If you’ve worked in retail, chances are good you’ve had at least one customer ask if you knew who they were – presuming, of course, that they are important.

Most of the time this isn’t the case, and everyone goes about their day.

In this case, though, not knowing who the customer was actually led to this employee getting fired.

Check out the details so you can be just as angry as the rest of us.

When DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM goes terribly wrong

A few years ago, I was working at a used videogame store.

I was behind the counter, doing morning inventory, when a teenager came in.

TC: Teenage Customer Me: Me

TC: Hey, I preordered a copy of INSERT NAME OF GAME HERE last week. Is it in yet?

He was just following the rules.

Me: Let me check for you. Do you have an ID?

Check his ID, and he is only 16. The game he preordered was rated M, so I couldn’t sell it to him.

Me: Sorry buddy, looks like this game is rated M. I can’t sell it to you because you are under the age of 18. Is one of your parents in the car?

TC: NO! I PAID FOR THE GAME! I WANT IT!

Me: Believe me, I want nothing more to give it to you. You are right, you are paid on it. Company policy restricts me from selling it to you.

Then, the dreaded line.

TC: DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? DO YOU KNOW WHO MY FATHER IS?

Me: Buddy, I’m on your side. I want to sell the game to you, but my hands are tied. Just come in with your parents or a big brother or even an older friend. I can give it to you then.

TC: Enjoy the unemployment line.

He exits. And I think nothing more about it. This happens once a week.

A week later, the chickens came home to roost.

The next day, my boss calls me and asks to meet me at the coffee shop next door before my shift.

He commonly does this to go over monthly numbers.

Manager: Thanks for meeting me.

Me: Sure thing.

Manager: Yesterday, did you have a kid come in asking to purchase a game that he preordered?

Me: Sure did, he was underage so I didn’t sell it to him.

Then I go over the conversation with my boss.

Manager: I know you followed policy, but that kid’s father is a well respected businessman in the area. The boy’s father called my boss’s boss, which in turn called me. I’m sorry, I have to let you go.

Me: ARE YOU SERIOUS? For following company policy?

Manager: Yeah, it sucks, but the father is influential in town and he suggested we let you go, and here I am. But you get two weeks severance. Don’t worry about your shift today, I’m covering for you. I need your keys and your badge.

Just like that I was unemployed. All because I followed corporate policy.

This is actually wild.

Reddit really wishes he would have done something about it at the time.

Most likely.

Someone’s a bit too big for their britches.

It was a lose/lose situation.

Sometimes there’s just no recourse.

Almost all of the time.

Unfair is an understatement.

There was no way he could have known.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.