Ah, the customer service rollercoaster – we’ve all taken that wild ride, haven’t we? It’s those unforgettable encounters that either send us off with a heartwarming glow or have us dialing up our friends to vent. Whether it’s the type of service that reignites your faith in humanity or leaves you pondering your life choices, we’ve got stories that cover the entire spectrum.
Just for context: I suffer from a pretty severe eating disorder and eating in restaurants/in front of people or in general is scary for me. Onto the story. For Thanksgiving, my mom, her husband and his kid wanted to go to a local steakhouse. This made me anxious and I wanted to just not go. I went because I have let this disorder ruin so many holidays for my mom. So I went. Immediately I was overwhelmed by all the people, the calorie counts on the menus, the noise, etc after the waitress came and took our drink orders, I excused myself to go to the bathroom and was in tears by the time I got there. Our waitress happened to see me and pulled me aside and asked if I was okay. I’m pretty underweight and sickly so most people just assume it’s an illness of some sort. I explained a bit because she was just really comforting.
She told me options off the menu that would be less overwhelming and was so sweet. She explained her sister died from an Ed. Which is absolutely terrible. But she just took such care of me and our table, especially considering how busy the place was. She kept telling me I was doing great when our food arrived. She just really made the dinner so much better. I’m so thankful for her. We gave her a 60% top because she deserves it. Thank you, wonderful lady. ❤️
I was out of milk so I went out to go look for some. My first stop didn’t have the kind I was looking for, but I decided to grab some candy for the walk, which I put in my jacket pocket. My next stop was a nearby drugstore, which I went in, checked the fridge aisle, and left. I went to a crosswalk and I started eating my candy pondering where in the world I could find milk at this hour when the nighttime manager poked out of the doorway and told me not to come back. I had no clue what he was talking about until he accused me of taking the candy, which he said I didn’t have on me when I came into the store and that it was all on tape. I offered to let him scan the candy or look at the cameras which I knew would prove me right (I walked through the make up section to get to the milk, but I was nowhere near the candy aisle), but the guy refused to do either, threatened to call the cops and stomped off.
It was important that I could go back to the store again because I use this particular drugstore to refill my medication. I tried calling them and the employee who picked up told me I probably shouldn’t come back because “The manager made a decision” but I didn’t let up and eventually got to talk to the manager. I think he knew he messed up because he was far more cordial this time around and went on about how there was a group giving them trouble 20 minutes before I came in and they thought I was part of it. He said he wouldn’t check the cameras because it was “too difficult” and gave me an apology along the lines of ‘I am sorry if you weren’t actually shoplifting’. I got a confirmation that he wouldn’t call the cops if I came back, but the situation still ticks me off. I get that I might have seemed suspicious, but what angers me the most is that the guy refused to even check if I actually stole the candy, even when I offered him ways he could determine it.
So… I’ve been a loyal customer and go to this nail artist to get my nails done every 4 weeks for almost 2 years.
Her charges are relatively high, but I do like her work and designs. Every time I spend over $100+ (gel manicure) and tip her 25% to 30%(at least $20.)
She takes appointments and has a policy: if you’re 15 minutes late, your appointment is canceled. That’s fine, usually, I’m 5 minutes late at most.
But, today I had an appointment with her at 2:30 PM. I was late for 12 minutes and arrived at 2:42 PM. I walked into the salon, and she started to yell at me with rage, telling me I wasted her time and that time was money.
She was so aggressive and intimidating, that my eyes teared up. Another girl in the salon saw me crying and gave me tissues to wipe my tears.
She continued to yell at me, “Why are you crying? My time is very valuable!!”
I couldn’t take it anymore and walked out of the salon crying.
I don’t understand why she would treat me horribly like that, I know I was late for 12 minutes and apologized several times. She could’ve just asked me to come back another time… I’ve been such a good customer to her, I’ve always been so nice to her, I paid her so much money over the past 2 years. For my college graduation, I paid her $240 to do my nails. I even sent her gifts on her birthday.
I’m just so sad and disappointed about what happened today… I don’t think I will go back again.
My wife and I went to eat at our favorite out-of-town restaurant. We ordered a meal to share that was $15. We told them no mushrooms, due to my wife’s allergy. The food came and I took a bite. Mushroom. People make mistakes, but this is a big one. The server came to check on it and then got the manager. I said just remake a small portion because I was fine to eat what they sent. Nope. They send her a free dessert of their choosing. She didn’t like it. No discount, no remake, and no meal for my wife.
Who does that?
So my wife is in hospice and really does not eat much anymore. A little earlier on in hospice, she would get hungry for very specific things that were sometimes odd. One day she says she would like a Chateaubriand (we had shared one on a special night years ago so maybe that was the reason).
We are in “whatever you want” mode so someone googles up a location and I make the call. It’s a very nice restaurant that doesn’t do To Go so I explain the situation. The manager gets on and says it will be ready in 20 minutes.
We arrive and the manager and two other employees have the steak with two soups. I realize this guy must be familiar with Hospice to include the soups when I notice the chef has cut the Chateaubriand into very tiny pieces understanding that’s probably all she could handle and we wouldn’t have quality steak knives at a hospital.
Brought tears to my eyes and one day I will return to this place. I talk it up every chance I get.
She ate like two bites but it was worth it.
My server followed me to the door complaining that I hadn’t left a tip about two months ago, was waving the receipt around, and everyone was watching and was waiting in the lobby for a table to open up. I asked her to look at the receipt again and then go back to the table. I like to leave cash tips and I wrote “cash” on the tip line but maybe she didn’t see it or something. I waited and saw her cross the restaurant, cash in hand, she didn’t come back over to me, so I left. Would have at least been nice if she had come over and admitted her mistake since she had embarrassed me in front of the people waiting.
The restaurants I’ve worked at had a strict policy of not chasing anyone because it could be dangerous, especially following someone into the parking lot.
I (24 Female) was attempting to buy liquor from a large well-known superstore. I go to the register with my purchase and am asked for my ID. I hand it over and it seems to be taking a while for the cashier to give it back and finish ringing me out. She asks me how old I am which I tell her, & then she says she cannot sell me the alcohol. I’m like “Why?” She says “You’re not over 40.” I’m like whhhaattt? She flips her little screen to show me a question the register asks something along the lines of “Is customer over 40?”. The register asks this to remind cashiers to cards. I look at her and she’s just looking at me 100% serious. I tell her “You only have to be 21 to buy any alcohol here.”, it doesn’t matter the alcohol and I attempt to explain why the register asks that (I previously worked for a grocery store so I know). She just says No, she can’t sell it to me. I take my liquor and go to the next lane over where I successfully pay for my alcohol.
I couldn’t believe it. Someone needs more training.
I am totally blind. I was flying home today and not expecting anything out of the norm… listened to the announcement at the beginning, fell asleep, and drooled copiously just to annoy my neighbor…
Well, color me surprised when one crew member offered me a Braille safety guide before he began announcements. I expressed my thanks and surprise, however, it wasn’t over yet. While he made the standard announcements, another crew member came over and offered to allow me to explore the life vest and oxygen mask, orienting me to all the important pieces. This is something that has never been offered to me before by any other airline or crew. I didn’t even know they had Braille safety guides! Perhaps I should’ve asked in the past but it was so refreshing to have this crew take initiative and make the effort to make sure that I was just as informed as the sighted passengers around me. Often times we get so caught up in advocating for ourselves, that it’s nice to have others pick up on ways to help us feel included and safe.
This was posted on another social media site and the airline says they will pass this on to their team so this crew can be recognized.
For anyone else wondering how I use technology, I use text-to-speech software.
So me and my family(3) went to lunch with another family (5). We went to a steakhouse for 2 reasons. 1- we all loved steak, 2- it’s the safest thing for my mom to eat. As she has a severe dairy allergy.
So we all sit and order the steak, my mom asks and we find out they dip their steak in butter before they cook it. (Eww) So my mom asked to have the cooks cook the steak in another pan. The waitress said no problem.
Cut to all of us getting our steaks. Ohh they were perfect. My mom is about to take her first bite when we hear someone scream “NOOO!!!” From across the restaurant. We look and there comes our waitress running at us. She gets to the table and takes my mom’s plate, out of breath.
She tells us the cook messed up and put the butterless steak on the wrong plate. And she had seen my mom about to eat the steak.
Mom got a new steak and we left the waitress a big tip.
It’s been rare we find a waitress who doesn’t get huffy about helping out with my mom’s food needs a bit. But there has to be another one who went this hard to make sure my mom didn’t die. Anyway, that’s my one really great story of the most amazing waitress.
To my barista: you didn’t know
-that my mornings have been rough recently
-that I am broke
-that I am alone and lonely in this city
-that I was going to have a big cry when I got home today
but you heard me say my car broke down, and you saw my face, and you gave me a free coffee. You mouthed, “Don’t worry about it, I got it” with a wink and such a kind smile. A small gesture, but when I sat down to drink the coffee, I cried a little. You don’t know how much you’ve improved my day with this simple act of humanity.
Thank you for being an empathetic, righteous human being, and a pro at your job. This coffee is delicious. Thank you to all the baristas who might read this and think their job doesn’t matter to anyone. Today it really matters to me, and I feel like I can face the world again. Thank you.
Growing up, I adored rabbits (still do! Bloody cute af) and had a black rabbit called Hades when I was 9 years old. He was gorgeous and I loved him dearly. Sadly, one day my mum came up to me and said she accidentally left the gate open when Hades was running around outside and he ran away. I was so distraught and it was a genuine mistake on my mother’s part so I was never overly mad at her. It took me a while to get over it but my parents agreed to buy me a new one.
So off we went to the pet shop and, when picking out a rabbit, I told my story of woe to the petshop employee. What she said to my 9-year-old self I still remember to this day.
“Really? You lost a black rabbit? That’s weird. There is a group of wild rabbits that live in the woods where I live and I always see them when I leave for work. Recently, a black rabbit has joined them and they all seem very happy.”
My eyes lit up! I knew it was Hades and he was okay! He was living a happy wildlife out there! I rested easy after that and brought home my new rabbit.
Believe it or not, it was only recently I realised that she lied to me but what a wholesome lie. I wish I knew who she was so I could thank her personally because it really helped a 9-year-old me feel okay with the death of my beloved rabbit Hades.
I was at my local gas station/coffee shop combo pumping gas. A man who I assume was in his early 30s asked me for money for food. I apologized and let him know I don’t carry cash.
He said “No problem. Thank you!” As he walked away, I offered to buy him something from the coffee shop, and he agreed.
He asked if it was okay that he got a breakfast sandwich and I said “Yes, of course.” I asked if he’d like a drink and he asked “Are you sure that’s not too much?” I assured him it wasn’t.
Then I went inside and bought him a sausage egg and cheese bagel, a large coffee, and threw in an order of hash browns.
While waiting for the order, three coffee shop employees were saying some not-so-nice things about him. Here are some quotes:
“Is that loser still out there?”
“I don’t feel bad for him. Get a job like the rest of us.”
“If no one will hire him he probably has a horrible record. It’s his own fault.”
“Bet he has like 20 evictions on his name.”
…I’m just standing there awkwardly listening to them berate a man who can’t stand up for himself because he’s outside while I wait for his food.
Afterwards, when I left and was thinking about it, I got mad at myself for not having the courage to stand up for him.
This is personal for me, when I grew up, I was homeless on two different occasions, lived in three shelters, and when not homeless I lived in some not-so-great areas and didn’t have an easy life.
Without the generosity of many strangers who donated to programs and mentors/social workers, who knows how much worse my life may have been?
I’m lucky that I caught a break, I found a good job and I’ve worked through a lot in therapy.
Unfortunately, not everyone catches that break. Some people aren’t equipped with the mental or other tools needed to “break the cycle.”
All I know is the $8 I spent today isn’t going to put me out and if that means I potentially got fooled I’m okay with it. Because if that man was truly hungry I’d feel a heck of a lot worse knowing I didn’t help when I could have.
I understand if people don’t agree with giving money to beggars, that’s okay. It’s your money, and those are your opinions I don’t think it’s wrong. But what I do think is wrong, is for three grown adults to make fun of a man they know nothing about and call him degrading names and say things about his character in front of numerous people when they know nothing about him.
Many people who are homeless suffer from mental illness. That’s sad. Many just need to catch a break and have someone in their corner.
Being kind is free. Think before you speak.
If anyone is wondering, he was very grateful, told me “God Bless” and wished me a Merry Christmas.
I went to the dentist last week with painful broken teeth. My simple appointment should have taken maybe thirty minutes tops, just checking out the damage. The wonderful hygienist I had ended up making my appointment a full exam which all in all took four hours just so I wouldn’t have to pay anything with my insurance.
After the exam, the dentist of course wants to do the most expensive things, root canals and crowns. I express to these women that I can’t afford over four grand. She then starts moving stuff around and letting me know if I get them pulled and do an implant and a partial I’ll save a hefty amount of money.
These wonderful women spent four hours of her day sitting in that room with me making every adjustment possible to help me out and chatting with me to keep me company. She complimented my bag and expressed really wanting one even calling other ladies in to look at it.
I bought another one and I went back yesterday for the actual dental work and brought her that same bag as a token of my appreciation for her going above and beyond her job to help me and keep me company. She burst into tears and hugged me. She ran around showing all the ladies that she had that same bag now. Pretty sure I just made her the queen bee of the office lol.
I feel like people aren’t vocal enough when someone does a fantastic job. They only complain when things go wrong. Especially at the dentist. I hope the rest of her day was awesome because I’ve never felt that comfortable or taken care of at any other dental office.
And yes I did leave a raving review with her name on their customer surveys.
Happened a few weeks ago and I still have a grin on my face
Went downtown to this Mexican-themed local restaurant that makes arguably the best burritos in town. Went in during around lunch and it had a few customers but was not overly crowded. There are two people in line: me and some woman ~40 or so.
Now, I want to note something: if you want something like guacamole, sour cream, salsa, or anything like that that isn’t beans, rice, or meat it costs extra. And all of this is clearly stated on the menu board.
So anyway, the woman orders the three base ingredients along with a bunch of extras. The entire time, she’s friendly with the guy making the burrito. It all goes to sh*t when this happens. E is the employee and B is the customer:
E: That’ll be $11.45
B: What is the [expletive]? The menu said the burrito only costs $9! Why’d you jack up the price?
E: You got guacamole, pico, and salsa on your burrito; those cost extra and add to the price.
B: Well, how the heck was I supposed to know that?
E: It’s on the menu board. You should have seen it.
B: I don’t have time to read the entire menu! Either sell it to me for $9 or I’m gonna talk to the owner. He’s a good friend of mine and always helps me out!
E: First of all, I’m not gonna give you a discount. Second, either pay for your burrito or leave. Third, I’m the owner and I’ve never met you.
What happened afterwards was what I pretty much expected: B stormed out, flipping the owner off saying she’s never gonna eat here again and she’s gonna give it a 1-star review on Google (that’ll show him). I suppose the owner simply ran out of patience
I walked up to the register and said that I’d buy the burrito so it wouldn’t go to waste. Good burrito too.
I have a citrus allergy, and because it’s a weird thing to be allergic to, I always explain it as best as I can when I’m ordering food (it’s not just citrus fruits, it’s the actual citric acid).
This happened a few years ago, I was on a school trip, and one night we had dinner at a local pub. When it was my turn to order, I did my usual speech of what I was allergic to, and the waitress took it all down. I get my food (a chicken and bacon burger), but it has this white sauce all over it and a side of chips. Since I didn’t really want to die, I asked my friend to taste it first, and she said it tasted very tangy and probably had lemon. Ok, pain in the a**, but it’s still early, I can get a new one made.
I take it back over to the counter and tell the waitress what’s wrong. She apologises a lot and goes get the chef.
Chef: “What’s wrong with the food”
Me: “I’m allergic to citrus, and I don’t think I can eat this”
Chef: “There’s nothin’ in it”
Me: (taking no risks, and I’m surprised how confident my 15-year-old self was) “Can you please list the ingredients in the sauce please”
Chef: sigh “Fine… Eggs, garlic, lemon…”
Me: “Lemon is citrus”
Chef: ….
Me: “I can’t eat this, I’ll be sick”
Chef: “Are you sure?”
Me: “….yes…lemon is citrus…I’m allergic”
He takes back my food, and remakes it with tomato sauce, like he should have done in the first place. That is the story of how I had to explain to a qualified head chef that lemon is citrus.
I have happily been with my GF for 4 years. She’s always been self-conscious about her belly, and I do my best to reassure her she’s beautiful (because she is) and nobody cares.
This brings us to the incident. My GF’s parents were in town visiting for the long weekend, so naturally we all get together for dinner the final night before they fly back home. Dinner goes well, we’re all drinking and joking around having a good time, catching up on life and such.
I Order a final glass of wine and I remember just grabbing my girlfriend’s hand and holding it as all couples do, when one of the servers comes over to clear the plates, and before he walks away he just says to no one in particular “Oh and Congratulations by the way!”
Very confused, I stop and ask him “Congratulations on what?”. He points right at my girlfriend’s belly, which mind you isn’t even that big, and says “On the baby.”
Out of shock I simply splurt out, “Sir, She’s not Pregnant.” He immediately starts apologizing but the damage is already done. I look over at GF, and she’s keeping composure but I can tell immediately what she’s feeling, it’s like all of her insecurities came out at once. This happened right in front of her mother too mind you.
Things are immediately awkward after, and people are trying to think of something to say. But it’s quiet for a good 10 minutes. We manage to get past it but my GF is too embarrassed.
Bought a pack of cigs at the gas station and the cashier gave me my change with the cigs. I tossed everything in my purse and left, to go back to the house.
Mind you, this isn’t even my house, I’m just here hanging out for a few hours. Less than a minute after walking threw the door there’s a knock.
One of the people who lives here was on a work call in the living room so he answered the door and it was the cashier from the gas station.
He’s yelling “Send the small brown with big eye” (I’m guessing he meant brown hair?)
I go to the front and this man is screaming at me to give his money back. I didn’t even know what he was talking about until he finally said he gave me the wrong change.
So, I asked him “You followed me home because you gave me the wrong change?”
It is only a few houses down from the gas station so I had walked, but what would he have done if I had gotten in a car and driven away?
He starts calling me a stupid b*tch, dumb woman etc. As in “Give me my money, b*tch.” “You are stupid stupid woman, where is my money.”
I go back inside to get the three dollars and shut the door behind me. He immediately starts banging on the door like the police, the second I close it.
I go back out onto the porch and shove the three dollars at him and tell him to get the f*ck off the property. He reaches in front of me and pushes the screen door shut and says he needs to count it…. Are you f*cking joking with me?
As he’s leaving he’s yelling in his language and a mixture of English. Including staying away from HIS store.
I can’t even believe this just happened, what the heck is wrong with him?
I just got reminded of this. A few years ago I had stopped by a well-known fast-food place on my way home to get breakfast for everyone. I got to the counter to make my order, and then when she asked if there was anything else I decided that since I was there I’d get some ice cream.
She took a deep breath, grabbed the counter, and said, “I’m sorry, the ice cream machine is down.”
I shrugged and said, “Okay. I’ll have a [type] pie then.”
She looked at me. Her eyes got wide and watered and soon she was outright sobbing. I had no idea what I’d done. The manager came out to see what was wrong (as she very well should have) and I explained the situation. Then I said, “Is it the pie? Are you out of pie too? It’s okay; I probably shouldn’t be eating sweets anyway!” And the cashier just sobbed harder.
The manager gave her a comforting hug and said, “Sorry. The guy in front of you was a real d*ck.”
I read all these posts about people trying to stay afloat emotionally during this pandemic and think; I hope they’re doing okay.
So, my husband loves decaf iced lattes from a very popular coffee and donut store in New England, which rhymes with Funkin Fonuts. has one at least 3-4 times a week. Today I go to the drive-thru as normal.
Me: Can I get a medium iced decaf latte, please?
Employee: We don’t have decaf lattes.
Me: I got one here yesterday?
Employee: Naw, we don’t have decaf lattes, only decaf coffee.
Me: It’s on the menu…
Employee: Listen I’ve worked here over a year and I’ve never heard of a decaf latte, we don’t do those
Me: okay… I’m gonna go somewhere else.
At this point, I drove off because I didn’t want to argue. I drove 5 minutes to a different store in the same chain (we have them every couple of miles here) and got the latte, without any issues.
How does that lack of knowledge happen? How do you work somewhere for a year and not know something on the menu?
Early this morning, I had to venture to my local post office because the tracking information for a package I was waiting on was implying that it needed to be picked up from this post office. I arrive, and after waiting 15-plus minutes for service despite being the only one waiting at the customer service desk, a woman walks up to the counter. I have my tracking information and tracking number handy on my phone and before I even got a full sentence out explaining my situation, she interrupted me saying “This isn’t your post office, you need to go to X post office (in a different city).”
This caught me off guard, so I’m trying to explain that my tracking number says to come to this post office and I’ve always picked up my packages from this post office, and I asked her if she could at least look up my tracking number to see what I meant because I had walked down here and waited so long. Her response? “This isn’t your post office and I’m not looking anything up, bye sweetie.” I asked her if that changed recently and she said “No it’s always been like this” and I asked her why I’ve always picked up my packages from this post office if it’s not my post office and she just stared at me.
I told her I wasn’t leaving until she at least looked up my tracking number and she basically threatened to call the cops if I didn’t leave, saying “I’d leave if I were you sweetie.”
I try to be patient with customer service workers, I worked customer service for YEARS and know how soul-draining it can be, but I was so upset and frustrated at this point that I flat-out said “Wow, you’re kind of a b*tch.” She smiled and said “Thank you” and I left, trying to fight back frustrated tears.
Submitted a USPS report for terrible customer service, not that I expect them to actually give a sh*t… so I decided to vent here.
We recently drove to my favorite pizza place for curbside. Even though it’s a 40-minute drive, we needed to get out of the house and I hadn’t had it for months.
We ordered at 4:35, were quoted a 5:10 pickup and showed up at 5:15. We called the store, and they asked what kind of car we had and they said our food would be “right out.”
At 5:35, I went into the restaurant and asked about our order. The guy said, “We had a problem with our printer and we haven’t made your food yet.” I asked him why he didn’t let us know that in the 20 minutes since we were sitting outside and he said “I just figured it out.” Okay, fine.
I took a seat and a woman came in with what she said was the wrong food. It turned out that they had given her our food by mistake. The problem was, he then tried to hand me the food that she had just carried back from her car, during a pandemic.
At this point it was 5:55, my kid was sitting in the car with mom getting restless, so I just asked for my money back. The manager said, “Are you sure you don’t just want it?”
When I said “no,” he made a big show of dropping the food into the garbage. No sorry, no can we make it up to you, nothing.
We drove 40 minutes back home without pizza.
Times are tough. I want to support local businesses, mistakes happen. But please be upfront with customers if something gets messed up.
I recently moved from city X to city Y, they’re about an 8-hour drive apart. I also recently got a text from the vet in City X that they had scheduled my cats’ annual checkup and vaccines in October as usual, and to respond to the text if I had to reschedule. I never ask for these appointments, they just book me in every October and send a text. I responded that I had moved and would like to cancel.
An hour later I got a multi-paragraph email that I honestly hoped was a standard spiel they sent everyone, otherwise, they got wayyy too much time on their hands. Basically, it talked about all the benefits of vaccines and said they had kept my appointment for now and to actually cancel I could text YES to a number. I do this.
Soon after I get another text message outlining how horrible the cat flu is and how it’s animal abuse not to vaccinate. It ended with “See you and [cats] at your annual checkup on October 7th.” So I emailed the vet that I had moved to City Y, and I would no longer need a vet in City X.
2 hours go by, and I get another email not to worry, cause they have taken the liberty to book an appointment for me at their sister clinic in City Y. I’m just baffled at the audacity. I never asked for this appointment to be made! Anyway, after another couple of emails about the cat flu, I finally managed to fully cancel and book an appointment at their competitor in city Y. Their final email was quite cross and claimed I shouldn’t have animals if I wouldn’t give them proper care.
The funny thing is I was happy with them so far and would have probably used their clinic in city Y if I wasn’t given this glaring reason not to.
I went full-on to Karen at the supermarket. I went to do the groceries with my boyfriend and while he was at the till I sat down nearby (I’m 6 months pregnant and today I’m running on 4 hours of sleep in the last 48, standing up feels like a chore). Once he paid he marched out of the store with me struggling to keep up.
It turns out that the middle-aged cashier felt it was her place to comment on the food we bought and my boyfriend’s weight. I was fuming. I usually don’t do these things, but there were a couple of staff members at the entrance enforcing the compulsory mask rule so I told them what happened. They were appalled, apologised and asked me the till number to talk to the woman. They asked if I wanted to speak with a manager and make an official complaint, but I passed. She’s just lucky I didn’t hear the exchange directly or I would have torn her a new one. Also, plot twist: 99% of the junk food we bought is for my pregnant a** and my cravings. I wish she could have tried to body-shame me too. I wish.
I live with chronic pain, and this is one of many of the terrible social experiences that come with it. So today, the muscles in my neck are so inflamed I can’t even put my lil brace on. I see there are only paper straws available. think that that’s all right, and try and bend it so I can drink. It didn’t work so I asked a waitress if there were any plastic straws available for me to use. The interaction goes as follows:
‘Hi, can I have a plastic straw please?’
‘We have paper straws available
‘I’m sorry, but I need a plastic straw, I can’t use paper straws’
‘I’m sorry ma’am but because of the environment, we don’t just give out plastic straws to people who don’t like the texture of paper straws. You can just drink it normally if you don’t like paper straws’
‘I quite literally need plastic straws, I can’t move my neck’
She sorta looks me up and down, sees my edgy outfit and purple hair and decides I’m faking it.
‘You don’t look disabled. It’s company policy to only give out straws to people who are actually disabled
I just sort of stare at her in shock…
‘I have severe scoliosis in my neck, nerve and muscular damage. I physically cannot bend my neck today, and require a plastic straw so I can drink. I require my dad to cut up my food as if that’s not embarrassing enough. I’m not going to argue with you on issues that don’t affect you at all. Happy holidays.’
And that was the end of that – We stood up and left, after we got our food ‘to go’ I went into a convenience store to get a plastic straw. The juice tasted delicious.
So a little backstory, I have 10 kids. The first 2 I adopted and the next 8 biological all from the same woman.
Cashier: Wow you got a lot of food today!
Me: it’s about a week’s worth, 10 kids.
Cashier: that’s a lot of kids, all yours?
Me: yes, all mine.
Bagger: you must get a lot of food stamps with that many kids!!
Me: huh?
Bagger: he repeats what he said and adds plus cash, you know from the state.
Me: why would I need food stamps or cash assistance?
Bagger: well you have 10 kids, how else are you gonna feed them, duh?
Me:– by working a good job, duh. Saving my money, owning my house free and clear, no mortgage. By driving a used car that’s paid for, no car payments.
Bagger: really?
Cashier: total is $200, my average for the week.
Pulls out a bank card and pays, reminds the cashier not everyone who has a big family has many different moms or dads. Tells Bagger not everyone is on food stamps just because they buy lots of food.
Not as bad or good as some stories but just a little bit of sh*t I go through sometimes when people find out how many kids I have.
My wife and I were having dinner at a brewpub during the week. We only saw our waitress when we initially ordered and when she dropped our food off. Then while we were sitting there with empty drinks and half our pizza left, she dropped the check and to-go box off all on her own.
Not once before this did she come by to check on us to see if we wanted anything else. We were going to order more beer but I guess not now.
It wasn’t even busy and the place was set to close in 2 hours. Also, I overheard the table next to us complain to themselves about feeling rushed by her because she did the same thing to them.
As I arrived, the cashier was preparing some sandwiches with her back turned towards me. I did not want to interrupt her and just stood there, silently and patiently waiting for her to finish.
After about a minute, she looked up, saw me and mumbled to herself “Can’t they let me finish anything!?”
I ignored it and friendly said, “Hello, I would like this and that please.” No answer from her.
While wrapping my order, she mumbled “Does no one around here have a job!?”
A bit taken aback, I was like “Excuse me, did you mean me with that?”
She answered “Customers are coming in constantly. At this time they should be at work somewhere.”
I just said “Well, then I am definitely not going to buy anything here. This is ridiculous.” And then left the bakery.
I consider myself as patient, friendly and understanding as it can get. Everyone is allowed to have a bad day and I do not expect service personnel to be friendly at all. I would say that it is almost impossible to offend me. However, what she said was so rude for no reason that, for the first time in my life, I just left a store.
So I’ve worked in retail all through college, and I have plenty of stories of customers behaving badly. However, this is a reverse situation where I was the customer and the cashier was insane.
So first off, I am an anxious person, and one of my anxious behaviors is biting/picking at my fingernails.
This happened when I was 16 or 17 (22 now) and I was shopping with my mom at a discount/overstock store while on vacation at the beach. We were checking out and I must have been picking at my nails (I don’t do it consciously, it’s just an anxious habit) because all of a sudden the cashier (50s-ish) reached over and smacked my hands, hard.
She said, “My son does that and I absolutely hate it, so I smack him to teach him that it’s a bad habit”. My mom and I were both so shocked that we just hurried up the transaction and left. My mom ended up buying me a milkshake afterwards.