Company Policy is that customers cannot use our phone. There are payphones right outside. We don't get a cut of their take: we provide them as a public service. We will make change.
I save myself a lot of whining and pleading by responding to requests to use the phone by saying, "Our phone doesn't call out." I can clarify that to, "Our phone can't make outgoing calls," if they insist. It's a lie, but it's what I call "the functional truth", which is; it's no different from the truth on your end: no you can't use the phone.
Saturday night, this lady comes in. I remember her from the previous Saturday, so I know exactly what she's going to say.
"I left my cell phone in my friend's car, can I use your phone?"
Well, that's original. Last week, you'd 'run out of minutes'. "I'm sorry, but our phone doesn't call out."
"Oh." And she walked over to the soda fountain with the cup she'd brought it.
I thought that went surprisingly well.
When she came up to the counter, she had a quart of chocolate milk and had filled the cup with ... well, it was clear, but it did appear to have bubbles in it. I decide to give her the benefit of the doubt (because I'm a nice guy, and she took the 'no' for the phone so well) and call it water, which is free
"That'll be $2.02" *Which is convenient,* I think, *because now you'll have change for the phone.*
She digs out a wad of bills, with at least ten ones and at least one twenty in there, counts out two one dollar bills and hands them to me, and then says, "Can I have two cents?" to .... well, me I guess, since nobody else was standing nearby.
"Um, .... I don't ..." I say, trying to keep the words "How much nerve have you GOT, lady!" out of my mouth. The milk is clearly priced, soda refils are $0.85 with tax, so you knew you'd be spending close to $3. I give you an inch and you ask for two cents more.
So she turns and asks a stranger if he can give her two cents. Then, realizing she's clearly holding a wad of ones, she adds, "I can't break this 'cause I need the bills ....."
God bless him, he's just as creeped out as I am and says no.
So she gives me a third one, and takes her $0.98 change (which, remember, is plenty for a phone call), then she goes outside.
She then asks a customer who was entering the store if she can use his phone. When he says no, she follows him back into the store to ask me if she can use my cell phone, because she, "left her phone in my friends car, and their number is in my phone, and I tried calling my phone but for some reason it's off." I told her I don't have a cell phone. My co-worker said her phone was dead and she didn't have her charger. So the lady went outside to annoy more customers.
I've thought about it quite a bit, and the only explanation I can come up with that fits all the facts is this: her drug dealer won't take calls from a payphone. And that's really not my problem.
I save myself a lot of whining and pleading by responding to requests to use the phone by saying, "Our phone doesn't call out." I can clarify that to, "Our phone can't make outgoing calls," if they insist. It's a lie, but it's what I call "the functional truth", which is; it's no different from the truth on your end: no you can't use the phone.
Saturday night, this lady comes in. I remember her from the previous Saturday, so I know exactly what she's going to say.
"I left my cell phone in my friend's car, can I use your phone?"
Well, that's original. Last week, you'd 'run out of minutes'. "I'm sorry, but our phone doesn't call out."
"Oh." And she walked over to the soda fountain with the cup she'd brought it.
I thought that went surprisingly well.
When she came up to the counter, she had a quart of chocolate milk and had filled the cup with ... well, it was clear, but it did appear to have bubbles in it. I decide to give her the benefit of the doubt (because I'm a nice guy, and she took the 'no' for the phone so well) and call it water, which is free
"That'll be $2.02" *Which is convenient,* I think, *because now you'll have change for the phone.*
She digs out a wad of bills, with at least ten ones and at least one twenty in there, counts out two one dollar bills and hands them to me, and then says, "Can I have two cents?" to .... well, me I guess, since nobody else was standing nearby.
"Um, .... I don't ..." I say, trying to keep the words "How much nerve have you GOT, lady!" out of my mouth. The milk is clearly priced, soda refils are $0.85 with tax, so you knew you'd be spending close to $3. I give you an inch and you ask for two cents more.
So she turns and asks a stranger if he can give her two cents. Then, realizing she's clearly holding a wad of ones, she adds, "I can't break this 'cause I need the bills ....."
God bless him, he's just as creeped out as I am and says no.
So she gives me a third one, and takes her $0.98 change (which, remember, is plenty for a phone call), then she goes outside.
She then asks a customer who was entering the store if she can use his phone. When he says no, she follows him back into the store to ask me if she can use my cell phone, because she, "left her phone in my friends car, and their number is in my phone, and I tried calling my phone but for some reason it's off." I told her I don't have a cell phone. My co-worker said her phone was dead and she didn't have her charger. So the lady went outside to annoy more customers.
I've thought about it quite a bit, and the only explanation I can come up with that fits all the facts is this: her drug dealer won't take calls from a payphone. And that's really not my problem.
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