'What am I supposed to do now, genius?': Entitled customer orders used car part, wears fancy suit to pick it up from the auto salvage yard

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    N3K 537 SHOW ME STATE
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    You can absolutely wait to speak to the owner (long) Just found this sub and wanted to share my story from more than 20 years. I was attending grad school at the time to finish my doctoral degree (which I'm only mentioning as relevant bc the customer made a crack about intelligence) while working at my father's business, an auto salvage yard. Our yard was
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    located in New Jersey and this event occurred in August so it was hot and very humid. I was generally very dirty when I was at work with grease and grime all over my arms and clothes. If you washed your hands and arms every time they looked dirty, your skin would just get dry and irritated so with the exception of stopping to eat, I was absolutely filthy all day long. Our yard mostly dealt with shops and small independent mechanics who
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    came in looking just as dirty as I was so it was completely normal. Another point relevant to this story is this: I look absolutely nothing like my father. He is 5'8 and weighs at most 140 pounds and I am 6'2" and back then I was powerlifting and weighed right around 220 pounds. So here's my story. A guy comes in to pick up something he bought when I was not there that had to be taken out of a car. I don't even remember what it was
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    now but it was something fairly heavy (for him, not for me) and dirty. If we had parts in our warehouse, they'd get scrubbed and cleaned (by me) before being labelled and cataloged but parts coming right off a car just had the loose grime knocked off. So, the guy comes in looking very out of place for our yard wearing a button down shirt, khakis and dress shoes. He hands me his receipt and I tell him I'll bring it out the side door. I walk out with
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    his item on a handtruck and the only vehicle I see parked is an Acura sedan (very unlike the beat up shop vehicles most of our customers drove). The guy is walking around the front of his car talking on his phone but the trunk is open so I bring the handtruck around and leave his item on the ground with a piece of cardboard to keep his trunk clean and go back inside.
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    A few minutes later the customer comes inside wanting to know what he is supposed to do with the part to which I facetiously reply "Install it, I imagine." He wants to know why the part is dirty. I reply "it's used." He wants to know how he is supposed to get it home. I reply "in your car." He wants to know why I didn't put the item in his trunk and I point to the sign behind him (which admittedly is partially obscured by the open door) which says that we are not responsible for
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    loading parts due to liability for possible damage to the customer's vehicle. He turns around looking and shouts "What am I supposed to do now, genius?" (because I must be dumb if I'm dirty, right?). There are now two other customers by the office and I know them both well so I tell them I'll be right with them and walk around outside to the guy's car because I just want him gone. I throw a blanket over the rear bumper of his car,
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    remind him that I'm not liable for damage and I lift the piece up and gently put in on the cardboard in his car. To do this without damaging anything, I had to put one of my hands on the side of the trunk and I left a huge greasy handprint (largely on purpose). While I'm loading he is standing so close to me "supervising" that my arm bumps his arm and his sleeve gets dirty.
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    The entire time this exchange has been going on, he has been on his phone and he is now ranting into his phone about our interaction and he calls me "genius" again and I reply, "You came to a salvage yard to pick up a heavy, dirty used part in dress clothes with a luxury car. Who's the genius?" At that point, he also noticed the grease on his car and his dirty sleeve and he wants to know if the owner is here and I tell him Bob is working out in the
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    yard. He demands to speak to him and I say fine. We walk back around to the office and I point to Bob who is way out in the yard on the forklift moving cars that are going to the crusher. This is time sensitive because the truck will come to pick them up and block the entire street while we load so we have
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    to be ready. He starts to walk into the yard and I try to stop him and tell him it is too dangerous. He keeps walking so I point out that our doberman is trotting along behind the forklift. She was actually our dog from home and very friendly but we brought her with us everyday because we couldn't get home to let her out. He sees the dog and stops and I tell the guy he has to wait until Bob is finished moving vehicles and it will be awhile which he
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    says is fine because he is going to tell Bob exactly how his customers are being treated. Over the next 40 minutes, I walk past the guy multiple times helping customers and each time I pass him, he mutters something about me being fired and me being sorry. Finally, the forklift shuts down and Bob stands up
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    and my new friend seems ecstatic, banging on the counter and telling me that Bob is done and he wants to speak to him immediately. I walk outside with my new friend right next to me, climb up on a car's fender and wave my arms to get Bob's attention and scream "Hey Dad, this guy wants to talk to you!" And with that my new buddy says II you" turns and walks out, hops in his car and guns it up the street.

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