Imagine being bilingual.

If you worked at a store where a customer spoke in a language you understood but they didn’t know you understood that language, would you tell them you understood them, or would you listen to their conversation without them knowing you understood?

In this story, one employee finds herself in this situation, and she decides not to let the customer know she understands what she’s saying until the perfect moment.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

You didn’t think I understand that language did you?

Relevant background to the story: I’m half Filipina and have grown up around a big Filipino family. Though I don’t speak it passed basic phrases I still understand it perfectly.

Since I’m a halfie (other half is Japanese-White) most people can’t tell I’m Filipina.

Anyway I work in the camera department and in walks Filipina lady with her son. She informs me that she came from one of our other stores because they were out of stock of the camera she wanted.

On top of that she saw it from another company for a cheaper price and wanted me to price match it.

Alright no problem!

Managers let me price match/give discounts at my own discretion and I’m usually generous when it comes to this depending on how respectful/polite a customer is.

This customer is really rude.

I told her I need to look it up to confirm it is actually that price at the other company. So I walk them up to my computer and right as I’m typing it in she says to her son….

Lady: (in Tagalog) This girl is stupid.

I snapped my head towards her. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Apparently I’m stupid because I didn’t know off the top of my head how much the camera is at the other company.

You can insult my looks and pretty much anything about me but NOT my intelligence. Especially if it’s on an unfounded basis.

She decided not to let on that she knew what the woman said.

I decided not to say anything then and acted like nothing was wrong but I could tell she was worried that I understood her.

Me: Well yup I see it here for $XXX.XX. I’ll pull out the camera for you.

I pull out the camera and upsold the madness out of her with unnecessarily expensive accessories. I finally get them up to the register and give her the total at full price.

Time to reveal the truth…

Lady: Aren’t you going to price match the camera?

Then I slowly pursed my lips into a sweet smile.

Me: Normally I would but I’m so STUPID I forgot how to do it.

The woman looked horrified. She paid full price and left in a hurry.

Yeah I admit it was petty but forget her.

I love that the rude customer knew her mistake and didn’t argue about the price match. I hope she learned a lesson from this experience.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This is a life lesson!

There’s no reason to be rude.

Some people speak a lot of different languages.

This is funny!

Timing is everything when calling out customers!

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.