Some People Process Trauma By Reliving It
I’m browsing at a local electronics shop when I overhear this conversation at the returns counter:
Customer: *To the clerk, as he puts down a box.* “Good day, sir, there is this appliance that I bought here that refuses to perform the function it should. If I could bother you to potentially process a replacement?”
Clerk: “Sir, I’m very sorry to inform you, but this is not the proper way to communicate your problem to a store clerk.”
Customer: *Nodding.* “My apologies, my good man.” *Clears throat, continues louder.* “Okay, listen, that f****** thing you f****** sold me is total and utter garbage, it’s dead, it’s so TOTALLY not my fault at all, and I DEMAND a refund!”
Clerk: “Very good, sir. Unfortunately, without a receipt, I can only offer you store credit.”
Customer: *Nodding again.* “That’s okay, what I actually want is just to do a warranty exchange of that one for a working one.”
Clerk: “Sir? Must I remind you…?”
Customer: “Oh, right.” *Louder.* “NO! You WILL refund my money! You never gave me a receipt!”
Clerk: “I most certainly did.”
Customer: *Takes out crumpled receipt from his jacket.* “Fine. Here. You’re lucky I found it! Now give me MY money back, right THIS instant!”
Clerk: “But certainly.”
He processes the return.
Customer: “And just so you know, I’ll now head back in and buy with that money the EXACT same item, and this could have been a lot less of a hassle for both of us if I just accepted the warranty exchange offered in the first place! And you just know I’ll raise Hell if it costs a cent more than what I paid back then!”
He huffs and leaves.
I watch the clerk. And I guess my face spoke volumes because he said:
Clerk: “That’s the guy who trained me. He doesn’t work here anymore, but he sure still remembers what it’s like.”
And I still wonder whether I just watched insanity or an attempt to hold on to the remnants of sanity they have left…