Who here has ruined Christmas?

[DeltaSierra]

Only happened once to me that I can recall. I was working in the paint department at Canadian Tire on Christmas eve, and was confronted by a woman who wanted a specific brand of oil-base paint and we happened to be sold out. She wanted to repaint her daughter's bedroom that day, apparently, as the daughter was arriving the following afternoon. Who in their right minds paints somebody's bedroom the day before they arrive, let alone with an oil base (those fumes are a killer)??? Of course I had "ruined her Christmas" because she could only use this one brand (can't remember which brand it was) and none of the others I suggested was acceptable.

[AriRashkae]

Oh, the fun I could have had with that. Grandma's farm was in the middle of a coal seam in rural SW PA. After some flooding one year, part of the hillside came down, exposing a large coal seam. Local mine couldn't touch it because we owned the mineral rights. Anyway, giving someone coal for Christmas was a threat I could easily back up

My husband's grandmother tried that one year. He started drawing.

So the next year she gave him condoms and made him unwrap them in the living room.

[Bluenomi]

When I worked as a photographer taking Santa photos one year I ruined many a christmas. Apparently it was my fault if the kid was s**t scared of santa and refused to go anywhere near the guy! It's a bit hard to take of photo of them sitting on his lap if they don't want to go anywhere near him!

[ElizabethBennet]

I ruined like five Christmases in 2005 when I was working in a gas station where we didn't carry any gift cards, except for the ones for the gas station itself. The hilarious thing about that was that the gas station was accross the street from a K-Mart, which was open (on Christmas Day).

I ruined a Mother's Day this year when the Green House ran out of clearence (meaning half-dead) flowers.

[mariamousie1]

I love stories like this. "You ruined my Christmas by not accomodating me after I waited for the last hour of the last day to actually prepare!" Christmas is a feeling, and it can only be ruined in your own mind. For some reason our tree keeps falling over, half our ornaments got smashed and two baby ornaments got broken but it's still Christmas and at least we're all together and healthy. Still, I've never worked at Christmas so I've never ruined anybody else's Christmas.

[Crow The Robot]

I ruined Christmas by carding a lady's daughter for smokes. The daughter said they were a surprise gift for her mom and by carding her I ruined Christmas.

[Nurian]

"But I can't afford $300 and I don't want a new contract!"
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, I cannot lower the price any more (It was normally 400. I had to get special permission)."
"Well, I hope your happy! My daughter really wanted this and now she can't have it thanks to you! You ruined Christmas!!"

I'm sure she'll be fine. A 16-year old probably doesn't need a Blackberry.

[WageSlaveofDoom]

Ruined by a Nut!

Jeez... how many of these should I tell here?
My favorite Christmas ruin was probably from when I worked at the Other ticketing place. For shows of a theatrical nature, Christmastime can be the best and worst time to work ticketing. It's busy like retail, but sometimes with more unrealistic expectations...
The biggest Christmas draw is always The Nutcracker. Generations of EWs have attended this show. Lucky me.
So, lady calls in saying she needs to exchange her tickets. No biggie, I pull up her info and prepare to process the order. She had four Balcony Box Seats($) for a sunday matinee($$) and now she wants those exact same box seats for a saturday night ($$$$$). No discounts apply, so total upgrade? Approximately ninety bucks.

...

Lady: But-But-But that's absurd! I shouldn't have to pay that much more for an evening show! We'll have to make the children nap so they can stay up for the show!

Me: ( What does this have to do...)I'm sorry you're upset Ma'am, but the saturday night performance is the most expensive. I can-

Lady: -Don't Ma'am me, Missy! I have bought tickets for this show for my family for seven years straight! I always pay for the best box seats, and I deserve to get my upgrade free of charge!

Me: (So you acknowledge it's an upgrade, but still?) I'm very sorry Mrs.(as read from the account), but I cannot authorize any free upgrades. You can certainly speak to my super-

Lady: (getting a bit "ghetto" now)-Don't call me by my name, you don't know me! @#$%^&* You can't imagine how this will ruin everything, can you?!? You want to ruin Christmas, is that it? D'you want to make the Baby Jesus cry?

Me: (So what do I call you?)Uhm, hold please, and I'll transfer you to my supervisor...

The best part? "Her" box seats weren't available. Upgrade and all, and she'd have to sit with the common folk if she wanted to go saturday, and I never had a chance to tell her because she was too busy being "More Entitled Than Thou..."

NOT!

I think the rest of the evening was spent trying to figure out how the Nutcracker was so intergral to the well-being of the Baby Jesus...

[South Texan]

I ruined Christmas by carding a lady's daughter for smokes. The daughter said they were a surprise gift for her mom and by carding her I ruined Christmas.

I don't know if that is one of the silliest stories I ever heard or one of the saddest.

[WageSlaveofDoom]

I used to work at <The Chemists> and sold hair straighteners (sp?).

Uhm...

What do hair straighteners have to do with Xmas?

[raw456]

Many years ago I was a lowly dispatch clerk for a mail order collectable company. Got a call from a woman on Christmas Eve complaining her order hadnt arrived.

"When did you place the order?" we ask.

"2 days ago" she responded.

I calmly explain to her it clearly states "Please allow 3-4 weeks for delivery" on all our order forms and on every page of the catalogue.

She flies off into a rant about how they are christmas gifts and what was she supposed to do.

As a good will thing, I track her order down and find that it is ready to ship but wont get there to after Boxing Day. That is still not good enough for her.

Whilst this all has been going on, my manager (who generally was major sucky himself) was in a rare good mood (and standing behind me) and gave me free reign to deal with this customer.

I offered the customer a creative solution....... (who says I cant think outside the box)

I would pop her on hold, get on the other line to the north pole, have old Saint Nick drop by on his run, pick up her order and deliver it to her in the morning.

She responded with "Dont be ridiculous"

My response "well you started it"

It was at that point she demanded the manager. I happily passed her over.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

My husband's grandmother tried that one year. He started drawing.

So the next year she gave him condoms and made him unwrap them in the living room.

Did she get pictures?

I've got pictures in the family album of my dad holding up a pair of Playboy bikini underwear my Mom gave him for Christmas one year many years ago. Great blackmail material.

[karath]

Just a minor addition here...I haven't ruined any Christmases myself (its hard to do that in fast food, sadly) but here's a little webcomic linkage:

Tao Of Geek

Enjoy!

[ElizabethBennet]

I've ruined three Christmases in the last two days:

1) Lady forgot her wallet at home and didn't have an ID for her check. Whose fault is this? The cashier's of course!

2) We don't give away gift boxes for purchases (AFAIK, we never have) right by the register are display for pack of ten boxes for $1.99. And when you've spent $250 on clothes, why would you want to blow four whole dollars on boxes? Just wrap the clothes without a box if you're that much of a tightwad.

3) And I ruined Christmas as a customer too! I went on my day off (Tuesday) to pick up my new Nintendo DS that I got as a bithday/Christmas present from my Dad. I appearently had the last blue one in Best Buy on hold and some guy just couldn't belive it. He started screaming in the store that I had ruined Christmas for his son.

I'm getting very good at this ruining Christmas thing.

[ditchdj]

And I ruined Christmas as a customer too! I went on my day off (Tuesday) to pick up my new Nintendo DS that I got as a bithday/Christmas present from my Dad. I appearently had the last blue one in Best Buy on hold and some guy just couldn't belive it. He started screaming in the store that I had ruined Christmas for his son.

Isn't there an old saying going around that says, "Poor planning on your half does not constitute an emergency on my behalf"???