When hot chocolate mix isn't hot chocolate mix...

[Dreamstalker]

I was finishing up the tags yesterday (or trying to) when I was approached by an old lady.

OL: "I want hot chocolate mix!"
I take her over to the hot chocolate 'section' (which she was staring at as she was talking at me).
OL: "I want it decaffeinated! I've gotten it here before! Decaf hot chocolate mix!"
Decaf hot cocoa...? I've heard of sugar-free hot cocoa, but not decaf.
Me: "This is all the hot chocolate mix we have--"
OL: "No! I want the decaf powder!"
This is powder...
B (pricing manager while P is out) was paging me and I needed to get out of there and see what he wanted.
OL: "Do you understand what I'm saying? [oh no you didn't...you're the third person who has said that to me this week, first two were a vendor and a driver] I want chocolate powder to make hot chocolate!"
Ohhh... You want unsweetened cocoa powder. Why didn't you SAY THAT? How am I supposed to know that hot chocolate=cocoa powder? (some of our customers do make hot chocolate with unsweetened cocoa, but they know to ask for cocoa powder)

I'm usually pretty good at figuring out what customers need, but if they use one thing to mean another...

[ralerin]

At Big Red Wireless Company I don't think I've had someone say one thing to mean another yet but what annoys me is that sometimes they look for cases and they don't know what phone they have.

"It's an Android!"
"Which one?"
"*blank stare*"

or my favorite:

"Here it's on the back of the phone, you figure it out!"
*they are pointing to the sign on the back that says 4G*

*
side note, I'm having milk chocolate oatmeal for breakfast.

[bainsidhe]

Wow, you must be a mind reader. I still thought she meant powered cocoa mix.

[EvilEmpryss]

Uhm, how is any kind of cocoa powder decaf? Chocolate is naturally caffeinated, at least as far as I've ever known.

[strawbabies]

A Google search has shown me that there used to be a decaffeinated cocoa mix called Hershey's Goodnight Kisses, but it was discontinued a few years ago.

[crazyofficeclerk]

A Google search has shown me that there used to be a decaffeinated cocoa mix called Hershey's Goodnight Kisses, but it was discontinued a few years ago.

And that was a very sad day.

[Kittish]

The brand of cocoa mix I get for my boyfriend (he uses it in his coffee) claims on the packaging to be 99.9% caffeine free. *shrug* For anyone interested, it's Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate. And ya, even with as much baking as I do I wouldn't have twigged to cocoa powder with that woman.

[wolfie]

Ohhh... You want unsweetened cocoa powder. Why didn't you SAY THAT? How am I supposed to know that hot chocolate=cocoa powder? (some of our customers do make hot chocolate with unsweetened cocoa, but they know to ask for cocoa powder)

Sounds like SCs are cuocoo for cocoa powder.

[Dreamstalker]

The defining moment was demanding 'chocolate for hot chocolate' while insisting it wasn't hot cocoa mix; I'd recently seen a recipe for DIY cocoa mix using the canned powder so that's how I knew what she was on about.

Still, you need to use more words than 'hot cocoa powder'.

[MoonCat]

Ugh, she was being deliberately obtuse!

I like to add unsweetened cocoa powder to those powdered mixes like Swiss Miss. It intensifies the chocolate flavor without adding more sweetener. Yummy!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Sounds like SCs are cuocoo for cocoa powder.

Yep, that's what happens when one smokes it instead of bake with it.

[Android Kaeli]

Had a customer a while back at Random Craft store asking for material. Now she didn't ask for any type of material, just material. I figured she wanted fabric but because she didn't specify that, I kept asking her 'what KIND of material?' over and over again, and she kept asking 'do you have material?'.

Finally I said to her, 'you need to be more specific about the kind of material you're looking for. Do you need flower arranging material, or beading material, or even wood-working material? Because you asking just for 'material' in a craft store isn't going to get you far.'. She said she was looking for MATERIAL to make DRESSES, I told her if you had said THAT to begin with, I would've saved us both ten minutes and told you to go to the Mart of Wal across the street.

[XCashier]

Had a customer a while back at Random Craft store asking for material. Now she didn't ask for any type of material, just material. {snip} She said she was looking for MATERIAL to make DRESSES, I told her if you had said THAT to begin with, I would've saved us both ten minutes and told you to go to the Mart of Wal across the street.

GAH! Why oh why do people do this?! Are they just getting their jollies off of being difficult, or are they truly so concrete-skulled they cannot figure out how to use their words properly?

Ugh, she was being deliberately obtuse!

It does make you wonder, doesn't it? It's like they want to see how angry they can make themselves and how frustrated they can make the employee! Like some sick, sociopathic game. Isn't there enough trouble in the world?