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Some shoppers become extremely confident the moment they decide an employee cannot possibly help them.

An older customer insists two young managers are too inexperienced to know what “waxed paper” even is.

So they check the aisle anyway and find plenty of it sitting exactly where she had already looked.

See how this in-store embarrassment went down.

You’re Too Young to Know What That Is

This happened last week.

I was co-manager with my peer (we will call him Buddy) and we start to do a lap around the store to make sure the team is doing alright and see what needs to get done before we leave.

Responsible employees. Will they get more than they bargain for?

As we start our walk, this older lady is about to pass so I ask her:

Me: Hello, are you finding everything okay?

Lady: (Angrily) No, I’m not.

OK, coming in hot. What does she seek?

Me; Okay what are you looking for so we can help you find it?

Lady: You can’t help me, I’ve already checked and you don’t have it.

Me: What is the item?

Buddy: If you tell us what item it is we can see if maybe it’s in the back room since you didn’t see it on the floor.

Buddy going above and beyond. What’s this lady’s deal though?

Lady: Don’t bother, I know you don’t have it cause I checked, I went to the aisle your employee told me to go and it was not there.

Me: What’s the item?

Lady: Waxed Paper

Me: Wax Paper?

Lady: Wax-ED PAPER

Buddy: Right, Wax Paper

Oh boy. We’re getting nitpicky here, I guess?

Lady: WAXED PAPER. You use it to wrap food like sandwiches. NOT parchment paper. WAXED PAPER. You’re too young to know what it is.

(Searching in our store device, typed in wax paper, says we have 29 on the floor in the aisle)

Me: Okay it says we have some so if you want to follow me we can go and look for it together.

(I have been smiling and have been super nice through this whole interaction)

Service with a smile. Will the lady reciprocate?

Lady: No, I already looked and you don’t have it so feel free to go check out what I already know for yourself and I’ll be in the ice cream if you need me.

(She proceeds to walk away)

I look at Buddy and smile.

What does OP have up their sleeve?

We walk over to the aisle where it said they would be and I kid you not, right NEXT to the parchment paper….

On the TOP shelf are at least 20 containers of WAX paper.

Me: Hmmm how many do you think she needs????

Buddy: One, just grab one…

Me: I think she needs all 20 of them!!! What do you think?

Buddy: (laughs) Oh god no just get one.

Buddy, c’mon! Have some fun with it! What’s a good compromise between one and twenty?

Me: (grabs 3 of them and finds lady) Hello, I wasn’t sure how many you needed so I grabbed three just in case.

(I’m smiling from ear to ear)

Lady: (looks up from her phone and sees the wax paper in my hands) Oh my goodness where did you find those???!

Eating her words (wrapped in wax)?

Me: In the aisle. They were on the top shelf next to the parchment paper so that could have been why you missed them.

(Cause you didn’t look above your eye line)

Lady: Oh gosh you must be feeling pretty good right now, making me eat my words.

She takes two of the wax paper containers and I end up accidentally running into her a couple more times throughout the night.

Oof. Awkward run-ins, the worst. How did she respond to the encounters?

Each time her face got super red.

It was a good night.

Sounds like this lady was redder than a beet.

Let’s see what the comments have to say.

One person says, let me count the ways…

Someone else says, ugh, technicalities…

Another person says, OP didn’t live under a rock.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who thought HR was doing them a favor, only to realize they were really saving the company money.

Another person says, ask for help if you need it… or don’t!

The managers found stacks of wax paper right beside the parchment paper, then brought several rolls over to the customer with a smile.

She immediately realized what had happened and spent the rest of the visit getting visibly embarrassed whenever they crossed paths again.

Turns out age matters less than occasionally looking at the top shelf.

The post One Store Employee Let A Condescending Customer Keep Doubting Them, Then Returned With Three Rolls And Completely Flipped The Situation appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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As children get older, so do their parents, which means difficult decisions about where the parents live and how to care for them often falls on the adult children’s shoulders.

If your parents wanted to live in a luxury assisted living neighborhood, would you be willing to help them pay for it if you could afford to do so, or would you insist that they need to consider less expensive options?

In this story, one man is grappling with this decision. He’s torn between helping his parents or telling them they need to find something they can afford.

What should he do? Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA for refusing to subsidize my parents’ $11k/month senior’s home in one of the fanciest neighborhoods in the city?

I (34M, physician) am an only child.

My parents are in their late 60s with serious health issues.

My mom has a slow-growing cancer, and my dad has Alzheimer’s (currently mild, still driving and managing day-to-day).

In terms of outlook, we are looking at about 5 years for my mom and 12 years for my dad.

They’re looking into assisted living.

Right now they are doing okay at home with frozen meals and some cleaning help, but they have said they want to move into a senior residence in about a year.

They have fixated on a specific home in Kerrisdale, Vancouver which is one of the more affluent neighbourhoods in the city, if not in all of Canada.

It is about $11,000 CAD per month for a 1bdrm, and that is just independent living, meaning meals, activities, and light housekeeping.

Any actual care like personal support or medication management would be extra. And assisted living or long-term care in the complex would be 2x or 3x as much.

His parents can’t afford to live there without his help.

Financially, they have about CAD $8,000 per month in pre-tax income, and around CAD $800,000 in assets (they don’t own a home). So they are not broke and have meaningful resources, but realistically they can’t afford this place long term, especially once they need higher levels of care.

The implied expectation is that I would step in and help cover things after they run out of money.

I could technically afford to help. But this is a potentially decade plus commitment with escalating costs over time. And it would affect my ability to make major life decisions such as where I live, career flexibility, and relationships.

He has other concerns.

I have suggested more sustainable options that are still good quality, just not ultra premium, but those get dismissed as not good enough.

My mom has always been very hard to please. Even when things are objectively good, she tends to focus on what is wrong.

So I worry that even if I do help fund this, it will not actually make her happy, and I will still be taking on a major long term financial burden.

He has conflicting thoughts.

From my perspective:

They are choosing a lifestyle above what their finances comfortably support

The current option is not even the level of care they will likely need later on

I am being positioned as the future backstop for an open ended, escalating cost

At the same time, I feel guilty.

He really is conflicted about this.

They are dealing with real health issues, and I can help.

Part of me feels like I should want them to have the nicest, easiest environment possible.

But I also feel it’s reasonable to expect them to choose something they can sustain on their own resources, especially when good alternatives exist.

He’s not sure what to do.

I am not trying to abandon them; I want them to be safe, comfortable, and cared for.

I just don’t think I should be responsible for paying for a luxury home in one of the top 2% neighbourhoods in the country, especially when it may not even meet their future needs.

AITA for drawing a line and refusing to subsidize this plan, even if it means they have to go for something less upscale?

It’s hard to make a decision without knowing what the other options are. If there are actually nice, affordable options, they should seriously consider those. I’m wondering what the difference is and why his parents have their heart set on this one specific location.

Let’s see what Reddit suggests.

A physician shares his perspective.

An RN weighs in.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who can’t figure out why her babysitter quit after what she thought was a routine question.

One person suggests a way to explain it to his parents.

Nobody thinks he should help his parents pay for a place they can’t afford.

Maybe he can do some leg work and try to find other more affordable options to present to his parents. Then, instead of saying “no,” he’s saying, “I like these better.” Maybe he has already tried that, but the reality is that they’re not thinking long term enough. It’s only going to get more expensive.

The post They Set Their Sights on an Upscale Assisted Living Neighborhood. The Only Way They Can Afford It Is if Their Only Child Foots Part of the Bill appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Have you ever lived in a place where the sewer line backed up? I had this happen once, and I’m not gonna lie. It was pretty awful.

We hired a plumber to come out and fix it immediately. The problem ended up being roots in our main sewer line that goes to the street.

It was not a cheap fix, but it was essential. There was no way to live in a house with a backed up sewer line.

What I experienced is almost exactly the same situation as what the person who wrote this story experienced. The only difference is that they live in an HOA, and the HOA should be the one paying for this repair.

Keep reading to see what the HOA does to try to get out of paying.

HOA wouldn’t reimburse a $1,200 plumbing bill, so I just served them an $8,800 lawsuit

So my HOA is trying to blame a main sewer line root invasion on an “improper cleanout,” and I just served them with an $8,800 Small Claims lawsuit.

Back in February, raw sewage backed up into my place. I called an emergency plumber who cleared the line and ran a camera, finding heavy root intrusion originating out in the common area walkway.

I paid about $600 out of pocket for the emergency clearing and sent the receipt to management asking for reimbursement and for the HOA to clear the roots.

Management told me that pipes on my property line were my responsibility, but said they would inspect the main line.

But the problem was far from resolved.

Fast forward to May, and sewage backs up a second time.

This time I got three separate licensed plumbers to scope the line.

All three confirmed structural root damage in the main line right near the walkway cleanout, with repair estimates coming in around $5,000 to $7,000.

I sent all the reports and footage to management asking for urgent repairs.

This is going on way too long!

Instead of authorizing the repair, management sent out their own plumbing vendor in early June to hydro-jet the main line and run another camera inspection.

But then they completely hid their own vendor’s video files and report from me.

I spent a month demanding copies of their vendor’s inspection footage, but they just stonewalled me while the Board sat on it.

The Board is really trying hard to get out of paying for this problem!

In July, the Board finally sent a formal letter claiming the issue was caused by an “improperly installed sewer cleanout assembly” that was my responsibility, and said their vendor’s hydro-jetting was just done as a courtesy.

Because apparently an improper cleanout magically plants full-grown roots inside a main pipe.

Under my state’s HOA law, they’re required to maintain common area infrastructure and turn over association records upon formal demand.

I hit back immediately, demanding Internal Dispute Resolution and issuing another demand for their vendor’s inspection records.

The Board eventually had to admit the truth.

Only after I cited statutory non-compliance penalties did management finally hand over their vendor’s hydro-jetting report and the camera inspection video files.

Of course, their own vendor found the same problem: root intrusion originating at the exterior clean out.

We held the IDR meeting on site.

The Board president admitted they didn’t even know the exterior cleanout existed, as mine and my neighbors units are the only ones in the community that have them. They said they needed 10 days to pull original city plumbing plans to find out where the cleanouts came from before they could resolve the issue.

But now they’re heading to court.

But an hour after the meeting ended when I emailed saying I looked forward to hearing back in 10 days, management replied to me saying they weren’t legally required to give me a written resolution deadline, and basically opted to kick the can down the road further.

I sent a formal Notice of Intent to Sue with a 7-day deadline.

They replied saying management would no longer communicate with me due to pending legal action.

So I went straight ahead and filed.

It’s more expensive for the Board than it had to be.

My claim is for over $8,800, which includes out-of-pocket emergency clearings and diagnostics, the main line repair estimate (or a conditional judgement to force them to take on the repair), and a $500 statutory penalty for unlawfully withholding their vendor’s records, and court fees.

All I was originally asking for $1200 reimbursement for the emergency clearings, and for them to commit to handling the repairs.

Every plumber said the repair would require them to trench 5 to 6 feet down in the common area, which I don’t even have any legal authority to authorize even if I wanted to.

His evidence is ready!

I served the papers and offered one last option to settle, but they let the deadline pass.

Trial is set for the end of September.

I have a thick evidence binder ready for the judge with four plumber reports, including their own vendor, email logs, and photos of common area bushes planted directly over the common area sewer cleanout.

Wish me luck!

The Board sounds awful! I hope he wins.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One person couldn’t hold back a pun.

Another person is impressed that OP isn’t suing for more.

Seems accurate.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who refused to let her neighbor have access to his spot, telling him to drive over the curb instead.

This is a good point.

The HOA is clearly responsible for paying the bill to fix this plumbing issue. They can try to lie, make excuses and hide from the bill all they want, but this is the reason homeowners in HOAs pay dues. The dues are supposed to pay for repairs in common areas, and this issue certainly sounds like it qualifies.

I hope the judge is on his side. The HOA needs to pay up!

The post He Hired a Plumber to Clean Out the Sewer Line—The HOA Board Is Refusing to Reimburse Him appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Bad management gets creative when impossible workloads still somehow come with absolute expectations.

An IT technician is told to personally check meeting rooms scattered across huge distances while also keeping executive meetings running.

Instead of arguing about physics, he finds a way to make the reports show exactly what management wants to see.

Let’s see how this one went down.

You want me in 3 places at once? You got it!

A little over a decade ago, I worked up in the oil patch in Northern Canada on different IT contracts.

The current contract I was on was maintaining virtual meeting rooms.

The oil company had decided that if you didn’t need to be on site, they would move your job south and pay you 25 to 50 % less. When you needed to meet with people on site, you’d book a meeting and all is golden.

The IT company I was with was amazing, but they lost the contract to an international IT company “A”, servicing oil company “B”.

He was lucky.

I was one of the fortunate few that got a job with IT company A; which was so unbelievably stupid. Most of the rest of the talent that had been working IT under contracting companies for 10 plus years took a walk.

I think the management literally sat down and said “What’s the absolute worst way we can mess things up”, and then they did that.

They hired a bunch of fresh out of college or unqualified people and within a few months our ticket count had gone from averaging around 50 at any given time to well over 600 and growing with no end in site.

This is all well and good, and we got chewed out for the ticket count being high, we got chewed out for bringing it down low, because our ticket closure rates weren’t similar, it didn’t really matter; good, bad, we got chewed out.

Company A was hemorrhaging money to Company B. Like every ticket outside of the allowed failures that was a failure and not resolved was a fine, and there were multiple sites.

This is not sustainable.

Basically IT company A ended up paying Oil company B to do IT for them.

Most salaried oil company employees who had computer problems took weeks or months to get problems solved, but they were salaried and it didn’t affect oil coming out of the ground, so it didn’t matter.

Except for the meeting rooms.

Managers couldn’t have virtual meetings with staff, things were getting delayed, and it was going to affect oil coming out of the ground, so it was a problem.

The 12 of us working there were given full time work and 6 vehicles. The supervisor took one for himself for driving too and from town and wouldn’t let anyone use it during the day, so that left 5 vehicles.

Specializing job duties can be a good idea.

It used to be that we were dedicated to a specific type of work, but now everyone did everything, and we were expected to just “Check the meeting rooms” as we drove by, or “if we had a ticket in that building”.

So all the meeting room maintenance was just not being done and the new guys that would get a ticket to facilitate a virtual meeting of the vice presidents, directors, etc… of the oil company would just not show up and the meeting would fail.

During this time I had been loudly and constantly complaining about our inability to “check meeting rooms in buildings that we don’t have tickets for when we don’t have a vehicle to get there anyways”, a coworker told me that one of IT company A’s managers had come North to review the situation, was at lunch, saw one of my emails, said “I’m not reading that”, tossed down his phone and ate his lunch.

So I just gave up, gave in, and did what I was told.

Hard work often doesn’t pay off.

I had been busting my butt to keep everything working for all the execs of oil company B for months, and it was time to “cue malicious compliance”.

There was a building in town with meeting rooms, our building on site was around 45 minutes North. Every morning, rather than being on site and working at 7, I would be at the town building at 8, checking a meeting room, stocking it with supplies, and fixing problems; except it wasn’t because it was in use and I couldn’t get in.

So, I would drive North and get to our building around 9 and start my day, do a few tickets, be one of the only ones that the oil execs saw that could actually make meetings run successfully, and then leave at 2 to go check a meeting room I couldn’t get into, and then go home.

This lasted about a month before the oil execs called in my supervisor, manager, and manager’s manager and said something along the lines of “Put this guy on doing just meeting rooms and meetings”.

I bet he was very happy with this.

I got called into a meeting with my supervisor, most of my other work was taken away, I was given my own vehicle, and I was told to check all the meeting rooms every week (a 4 person job) and to take care of all of the exec meetings.

I told my supervisor that it wasn’t physically possible for me to be in 3 or 4 places at once to check all the meeting rooms.

He didn’t care, he didn’t care how I did it, just get it done.

So I got it done.

Every time we checked a meeting room, we had to scan a QR code with a company phone that we would then export into Excel and submit as the rooms we checked.

Every minute of every day I clicked the scan button and scanned nothing.

At the end of the week I would export to Excel, then get the list of all the room codes, randomize them, paste them in, save, and submit.

He got creative.

Click I’m in town checking a room. 1 minute later Click I’m 30 kilometers North. 1 minute later Click I’m 70 kilometers across the river etc.

I breezed through rest of my stay there, attending exec meetings and keeping them happy, starting late and ending early, with my own dedicate vehicle.

I applied for a new job, was approved, and just had to wait on the background check; my start date was given at about 6 months out and I was set.

I planned a 3 week vacation at IT company A, months in advance, and then on my last day before vacation, I handed in my three weeks notice and left.

Friends made at work often last a lifetime.

I had made some good friends there, I kept getting invited to the social events for some time, and my understanding from the new people is that they ended up hiring more people, had put 4 people on meeting rooms, and still couldn’t get the work done (because no one ever bothered to learn it).

Eventually the IT company lost the contract.

Why is it that some managers think they can demand the impossible from their employees and assume it will get done? Of course employees will just find a work around like this.

Read on to see what the people in the comments on Reddit say about it.

He deserves it.

It worked out, that’s all that matters.

Usually virtual meeting rooms run smoothly.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a company that didn’t expect their work-from-home policy to result in better time off benefits for their employees.

This commenter is confused.

OP automated the appearance of endless room checks while focusing on the executive meetings that actually mattered and enjoying his new dedicated vehicle.

Management eventually assigned four people to the same work after he left, and the company still ultimately lost the contract.

Turns out being everywhere at once is much easier when nobody checks the map.

The post One Worker Raised An Obvious Problem With Being Assigned To Multiple Locations At Once, But His Manager Refused To Offer Any Real Solution appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Imagine looking for your first apartment after college. Would you choose an apartment you can barely afford, or would you find a place in a less expensive neighborhood that you can afford while also paying off your student loans?

In this story, one college grad is in this situation, and he chooses a less expensive apartment that will allow him to save up to buy a house. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with this decision, but after talking to some of his neighbors, he’s starting to wonder if he really should move somewhere else.

I don’t think he’s doing anything wrong. Keep reading to see if you agree.

AITA for living in a working class neighborhood to save money when I could easily afford to live elsewhere?

I (23M) graduated college last May and was lucky enough to get a well paying software engineering job straight out of school.

Furthermore, I only graduated with about $30k in debt (I went to a school with extremely generous financial aid, in addition to a couple merit scholarships).

I’m extremely fortunate and frankly privileged to be in my economic situation.

He knows what he wants and what he doesn’t want.

I live in a very high cost-of-living area (NYC), and my main financial priorities right now are a) pay off my student debt within a year, and b) save as much money as humanly possible to buy a house in a few years.

I also don’t want roommates; I did that all throughout college and strongly value my privacy.

I’m thus paying $1500/month for a 1 BR in a working class, predominantly Latinx (Dominican) neighborhood. If you’re not familiar with NYC rents, $1500/month is basically the absolute cheapest you can possibly find a 1 BR.

I love the neighborhood and get along well with my neighbors, but let’s just say that a yuppie software engineer (which is what I am, let’s be real) is pretty out of place, demographically speaking.

Yikes! The neighbors don’t seem to think he should live there!

A few months ago, I had some friends over, and the topic of finances came up. This friend group is pretty open with discussing salaries/rents/etc.

Long story short, a Latino friend (call him Bob) who actually grew up in the neighborhood and whose parents still live here pointedly asked me what I was doing living here, when with my salary I could easily afford to live downtown.

I explained my financial priorities, and Bob went off on me, saying it was totally wrong that I was essentially taking an affordable apartment away from someone who actually needed it.

A couple other friends agreed, calling me stuff like a “textbook gentrifier” and “the face of neocolonialism.”

Bob actually stormed out and won’t even speak to me anymore; when I last texted him, he just replied “ok colonizer.”

He’s not sure what to think.

I totally get their POV, and am very conflicted about this: there are people less fortunate who could use a $1500/month 1 BR way more than I. And I totally could afford to live elsewhere, though after maxing out my retirement account contributions I wouldn’t have much in terms of savings.

But on the other hand, it’s not like I’m an evil developer tearing down affordable units en masse to build luxury condos or a slumlord kicking poor families to the curb for being a day late on rent.

I have a particular budget, and with the housing situation as bad as it is in NYC, can only stick to my budget by living where I am.

Like I said, this has been gnawing at me for the past few months, especially now with so many people losing their jobs. So, AITA?

I think Bob really overreacted. OP has financial goals, and he’s not doing anything wrong by choosing to live within a budget.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person thinks he’s doing the right thing.

Another person thinks the friends are the problem.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a family who finds a technicality in the law that allows them to keep their pool after their neighbors report it.

This is a good point.

Everyone agrees that he’s doing the right thing.

Neighbors who don’t want you to live in their neighborhood are not people I would consider “friends.” He needs to ignore the bad advice and stick to his plan and his budget. He’s not doing anything wrong.

The post He Saved His Money and Skipped the Luxury Apartment—Now His Snobbish Neighbors Look Down on Him for It appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Grief is hard enough without relatives asking about money.

Then a widow learns her sister-in-law expects something for the nieces and nephews.

Her husband left no will, and everything legally passed to her.

See why sharing the estate feels wrong.

WIBTA not dishing out late husband’s money to nieces and nephews?

Long story short, my husband of 10 years passed away 3 months ago at the age of 45. I am beyond sad.

We are (were) childfree by choice. We worked hard, traveled, and got involved in community volunteering. I was so happy with my life.

Husband left no will, so local laws dictate that everything comes to me as his widow.

Now, SIL is making enquiries about his will and whether his late husband left anything to his nieces and nephews. He never communicated any such instructions to me.

His family is guilt-tripping her.

The late husband did not have a particularly close relationship with his family, other than texting and seeing them a handful of times a year. SIL visited our house maybe twice in 12 years.

I am being made to feel like I should give her some of his money for her children. While I see it would be a nice thing to do, I am grieving and have sole responsibility for our house expenses now.

I can manage financially, but will probably have to sell our marital home, which crushes me further. The life I dreamt of has been stolen from me, and I have no idea about the future anymore.

AITA?

Wow! What a sad situation.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit suggest she do.

This person tells her to keep the money.

Here’s an excellent point.

For this person, they’d be up front with her.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a sister with a bad history who found herself staying in a hotel instead of with family.

According to this reader, a little white lie would work.

Her husband left no instructions to give money to the children, while she was already facing grief and possibly losing their home.

Folks online strongly backed her, saying she should protect herself financially and shut down the pressure from her sister-in-law.

Nothing says condolences like checking whether the inheritance came with a family discount.

The post One Widow Received Everything After Her Husband’s Death, But A New Family Dispute Started When His Sister Asked Her To Divide The Inheritance appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Retail patience gets tested fastest when a tiny discount suddenly becomes a major personal grievance.

A grumpy customer insists the store is shorting her on a candy deal, despite the items not actually qualifying.

Instead of calming down, she starts criticizing the cashier and even complains about a coworker using her phone during break.

See how one dollar of chocolate turned into a whole checkout-line performance.

Mam.. She’s on break.

I work at a popular dollar store chain in small town Texas.

Technology issues!

We have an old computer system that occasionally needs to be reset due to its glitching. Before the events of the story, we had a problem with some coupons that wouldn’t ring up properly which caused a small bit of a line to pile up at my register. (the only open register at the time)

Most of the customers were super understanding and kind, they usually are, but this one particular person wasn’t the most friendly.

That’s okay, I can deal with grumpy or impatient, I’m almost always in a good mood and happy to help out.

It may sound surprising but I really love my job and my customers.

That seems like a good deal.

This lady, we’ll call her GC for Grumpy Customer, sets down 5 of those candy packages with the 5 pieces of on brand chocolate inside a rectangular cardboard strip, on the counter. We had a sale of five for 5.00$ for candy of the same brand.

This is where things immediately got rocky.

I begin scanning and as I was telling the last customer to have a nice day she cut me off,

Wow, this customer isn’t even giving the worker a chance to do her job.

“Yeah okay, I need you to total those and see the price for five for five to see if you will ACTUALLY apply this coupon.”

Alright. So, I smile and say, “of course we can absolutely check that for you.” I total the candies and the discount doesn’t apply.

“Oh, I’m sorry mam. It didn’t apply.”

Some people just love getting upset.

GC gets huffy and rolls her eyes, “yeah, y’all did this to me last time! You’re shorting me of my discount.”

I check the packages to see if they apply to the discount, immediately I noticed they weren’t made by the same brand/company. GC as I looked at the candies loudly stated,

“They’re made Hershey chocolate, I ALREADY checked.”

This worker is really remaining calm and friendly.

I didn’t wish to argue with her and thought that maybe our system made an error again. “Alrighty mam.. I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll go check with my associate to see if we can figure out the issue.”

“Yeah okay.” GC crossed her arms and begin talking to the nice man behind her, who had a full cart, waiting patiently while I walked behind a shelf to find my co-worker. I heard GC loudly ranting to the man, “This is why I don’t come here. They are slow and always on their phones!”

I didn’t know what she meant, we tend to keep off phones unless in the break room. I come back after telling my co-worker, an absolute saint of a woman, that I needed her assistance.

She is really trying to be efficient and helpful.

“Alrighty! She’s on her way” I smile to the man and GC, “We can go ahead and scan the rest of your items mam, while we wait for her.”

I begin scanning the items before I get to one of the last bags of candy before GC says, “Don’t scan that one.”

Caught of guard I say, “what?”

She can’t do that, she has to scan all the items.

“Don’t scan that one. It’s a dollar deference which is what you owe me for that candy. That way you won’t be shorting me.”

I hesitate and say, “mam, I’m sorry but I can’t legally do that”

She scoffs and I try to explain, “we can scan all these items and at the end when my co-worker gets here we can figure out if it’s the system and see if we can’t fix the discount for you–”

GC cuts me off, “okay do what you need to do.”

This customer is looking for support.

I force a smile and finish the item, “this is too much trouble” GC says to the nice man who says something with humor to lighten the situation.

GC speaks again, “This is why I’ve stopped coming here! she is taking forever because she is back there playing on her phone!” She was referring to my co-worker who had been on break, inside our break room, eating, and scrolling on her phone.

Good job standing up for the co-worker.

I speak before I can think and say, “She’s actually on break.” To my surprise this made GC stop talking and my co-worker arrived to save the day. Thank God!

She put her key in the system and asked what the problem was, “The candy–” I begin but GC cut me off,

“THIS is five for five. And its not giving me my discount. Y’all owe me a dollar discount!”

That was easy.

“Let’s see.. we can do this.” my coworker does some magic with the system and sets it right to get this lady her precious discount.

“Alrighty! There we go!” I say and total her items again.

“Finally!” GC pays for her items, “Thanks.” She stormed off quickly with her items.

“You’re welcome.” And I immediately went to the next customer, “sorry for the wait sir..”

At least this customer is nice and friendly.

“Awe it’s okay” he chuckled and cracked a few jokes relieving me of my stress.

TURNS OUT that the lady was wrong about the discount and I had been right to check the candy because it was in fact, not applicable to the discount. We went to check because it was strange even for the system to mess up like that.

That customer definitely did not deserve that discount.

My co-worker just added a discount to defuse the situation from getting any worse than it already was.

Some customers deserve a discount once in a while, but certainly not this one. I wish they would have made her pay full price.

Let’s see what the people in the comments think of this situation.

I hope this commenter becomes a manager.

I 100% agree with this commenter.

I was thinking this same thing.

Sadly, they often get the discounts that they want.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer who tried to skip the checkout line but didn’t get their way.

Nothing wrong with having a manager handle this.

The coworker eventually applied the discount just to end the argument, even though the customer had picked candy that did not qualify for the promotion.

Only afterward did they confirm OP had been right all along, while the patient shopper behind her helped lighten the mood.

Attitude costs extra, ma’am.

The post One Shopper Blamed The Register For Missing A Sale Discount, But Her Items Turned Out To Be Outside The Promotion Entirely appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Family dynamics can cause a lot of drama, but if there’s a problem that needs to be brought up, you can’t avoid it forever.

In this story, a couple is arguing about which one of them needs to confront a family member about a problem, and neither of them wants to talk to him. They both think the other person should do it, and the word “coward” is getting thrown around.

Honestly, I think they’re both cowards since they’re both avoiding talking to the same person, but the real question is if they even need to tell him about this issue at all.

Let’s read the whole story to decide.

AITA – For not reporting a leak from my upstairs neighbor to the landlord

I (M59) and my wife (F52) own a brownstone with my wife’s family.

We live in the Garden apartment, and my brother in law rents out his 3rd floor apartment for a high rent to a tenant couple.

I have been forced into the position of super because no one else steps up.

It’s not that bad — i deal with the garbage and supervise contractors for any building wide repairs.

You definitely don’t want to ignore a leak!

Last night, my wife and I were out and got a text from our daughter (F16) that there was a bad leak from the ceiling.

Fearing a burst pipe, I call the tenant and he admitted it was a “spill.”

I asked him to check on the floor between our apartments and if there was any leak, could he deal with it.

He sent a text with a full description of the leak in the parlor and his clean up and offered to pay for any damage.

They accessed the problem.

When I got home, we dried our floor. It didn’t look too bad, a rug got wet and there was some water on the floor.

By morning we saw there were wet stains on our ceiling and some other damp spots in closets.

My wife was very upset because the water was brown and yuck, and annoyed at having to deal with this at all. She told me I had to tell my brother in law about the spill.

It seems like they’re both cowards since neither of them wants to talk to the brother-in-law.

I didn’t see why given the tenant had offered to pay for any damage. And also, why couldn’t she tell her own brother?

(Her answer was, family dynamics).

She insisted and got pretty belligerent about it, calling me a coward several times.

As a compromise, I told her I would tell the tenant he had to tell his landlord (my BIL), but she continued on me, calling me a coward numerous more times and being quite aggressive.

He’s actually dealing with a lot right now.

Now, for context, three weeks ago I received a bladder cancer diagnosis, and have surgery scheduled for next week. I already had tons of blood tests and scary medical reports and a cystoscopy which was the single most invasive thing I’ve ever experienced (look it up).

I think I’m handling it all pretty well, so to call me a coward numerous times, including after I asked her to stop, I think is pretty awful for anyone, let alone a spouse.

And more context, ourdaughter was absolutely in earshot of all of this.

I thought my way of dealing with it was fine — insist the tenant tell his landlord and have the tenant pay for any damage. AITA for not feeling compelled to tell my BIL myself?

I’m wondering what kind of monster this brother-in-law is that neither one of them wants to talk to him.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person doesn’t think he’s doing anything wrong.

Another person thinks his wife is the problem.

This is what I’m wondering too.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who is confronted by his high school bully and decides to steal his Nintendo DS.

Everyone seems to be on OP’s side.

If his wife thinks it’s so important, she can talk to her brother-in-law. Or, they can let the tenant handle it. They don’t need to turn this into a big deal. Considering how hesitant they both are to talk to the brother-in-law, I can only assume he must be an awful person.

He has more important things to worry about.

The post A Tenant’s Ceiling Is Leaking—But His Landlord’s Relatives Refuse to Fix It Because “It’s a Family Matter appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Rewards programs are simple enough until checkout somehow turns into a communication puzzle.

A hardware store cashier asks the usual loyalty question, only for a customer to suddenly insist on paying cash.

Instead of clearing things up, every explanation seems to make him even more determined to hand over money immediately.

See how one rewards question became a very confusing lesson in checkout basics.

Phone number isn’t a payment, sir

I work as a cashier at a hardware store that uses a rewards system.

Today I did my typical greeting at the register, asking if they have a rewards number before continuing with the rest of the transaction.

This may have seemed like a simple question, but the customer quickly made things more complicated than they needed to be.

The following ensued:

Me: “Do you have a rewards number, sir?”

Customer: “No”

Me: “Okay, would you like to sign up?”

Customer: “No, I want to pay with cash.”

The cashier tried to explain, but the customer still wasn’t getting it.

Me: “…Sir, the rewards system has nothing to do with whether you pay cash or card. It gives you points which give you rewards.”

Customer: staring at me blankly
“I want to pay cash.”

The customer clearly wasn’t going to budge on this issue.

Proceeds to hand me cash even though I haven’t scanned anything.

Me, giving up: “Okay.”

By far one of the dumbest things I have heard regarding the rewards system and/or payment. He was acting as though signing up for the rewards system meant he couldn’t use the form of payment he wanted.

It’s tough to reason with people who refuse to understand reason.

What did Reddit think?

This commenter has had the misfortune of dealing with similar customers.

Some customers even kick their annoying behavior up a notch.

Other customers don’t even deserve the benefit of the doubt.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a restaurant employee who decided to put the staff over customers despite the official policy.

The customer in this story could really work on their listening skills.

The customer kept treating the rewards signup like it would somehow prevent him from paying cash, even after OP explained they were unrelated.

He finally started handing over money before anything had even been scanned, leaving the cashier to simply give up and finish the transaction.

Apparently the only thing harder than earning rewards was explaining that cash still works.

The post She Kept Insisting Her Rewards Points Should Cover The Purchase, But The Employee Finally Realized No Explanation Was Going To Get Through appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Friendship is supposed to be a two-way street, but sometimes the imbalance becomes painfully clear when the other person reveals their true colors.

One woman found herself in a tough position after her friend asked her to be a last-minute wedding plus-one, a request that directly conflicted with a family commitment already on her calendar.

Instead of respecting the hesitation, her friend escalated the situation quickly, accusing her of abandonment and reminding her of past favors, as if gratitude alone should override her existing plans.

That’s when a single wedding invite turned into a much bigger conversation about boundaries and reciprocity.

You’ll want to read on for the whole scoop.

WIBTA if I told my friend I can’t be her backup date for her cousin’s wedding

My friend Sarah recently asked me to be her plus-one for her cousin’s wedding next month because the guy she was seeing backed out last minute.

I said I’d think about it since it falls on the same weekend as a family thing I’ve already committed to.

But her friend didn’t appreciate being kept waiting.

She got upset and told me it’s just one day, that I’ve skipped other plans for her before, and that turning her down would feel like I’m abandoning her when she really needs the support.

On my side, I keep thinking about how often I’ve rearranged my schedule to help her out with rides, errands, and last-minute plans.

She starts thinking back on a troubling pattern she’s noticed with this friend.

This feels like it might be crossing into always being her default backup rather than a real choice for me.

I like hanging out with Sarah, but I don’t want every favor request to come with guilt if I say no. Her side is that we’ve been close for a few years and she’s always been there for me too.

She says this wedding is important to her family, and having someone she trusts would make the whole day easier, especially since she doesn’t know many people there.

Now she isn’t sure what to do next.

I’m trying to figure out if saying no this time would make me the bad friend, or if it’s okay to set a boundary.

Sarah needs to back off a bit here.

What did Reddit have to say?

This user thinks it may be time to cut this friend off entirely.

This friend seems to only have one thing on her mind: herself.

She deserves better than to be treated like a backup.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who gets fed up with her son not working and puts him in charge of nightly dinners.

Good friends don’t behave this way.

Saying “let me think about it” is not the same as saying no, and definitely not the same as abandoning someone, so the guilt trip here feels like… a lot.

A real friend gets that plans made before an invite even happened aren’t a personal slight. In fact, it’s just a big part of normal adulting.

Being a dependable friend doesn’t mean being on call 24/7 with zero pushback allowed.

The post Her Friend Accused Her of Abandoning Her for Not Instantly Canceling Existing Plans to Serve as a Backup Wedding Date—Now She’s Questioning Whether the Friendship Was Ever as Balanced as She Thought appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Parking etiquette gets personal fast when someone responds to helpful advice with instant hostility.

At a crowded Canada Day event, a driver tries warning another man that he is about to park illegally.

Instead of taking the free heads-up, the stranger snaps at him and accidentally makes a perfectly good parking spot much harder to get.

Check out how the whole story played out.

Tried to help someone who parked illegally, he yells at me. Pettiness ensues.

I was attending a Canada Day celebration with my 7 yo son in a small cottage/lake town.

The parking situation was terrible for several blocks around, but we got there early and parked very close in some marked diagonal street parking spots.

I noticed what seemed to be an extra-large parking space two spots over and was tempted to park there, but I realized it was actually a driveway and there was no curb there, and there was a no parking sign against the building a little distance away.

Anyone could make the mistake of parking there.

We were leaving around mid-afternoon when kid activities were ending and grown-up activities were starting to ramp up.

As we got in the truck, I noticed someone pulling into the “no parking” spot I saw earlier.

He got out and started walking away.

He tried to help.

I called out to him and told him it was not a parking spot and he probably get ticketed or towed.

Before I could continue talking and offering my spot to him, he just looked at me with anger and yelled “why is it any of your business?”

With my son in the truck, I was especially mad at him.

I told him I was just letting him know since I was leaving and he could have my spot.

Maybe that was a good time for that guy to learn some manners.

He stopped and said “oh, ok thanks” but I was already feeling petty.

I just said “maybe I changed my mind, and I’ll just sit here for a while.”

He said “do whatever the heck you want” and went back to his car.

I made sure my son was entertained with my phone, and I just sat there as me and the jerk stared at each other in a Mexican standoff.

But his lesson wasn’t over.

After 5 minutes of me smiling at him, he got mad and pulled out.

As soon as it looked like he was turning around to come to my spot, I pulled out when another driver came from the other direction and made sure the new driver pulled in.

I waved at the jerk and drove away very happily.

He’ll think twice before behaving like this again. Hopefully.

Let’s see how Reddit feels about this.

A reader shares their thoughts.

This commenter compliments the post.

Someone shares a story.

Agreed.

Another reader chimes in.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who is confronted by his high school bully and decides to steal his Nintendo DS.

He didn’t appreciate it.

OP originally planned to give the man his parking spot, but changed his mind after getting cursed at for trying to help.

After making him wait, OP pulled out at the perfect moment and waved another driver into the space instead.

He could have gotten a free parking spot, but somehow chose the premium package of consequences.

The post A Generous Parking Gesture Disappeared Fast When The Other Driver Started Yelling, So He Waited And Gave The Spot To Someone Else Instead appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Going above and beyond feels different when someone else gets rewarded for less.

At work, a licensed journeyman discovers a frequently absent coworker is earning significantly more despite carrying fewer responsibilities.

So he stops volunteering for the extra duties his foreman had quietly piled onto him.

See why simply doing his actual job suddenly became a management problem.

AITAH For quiet quitting because my boss is favoring someone over me?

I (m26) work in construction and have been with my company for about 5 years now. I am a licensed journeyman in my state, and have tried to go above and beyond to move up in my company.

Three years ago, my company hired a new journeyman (m35). This journeyman has been in the industry technically longer than I have, but has been in and out of jail for drug charges. He is still working through his past, but this causes him to miss work often.

I complete my foreman’s inspections, order parts, and have meetings with engineers and general contractors to help “free up time” for this foreman.

Then, he found out information he wasn’t supposed to know.

I have recently learned by means of an open folder on my boss’s desk (the foreman left this journeyman’s review out in the open) that he makes significantly more money than I.

I have more certifications and take on what I believe to be more responsibility than this journeyman, so I have stopped doing all the extra work my foreman has pushed onto me.

My issue now is that my foreman has started retaliating for my refusal to do more than my job description.

AITA?

Yikes! This sounds like such an unfair situation.

Let’s see what the folks over at Reddit think about it.

This reader would talk to the boss.

Here’s another person who would be straight up with the boss.

Harsh words, but a valid point.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer who wants to argue about an item they chose not being on sale.

According to this person, he should find a new job.

He stopped handling inspections, ordering parts, and attending meetings beyond his job description after discovering the pay disparity.

His foreman responded by retaliating when he refused to keep doing unpaid extra work that had previously made management’s life easier.

Funny how “quiet quitting” gets loud the moment free labor disappears.

The post He Found Out Someone Else Was Being Paid Much Better For Less Effort, So He Pulled Back At Work And Management Started Retaliating appeared first on TwistedSifter.

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Some neighbor disputes involve loud arguments, but this one just involved loud dogs.

One homeowner found himself at his wit’s end when the three rowdy dogs next door turned nearly every daylight hour into a barking marathon aimed at anything moving nearby.

Things got so bad that the homeowner’s own dog had stopped going outside altogether because of it.

Even when the neighbors tried to intervene, they could only ever get two of the three dogs inside, always leaving the loudest one still barking away.

Finally, the homeowner began to wonder how much more chaos he could tolerate.

Keep reading for the full story.

Constantly Barking Dog(s)

To their credit, my neighbors are perfectly nice people. Their dogs are just ridiculous.

These dogs make their presence quite known.

They have three, which seem to be outside for the majority of each and every 24-hour day/night period, or at least for 99 percent of the time between 6:30-ish AM and 10-ish PM, and they bark at EVERYTHING.

Being in close proximity to these neighbors certainly doesn’t help.

We share a fence, which also sits at the end of my house’s driveway, so the dogs can see everything in our backyard, the neighbor’s side yard, and my house’s driveway.

Every time we leave the house, they bark.

We can be pulling out of the garage, and they bark. If anyone is in our driveway, they bark on sight.

The homeowner is starting to feel like he can’t even step outside anymore.

Because they don’t stop barking until they can’t see you anymore, our backyard is effectively no longer usable due to how loud they are, and our own dog outright refuses to go outside if they’re out there, which, again, is pretty much 99 percent of the time anyone or anything in my house is awake.

To their credit, the neighbors do make somewhat of an effort to corral the dogs, but it doesn’t really work.

Oh, and whenever our neighbors notice and try to get them inside the house, which seems to only be a handful of times a month, they can only ever at most get two of the three inside by calling for them, and if calling doesn’t work, they give up.

And the one that never goes inside when called is the loudest one.

Also, they used to live in a city before they moved here (the suburbs). Could that be why they don’t really ever realize how much of a nuisance it is whenever we talk to them about it?

What a nuisance.

Redditors chime in with their thoughts.

This homeowner still has options.

This user sees right through the neighbors’ polite façade.

If it were this commenter, they’d go lethal.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a man who stops helping his neighbors out with his snowplow after they complain about his farm.

This user has another clever idea.

These neighbors may have had good intentions, but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter because the reality was so dismal.

As some redditors pointed out, these neighbors may have depended on a polite façade, but underneath was, at best, a complete indifference to making things right.

What the homeowner does next is up to him, but here’s hoping a solution comes sooner than later.

Everyone deserves a little peace and quiet in their own backyard.

The post The Barking Next Door Never Seems to Stop. He’s Reaching a Point Where He’s Not Sure How Much Longer He Can Endure It appeared first on TwistedSifter.