In 2007, a terrible storm hit Europe. It was so crazy; the trains stopped going, school was cancelled, businesses closed up early, and everything was overall craziness. For days, fallen trees, roof tiles, and rubble blocked entire streets off.

Forty-seven people died from it, thirteen of those in Germany. One was a man working for the newspaper I’m employed with as a deliverer. He was just unlucky: he was hit by a tree falling over in the hours of the early morning due to the strain it was under during the storm the day before. It was really a tragic accident.

But almost as sad were the people calling in because they did not get their newspapers delivered. People living in heavily wooded areas kept screaming at me to make the “lazy” deliverers do their work, because they were paying for it and needed their paper. When offered a full retail credit to go out and buy themselves one, instead, as we simply could not deliver one, answers of a kind like, “Are you crazy? I can’t go out there and get killed for a paper! The delivery guy needs to bring me one!” were the norm.

I was one of the few people who could make it into work, the waiting times were over thirty minutes, and I had been there, getting screamed at, for about seven hours straight at that point.

Sometimes, when people got too bad, I resorted to telling them that a man had died trying to deliver a paper, and due to that, most dialed it back a bit. But one man, a retired guy living in a little private wood in a very expensive part of town, answered, “Serves him right, useless piece of s*** foreigner. Now get off your lazy a** and bring me my paper or…”

I did not hear the rest, as I hung up and needed a cup of tea and a cry before getting back into it. My boss gave all of us who made it in a huge box of chocolates and a personal thank-you note. Since then, I just can’t help but applaud all old people who are able to stay decent human beings and not turn into living buckets of bile and anger.

I am a supervisor at an outdoor botanical garden and have been summoned by my staff who are dealing with a difficult customer. It is a hot summer day in Texas.

Me: “Hi, ma’am, what can I help you with?”

Customer: “I want a refund.”

Me: “Unfortunately, we have a no refund/no exchange policy. May I ask why you want a refund?”

Customer: “I was only in there for a few minutes and it’s hot in there.”

Me: “Ma’am, it’s the same temperature in the garden that it is outside of the garden. Everything is outdoors. The outdoor temperature is out of our control.”

Customer: “So you won’t give me a refund?”

Me: “Unfortunately, I can’t.”

The customer stormed off.

A massive winter storm has knocked down power for 90% of the town for several days. Fast food places have run out of food, stores don’t have the power to even open, and most people don’t have enough supplies to last as the whole area was unprepared.

My store, however, has some generators, which makes us the only major retailer that has remained open. We have enough power to operate some of the lights and the registers, but we have no heat and there’s nothing powering the fridges and freezers, meaning that not only did we lose all frozen and refrigerated food, but an entire truckload of new food, as well. Despite this, most people are thankful that we are open at all and come to either just kill time as there’s not much else to do or grab items that can be cooked on a fireplace or things like bread and peanut butter. I am working in the beauty section when a woman storms up to me.

Customer: “Excuse me, but this is completely unacceptable!”

Me: “What can I help you with?”

Customer: “You have literally no food in your coolers. At all! How am I supposed to grocery shop for my family?”

Me: “I’m sorry, but with the storm, we don’t have enough power to operate the coolers, so the food went bad and we threw it out. We have food items on the shelves, though, that can hold you over until the power comes back on.”

Customer: “I actually have power and can store stuff in my fridge.”

Me: “That’s good to hear, as most people still have nothing, but like I said, we threw out all of our food because it went bad. [Well-Known Town] is about thirty minutes away, though, and they have power. You could probably do your grocery shopping there for now. And even then, I would be careful. Some people that had power yesterday lost it today, so you don’t know if you could lose it, too, and then buying all those groceries could be a waste.”

Customer: “Power outages only affect poor people, though. I’m better than that!”

She ended up leaving. She was by far the most childish person we had during that whole situation. Most of the other customers were just upset that we had run out of lanterns and flashlights.

I used to volunteer with my town’s first aid squad. Most of the calls would be relatively minor in nature, but every once in a while, a true life-or-death emergency would occur.

This story occurs on the day of a blizzard with over twelve inches of snow already on the ground. We get a call for chest pain and begin to head toward the house as quickly as is safely possible. As we get onto side streets, a township snow plow meets up with us to plow the road in front of the ambulance.

We arrive at the house to see a driveway on a steep incline that is, of course, covered with snow. We all make our way up without falling and go into the house. We find a patient having a true heart emergency and in need of the hospital immediately. Our team leader takes over.

Team Leader: “[Colleague #1] and [Colleague #2], go get the snow shovels out of the rig and start making a pathway to get [Patient] out. [My Name], get [this equipment], [that equipment], and [other equipment] and bring it inside.

The three of us went outside. The other two started shoveling a pathway while I started grabbing the necessary equipment. As I started carrying it up to the house, a neighbor with a snowblower made his way over and started clearing the snow from the driveway. Suddenly, two more neighbors with snowblowers arrived and joined in the effort. On my second trip outside, I watched as two teenagers with shovels ran over and started clearing off the steps. A moment later, yet another neighbor appeared with a bag of sand and she began to coat the steps & driveway to improve traction.

We were able to get the patient down the driveway, into the ambulance, and safely to the hospital, where he made a full recovery. And my faith in humanity? Restored!

This story is part of our Most Inspirational Of 2020 roundup!

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This story is part of our Feel Good roundup for October 2020!

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I deliver groceries to customers in my van. We have this one particular troublesome customer who has complained many times, mostly about us parking in her driveway. For some reason, any vehicle in her driveway sends her absolutely ballistic and results in our call center getting a flood of complaints. None of us understand it, as she doesn’t own a car herself, and her cul-de-sac has plenty of room so we wouldn’t be blocking anyone else in; she’s just chosen that particular hill to die on.

Today, is it storming heavily: wind, rain, localised flooding, you name it. I’m already wet and in a bad mood for my shift when I realise who I have next, and my heart sinks. I pull up to her very long driveway, look at the weather and say to myself:

Me: “F*** it.”

I park in her driveway, get out of the van, and am about to start unloading her groceries when I hear some shouting. It must have truly been cacophonous for me to hear it over the wind and rain. I look up and see a fuming red face leaning out of an upstairs window.

Customer: “How dare you! Get your van off my driveway! Now! Get it off!”

Me: “Ma’am! I am from [Supermarket] and I have a delivery for you!”

Customer: “Get your van off my driveway! You are forbidden to park on my driveway!”

Yes, she uses the word “forbidden.” Trying to prevent her personal meltdown, I drive the van back up to the entrance to her driveway, a good thirty metres from her front door (it’s a rather rich area!).

“Fine!” I think to myself. If she doesn’t want me on her driveway, then I shall do as I am told. I exit the van, to see the customer has now come downstairs and opened her front door, no doubt expecting me to carry each heavy box the thirty metres to her front door.

Nope.

Her face, amazingly, turns an even deeper shape of red as I start to unload all her groceries right there at the door of my van, all in plastic bags but still exposed to the elements. I can hear her roaring and complaining but due to the distance and weather I can’t make out any words, and honestly, I don’t care. 

I quickly finish unloading the groceries, sarcastically tip my hat to the screaming mass of customer still standing at her front door, and drive off.

I finish my deliveries and get back to the supermarket at the end of the day, and my manager approaches me.

Manager: “I got a complaint about you today.”

Me: “Let me guess; driveway lady?”

Manager: “The very same.”

Me: “What did she say?”

Manager: “A lot of swearing. She wants you fired.”

Me: “Am I?”

Manager: “No. Instead, I told her she’s no longer a welcome customer with us and has been blacklisted, and she will have to come in and get her own d*** groceries from now on.”

And all because she couldn’t handle our van being on her huge driveway!

Tell your story today! Ever been able to maliciously comply with a bad customer? Share it with the NAR community so we can all enjoy it too!