “Yes, I did, and after eighteen months of putting up with this crap, I’m glad I did it, but be assured I won’t do it again.”

Six months later, I put in my three-week notice because I finally found another job.

Related:
Lack Of Register Does Not Register, Part 19
Lack Of Register Does Not Register, Part 18
Lack Of Register Does Not Register, Part 17
Lack Of Register Does Not Register, Part 16
Lack Of Register Does Not Register, Part 15
Very Bad Reception, Part 23
Very Bad Reception, Part 22
Very Bad Reception, Part 21
Very Bad Reception, Part 20
Very Bad Reception, Part 19

I’m a tourist at a popular living history museum, where many of the employees roleplay that they are living in the Revolutionary War and wear historical clothing. At the time I’m visiting, they are still actively encouraging guests to dress up, too. As I’m a hobbyist reenactor, I bring along my own eighteenth-century garb and play along.

My outfit is very authentic, and because I’m aware that this makes me look like an employee and I’m inevitably going to get asked for directions, I’ve scanned the visitor map and memorized a few key things that people tend to ask for. I’m actually kind of proud of myself for being able to point a few people in the right direction, despite the fact that I’ve never been there before.

At one point, my phone starts buzzing in my pocket, and I step off to the side of the street to answer it. I notice a few people giggling and taking pictures of me. I also see someone out of the corner of my eye standing nearby, looking uncomfortable. When I finish my call, she gets my attention.

Woman: “Excuse me, do you work here?”

Me: “No, sorry! It’s actually my first time here, too. If you’re looking for a restroom, though, I found one right over there, just beyond that souvenir stand. The entrance is on the other side.” *Points* 

Woman: “Oh, no, apologies for disturbing you. I’m a manager here.”

I’ve been on autopilot during this conversation and finally get a good look at her. She’s wearing a museum-branded polo shirt and holding a walkie-talkie.

Woman: “I got a complaint about an employee using a modern cellular device while in costume in the historic area.”

Me: “Oh. No, I… uh… I just like to dress up? I don’t even live in this state.”

I show her my visitor pass.

Woman: “…Okay. Sorry about that again. Enjoy your stay.”

Me: “Er, thank you?”

I’m not sure what was more stunning — that some other visitor had essentially tattled on me to management or that the management didn’t recognize their own employees and costumes.

The next time I had to make a call, I ducked into a less-busy area. The guy playing George Washington walked by at one point and gave me a weird look, but that I could deal with.