I’m in a fast-food burger place drive-thru late at night with two hungry and cranky little kids in the back seat. The total was $10.53, so I gave the cashier $20.53.

Cashier: “Okay, goodnight!”

Me: “Not until I get my $10 change, haha!”

Cashier: “Ma’am, you gave me exact change.”

Me: *Not laughing anymore.* “I gave you a twenty. I had one twenty in my wallet, and now you have it.”

Repeat the above twice until I tell him I’m not leaving until he counts his cash drawer.

Cashier: “Alright then, pull forward and come inside.”

Me: “I’m not taking my eyes off that drawer. No.”

He immediately grabbed a ten and shoved it through the window.

This story reminded me of something similar. A customer is at my checkout. She looks to be about fifty-ish years old.

Customer: “I want the 10% discount.” *Points to a banner.*

Me: “Those are for signing up to the store app. I can help you do that now if you like. Then all I have to do is scan a QR code, and—”

Customer: “—I will not be doing any of that. Instead, you will be giving me 10% off right now, or I shall be reporting [Store] for discriminating against those who do not have cellphones.”

Me: “We’re not, ma’am. It’s just a promotion to—”

Customer: “—can I get the discount listed on the banner if I don’t have a cellphone? Yes or no?”

Me: “I don’t think—”

Customer: “—I’m not asking you to think, girl! I’m asking you to answer!”

Me: “I’m going to call my manager.”

I call over my manager, and the customer voices her complaint.

Manager: “First of all, ma’am, [Store] is well within its rights to offer any promotion it wishes and set the rules of that promotion. You can, by all means, send in a complaint about this current promotion, but your consumer rights aren’t being violated by its existence. Secondly…”

The manager turns to me:

Manager: “[My Name], only if you’re comfortable doing so, do you mind telling us your age?”

Me: “Seventeen.”

Manager: *To the customer.* “Smartphones have been around longer than your cashier has been alive. I don’t think it’s outrageous for [Store] to assume most of its customers will have one. Now, is there anything else?”

Customer: “I’ll be reporting you all for discrimination! What if I were blind! What if I couldn’t read!”

Manager: “You read the ad banner, but good point! The promotion is also advertised through the store’s speakers. Feel free to report us to… well… whoever. Now, please pay for your items.”

The customer actually pays but keeps telling us she’s reporting us as she leaves. I don’t know who she’s reporting us to, but we’ve yet to hear from them.

Side note: My dad still has his original generation one iPhone. He got it the day before he found out his wife was pregnant… with me!

I work in a company that provides remote IT support; we’re fully outsourced, as we’re based in Europe. I got a call from a young lady working in the office asking to get her password reset. As we have to generate them in a format like ‘a6!juqp52’, I advised her:

Me: “You can change your own password on your laptop.”

Caller: “No. I don’t know how.”

Me: “I can show you if I can just connect to your device.”

Caller: “No.”

So, I obliged and provided her with the new password, to which she angrily replied:

Caller: “I won’t be using that stupid password for the next three months! Pass my ticket to the IT in the office.”

Me: “I can’t do that just because you want it.”

Caller: “Do it! I won’t be using such a password! It’s stupid!”

Me: “I can’t.”

Caller: “I won’t even try signing in with that password! I’ll just call you in half an hour, saying the password did not work, and to get the ticket passed to the IT department in my office.”

The calls are recorded, as you might think. I passed it to one of my managers with the conversation ID, etc., to which he replied:

Manager: “She doesn’t want to sign in with a new password for three months? Guess who won’t be working here in three weeks?”

Yesterday, I saw a request to get her account removed from the system.

Related:
Do Not Password, Do Not Pass Go, Part 6
Do Not Password, Do Not Pass Go, Part 5
Do Not Password, Do Not Pass Go, Part 4
Do Not Password, Do Not Pass Go, Part 3
Do Not Password, Do Not Pass Go, Part 2

Me: “That comes to $21.50.”

Customer: *Holds up a single twenty.* “This is all I have.”

Me: “Then I can’t sell all this to you. You’ll have to remove some of these purchases to bring it down to twenty or below.”

Customer: “But I really need all this. It’s important.”

The next customer in line feels sympathy for this customer:

Next Customer: “Here, I have a buck fifty. Take it.”

I take it from him, and both the current customer and I say thanks. I hand the customer their receipt, and they put it in their wallet… right next to all the other twenties in there.

Me: “Um, you just said you only had a twenty?”

Customer: “I didn’t wanna break another twenty for just a dollar and change.”

Twenty years ago, a friend of mine used to manage a bar, and if the punters were slow to leave at closing time, he’d turn the jukebox up full and stick on five plays of ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Kate Bush.

Customer: “Oh my God! Again?! Play something else!”

Friend: “But I love this song!”

Customer: “The jukebox is for the customers!”

Friend: “I’ve been listening to the customer’s tunes all night. The last customers should have left by now—” *Pointed stare.* “—so now I get to listen to my tunes!”

My friend then broke into song, syncing along with Kate:

Friend: “How could you leeeeeave me when I needed to possess you? I hated you, I loved you, tooooooo!”

That table left quickly, without finishing their drinks.

CORRECTION: A POV error has been corrected.