Hey, we all make mistakes…

But that doesn’t mean you have to be rude about it!

But I guess the woman in this Reddit story didn’t get the memo…

Check out what happened!

Ma’am, We’re A Bookstore.

“This was about two years ago. I (23f at the time) worked in the Customer Service section of one of those many online bookstores.

I’m specifically one of the temps assigned to work with our Kindergarten through high school contracts rather than are universities so during winter time it’s pretty quiet. Maybe 3-5 calls and about the same emails daily.

Mostly at this point I read eBooks or watch Netflix that my across the aisle neighbor and semi mentor, “Alex”, has managed to get up despite internet restrictions.

Now we were all trained to handle all the divisions and took calls for all sections until about a month prior when we got assigned our permanent (for temps) places. This is important.

It’s a very relaxed day (for me) but Winter classes are starting for a third of our contracted colleges so they asked a few of the temps who had worked them previously to help out.

Sure, I’ll do it.

There’s only ten of us but a few can be a big difference in keeping call volume down. I’m a people pleaser so I volunteer. I’m taking simple calls that don’t require a lot of knowledge and vaguely familiar with their rule.

So, all this is important because being I’ve only been here three months and it’s expected we’ll get calls we can’t handle so Alex is assigned to prioritize helping us (newbies/volunteers/voluntolds) out with issues. So she gets to put herself in Away for calls and focus on emails and us.

Things are going fine. It is mostly explaining over and over how to return your rentals, the concept that rentals have to be returned, and placing orders for courses students just enrolled in. Gets repetitive and things are dying down enough we’re about to be taken off their section.

Things were about to change…

And then I get the call.

So I answer the call with my customer service voice, hard won from years in retail and being forced to smile.

“Thank you for calling Bookstore. My name is Pepper. How can I help you!”

I am met with an old lady screech.

There is a certain sound in someone’s voice that comes from decades of chain smoking that I recognize from my all five grandparents, five great aunts/uncles, and two great-grandparents. And this woman had that rough crackling and was very VERY loud.

Loud enough that my neighbor to my left actually looked at me pop-eyed and Alex, four seats down, starts rolling her chair down to me scenting blood.

So my ears are ringing as the woman finishes screaming (and I mean screaming no words), and starts speaking very quickly.

This was gonna be a rough one…

It takes me a few moments but I eventually understand her enough to understand she’s upset because she is outside “our building” and no one is here and she is 65+ and it’s cold and she was told we are supposed to be open now!

I can’t get in a word edge wise and she starts speaking so quickly even I, certified speed talker, am only getting a a few words like “school” and “class”.

And cuss words. There are a lot of cuss words. The word **** seems to be her favorite.

This is my first time receiving a “hostile” customer and being yelled at. (Here at least.)

I’ve been pretty lucky so far and gotten used to a non-abusive work environment. I’m pretty anxious, I’ve never been good with raised voices, so my stomach feels like its in my throat and my hands are shaking a bit.

Basically my entire row is looking down at me. I’m currently the youngest of our group which is made up of almost entirely women, who have a habit of being a bit maternal, and as office baby they are somewhat protective.

Alex looks ready to rip off the headset and take over herself, but per policy I’m supposed to try to deescalate first before going to that “extreme”. So she looks at me first and I take a breath and shake my head.

I try to speak. If I try then I’m good and I can just pass it over if I fail.

I wait for a pause and say, a little shakily, that I’d be happy to help her and can she answer a few questions so I can pull up her school information and figure out what is going on.

She calms down enough to talk though its more like a wave getting heated and then chill, up and down.

It seemed like things were going okay…

She explains she’s there to get a book for her required class and the building is closed. I recognize the school from a memo about their on campus store having emergency construction and explain. She’s asks if she can order over the phone and get it sent to her house. Which she can.

Seeing things are calming down everyone goes back to work.

I sign in as guest and ask if she knows the title or the ISBN.

She doesn’t.

She does know the class code, which actually makes finding it a thousand times easier usually. So I search. Nothing pops up.

She doesn’t remember the course name. Can’t tell me more than it’s about cars. Okay, cool. This school has a lot of automotive classes.

I ask for the teacher. She hems and haws and eventually gives me Generic Last Name. So I use the shortening for the auto courses and start manually checking every single one for the teacher and course title. There’s multiple Generic Last Names and so I’m reading them off to her as I go. Nothing sounds familiar.

At this point we’ve been talking 30-40 minutes and she’s starting to get upset again. Though she keeps prefacing not at me, cursing the school, “our agency”, and everything from the weather to the parking lot she’s been sitting in while we speak.

I’m frustrated. She’s frustrated.

Finally she says the important thing. License.

I perk up because there’s very few courses for certificates/licenses which have different codes.

Progress.

So I ask which kind.

And she says, with the tone I am a little idiot for asking, “Well a driver’s license honey.”

And it starts to dawn on me.

I ask her “Ma’am are you enrolled in Fancy Private University?”

Now it all made sense!

In a perplexed voice she says, “Of course not! I’m here for my drivers test!”

The “book” she was trying to buy was, upon further clarification, some kind of booklet she gets with the driving lessons she is being required to take and pass to get her license.

Which are apparently hosted at this University.

She’s a little frustrated and building up at having to explain “again”.

So, I say, “Ma’am, we’re a Bookstore.”

Instantly any frustration disappears with a small “oh” and she asks me to Google the number for the “driving office” for her so I do and she hangs up.

Still not sure how she got our number.”

Here’s what folks had to say on Reddit.

This person chimed in.

Another individual shared their thoughts.

This Reddit user spoke up.

This is what happens when you don’t pay attention to what other people are saying…

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.