Murphy’s Law And Customers: Do Not Mix
Railway Station | Newcastle, UK
Customer: “Hey, I’m booked to get the train tomorrow at 0800 to Manchester. Can you tell me if the train will be on time?”
Me: “Good morning. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to predict if it will be on time, but this one is fairly reliable.”
Customer: “How come you can’t just tell me if it’s going to be on time?
Me: “Well, there’s any number of things that could go wrong on the day that I couldn’t predict. For example flooding, the train breaking down, maybe even a sick dri–”
Customer: “Oh my god! All those things are going to be wrong with the train?”
Me: “No, I’m sure not all that will happen at once. Those are just examples.”
Customer: “So it’s on time, then?”
Me, giving up: “Yes, it’ll be on time.”
Customer: “Great, why didn’t you just say that?”
(Sure enough the next day the whole mainline was brought to a standstill by a lorry hitting a rail bridge.)
Customer: “YOU SAID IT WOULD BE ON TIME! NOW I’M GOING TO BE ****ING LATE!”
Me: “Sorry sir, but I doubt I would have been able to predict that! There will be a bus coming to take you to a different station where you can–”
Customer: *rants abusively*
Manager: “Look, would you just piss off? We are not omniscient! Next time you need to book a train, book it somewhere else!”
Customer: *storms out*
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*NOTE* the Me is not Vanima... just putting that out there now
