When E-Free Was A Thing

I worked at a cell phone company over a summer while in college. We had a few large TVs that displayed our stuff. A younger guy, probably eighteen or nineteen, not a customer of ours, came in and asked if he could use the WiFi.

I said sure, and he sat down for a few minutes, then said he’d “be right back.” He came back with pizza and some drinks and sat back down.

I saw he was watching something on his phone and asked him what it was. He said he was watching the E3 press conferences, starting today (This was back when E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) was still a thing).

I remember our display TV had that screen mirror stuff. I asked him to pop it on the TV, and I’ll turn it up.

It was a slow day, so I mostly spent it with this guy, watching E3, and having pizza. A few customers came in, I’d help them, not try to upsell them, and just watch E3.

The dude was freaking awesome; he came back the next few days for each press conference and brought pizza.

A few weeks later, he came in and wanted to buy a screen protector for his phone. Ever bought a screen protector from a cell phone store? It can get expensive.

I could give up to 20% discounts, but I felt like giving him more. I have a habit of remembering SKU numbers, so I typed in the SKU for SIM cards. They did give us the power to change SIM cards for just one cent, and we always had pennies lying around. It was mostly to give SIM cards to customers who needed them, and we didn’t want to charge extra.

So basically, I gave that guy a free screen protector. Was a nice thing to do before going back to college for my final year.