(It was Valentine’s day at the very famous girls shop and My friend was there shopping for her anniversary to buy something new she was 22 at the time but looked lot younger so she was often mistaken as 16)

Friend: Can you show me where the lingerie section is?

Employee: No but I can show you where the teen parties are in your size please follow-

Friend:No I am not a teen but I will take that as a compliment now can you show me the section?

Employee: well you think you can fool me?I can predect anyone’s age by just looking at them

(The employee was like 40 or something and had a very annoyed look on her face and my friend was trying to be as calm as possible)

Friend:No actuall-

Employee:You know what why don’t you f*** off spoiled brat

Friend: What I am sorr-

Employee: you are just teen spoiled brat who didn’t even hit puberty why dont you go home and cry to your mommy? BRAT?

(In that perfect moment the manager enter the scene)

Manager:That’s enough this is how you speak you speak to your customers I only gave you the job because of you brother but now I regret it please pack your things and exit!

Ex Employee:F*** you and F*** all of your useless customers I can find a valuable job than this

Manager: Security Please escort her

(She was cursing like a sailor while being pulled out but on the plus sideshe was never welcomed again in any other shops nearby and my friend got almost 80% dicount )

(I work at a Hotel as a Front Desk Clerk. Chip readers have been a thing here in the US for almost 2 years now since most card companies have made it mandatory to use one if it’s installed at the shops and other businesses that have them. My hotel has had one installed over a year now and this exchange happens twice or more a day even though it’s been regular practice for everyday business for not just my hotel, but grocery stores and the like.)

Me: You’re here for [Days requested] for [Specified room type], is that correct?

Guest: Yeah, sure.

Me: Alright, your total is [total] if I could-

(Guest attempts to hand me their credit card, which requires them to literally reach over the card reader itself that sits on the counter directly in front of me)

Me: I’m sorry, if you could just follow the prompts on this screen here (gestures towards the card read), it will be asking you to confirm the total at the top of the screen.

(After guests hit yes, the screen then asks for them to swipe or insert the card if it has a chip, but the guests always seem to stop paying attention after they have hit yes. Some even space out and don’t say anything, look around or stare at me instead of watching the screen, if that happens I politely inform them that the machine is on a timer and that they need to continue following the prompts til the screen clears. Others tend to say some form of the following.)

Guest: Oh, do I have to swipe my card?

Me: Yes, you will have to either swipe or insert your card. Once it’s done, it will then either ask you for your signature or you pin number depending on you bank.

Guest: Oh, ok.

(Swipes card and puts it back into their wallet without looking at the screen which is trying to tell them that they must insert the chip instead. Looks at the screen once their wallet is put away)

Guest: Huh? Your machine is broken, it’s still asking me to pay, I just swiped my card!

Me: Oh I’m sorry, do you have a chip on your card?

Guest: Yes.

Me: Most banks force you to use the chip on the card instead of swiping. It’s suppose to be more secure and protect you from fraudulent charges.

Guest: Just tell it to charge my card, I already swiped it. I shouldn’t have to do i again.

Me: I’m sorry but nothing updates on my end of the system while the card reader is active. It doesn’t store you information, it only read that there was a chip on your card and then canceled the scan. You will have to insert your chip, or use another card if you’d like.

(Huffs and acts like it’s a big deal to have to get their wallet back out, remove their card and jerk their card into the slot)

Guest: I don’t see why we have to use these things, it takes a lot longer then before chips came out.

Me: I’m sorry, it’s out of my hands. But it really is a way to protect your accounts from fraud. It’s better for us to have to wait an extra few seconds and verify that it’s you, then to assume and blindly charge your account and risk it being someone else using it.

Guest: But I’m ME, I showed you my ID for the reservation. Obviously I have the card and not someone else, so it should just work and be done with it.

Me: Yes, but the hotel company, and the check-in system doesn’t know it’s you. If I failed to check it was you, this would be the only fail-safe thing preventing someone from using your money. The chips being added to cards has actually drop fraud rates by nearly 60%.

Guest: It’s just so much more trouble, I don’t understand why I can’t just swipe it instead of inserting my chip if it still has the bar on the back of the card!

Me: Well, not all places have chip readers. Small businesses might have a card reader, but no chip option. The readers can be expensive to replace, especially if they just bought one before chips became a regular thing. The card companies know this, but still want you to be able to use your card because it would be bad for their business if you couldn’t use it everywhere so instead of removing the black bar in the back, they keep it there so you can still use your money.

Guest: It’s just so much trouble, I wish it would just go back to how it was before!

(I just arrived from school.I get to the kitchen to grab a glass of water to tske my medicine with when and with no context I hear this.)

Dad:I think sex offenders should be spayed and castrated and then sent to jail.

(Turns out my parents got into a discussion about the proper punishment for sex offenders after watching the news.)

I supervise a dealership repair shop, and teach automotive vocational classes part-time as well. In the automotive industry we joke about the ‘Ever Since Club’: people who claim some new issue has arisen from their car only ‘ever since’ we worked on something totally unrelated. But I caution my coworkers and students to keep an open mind – you never know what you might end up finding. Then I tell them this story from the first shop I ever worked:

A customer’s car came in with an atypical concern: instead of his car not starting, it wouldn’t stop. The culprit was a faulty ignition switch – even if the driver took the key out of the ignition, the car would stay on and the engine would keep running as though he hadn’t done anything. He ended up disabling it from under the hood so it wouldn’t drink up all his gas, then towing it to us. We diagnosed and repaired it, he paid us, we all agreed it’s a fun story, and he left happy.

A week later he brought it back saying we must have messed something up: ever since he got the car back, it would die overnight. He’d had to jump-start it every morning. What kind of messy operation were we running anyway?

We checked the car back in so we could get to the bottom of it. We reminded him the the car never did stay with us overnight, so if the problem was pre-existing it could have easily been missed; we also mentioned that given the nature of the repair it seemed unlikely to be related, but of course we want to be certain because we absolutely stand by our work. We had him authorize a diagnosis fee, but he would of course not be charged if the issue was our fault: standard operating procedure.

He was right: his car was dying overnight every night since he picked it up from us, and it didn’t do that before. But we were also right: we didn’t do anything wrong.

The mechanic found the culprit pretty quickly. We gave the customer his copy of the completed repair order when he picked up his car; he tossed it in his glove box, closed it, and drove off. But he didn’t quite toss it all the way in: the corner of the paper was sticking right into the latch mechanism, jamming the switch and keeping it from seeing the compartment was shut. The light inside the glove box stayed on constantly, draining the car’s battery every night.

Fortunately the customer had a sense of humor about his mistake. We waived the diagnosis charge for him, joking that it was a fair trade for two good stories from one car in the same month. He became a loyal customer, and even referred us a couple more.

(I have just moved into an inner-city apartment. The apartments are above a store. The building owner has informed us any packages will come into the ground floor store, and we just need to check daily. The door to the apartments is located next to the storefront, hard to miss if you don’t know its there. One day, I find a notice on the apartment door, saying the post office tried to deliver a package but couldn’t. I was home all day, and no one buzzed. The owner says no one dropped off or tried to drop off a package with them. So I head down to the Post Office to do a pick up.)

Me: “Hi, I missed a package?”

Worker: “Alright, here it is.”

Me: “Thank you. Quick thing, I live in an apartment above a store. The owner says all packages come to the store. Is the post office aware of this? Or was the particular carrier unaware?”

Worker: “Is that your address on the front?”

Me: “Yes, it is…”

Worker: *interrupting* “Then they deliver to there.”

Me: “Yes ma’am, but I was told when I moved in, all packages go to the store, where I live above, and where the owner works. I’m asking if the post office is aware of that arrangement? If not, or if you don’t want to deliver there, I understand…”

Worker: *interrupting again* “Look honey, they need to know what your apartment number is.”

Me: “Ma’am, if the carriers don’t want to deliver to the store owner, they can buzz outside the door and I’ll come check. But no one did. I’m trying to figure out why they didn’t drop it off at the store, like my landlord said they would, or why they didn’t try buzzing me. If you can’t deliver to me directly, do I need a PO box or can I just arrange for pick up?”

Worker: *ignoring me and doing stuff with the other packages* “Honey, I don’t know where you live. You need to put your correct address on there, so they know who to deliver it to.”

Me: “Right, thank you.”

(It was clear she wasn’t going to help me, so I just left. The letters come through the mail slot just fine, so they know where I live. And the owner and other residents say they’ve never had a problem with delivery. Luckily, the Post Office is only a block from the building, so if I have to keep going in for pickups, I don’t mind.)