I am working with a new hire going through all the prep work before we open. I am picking pimentos out of olives to stuff them with other stuff.

New Hire: “I bet that’s just the worst job…”

I’ll bite.

Me: “What job’s that?”

New Hire: “Making pimento cheese. Can you imagine having to pick all those pimentos out of olives just to make cheese? No wonder it’s so expensive!”

Now I know why they kept him doing the dishes.

I really wanted my own cosplay outfit; I went for the Brotherhood of Steel from the “Fallout” game series.

I went onto [Handmade Craft Site] and found an amazing outfit made by (apparently) a place that makes Hollywood movie props, so I went ahead and ordered a full suit that set me back £1,200.

The guy selling it took a week to get back to me to confirm the order, already making me feel uneasy; I had just sent £1,200 to some dude in the USA.

Obviously, it takes time to make a suit to measure, but this guy’s response time got slower and slower until he appeared to have gone offline for good.

I remembered him saying he was not too up on technology, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I got an email from him saying he was going on holiday and would be back in two weeks.

Six weeks and countless emails later, nothing.

I finally got a message from PayPal.

PayPal: “An order you placed has yet to be marked for delivery/completed. You only have seven days left to put in a dispute before time runs out.”

I sent [Seller] another email and got no response.

On day two, I sent him an email and got no response.

This repeated for day three, all the way up to:

Me: “Dude, I have twenty-four hours to put in a dispute. Please respond.”

And guess what? You guessed it: no response.

I was a little cheesed off, as well, as he knew I had a deadline: the midnight release of “Fallout 4”. I had the copy that came with the Pip-Boy, too (and had ordered a working custom Pip-Boy from [Seller]).

That deadline had come and gone. I was playing “Fallout 4” between sending him emails. I finally gave up with three hours to spare and put in a PayPal dispute.

PayPal asked me to allow two weeks for them to attempt to contact [Seller], and I agreed. In those two weeks, [Seller] didn’t respond to ANY of their communications, so they sided with me and refunded the £1,200.

The end of it, yes?

No, actually.

Two weeks later, I had to go pick up a delivery that had import tax to pay. I didn’t realize it at first, but when I opened the package at home, it was my cosplay outfit and Pip-Boy!

I loaded up my email program to try to make contact again and found an email waiting for me.

Seller: “Why did you dispute the transaction?! You’ve f****** scammed me! You’re a con artist! I’ve been had! F*** you!”

I sent an email back stating how he hadn’t responded to me and just for all I knew had up and died. Not only that, but PayPal had tried, and he’d ignored them, too. What did he expect to happen?

I also offered to return the £1,200 as I was looking at the product and was more than happy with it; the deadline I could get over.

His response? Lots of swearing and more abuse, and it ended with:

Seller: “I’m not comfortable giving you more personal details. You’ll be hearing from my lawyer!”

It’s been about eight years. I have not heard from anyone’s lawyers, I got a free cosplay outfit, and I had some leftover cash to treat my parents. I also ended up buying an “Oculus Rift” DKII!

I still feel kind of bad…

When my store’s location closed, I worked at two locations that were farther away. One was in a better mall than I had worked in. The other was one of the top three high-end malls in our province at the time.

I’m working in one of the high-end areas, and I witness a customer asking my coworker a question.

Customer: “Excuse me, how much is this?”

Coworker: “If you have to ask, can you afford it?”

The customer leaves.

Me: “Wasn’t that a bit rude?”

Coworker: “Our customers have money. If they want it, they’ll buy it.”

Me: “Oh, where I came from, two-thirds of the customers would always ask, ‘Why’s it so expensive?'”

Coworker: “Treat them like crap, honey. Trust me, they’ll buy it anyway.”

That, I could not do, and guess what? My sales were astronomical!

Apparently, rich people (like all people, I guess) like it when you are nice to them! Both locations offered me a manager’s position, but I took the store closest to me. Before I left, I had to retrain the staff on the system, including the owner and her sister.

I was making $17 an hour in 2000, which was double the minimum wage. Good times.

Once upon a time, I was a travel agent and accepted a job at a small family-run agency in Austin. Both owners also worked there along with their daughter, and they were not good managers. They were also really cheap b*****ds.

When I joined, I brought the agency a ton of business, including a very big corporate account. When I’d finally had enough of all of the stupid interoffice conflict, I applied and got a job at another agency where I had always wanted to work and gave two weeks’ notice.

Instead, I was summarily escorted out the door within minutes of giving my notice.

This was back in the medieval days when we all had a Rolodex where we kept our important contacts, and the owners refused to allow me to take it with me. I knew the names and numbers of all the clients that I wanted to take with me anyway. Whatever.

I had worked there for two years by that point. Eight months prior, the owners had sent me on a familiarization trip, which was a pretty customary way to allow an agent to experience a destination to better sell it. As I had never skied before, they sent me to Colorado for four days. The entire trip cost them $125, which included my airline ticket, shuttle, lodging, ski pass, equipment, and one morning of beginner lessons. Meals were on me, which was fine. When I received my last paycheck, they had written on the stub that they had deducted the $125.00. Again, whatever.

I immediately spent the entire morning calling everyone that I had ever worked with there, whether I really enjoyed working with them or not. If they had spent money with me, they got a call. Everyone.

The big account, of course, came with me, along with 99% of the clientele, including those clients that I had developed through the last agency.

I ran into an airline representative at a function about six months later, and he told me that the travel agency owner had whined and complained that I’d cost him $250,000.00 in that time alone — all for a measly $125.00.

I work at a popular retail chain. I find a sweater left somewhere, and I hand it to my manager.

Me: “Someone left a sweater.”

Manager: “Okay, leave it with the go-backs.”

Me: “I think it was a customer’s; I don’t think it’s inventory.”

Manager: “Just leave it there anyway, and when I get to it, I’ll check.”

I just shrug and do as I’m told.

At the end of the day, I notice that the sweater has ended up in the go-backs. I inform my manager.

Me: “This sweater is dirty and has stains; it’s clearly used. It should go in the lost and found.”

Manager: *Walking past me* “I am literally not paid enough to care.”

I just sighed and put the sweater into the lost and found drawer.