This tale happened in 2014 at a [big blue store]. I was in the check out lane. A group of girls were in front of me - the type who were obviously in feverous sleep over mode. They had a movie that they wanted to watch, which I'm going to call The Notebook. It likely was... The Notebook alongside a bunch of sleepover foods. They were hyped! I was bullshitting on my phone and then suddenly heard the first signs of failure. They were SHOCKED and started stammering to the cashier. Cashier wanted ID for this....PG13 movie. The register prompted the cashier so they were just doing their job. Again, this was a PG13 movie and obviously these girls didn't just walk to the store. You could tell these girls were pre-teens to likely even 13. I was just thinking ENTER IN A DAMN AGE!!!! They were not going to do drugs or have sex or whatever from this one movie!!!!

YET, these girls' only recourse was to...beg and plead. They looked back at me as I was an adult. As an adult you can either be the hero or the fool. I accessed the situation like this:

• The cashier was doing their job, no matter how foolish this shit seemed.

• The cashier likes was one of those girls in their younger life and never was ID'd or questioned. Good chance movie ratings may not had even existed!

• The cashier needed the more job than they needed to appease the girls, so the prompt for ID > "being cool about it"

• I, a man who was not associated with those girls IN ANY WAY would only either cause the ire of the store's management for breaking some random ass law OR catch hands from a parent, as optics matter in life and I wasn't trying to be a hero only to get side-eyed by some parent mad that they weren't instead alerted and called in from the bullpen. You know how crazy shit can get in a confusing situation. Plus, I didn't wanna be paid back for a $10-15 movie (I was deep in debt and should have not had that stance in life)

SO....I acted like most adult and just let it play out

The girls never crossed any imaginary lines which was shocking to me and probably to the cashier. The cashier showed empathy but also had a level of communication they weren't sharing with the children in which she couldn't break her rules to appease them. There wasn't that "hey, I don't want to risk my job" statement but instead a "don't you guys have a parent? Go get them. I can set your stuff aside and the parent can give me their info"

Cashier wasn't wrong/cashier took their job seriously/can't truly blame the cashier for abiding by some bullshit policy.

Eventually the kids agreed, sadly, that they'd have to get a mom from the van. They were defeated. In my head this resulted in a very tired mom who probably wanted 10-20 minutes to themselves and now either have to go in an deal w/the boogeyman cashier who denied her party access to a PG13 movie or....furiously find another store that sold that movie where they probably repeated the process of letting the kids go and pick out what they wanted in hopes of it being successful.

There was many times since where I've seen PG13 movies not being prompted for ID so I bet the [big blue store] could have likely errored that day or they changed their policies.

Thank you for reading. Happy I finally got this out of my head and hopefully you all can enjoy this silly 3-5 minutes of my life :)

About 25% of the time I order an overnight/2-day order it's delayed by a day or two. When I get the message that my delivery is delayed, I go back and check, and the item still says 1-day delivery. What truly confounds me is when they inform me my item is delayed by 2 days, while the page for the item says "Order in 30 minutes for same day delivery."

Are they flat out lying? Are they incapable of managing distribution? What is the deal?

I once posted how I ordered four overnight items and they emailed me, on the night after it was late, that my item was delayed by 8 days. I called and they told me because one item was out of stock, my entire delivery was delayed by 8 days. The order included time-sensitive items.

That's when I canceled their primero service that I pay for to get fast free delivery. I still have a couple months paid, so I still order but not for time-sensitive items, or very valuable items, or items that are delivered by the 3rd party seller. The primero service is absolutely a joke.

It amazes me when they tell me "You saved $10 on overnight shipping!!!!! And your item will be delayed by a couple days."

I ordered coffee creamer for the 4th time a couple days ago. Despite the item page always saying "overnight delivery", they have never delivered creamer overnight. Creamer was one of the items in my 8-day delayed order.

I was informed yesterday that my overnight delivery of creamer is delayed until today. My expectation, based on past performance, is that tonight they will delay it by another day or two.

UPDATE: I just called about my delayed creamer - the reason it was delayed is because they lost the package. But now it has been found and is on it's way. If a small company pulled these antics they'd soon be out of business.

I definitely believe there are a lot of customers out there who are incredibly rude and entitled people, thinking they can treat retail workers like their own personal servants.

But why, when an issue arises, is it automatically seen as the customer being the karen these days, and not the possibly rude worker?

To preface, I've worked in retail and in customer service, so do have empathy for those who work in the industry. I'm also from Australia, and yes we do have karens, but I've never seen a full blown meltdown, typically seen in US stores (internet videos).

I took my grandmother into a big department like store. They sell pretty much everything, toys, clothes, homewares, books etc. The only thing they don't really sell are grocery like food items. We were shopping for a baby in our family and grabbed a couple of toys to purchase.

The store was heavily manned with employees, seeing 2 standing at the entrance on arrival, 3 in the self serve section, 4 out of 6 check outs were manned and there were numerous employees throughout the store. The store was also at mid capacity with customers, not busy, not quiet.

So we get our items and head to the self serve checkout. My grandmother is a very polite and cheerful person, always going out of her way to chat with and joke around with store workers wherever we go. She's also 84, she can walk but has to do so slowly.

We scan 1 item, the tag is missing. So we ask one of the 3 women standing in the section what to do. Without hesitating she sighs, rolls her eyes and "gently snatches" the item from my grandmothers hand and takes off with it. If I had known we needed to swap it, I could have done so myself. But in the past they've usually been able to type in a code and off you go.

She comes storming back and slams the item down onto the checkout machine. It scans, she sighs and says "next time make sure it has a tag so I don't have to go and fetch it for you like a little slave". I was pretty fucking angry to be honest, but didn't want to make a big deal out of it as my grandmother looked horrified and embarrassed. We finish, pay for our items and start to go. I was still mad and as we exited I said to the woman that she should be a bit more polite, and not take out her bullshit on an old woman. She scoffed and called me a Karen.

I spoke to my friend about this who said that the woman was probably having a bad day, that she probably faces tonnes of rude customers and was just taking it out on us.

But how is that fair? If the tables were reversed and I was the customer being rude because of a bad day, it wouldn't be welcomed. Why is that some people have the attitude that an employee can treat a customer like shit and it's kind of okay to do so?

Rant over.

This happened at an on-campus eatery at my college/university. It's not a dining hall, but a burger-themed place. You order your food and then wait for your number to be called and you pick up your food from the counter. I ordered a buffalo chicken wrap, and that's it. It was not busy. I sat and waited for my order. I'm not at all joking when I say I waited 30 minutes. I sat there waiting when they finally called my order number. I sat down with the bag to find that I only got a box of fries. I didn't even order fries, nor did the buffalo chicken wrap come with fries.

I went up and told the person calling out order numbers (he was not cooking, his job was to take the food and put it into bags) and I told him that I got the wrong order. He looked at the order number on my bag and said "That's order 836." I responded saying "Yes, I'm order 836." He then looked at the tag and saw that it was a buffalo chicken wrap. He then took the tag and just put it on the counter. He told me to wait for them to remake it. He did not even tell the cooks to remake it. He just left the tag on the counter assuming they'd find it. I then waited another 10 minutes for my order and still nothing. I decided to walk up to the cooks myself and ask if they saw the tag and were remaking my order, and then the guy stopped me again. He asked what my order was. I told him I was the one with the wrong order. He then got very frustrated with me and said "Okay, just give me a minute! Just wait and have more patience!" I did not get to ask the cooks if they were doing my order because he stopped me in such a manner. I went back to sitting down and waiting.

Finally, after 15 more minutes, I got my order. In total, I waited 55 minutes just to get a buffalo chicken wrap. I was so frustrated because I had somewhere I needed to be in less than 5 minutes by the time I got it. Now you may be thinking why would I order when I knew I had somewhere to be, but I ordered at 6 when I had somewhere to be at 7, and I did not think I would have to wait 30 minutes just to end up receiving the wrong order and have to wait an additional 25 minutes for the right one. Maybe I was acting a little entitled and should have just accepted waiting for almost an hour but I was so overly frustrated.

I recently ordered from a local burger place and was really disappointed with the quality. The burgers were clearly frozen and reheated, and the chips were soggy and cold. So, I left an honest review explaining my dissatisfaction.

Not long after, I got a call from the owner, questioning why I left the review. I calmly explained the poor quality of the food. A few minutes later, I got a text from the same number calling me an "idiot." This is just unacceptable and unprofessional behavior. How can I retaliate at the owner?

Edit: I posted a review with a clear, detailed, and honest description of what happened. It goes without saying that I would never buy anything from this place again, nor would I recommend it. Since this is a new area for me, I relied on Google reviews to indicate which restaurants might be better. However, I could be wrong, and the reviews might be bought or manipulated somehow.

Thanks for all the replies and advice.

Recently I had to have my bowling shoes repaired. Got some pretty good ones for free. But they had sat in storage for a long time. So the glue in them degraded. And the shoes came apart while I was taking them off after the first use. I took them to the only shoe repair shop I knew of, which was a bit out of my way. And it costed more than the shoes were worth to repair them. But the repair was guaranteed for ten years. And the guy cut me a discount. Still costed me $64 for both shoes. But when I talked to anyone who knew anything about the general cost of shoe repair. That was actually a pretty good price.

When I went to pick up the shoes yesterday, I talked with the shop owner about the shoe repair that had gone out of business in my local area. And he knew a fair bit about it, and said that the guy's work was shoddy, and had a lot of complaints. Then I remembered a time I walked into that guy's shop over 15 years ago. I asked him what kind of glue the guy used for his shoe repairs, and he showed me. And the glue I kid you not, was from the dollar store. And is still sold there to this day. It's just a cheap generic flexible cement glue. It's not bad glue. But not great either. And when I told the guy who fixed my shoes about it, he was mortified that the other shoe repair guy would use such cheap glue and call it a quality repair. And it's no wonder he had so many complaints. Then we both had a laugh over how that guy didn't know what he was doing.

And then I ended up telling the shop owner about a somewhat similar experience I had with my old car and a flat tire repair. I got a flat tire, and had to go get it patched. Went to a local place that had it done in an hour. $18 fixed and mounted. But, then after coming out of a store later, I noticed the tire looked low. so I went back to the tire repair. And what looked like a 19 year old guy with blonde scraggly hair came out to inspect it. And he claimed the tire only looked low. And then went out of his way to point out he didn't recognize the brand, and then spoke some more nonsense. And I was dumb enough to take his word for it. Well days later my tire was flat again. And that time the tire was not savable. And I had to buy a new tire. The shop that repaired the previous tire the first time, I went back to complain about the repair being bad, and the guy who I was dumb enough to listen to. And the first words out of their mouths were "We fired that idiot! He had a long list of complaints for bad flat repairs!". Sadly I still had to go back to where I originally bought tires, and had to buy a new one. I was dumb enough not to get the warranty when I bought tires for that car. Never made that mistake again.

The guy at the shoe repair shop was quite amused by that story, and we both agreed that if you work in any kind of repair industry, then do your work right, or don't work there at all.

Edit: When I asked the shoe repair guy if the problem I had was common with bowling shoes, he told me it was very common, and he could make them stronger than new. And if you ever go buy bowling shoes in store, only certain shops carry them. And the store price on the good ones can be ridiculous. And if you buy a pair cheap online, it's a risk because you can't test them beforehand. And you're better off buying name brand. My best friend bought generic bowling shoes online for $40, and they were so bad that they ruined his game and were wearing out bad after one day. Even the guy at the pro shop told him they were no good, and to buy better ones unless he wanted to pay a shoe repair to graft leather onto them. I found him a used pair of excellent bowling shoes used locally that were originally $120 new, and we picked them up for $20. He did much better with those shoes the following week. My bowling shoes were around $50 new a decade ago, and possibly double that in store. So me paying $64 to fix name brand bowling shoes I got for free isn't so bad. I have big feet too. So I have to wear size 13. And getting bowling shoes in that size locally is even harder.

(I did not know I was getting flowers, this was a surprise bouquet) I was at home last Wednesday when I received a call from an unknown number. I didn't answer it, and kept washing dishes. I saw a man walking around outside, who seemed confused (empty handed). He walked to my neighbors door and I assumed he was a political solicitor or a relative of theirs. I received another call like 10 minutes later and a voicemail. I finished my dishes and checked it 5 minutes later and it was a man saying he had a flower delivery for me, and he had checked with both of my neighbors and neither of them were home but he left my flowers on the front porch. My front door is 5 paces from my kitchen and he never once knocked or rang my doorbell. Also, when I opened the door they were pressed right against my storm door so I had to very awkwardly shimmy the enormous bouquet in millimeter increments so it didn't topple over. I succeeded though was just confused. Dude did way too much when he could've just knocked

I walked into a pub where I was the only customer

There is a separate terrace area with a large screen for live sports

I asked if they could show a football game and they said yes, so I ordered a burger and drink

I asked them to put the sound on instead of the music but was told the manager said no

I asked to cancel my food order saying I'll just have the drink instead because I won't stay

The waiter then brought my drink (a bottle of water) and gave me the bill. The bill had a minimum charge for eating (20%) which I said should not be applied however he refused to take it off.

So I got up and left the now empty pub with the unopened water left on the table

Was I in the right ? The waiter looked shocked.

The famous retailer has the rooftop pin for my address routing to a dead end/fence behind where I live. Their help articles claim this is only possible if Google maps has the wrong pin since supposedly their app uses Google maps for the delivery (there’s zero way to change it in app). The problem is, Google maps has my been 100% in the right place when I copy and paste my address from my account page. (I put explicitly where to enter at in my delivery instructions but not everyone cares enough to read them so my groceries got canceled after the driver didn’t answer my phone calls)

The response from this Fortune 500 company’s customer support was to completely ignore everything I said and tell me “I kindly suggest you please do your purchasing in person”. The only reason I bought the subscription was for delivery because I need spine surgery. The agents’ supervisor ignored everything I said except for the word “refund” and sent me to their refund team. The refund agent actually seemed to be able to read English and gave me a $25 coupon and 6 months of the subscription free because of the other agent basically telling me politely to go fuck myself and started a ticket with their tech department. This took over an hour before I could find someone remotely competent and literate. Really bummed about not being able to name the company or post a screenshot of the chat, that rule is definitely not a great value to the community ;)

This is a weird one from a diner my wife and I both like. A waitress we've gotten good service from before came after a long delay and said another party (of four) had paid our bill by mistake so we would need to pay cash. Usually for us it's about $40 or so and today the bill was $75 or so. The good news is I normally have some cash for emergencies. When I asked if I could get a cheque, the waitress said she also had Venmo. When I asked if I could just pay by card she said "It's pay cash, Venmo, wash dishes or go to jail." After I paid in cash I pointed out (jokingly) she had referred to the wrong county's jail and she said "Oh, I was just joking. You have good credit here," Also, when she returned the bill had gone down to $65 for the two of us ad we received a lecture on how to count money. I asked for a receipt and was told one was not available.

I don't have phone pay so I wonder what would have happened had she actually called the police for us defrauding an innkeeper as we tried to pay with a debit card had I/we not had the cash.

Edit:

I paid because we really like the diner and also there's no guarantees if she did call the police they wouldn't just believe the larger cheque was ours and possibly find a reason to take me/us in even if we did pay the bill then. Even if we did get hauled in, it would be unlikely we'd be prosecuted but it would cost a lot of money to bail me/us out, retain counsel, etc. And there would forever be a bodycam video on Youtube for people to laugh and comment on. My hope is she paid the restaurant with our cash. This is all speculation and worst case scenario, but...

We went today and got our favorite server who had our table and drinks ready before we even got in the door and had the appetizer we always get ordered before we sat down.

Edit 2:

The server phrased it more like "The other party paid your bill so I need you to pay cash." Not like "you have to pay their bill" even though when she spat out a much higher total than normal I inferred this. I got the vibe she had paid the other bill or was going to pay it herself. If she scammed me she waited two years of us regularly patronizing the place. Should something like that happen again I will call her bluff and perhaps wait by the cash register with my card out to really lend credence to my story. It is what it is now, just a really sketchy event that left me with a sour taste about that one particular server.

I've gone to the same restaurant for 4 years and always sat with the same person. She has always been nice and whatnot but the last few times she doesn't pay the same amount of attention as before.

She also doesn't seem too happy when interacting. It is definitely nothing on my end as I always tip well since I started eating there.

Not sure what the deal is but if you were a regular at restaurant for that long, would you drop this server? Or could that create some sort of issue, I am there 3 times a week.

I’m staying at a hotel in an area that’s not very diverse. I walked into the breakfast buffet, and the breakfast attendant, who was a minority but different from my race, gave me the most disgusted look. I thought I was overthinking it, so I moved on. As I was getting scrambled eggs, she walked toward me and said, 'Close it.' But I was still serving myself, so why did I have to close it? I couldn’t find a plate, so I asked her. She gave me that same disgusted look, looked me up and down, and pointed at the plates hidden behind a large pile of utensils.

Then, a white guest walked in, and the breakfast attendant smiled at her.

It might not be about my race. I could remind her of someone or something else. But what should I do in situations like this? Should I just move on? Should I complain to the front desk? Should I write a negative review on Google?

Because if this happened to me, it will happen to somebody else staying at this hotel.

“Hi, I’d like 2 whole loaves of the large multigrain, please!”

”Sure! Would you like that sliced?”

“Whole, please.”

”Right!”

On the one month anniversary of my order, I feel I need to vent about it.

A month ago, I needed a crafting machine and I ordered from one of the big crafting stores as their local store did not have it in stock.

Free shipping, a few days to deliver it, sounded like a good compromise.

My order status was “awaiting pick up from the carrier” for a week. Next week I figured it’s time to contact them about it, and this is where the frustration begun.

It took days to get in touch with someone. They don’t pick up their phones and don’t have a live chat. Email or text are the only ways to get in touch and they don’t respond quickly. At all.

What I was told is that the carrier picked up my package but never gave them a tracking number and they will be following up with them. (Still haven’t heard back on that).

I then asked to cancel my order for a refund, but they refused, as it was already “processed” and i will need to return it once I receive it.

This store charges restocking fees for big ticket items so I then asked if they would waive that fee given the circumstances. Answer was again no, as it “it wasn’t their fault, it’s the carrier’s”.

My argument that they should take responsibility for the carrier as it’s THEIR subcontractor wasn’t even acknowledged. I don’t even know who that carrier is, I don’t have a tracking number, and even if I did, I cannot just call them and track an order placed from somebody else’s account.

They said they will send an update about what’s going on within 3 days. That was 5 days ago.

So, I cannot get a cancel/refund, I cannot return without being charged $50 for it, I don’t have my order and have no clue when and if I’m going to receive it.

Come Monday morning I’ll make one last attempt to contact them but then I’ll request a charge back from my CC although I hate doing that to companies. What frustrates me the most is these companies keep complaining about how big online retailers are running their business into the ground, but from what I see they are doing it to themselves. Mistakes happen but that level of apathy to a mistake that happened on your side is inexcusable.

Update: I contacted them explaining that they can either help me asap or I will be opening a case for a chargeback. These were the magic words, suddenly they found the package was “lost” and refunded me immediately. Moral of the story: I shouldn’t be so patient with AHs next time 😆

We’ve been long term customers with our car insurance and today was quite weird.

We called the them to add my sons new car to our plan and the Agent (right off the bat) proceeded to ask tons and tons of personal questions about our family situation and lecturing on us on why he needs to pay rent and be on his own plan and pay for things himself. (He does pay his insurance, he’s just on our plan) but this was all because we simply asked to check if his insurance plan was active and the documents were updated.

Was she just jealous? Why would anyone get this personal? Again, this kicked off from one simple question. We were then transferred upon request and another Agent just gave us a simple answer.

Whelp, as someone with more than 20 years in the service space, today was a new one for me. My wife urgently needed laminating pouches, so I had to go into one of the US chain office supply stores.

Checked what I was getting online before making the trip, product was $18.99 for 100 laminating pouches. No special, no sale, just regular price. Upon arrival at the store, however, the exact same SKU was $59.99 on the shelf.

Raising this with the cashier, thinking I had the wrong product somehow, she told me that I had the correct product and that was the ‘in-store’ price. I had to pull up the website price in order to have it honored, which she did once I complied.

I was told the store has a different pricing ‘policy’ than the corporate online presence.

$1-2 difference I could understand, but this was more than 3x, and clearly deliberate.

Stunned, and makes me wonder how many of their SKUs are treated the same way.

Needless to say, if you need staples, printer paper, ink, or anything else from the big box office supply retailers, order online and consider the store itself to be nothing more than a pick-up point, or you will be gouged!

Edit, sorry spelling isnt up to pare. Contray to what some say, yes i suffer rom bad dislexia and no it not a excuse. Not sure why people like to gatekeep it. Look keep comments on the subject of the post please or kindly keep it to yourself, thankyou. I dont need more then one comment pointing this out. I woul gladly accept spelling help in dms. Thankyou

Ello, so I got a tale from a thia resturant I visited within my first few months here in usa.

We get to the resturant and its a little run down. That outta the way rundown little gem hole in the wall. Food is great and the staff are amazing. We get alot of worth outta what we pay for the food. Top it all, they are growing fresh herbs in the back to use in thier dishes. They are short staffed and its dinner rush for them.

Then he entiers the returant. Old greying chubby man in a shiry that fit his younger self but now let a beer belly hand out of it. Tottels over to the table that looks like its for the staff to relax at plops his far too large ars into it.

We start getting ready to leave. There is 5 of us. Me, my partner, our couple nabours and thier male friend. The men get up to go sort out the bill leaving me and the wife to just chat and pick at what was left. I turn to hear something from orange shirt man as he barks at a teenage highschool kid. In a very rube and condensed voice he yells for the boy to clear the table. I give a disgusted look but go back to chatting with the wife. Then we both look up at the sound of,

"There something wrong?'

I look over to see thuer over weight orange speaking to me. I just shake my head and say no, trying to go back to speak to my friend when he barks again "ya look like ya have something to say". He then gets up. I also get up and move around the table "na we good". He then advances and contuines to bagger me that i had a issue with him. All the while i am trying to disengage from the situation. We are cuasing a seen infront of a full dinner. I finaly tell the others i am going to wait outside for them.

I wait fo 20 mins outside till the others join me. Only for them to tell me that the guy had pulled out his phone and started recording them as they were paying. Turned out this over weight orange was a busness partner of the resturant. We are never going back.

A few months ago I had an appointment to get my vision checked so I could get new glasses. My mom advised me not to go to this specific optical because she previously had a negative experience with the staff there. I was like ehhh, I can handle it, but I was definitely wrong do downplay what my mom said.

The day of, I knew I’d be a few minutes late so I gave a call letting them know I’m running a little late, the woman on the phone then said in a snarky tone “what do you mean by a few minutes late? What is ‘a few minutes’?” And I said about three minutes, then I was put on hold just taken aback by the attitude. After I was taken off hold, the woman said that was okay.

I get there, and I let them know that I got a new vision insurance policy through my employer, and the same woman who was on the phone pulls up what appears to be my old policy telling me my benefits were already used. I ended up having to call my insurance provider to confirm I can use my benefits and the customer service rep I spoke to was saying to ask to look up the policy by SSN, as it sounded like they were pulling up my old policy.

I let the staff know what I was told by the customer service representative, and she insisted “that’s what I did!” She showed me how when she looked me up it showed her my SSN, however that wasn’t my SSN. Then she was like “you have two social security numbers?” Almost like she was trying to gaslight me. I told her that’s not my SSN, that number was literally the old policy number. Then she finally listened to me and input my actual SSN, and it showed my new policy of which my benefits hadn’t been used yet.

After my appointment when it was time to pay, I attempted to use Apple Pay and they let me know the reader I was attempting to use it on didn’t accept Apple Pay, and that they’d have to use another reader. To that I just said that I could use my physical card, and the staff who was giving me an attitude this whole time sighed and rolled her eyes at me for this as she was walking over to the other reader when I said I could use the physical card instead.

My mom definitely had an “I told you so” moment when I told her what happened. I use to work in customer service so I understand people have their days, however I do think the employee could’ve been nicer. The tone she had on the phone was unnecessary, she could’ve just said “what’s your ETA?” rather than “what do you mean by a few?” With her pulling up my old policy and insisting my old policy number was my SSN, she could’ve just asked what my SSN was when I explained what the customer service rep told me over the phone about how to get my new policy pulled up rather than trying to act like I probably have 2 SSNs. With the card reader thing, I probably shouldn’t have changed my mind on the method, but in general it is rude to sigh and roll your eyes at someone. This use to be my go to place for glasses and eye check ups, but I’ll definitely have to find a new place as the customer service hasn’t been so great in recent years. Usually I empathize with people in customer service, but if you blatantly have a nasty attitude, that’s where I draw the line.

I went up to the convenience store on my corner that I always go to. I put my card in at checkout and the card reader froze up. The guy couldn't get it reset and there were people waiting behind me. The guy started lecturing me about how I shoved my card in too hard instead of sliding it in gently and now I broke the whole the thing. I just inserted my card like I always do. He took out a little hand held back up thing and let me make my purchase but kept repeating that I broke it by not inserting my card gently enough.

For several years, I worked and lived the overnight shift. It was the right thing at the right time for me. One major downside however, is getting dinner out. There are no hot rotisserie chickens at the supermarket, all the shoebox fast food places are on breakfast, and the best option is a gas station with a kitchen.

That is, until I found the only restaurant in town, chain or independent, that was willing to serve me the dinner menu at 8am if I was willing to wait 10-15 minutes. Absolutely! For a couple months, I was stopping in once or twice a week. The workers knew me and we had good rapport. They mentioned the receipt survey, so I gladly took it and gave them top ratings across the board, and detailed praise in the comment box.

A few days later, I went in and gave my standard order. "Sorry, we're not allowed to do that anymore". I asked the shift manager what was up and he explained that my review led them to audit the location, and they were "off process" by serving me dinner in the morning. He was apologetic, he took thought it was bullshit, sales are sales.

I took to their website and filled out a comment, no survey as I chose not to make a purchase. I explained that this action had cost them a loyal customer, and encouraged them to consider a very much overlooked market segment. Like most people, I want dinner after work. I heard nothing back, not even a bullshit form letter.

A couple months later, I saw an ad from them encouraging night shifters to come in for breakfast after work.

A 4.9 survey score screws the employee, a 5.0 screws the customer. So from then on, my policy became that I will only take a survey if my experience is shockingly inexcusably terrible.

Nowadays, we have plenty of choices for tech products. Most of the time a lot of us don't even bother with the major chain retail stores...but sometimes they have decent clearance sales that make you interact with some staff, and you can't help but wonder how it was possible that they got hired...

This happened at a fairly well known, decently sized tech retail store. Every now and then they have some very solid deals that are unbelievably good compared to what other stores are offering. However, my experience with this order pick up was horrendous.

I ordered a Razer Kishi V2 *for Android* online (for context, it's essentially a game controller that plugs in directly to your phone's charge/data port, not meant to be wireless - this comes up later), which the website told me and confirmed was IN STOCK at that location.

When I arrived for pick up, the staff retrieved my order and I signed for it. However, upon closer inspection it turned out they had set aside the Razer Kishi V2 for **iPhone**. I asked another staff member about this, and showed them that my order confirmation was for an Android-compatible variant, and asked if they might have gotten them mixed up. The staff looked confused, then tried to tell me that it would be compatible with my Android phone no problem...(What? Peripherals have different variants FOR A REASON. This much should be basic knowledge for ANYONE working at a tech retail store.) I knew this to be untrue, so I pointed out that the packaging of the one they had set aside for my order clearly states "for iPhone", and that it would be redundant if it were compatible with both platforms.

Then they tried to tell me that since it worked over Bluetooth, it would not matter...ok sure, maybe the staff was just confused about what product it was that I was picking up, so I corrected them and stated that it connects via a hard-wired connection via USB-C, hence why it would matter. They then tried to tell me that it should be USB-C standard, even for iPhone (sure, if this were exclusively for iPhone 15 I guess? But it's not) and that we can open it up to confirm. Knowing how this was going to end I agreed.

We opened it up and (surprise) it was not a USB-C connection, but a Lightning connector. Seemingly stumped, the staff called another team member over to ask about it, and I asked if they could check where they kept online orders, or even their shelves, to see if they could find the Android variant one. The first staff went to check, while the one they called over checked my order in the system.

APPARENTLY whoever ok'd my order for pick up also couldn't/didn't know the difference between Android and iPhone connections, and when they should have marked my order as "N/A" because they didn't have the Android version, they went ahead and slapped the iPhone one on to my order and approved it anyways. When I asked how this could be they just shrugged and pointed at a name on the order summary and said "they made a mistake". No "sorry", no apology, and an attitude that very clearly said "this is not my mistake, so not my problem". The staff that went to check the back returned and said they didn't have the item, so all they could do was refund me. No offer to check availibilty elsewhere. At this point I was very disappointed so I just processed the refund and left.

TL;DR - The staff at this WELL KNOWN TECH RETAIL CHAIN had ***zero*** product knowledge, ***ZERO***BASIC***UNIVERSAL***TECH*** standard knowledge, tried to gaslight me into taking the product with BS claims about a product they had no idea about, and just pointed fingers at one another blaming their coworkers instead of trying to come up with a solution while the customer was still in front of them. Perhaps they're not used to dealing with tech-literate customers and are used to getting away with saying whatever BS justification they could come up with confidently. But if that is the case they need a wake up call. This was atrocious.

I just had another 2 hour chat across three reps - this time trying to unsubscribe from emails (because the unsubscribe link in the email was broken). And I got to thinking about who is responsible for wasting my time with untrained, unknowledgeable reps.

Usually when I call customer service of any sort, it takes 15-20 minutes of going around in circles until they understand what I'm asking. Usually they give me an answer that I know is incorrect. So I call back and talk to another rep who gives me a different answer, which conflicts with the first.

If I ask for a manager I might get sent to a third person who provides a third answer that conflicts with the first two, and that manager won't pass me anyone higher in the organization.

So, am I really being unreasonable if I get upset at the reps I'm allowed to talk to? The company put them on the phones with me and won't let them transfer me to someone who could fix the problem, so the only representative I have access to is an untrained noob whose highest priority is to answer 20 calls per hour. If that's who the company gives me to talk to and I get upset, why shouldn't I be upset with the people the company lets me talk to?

This incident occurred a year ago when I went to get my eyebrows threaded with my mom and sister. They had been regulars at a salon and were satisfied with its services. I decided to join them and get my brows done as well. After the threading was completed, it was time for me to pay. The lady handed me a card, and I assumed it was for leaving a tip. I asked her to repeat what she said because I couldn't understand her due to her accent. She continued to repeat herself, and I started to feel nervous as I couldn't comprehend her words. At one point, she became rude and called me stupid. Thankfully, my sister intervened, took the card, and left a tip for me. I apologized but haven't returned to the salon since that day. My mom and sister have returned, but I haven't. This is the second time this has happened to me. The first time, I had another horrible experience, but it was a different lady, but at a mall when I went to prom. She called me stupid because of something I forgot exactly, but she was also another rude lady. So now I pluck my eyebrows.

This was in a tiny "town" of about 100 people in the American Midwest, maybe 10 years ago. There was a pool table and a deer hunting arcade game, which the lone proprietor kept playing while shouting "Get fucked!" at every deer he shot.

Behind the bar was a residential refrigerator that contained the two beverages on offer: cans of Bud and cans of Bud Light, bought as cases from a local gas station for home consumption.

The ladies restroom had a hole in the middle of the floor that was 4 feet wide and 6 feet deep, going down to the bare earth below.

The pool table was nice and we actually had a great time. Sadly, they're not in business anymore.

I've been on the waiting list for [REDACTED] Swimming Club for a while. From the sounds of it, they haven't even been checking. I don't know. Either way, they want to see me this afternoon. So hopefully, I'll be able to finally get started there and when I say a while, I mean it's been over a year without a single word. I called them a few weeks ago, and they said they'd let me know how far along the list I was. They never did. So after calling them AGAIN they decided to meet me in person. They even asked me to fill out a form and I told them that my support staff literally did that over a year ago. So I'm honestly frustrated and annoyed.

I recently went to a national sub train chain and they got my order wrong again which reminded me of some of the more fun problems I've encountered there. These are my big three.

[FYI - Removed for rule 1, fixed and reposted. #3 is new since my original post.]

1. The Italian Taco: The bread was sliced nearly open, leaving a skin of crust holding it together. It was filled, like a taco shell, with meatballs, way too much marinara, and other stuff. When I picked it up, the skin of crust gave way. The ingredients burst out and marina splashed everywhere.
2. The Mayo's Edge: The bread wasn't cut deep enough. Meat and toppings were barely tucked inside, and hung out of the bread. Using a squeeze bottle, cheap mayonnaise was applied very generously to the meat and veggies sticking out. Wrapping the sub compressed it all, spreading mayo around the bread. When I picked up the sub, I got mayo on my hands, and when I tried to redistribute the lopsided ingredients, the bread broke, spraying mayo all over my hands, the table and a little bit on my pants.
3. Topping amounts can vary. In particular it seems like they choose a random number to tell each employee how many jalapeno slices to add to each sandwich. Most employees add between 2 and 12 slices, but I think they're able to convince a few employees to put on up to 40 or 50 slices. Also, one shop I ate at only serves fresh jalapenos, and there are no signs and they don't tell you. I guess they like keeping customers guessing.

Went out last night to a restaurant. Server was obnoxious. Didn’t bring out our full order, was pushy on trying to get us to clear from the table, and brought out the check immediately after we finished our meal.

The tip options on the credit card terminal started at 20%. I should have hit the custom option to give less but wasn’t thinking so selected 20%.

Is there any way to adjust it now? There isn’t a big difference in money, but it’s the principle. I hate to reward lousy service with a decent tip.

I was out of town for the last few days. Yesterday, I stopped at a breakfast place to eat.

One of the things I like to do when I travel is to over tip. I've worked in customer service and had a lot of friends who were servers. I know how tough it is so because I can, I do.

I finished my meal and the server brought my check. I put down enough to pay and about twice that much as a tip. The server almost started crying and I took her hand and told her she deserved it.

She left to cash me out and when she came back she had a the biggest smile on her face. She said, "The lady who was at the next table paid for you! You did something nice and she did something nice! She handed me back the money for my meal.

I've never been in a "pay it forward" situation before but it certainly made both my and my server's day!

Since the pandemic, I've really tried to be nicer to people because a lot of people seem to have lost their damn minds. I'm really happy to see someone else doing so, too.

On the Afternoon of Thursday, June 13, exact time unknown, a windstorm shook the trees around the house. Causing a power surge to affect appliances. It blew a dozen light bulbs, the main circuit boards in the Oven, and the Fridge. It fried the power brick of the WiFi router, and fried my Mother's Monochrome Laser Printer.

I started researching new printers, and after a few days, we settled on a $500 printer. It had the features she wanted; a color laser printer, with auto document feeder, duplex scanning and printing.

On Friday, June 28 at about 12:30 AM, the printer was ordered. At 12:52 AM, I received an Email from PaperClips, confirming the order.

*"Hi ____,

We've received order #__________ and are processing it now. We'll send you another email when your item is ready for pick up.

Thank you for your ongoing business. We can't wait to see you again!

Your PaperClips Team"*

At 9:02 AM the same day while at work, I received another Email from PaperClips.

*"Hi ___,

Your order is ready for pick up at the PaperClips store listed below.

Click the "I’m on my way” button to let our team know you’re on your way. They’ll have your order ready at the Online Pickup counter when you arrive.

Thank you for shopping with PaperClips. We can’t wait to see you soon.

Your PaperClips Team"*

After work at about 5:05 PM, I clicked the "I'm on my way" button and drove a few miles to PaperClips.

I walked in, browsed the electronics section for a few minutes, then headed towards the Print & Photo counter, the other counter was not labeled or manned.

I told them I needed to pick up a printer, and I told them the names on the order. They directed me to the other counter, and a couple of workers brought out the printer in a box, and gave me the receipt. I thought it was a little odd that the receipt was printed on unused perforated label paper, but no matter. I managed to fit the large box into my car, then went on a quick shopping trip.

After I grabbed a few ingredients from Ceilingmart, I drove home. I brought the Printer inside the house and showed it to my Mother. It was brought into and Living room, unboxed, and set up. And that was that...Until two days later.

Sunday, June 30th 9:02 AM

*"Hi ____,

Your order is ready for pickup at the ___ City PaperClips store and will be held until Wednesday, 07/03/2024.

Click the “I’m on my way” button to let our team know you’re on your way. They’ll have your order ready at the Online Pickup counter when you arrive.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Your PaperClips Team"*

Another Email? I already picked up the Printer, did they forget to put the pickup in the system? Is this an automated email that wasn't turned off?

I wondered, and mentioned it to my Father, he wasn't sure either.

I had to wonder for almost a week before I got a rather confusing answer.

Friday, July 5th 3:02 AM

*"Hi ____,

We’re sorry you were unable to pick up your items. This portion of your order has been canceled. We have dropped the pending charge and notified your bank to release the funds. Pending charges usually drop off within 1-3 days. If you have additional questions regarding your pending charge, please contact your bank.

We can’t wait to see you again!

Your PaperClips Team"*

They canceled the order? But we have the printer, what is going on? I asked my mother, and she confirmed that the money was still in her account, she was never charged for the Printer.

Unsure what to do, we waited over the weekend to see if anything happened.

Sunday, July 7th it was decided that I should talk to PaperClips after work the next day. I got a picture of the receipt, and had the Emails ready.

Monday, July 8th 4:49 PM, I headed to PaperClips after work. I headed to the same Print counter, and after a short wait behind a few other customers, I was able to talk to someone.

I said that I needed to talk to someone about a printer I picked up. The worker asked if there was a problem with it. I said not exactly, but that it is kinda strange. I explained that I had picked up the Printer, but continued to get emails about it, including one that said PaperClips was no longer holding the Printer.

He walked me over to the other counter, started typing on a computer, and asked for the name on the order. Another Worker followed and watched. He asked for the Order Number, I showed him the picture of the receipt. After some more typing, He explained that it was not marked as Picked Up in the system. It had been marked as Abandoned after the time it was kept at the store for pickup. Now that it is marked as Abandoned, it is no longer in their system. So we would not be charged for it. The other employee agreed and said that it was Luck of the System. I thanked them very much and left.

Back in the car, I headed to my cousin's house to pick up my little brother, and I called my Father to report. He and my Mother were waiting and She was surprised that we got the printer for free, she was expecting to be charged for the printer then. I explained about how the printer is no longer in their system. My Dad said that maybe we should buy Toner from PaperClips for a while to help make up for it.

Mom jokingly asked if I wanted to try this again; pretend to pick up things and get them for free. I said that once was enough, I have had my fill of a Life of Crime

I took my cat to a new vet after moving to LA. The vet's practice was inside a mall, and it wasn't sound proof in the exam room. Which is pretty unfair to anxious pets who are already really uncomfortable being in an unfamiliar or scary place. You could hear the loud echoes of people walking around in the mall through the thin wall. The wall was literally being shared with one of the mall's walkways. Suffice to say, my cat was very nervous. He was pacing the room and trying to hide. He didn't used to be this way at the vet's, but I think the loud random mall noise mixed with memories of some uncomfortable moments at previous vet clinics, made him more nervous than he otherwise would have been. He was usually happy and friendly at the vet. He certainly has never tried to hide before.

Turns out my cat had very good reason to want to hide from this vet. I asked the new vet about a marble-sized lump that was forming under my cat's skin on his chest. She picked him up and felt for the lump. Then, without warning, she pinched my cat's skin very hard forcing the lump out of his skin. My cat thrashed around in pain and panic when she did this. I was so confused and horrified watching this. Then she showed me this hard white mass and told me that it's just a cyst, and that it's fairly common for cats to get them in or around their nipples. I couldn't believe she forced that big of a thing out of my poor cat's skin like that.

I quietly (although reluctantly) accepted what happened in the moment because I still had other concerns about my cat. I wanted to ask her about my cat over-grooming to the point of having a bald spot on his belly. She said he was likely doing it due to stress (he was still getting used to my boyfriend-at-the-time's two cats, so this made sense). I asked if we could rule out rashes, allergies, or mites. She said sure but that she'd have to do a skin scraping, and it will likely hurt my cat. I absolutely didn't want her causing any more pain to my cat, so I said "Oh, never mind then". She suggested a few things I could try at home. I paid the bill, and then we left. I never went back to this vet again and I never will. The more a think about what she did to my cat, the more pissed off I get about the fact that she didn't even bother to warn me about what she was going to do to him, nor did she offer to give my cat any local numbing agent before removing the cyst. And the fact that she didn't offer anything to numb the pain for the skin scraping after informing me that it would also hurt him just turned me off to the idea of getting him treated for anything further from her. I am shocked and disgusted at this woman's lack of empathy and professionalism. My poor cat did not deserve what he went through. No human or animal deserves that while visiting any doctor. Never again.