Ever had a "WTF moment"?

[Argabarga]

Yeah, back in the day (the 1940s) the first automatic transmission was called the Hydra-Matic. How old was this person? The last time I heard anybody use that term was when I was a kid (when dinosaurs roamed the earth).

To be fair though, the Hydra=Matic family of transmissions lasted all the way up to the late 1980's All the 70's and 80's GM cars I work on are powered by Turbo-Hydramatic trannies, like the TH-350 ( 3 speed ) or TH-400R4 (3 speed w/ an OD gear) right now I'm working on a TH-425 out of a Cadillac. [/mechanic geek mode off]

[HawaiianShirts]

I sell computers. I get little WTF moments every day. I had a fun one a few days ago, though. Couple comes in and approaches me.

Her: Hi! Are you a computer guy?
Me: According to my job description. How can I help you?
Her: Well, I'm looking for... I need the thing that goes, um, it takes my ComCast thing and makes it go, um, fwoosh (this is accompanied by a hand gesture that looks like describing a big explosion), y'know? Like... um, air?
Me: The... uh... (I just stood there for a moment with a furrowed brow, trying to convince my brain to stay in my head.)
Her: Uh-oh. Honey, I think I broke the computer guy.
Him: (Diverting his attention from a laptop and chuckling) You did what?
Me: Do you mean a wireless router...?
Her: Yes! That's it!
Him: Oh, good. He rebooted himself.
Me: They're right over here.

I've never heard wireless networking described as fwoosh before. Nice couple, though.

[Lace Neil Singer]

"Honey, I think I broke the computer guy." "He rebooted himself." Those two statements nearly made me spit out my gum. XD

This was something my dad told me, about a time when he and a friend were in Spain, many years ago. His friend went up to the bar and made an order for 2 beers in Spanish, and couldn't understand why the barman fell about laughing before, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes, he served him up 2 beers. When he got back to where my dad was sitting, he asked my dad and my dad put him straight; instead of asking the barman for 2 beers, he'd asked for 2 toilets. Guess that was a WFT moment for the barman, tho one that happened a lot seeing as he was able to tell what my dad's friend wanted.

[Retail Associate]

Ever had a "WTF moment"?

Nearly every day at work.

The phones we use are at least 10 years old. They're terrible because when we get outside calls it sounds like the person on the other end is using a tin can and a rope. To top it off, my hearing isn't so great.

One night when we still had our male assistant manager, he received an outside call from a woman who wanted to know what style/prices we had on a particular item. The problem was, the manager couldn't make out what the woman was saying. So, big mistake, he brings the phone to me.

Woman on Phone: "What styles do you have and what are the prices of your aaaahs?"

Me: "I'm sorry, our what?"

Woman on Phone: "Your aaaahs?"

I swear, every time she repeated it, I heard aaaahs! She then tried spelling it and I couldn't understand which letters whe was saying...the phones are that bad.

Finally, in exasperation she says, "I need to know the styles and prices of your aaaahs. You know, the things that hold your boobies!"



Another WTF moment...

One evening I was in infants & toddlers doing my thing when I was approached by an Asian couple with very heavy accents.

Asian Gentleman: "Excuse me. Can you tell us where the pow-ohs are?"

Me: "I'm sorry, I didn't understand. Could you repeat that?"

Asian Gentleman: "We are looking for pow-ohs. Can you tell us where they are?"

Me: "I'm very sorry but I still am not sure what you're looking for."

Asian Gentleman: "Pow-ohs...Pow-ohs!"

Me: "Power ....."

Asian Wife: (determined to get their message across) "No, no, no...the Pow-ohs!"

(They were looking for towels.)

[CancelMyService]

To be fair though, the Hydra=Matic family of transmissions lasted all the way up to the late 1980's All the 70's and 80's GM cars I work on are powered by Turbo-Hydramatic trannies, like the TH-350 ( 3 speed ) or TH-400R4 (3 speed w/ an OD gear) right now I'm working on a TH-425 out of a Cadillac. [/mechanic geek mode off]

Why this car is automatic
*BAWMP*
It's systematic
*BAWMP*
It's hy-y-y-y-y-dromatic
*BAWMP*
Why it's grease lightning! (Grease lightning)






(sorry, I had to..........)

[Linda]

sorry, I had to..........)

I'm surprised it took someone this long!

I had a WTF moment last week.

Me: So your dry cleaning will be ready Friday at 4.
Clueless woman: Oh, that's no good for me.
M: Oh? When did you need it by?
CW: Saturday morning.
M: OK, that's fine, it'll be ready Friday at 4, but you can pick up Saturday if that's easier for you..
CW: No, that really won't do. I need it on Saturday, not Friday.
M: No problem, but if you decide you need it sooner, it'll be here Friday evening.
CW: <sigh> If you can't do it for Saturday for me, thenI'll take it elsewhere!

So I tried to explain again that she could pick up Saturday. But she wouldn't leave until I changed her ticket to read Saturday 9am.

And no, this woman was different to the "2 days is too long but 48 hours was good" woman...

[Boozy]

Okay, that's incredibly dumb. Wow.
I can't believe you had to change the time and date on the ticket.

[Andara Bledin]

.... I think something in my brain just broke...

^-.-^

[AFpheonix]

I get little wtf moments most every day, but I have one that about rendered me speechless:
A woman came in asking for non-sterile gauze. She didn't want to pay more for sterile gauze, as it was going to go in her mouth and get dirty anyways.
She then asked if instead of gauze, she could pack her oral wound with a feminine napkin.

The pharmacist and I managed to wait until she was gone about 10 feet before we started laughing so hard we had tears streaming down our faces.

[coldcupofjoe]

I've been asked how much I charge per hour before.

She was asking how much I got paid, because she was looking for a job. But it kinda threw me for a loop.

[Shabo]

I think the best WTF moment was when I was visiting a staff office to drop off an old computer that we had just repaired, and a gentleman down there was asking me if I was bringing him a computer that would replace his heap of junk. Mind you, the computer he had was *far* newer than the one I was delivering. I was kind of like, uh, no, you want to keep the one you had. Then he tells me that the "stupid computer won't let me on." and that it hasn't done so for *3 weeks*. But wait, it gets better. 3 weeks prior, he had changed his "Endora" (Eudora-- email client) password, and now the computer won't let him log in. *That's because your email password and your computer log on password are not connected. They are separate passwords with no correlation to each other. But he can't grasp this concept*. I end up changing his computer log on password to be what his email password is, then make sure everything else is working. While I'm going into the computer to change his password, he gets a phonecall. As soon as I'm done, he's done with his phone call, and goes, "wait, what did you just do there? I missed that." I just simply said, don't worry about that, you will never have to do that ever. I promise. He's satisfied with the answer, I have him type in his password to log in, it works, we check his email, change that password, that works, he's done.

Ok, I can understand not knowing the difference between the passwords, he's an older guy, but not calling us for 3 WEEKS???

[ArenaBoy]

Every now and then I get those moments.

There's Expensive Dinner Man we all know that story. (Updates will be coming soon, just have to let a few things play out first.)

I once had a guy pull in and he happened to have a pass but we couldn't let him into the lot (Reserved spots). Keep in mind for this one it was a Sunday when this happened.

SC: I called Whiskeyclone on Friday and they said they had plenty of spots available for Cheez-Whiz games for this lot.

Me: I still can't let you in as you're in the wrong lot.

SC: NO! This is the right lot!

Me: Technically part of it is but we're full on spaces and the rest is all reserved, can't let you in.

SC: I CALLED ON FRIDAY!! THEY SAID THAT THERE WOULD BE PLENTY OF SPOTS ON THIS SIDE!

Me: They were probably under the assumption that you had a Musa pass and not VIP. I can't let you in, we're full.

SC: YOUR BOSS IS GOING TO HEAR ABOUT THIS!!! *SCREECH*


There was the religious woman who called me Satan's Spawn during a religious conference all because of the $10 parking charge.

There was an H2 Hummer that I witnessed getting 5 feet of air just from hitting a traffic island.

We once had a guy who tried to get a discount by dropping a name, he got the first name right but the last name wrong.

I'll miss the weirdness when I leave but definitely not the SCs.

[Jack7957]

As soon as I brought the manager in, his wife came up to us and apologized while laughing due to her husband not knowing how to say hors d’œuvre (pronounced "or durv") and for him getting so worked up about it.

We jokingly refer to them as "horse doovers" in my family. I think we picked it up from "The Simpsons"

[amyrun77]

Cut Off

When I first started my job a guy tried to return a man's polo shirt that his wife had bought for herself. There was a small hole next to the embroidered emblem on the shirt. This would not have been a problem except for the fact that the lady had thought the shirt was too long on her and had cut off the bottom of it off. When I explained to the man that he could not return the shirt, he threw a fit. He started screaming that we had sold him a shirt with a defect in it and he wanted his money back. He caused such a scene that mall security was called. He was escorted out and never returned.

[Mike Taylor]

I have two wtf moments related by a common theme.

1. When I worked at Subway one Friday night, I overheard this exchange between the cashier and a drunk women from the bar next door.

CASHIER: Will that be a six inch sandwich?
DRUNK WOMAN: Honey, I'll take six inches of anything you got!

2. When I worked for FAO Schwarz, the big upscale toy shop, I had a woman quite innocently ask me this question.

"Do you have a twelve inch Woody?" (meaning Buzz's pal from Toy Story)

Naturally, I replied with a big shit-eating grin as she realized what she said,"Why yes I do! "