Let’s say my name is Anna Smith and my husband’s name is John Smith. He is the one who usually sets up and manages our utility accounts.

Recently, I had to call a utility company. After some greetings and questions, the agent asked:

Agent: “What is your name?”

Me: “Anna Smith.”

Agent: “And?”

Me: “Just Anna Smith.”

Agent: “What is your first name?

Me: “Anna?”

I was confused.

Agent: “No, that’s your last name. I need your first name, as well.”

After a bit of back and forth, I was even more confused. The agent gave up and just asked:

Agent: “Are you called John Smith and Anna… Oh.”

That’s when I realized my husband had somehow set up our account name to be “John Smith and Anna Smith”, and that’s when the agent realized what was going on. I have no idea how he managed to set up the account name like that. It’s also quite funny that the agent thought that was an actual name.

I’ve gone into the store for a few things I need, and I end up seeing several things that catch my eye in addition. I take it all to the cashier, who seems perfectly normal.

Cashier: “Did you find everything you needed?”

I’m in a good mood, and I am getting a fair bit of stuff, so I decide to deviate from my usual one-word response. I respond very cheerfully, loading my things up to be scanned. 

Me: “Yep, and more!”

Instantly, the cashier’s whole demeanor changes, and her tone turns frosty.

Cashier: “I’ve never heard that one before!” 

She glared at me the whole time she was scanning, and her tone was hostile for the rest of the transaction.

I know phrases like asking if you can get it free are annoying, but I’m still baffled. I’d assume you’d hear the same few ways to just say “yes” over and over, too. I’m still not sure if I did something very wrong or if she was just having a bad day, but I’ll stick with answering with a quick “yep” from now on.

My first real graphic design job was at this tiny, tiny family-owned magazine: a couple and their son.

One day, the wife gave me a printed-out Excel sheet with a handwritten list of names and phone numbers that I was supposed to add. Because it was handwritten, some of the names were hard to make out. At this point, I knew asking her questions was kind of pointless because she never had an answer for anything, so I tried to make out the names as well as I could and sent her the new copy.

She then came out to my desk to tell me I had spelled one of the names wrong.

Client: “That name needs a U.”

Me: “Oh, sure. Where does the U go in the name?”

Client: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Could you rewrite it for me so I can make it out a little better? I was having a hard time reading this handwriting.”

Client: “I don’t have time to write it down. That’s ridiculous.”

Me: “Well, I’m not familiar with the name and you are. If I’ve misspelled it, then wouldn’t it be easiest if you gave me the correct spelling?”

Client: “That’s ridiculous.”

She stormed off to her office and left me wondering where the h*** I was supposed to put the U. I tried reading the chicken scratch that was apparently so time-intensive that it would be absurd to do it again.

Five minutes later, she called me into her office with her husband. They started to yell at me about how ridiculous it was that I had asked her to rewrite something.

Client: “I don’t have time to help you do something you should already know! No one, ever, in my whole career has asked me to rewrite something for them. If you’re not professional enough to do it by yourself, then why did we hire you?”

I’m a super emotional person and cry when I’m very angry, and her attacking me personally was making it really hard to talk. That made them chastise me for getting upset. However, as upset as it made me, I couldn’t help that it was the most bonkers thing for someone to get mad about. 

Oh, and this all happened on my birthday. Yay! 

The last hotel I worked at was an absolute trainwreck. My manager refused to hire new staff and just forced all his workers to do everything, so even though I was a night audit worker, I was also made to fold over 400 pounds of laundry every night and do breakfast, and if the housekeepers lied about cleaning rooms or we overbooked because rooms didn’t get cleaned, I would have to clean them myself.

I didn’t sign up for any of this, and none of it was listed in my job description that they had me sign when I got hired by the company. If these duties were discussed up front, I definitely would not have taken the job as they were only paying fifty cents above minimum wage (15.50). The physical requirements for the jobs that we were forced to do didn’t match the physical requirements listed on the paperwork for our job description when we got hired by the company.

Another really terrible thing about the company is that the general manager was unable to fire anyone. The owner had to approve anyone being fired and, since we were so understaffed, the owner would not allow him to fire anyone. So, of course, we ended up with a bunch of workers who knew that they didn’t have to do literally anything because they could not be fired.

[General Manager] was literally all we had; there were no supervisors or assistant general managers. He and I went back and forth on this for over a month, and he kept saying that he would hire a laundry person or there would be an improvement to the amount that I had to fold each night, but there were no major changes.

Eventually, I sat down with him and I told him hey, this is not in my job description. I didn’t sign up for this. It’s causing a lot of physical stress that is making my time away from work miserable because I’m having to recover from overworking. He said that all of this was in my job description even though it wasn’t and that if I wouldn’t do it, he would fire me. Fat chance, of course, since he couldn’t fire anyone.

Right around this time, we had an episode where we ruined a guest’s wedding night, and I started looking for another job. I no longer want to be associated with this hotel. Fairly quickly, I got a much better paying job at a much less s***ty hotel, and I decided that I wasn’t going to give my hotel two weeks’ notice because everyone else who had given them two weeks’ notice had been immediately cut from the schedule. [General Manager] had also given away half of my shifts without any warning for no reason at all before all the laundry issues came up. So he did not 100% deserve a two-week notice.

We continued our argument about what was or was not my job. I eventually went and got the job description that I had signed when I was hired, printed out the job description for a laundry agent, and taped both of them to his door with the differences circled.

When [General Manager] came in and saw them, he was understandably furious. He called me up and said that if I wanted to play by the rules so much from now on, I could not leave the front desk for anything, I could not have headphones on, and I was not allowed to sit at the front desk; I had to stand for my entire shift. He just went on for like ten minutes on all these demands and things to make my life miserable.

Me: *Politely* “I got a new job two weeks ago. I start there tomorrow, so I won’t be coming in anymore.”

I hung up and never looked back, and I am MUCH happier at my new hotel.

I log in to the online portal for my insurance company to update my address as we’ve just moved to a house. Looking at the listed contact information, I notice there’s a secondary contact address listed in California. I call customer support.

Me: “I was updating my address and noticed there’s a secondary address listed that I do not recognize.”

Agent: “Yes, I see [address] in California. Is that correct?”

Me: “No, it’s not. I have no idea what that address is or where it’s from. I’ve never lived in California. I don’t even know anyone in California.”

Agent: “Let me check… I’m showing that the address belongs to someone else registered on your policy.”

Me: *More concerned* “What? This policy only has me and my husband listed, and we live together. In Illinois.”

Agent: “No, this is [Woman]’s address.”

Me: “Who is [Woman]? When were they added? I’ve had this policy since I was eighteen; I’ve never added a [Woman] to this.”

Agent: “Hmmm… I can’t see the date they were added. When did you start seeing them on your statements?”

Me: “They’ve never been on my statements. My bills only show me and my husband listed. I only saw this address listed when I went to update my contact information online.”

Agent: “Well, I’m showing her in our database; that’s how her address was populated on our website.”

Me: “How can she be in your database but not show up on my printed statements or my main account page? More importantly, I did not add this person and don’t know who they are. You need to remove them ASAP.”

Agent: “You’ll have to reach out to the agent who sold you the policy regarding any discrepancies.”

Me: “That… what? This person isn’t on my original policy. The only place they are listed is your website.”

Agent: “You’ll need to contact your agent.”

The agent hangs up on me. Only then do I have a thought: [Woman] is the name of my very long-estranged and very abusive mother. It has been so long that her name didn’t ring any alarm bells, and the agent never told me a last name. With a sinking feeling, I Google the address in California, and… yep. That must be where she lives now.

I call my agent and, as suspected, he has no idea how this has happened. He doesn’t show [Woman] on any paperwork I have. He calls customer support with me on the line.

My Agent: “We need to get this contact removed immediately.”

Customer Support Agent: “We cannot remove the contact until they are removed from the policy.”

My Agent: “They’re not on the policy. I have no idea how they got into the database, but it’s in error. They should never have been on this policy.”

Customer Support Agent: “You’ll need to have [Woman] contact us to confirm.”

My Agent: “…what? No. We need to talk to a supervisor.”

While we’re on hold, I explain to my agent what I’m freaking out about. Was mail regarding this policy sent to this secondary address? Has she had access to my policy or my personal information?

Then, we’re connected with a supervisor.

Supervisor: “Okay, I’m showing that when we upgraded the database, we merged your accounts. That’s what you’re seeing.”

Me: “What? I don’t have another account.”

Supervisor: “I’m showing a second automobile policy, started on [date almost thirty years ago].”

Me: “What? I didn’t have insurance then. That’s impossible!”

Supervisor: “Ah, I see, you were a secondary driver on that account. You probably forgot about it since you weren’t getting the bills.”

Me: “Wait… Secondary driver? Are you telling me this account was in [Woman]’s name?”

Supervisor: “Yes, that’s correct.”

Me: “I was added onto her insurance when I was sixteen and learning how to drive so that I’d be covered in case of an accident. This was my mother’s insurance.”

Supervisor: “It looks like she never took you off—”

My Agent: “You’re telling me you merged two completely different policies into one record, despite having different policy numbers, contact people, and billing information?”

Supervisor: “She was a secondary cont—”

Me: *Getting more upset* “No. No. I was an authorized driver. That was to cover me if I had an accident driving my mother’s car. It was never my policy. I got my own policy at eighteen, and she was never on mine. You merged our accounts?!”

Supervisor: “Ma’am, it wasn’t a stranger. It was your mother’s insurance. I’m sure she’d never misuse—”

Me: “I have an Order of Protection against her. I would be less worried if it was a stranger.”

Supervisor: “…”

My Agent: “I think we need to have a meeting. [My Name], you can hang up, and I promise I’ll keep you in the loop.”

In the end, it turns out that the accounts weren’t truly merged; some idiot somewhere just figured that if I was on my mom’s account, she should be listed SOMEWHERE on mine. And instead of using some sort of “Notes” field in their customer database, they added her to my contact information — or perhaps they did add some sort of note and some other idiot put it into my actual information. So, my information was safe after all. But the stress of how they handled it made me leave that company, that’s for sure