(I’m only a witness to this encounter. While checking out at a self check out, another pair of customers is using the one to the side of me. They are obviously father and daughter, she looks very young. The father is buying a six pack of beer.)

Employee: “Sir, I don’t need to see your ID but I do need to see hers.”

Customer: “She’s my 10 year old daughter!”

Employee: “You can’t buy alcohol for a minor!”

Customer: “I’m not buying it for a minor; I’m buying it for myself. She’s 10 years old and my kid. Are you serious right now?”

Employee: “Sir, I cannot let you buy this alcohol for your daughter. She’s under-age.”

Customer: “Are you even listening? I am buying it for ME, not my 10-year-old daughter. What kind of person do you think I am?”

Employee: “I need to call my manager to figure out what to do here.”

(Several minutes later, the customer is fuming, and the manager turns up. At this point, I am just watching curiously.)

Manager: “What seems to be the problem?”

Customer: “Your employee here refused to sell me alcohol and accused me of trying to buy it for my daughter!”

Employee: “No, he said it was for her!”

Me: “What? No, you said that you didn’t need to see his ID but that you did need to see hers. When he responded that she was his 10-year-old daughter, you said you couldn’t sell it to him. He has repeatedly told you that the alcohol was for himself, not her.”

Manager: “Really, [Employee], this is the third time we have gotten similar complaints. People are more than allowed to buy alcohol in the presence of their kids.”

(The employee and manager then argued for several minutes about what was and wasn’t allowed. I haven’t seen the employee in there since.)

(I have just booked a hotel for my brother but accidentally put in the incorrect email address. I now need to cancel the booking and call the website’s customer service department to help me with it.)

Me: “Hi,yes, I booked a hotel for my brother and it needs to be canceled, but the email I entered is incorrect. Can I please cancel the request with you?”

Customer Service Rep: “Sure. What was the email that you entered the confirmation under?”

Me: “That’s the thing. It was a typo error. I never got a confirmation email because I typed in the email incorrectly. It’s off by a letter. Is there any other way to look up the reservation?”

Customer Service Rep: “Sure, what’s the phone number?”

(I give them the phone number I reserved the room with.)

Customer Service Rep: “I’m sorry but I can’t find it under that phone number. Do you have the email address?”

Me: “Again, I don’t know what the email address is under as I typed it incorrectly. Can you look it up by name?”

Customer Service Rep: “Sure. We can try that. What’s the name?”

(I give my brother’s name.)

Customer Service Rep: “I’m still unable to find the reservation. Do you know the email address? I can find it using that.”

Me: *getting frustrated* “Again, I don’t know what the email address is under as I spelled it out wrong. The hotel is [Name] hotel in Portland. You don’t see anything under the hotel?”

Customer Service Rep: “Oh, here it is. And you said you want to cancel this reservation?”

Me: “Yes. The trip was canceled and we won’t be needing the hotel anymore. Can I please have a confirmation sent to a different email address?”

Customer Service Rep: “We can email the canceled reservation to the address we have on file.”

Me: “As I’ve said before… that email address is wrong. If you send the confirmation to that email address I will not receive it as that email does not exist!”

Customer Service Rep: “Okay. We should probably update that email address. What’s the new email address?”

(I give her the correct email address.)

Customer Service Rep: “Okay, I’ve updated the email address. Is there anything further I can help you with?”

Me: “So you have canceled the reservation and will email the new address?”

Customer Service Rep: “Yes. The reservation has been canceled and an email will be sent to—” *rattles off old email address*

Me: “Wait… No. I need the confirmation sent to the new email address I just gave you. ” *gives new email address*

Customer Service Rep: “Oh, okay. It’ll be sent to [new email address].”

Me: “Yes, to [new email address]. Can you send it now so I can confirm we get the cancellation confirmation?”

Customer Service Rep: “Sure.”

(We wait for confirmation. After about three minutes, we don’t get anything.)

Me: “We haven’t gotten a confirmation.”

Customer Service Rep: “Well, I show it was sent to [old email address]. Are you sure that’s correct?”

Me: “NO! That’s the OLD address! I need the confirmation sent to the NEW email address of [new email address]!”

Customer Service Rep: “Oh,okay. I’ve sent a new confirmation.”

(Now my brother calls out from the other room saying he got the confirmation.)

Me: “Thank you. We received the confirmation.”

Customer Service Rep: “Was there anything else I can help you with?”

Me: “Good god, no!” *hangs up*

(Overall, the call took about 45 minutes. Lesson learned… DOUBLE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS!)

(My dad works at a company that designs and produces light fixtures. His division is him, two other people, and the boss, a loud Irish man well-known for his bad language.)

Boss: *storms in and shouts* “One of you, e-mail [Client] and tell him to F*** OFF FOR A BIT!”

(One of my coworkers and I get along well and often share when customers make crazy demands. However we have taken to doing this in a rather unusual way:)

Coworker: “Dang it.” *getting up to speak to a manager*

Me: “What? Do they want a pink pony?”

Coworker: “A pink pony that flies!”

Me: “Did you offer them a purple pony with a horn?”

Coworker: “Yes, but they only want a pink pony that flies. No horns.”

Me: “Ouch.”

(A short time later it’s my turn to get up.)

Coworker: “Pink pony?”

Me: “No, just a beige pony, but they want three of them. I just really don’t think they’ll get ’em.”

(I suspect my computer’s hard drive has died as it is giving every indication that the drive no longer exists. I take it to a computer repair shop.)

Worker: “It could be one of three things, but I suspect it’s the hard drive. If that’s the case, would you like us to try to recover your info?”

Me: “Sure, but I have everything backed up elsewhere, so I’m not too worried if it’s gone.”

Worker: “…Okay?”

(It turns out it was indeed a defective hard drive. I go in to pick up my laptop that now has a new hard drive.)

Worker: “So the bad news is that we were unable to recover any data. I’m really, really sorry.”

Me: “That’s okay. I have everything backed up.”

Worker: “I don’t think you understand. There’s nothing I can do. That information is gone.”

Me: “I understand completely. I have a backup on one of my external drives. All is well.”

Worker: “You know, you really should buy an external hard drive and back up your information regularly.”

Me: “Sir, please hear what I’m saying. I have already done that. My information is safe. I will be taking my laptop home and restoring everything that was lost.”

Worker: “You’re not hearing me. You’re going to open this laptop and it’s going to have no information on it. So this doesn’t happen again, why don’t you buy an external hard drive here?”

Me: *giving up* “No thank you. Can you please just let me know how much I owe for the repair and I’ll be on my way.”

Worker: “Your total is [amount].”

Me: “That’s about $100 more than I was told on the phone.”

Worker: “Well, that includes your new external hard drive you will need so this won’t happen again.”

Me: “Listen. I have tried to explain to you that I do not need an external drive. I already have one and have been backing up my information for years. Now, you are going to take that charge off my bill and I’m going be on my way.”

Worker: “I can’t give you a discount for the external drive. You’re going to have to talk to my manager.”

Me: “Yeah… I think that would be a very good idea.”

(The manager started down the same path. Thankfully, I was able to get his attention about halfway through the spiel and explain I just wanted to pay for the repairs. On my way out, the worker yelled after me that I really needed to back up my information. Sigh.)