The Trouble With Using A Coffee Maker Is That It Sometimes Requires Caffeine

I work in a hotel. A guest comes down one morning to complain that the coffee maker in his room isn’t working. He is pretty polite about it.

Guest: “It isn’t super urgent; I just need it to be working by tomorrow morning.”

Me: “I’ll make sure it’s looked at, sir.”

I make a note for someone to check and/or replace his coffee maker.

The next morning, the guest comes down and is a little less polite as he slams the coffee maker down on the front desk.

Guest: “This thing definitely isn’t working still!”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that. Did someone go up yesterday to take a look?”

Guest: “Someone did. He fiddled around with it for a few minutes and then told me it was working!”

He isn’t fully shouting, but he definitely has his voice raised.

Guest: “I’d like to see your maintenance guy brew a cup with this! Tell him I’d like to see that!”

Me: “The lobby coffee was just made fresh a few minutes ago; you’re welcome to have some while I take a look.”

I plug in the coffee maker and flip open the top only to see that it is bone dry in there. There can’t have been any water in there for at least the past few hours, if not longer. And he seems too agitated to have carefully dried it out before coming stomping down to the desk.

Me: “Sir, just out of curiosity, did you put any water in?”

He immediately says yes and then pauses to think about it.

Guest: “…Is there no water in it?”

I show him.

Guest: “There was definitely water in it yesterday!”

I grabbed some water to pour it in to test out, and it worked exactly like it was supposed to.

I’ve never seen a grown man look so embarrassed as he took the coffee maker to slink back to the elevator. It took all my restraint to not start laughing until he was out of the lobby.