In the Starbucks drive-through-
Me: Hi, I would like a grande medicine ball, but with mint tea instead of the usual tea.
Barista: I am sorry, but we are all out of the peach tea.
Me: That’s fine, I don’t want the peach tea- I would like the mint tea instead.
Barista: But it is usually made with peach tea and citrus tea.
Me: Yes, but I would like it with just mint tea.
Barista: It will not have the usual tang- you may be unhappy with the taste.
Me: I am fine with the taste. Please just put down I would like the mint instead of the usual tea bags.

(My mom ordered me an MP3 player online, and the tracking info said that it had been received and signed for, but I hadn’t gotten it. I went to the local post office to see if, by some chance, the package had been brought to them without me receiving a package slip. It hadn’t, so I called my mom.)

Me: ‘Well, [site] has a buyer’s protection plan if it doesn’t arrive. So, you could do that, but you should probably contact the sellers first.’

Mom: ‘Oh, that’s good. Okay, I’ll email the seller right now.’ (she sends a polite email asking if her receipt of delivery was in error, whether or not they had also received the same receipt of delivery, and if something had gone wrong with shipping to please re-send her purchase.)

Mom: ‘I just don’t understand! I entered your name, and to send it to 208 [address], so–”

Me: “Wait. Did you say 208?”

Mom: “… Oh, crap. You’re in 203, aren’t you?”

Me: “…. yeah.”

Mom: “Well, who’s in 208?”

Me: “I think that’s [neighbour 1].”

Mom: “… can you go check if she got it?”

(I go down the hall, and knock on 208, to no answer.)

Me: “It’s actually [neighbour 2], and he’s not answering right now… I’ll try again later.

Mom: “I feel so stupid… I’m sorry…”

Me: “Well, hey, 3 and 8 look very similar. I know one time I was tired and confused a *g* for a 9!”

Mom: “No, it’s my illness. It messes with my brain. I am *so* sorry. My memory is so shot.”

(I assured my mom I was not in any way upset with her, and totally understood how she had had confused my address. An hour later, I tried 208 again, and got an answer.)

Me: “Hi! Sorry to disturb you, but my mom ordered me something, and we just realized that she accidentally put your apartment number instead of mine. So, I was wondering if you had received a package?”

Neighbour: “Nope.”

Me: *taken aback* “… really? The tracking info said it was delivered. It was an MP3 player watch.”

Neighbour: “No, I haven’t seen it.”

Me: “… okay, well, if you do get the package, or one of those delivery slips, can you let me know?

Neighbour: “Yeah. Sure.”

(I let my mom know that my neighbour ‘hasn’t seen’ my package, and decide that I’ll go to him every day or so to ask if it’s arrived yet, in hopes that he’ll surrender it out of pure annoyance. An hour later, I hear a knock on my door. I answer, no one is there, and hear the stairwell door shutting. I look down, and there is my MP3 player. Obviously, he HAD gotten the package, and knew exactly what I was asking for. But, for the sake of good neighbourly relations, I decided to play dumb to the fact that he had been considering stealing my package and make nice. Later that day, I went back to his place.)

Neighbour: “Hi?”

Me: “I just wanted to apologize for the whole address mixup, and thank you for finding my package.”

Neighbour: “Oh, yeah, I was really confused when I got it. I had no idea where it came from!”

Me: “Yeah, my mom has a medical condition, and she gets confused sometimes. Sorry about that…anyway, I brought you cookies.” *I hand him a $2 box of oreos*

Neighbour: “Well, no worries. Let me know if you ever need anything!”

(I then let my mom know that I had finally gotten my MP3 player, and she sent an email to the seller retracting her previous letter. Don’t think I’ll take up my neighbour’s offer of help, though…)

The hospital where i work as a nurse has a program for adults with down syndrom. It employs them for small chores like serving food as a contribution for the community.
It’s noon, they begin serving food. The son of the patient in room #28 comes to me.
Man: could you serve my father? He’s hungry.
Me: sir, we just began. You’re in the 28th room, your turn will come.
Man: that’s how you treat patients!? A 90 old man?!
Me: sir, look at the patients, they’re all old and sick. We’ll come.
He then goes to one of our staff with down syndrome hoping she would be easier to convince and she is. He goes back to the room with a plate.
When she arrives to the room she sees him eating.
Staff: why are you eating! It’s not for you! It’s for the patient!
Man: my father said he’s not hungry
Staff: but maybe he will later! And anyway, it’s not yours!
Man (to me): how does she dare talking to me like that! I spend my money here! I’ll die you! I’ll file a complaint!
Me: please do
What made my angry was that my coworker told him: can’t you see she is retarded? Leave her be!
We work with them! They’re kind and work well! Why would she say such disrespectful thing!

My only colleague this morning is a very cheerful, annoyingly sweet newbie. She doesn’t go a day without smiling and is always polite. I am not in a good mood because it’s 8 AM and I am hungover, but I’m a professional so I treat all my customers well. A customer comes in and we both greet her. I ring her up and my coworker continues to stock up the counter.

Customer: “I want to talk to your manager.”

Me: “Sure, if you want to.”

Manager: “Is there anything wrong with your order?”

Customer: “No. My order is perfect. I received it very fast and it is correct. But I want to complain about your workers. They didn’t greet me and they are both very unfriendly. The one stocking the counter completely ignored me. She is so rude!”

My manager apologized and the lady left. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I think the newbie was about to cry. I will never forget her face when she heard the customer saying that she is unfriendly.

This story begins in August 2017 when I receive several emails I think are just spam from sites I have allegedly “subscribed” to. After a couple of weeks, I find out that it isn’t spam but someone else using my email address for pretty much all their online activities—including as backup for their own address which means that I could kick them out of their account if I wanted to. I also find said own email address and write them an email, asking them to please stop using my address because the sudden influx of junkmail is really getting on my nerves, and it should be in their own best interest to not give a person they don’t know that much power over their email account.
I receive no reply (except for one email in which this person apparently tries to forward my mail to someone else and fails).

Instead, I get an order confirmation for some clothes with pretty much ALL their personal data; address, phone number, full name, date of birth, just everything short of their banking information. This is also when I first discover that their name is very close to mine. Think “Katrina” vs. “Katrine” with the exact same last name. I try contacting her via WhatsApp, but again, no reply. One day later, I have a confirmation for a doctor’s appointment in my mail with even more sensitive data.

At this point, I have already been on the phone for close to a week with one of the companies that won’t stop sending me emails via her account – their customer service is the absolute worst – and I’m about to go ballistic. I have social anxiety (especially when it comes to phone calls with strangers) which sometimes prevents me from doing basic things like making appointments or ordering food, but my anger over this whole thing just blew right past it. After all, I still can’t be one hundred percent sure that it’s only my email address she is using and that she is not doing something with it that could somehow be traced back to me.
I still have this other email address from the failed forwarding attempt and I use it to write to this other person, asking them to please just talk to my almost-namesake and tell her to stop using an email address that isn’t even hers. I’m not even sure how she herself doesn’t notice that she can’t access my account and why she obviously doesn’t care.

I finally, FINALLY get a reply, thanking me for bringing this to their attention and telling me that they will look into it and sit down with my almost-namesake. I hope that is the last of it and that it’s finally over which seems to be true because I don’t receive anything else.

Fast forward to February 2018 and I get another suspicious email, but I try to brush it off as simple spam. Except that today, I get another order confirmation, this time from Amazon where this person apparently used my email address AGAIN for her account. And then another one. So not only does she apparently understand pretty much anything you need to know about the internet EXCEPT for “What is an email address and how do I use it?” but she also seems to forget this very, very easy thing just a few months after it was last explained to her.