Customers that made me laugh

[4thecatylist]

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the two dumbest customers in two years of rental service. Enjoy.

SC: In this case, the "S" stands for Stupid
Me: Your friendly neighborhood rental clerk

**Phone rings**
Me: (Name of business), this is Catylist.
SC: Hi. I'd like to know what is takes to rent a generator.
Me: Okay. We have a 3000 Watt for 30 dollars or a 6000 watt for 55 dollars.
SC: Um. I don't really know what I need. I was just told to get one for (Local University Group).
Me. Okay. Well you will need a local drivers licence, a truck or van, and a 25 dollar deposit. This deposit covers cleaning and damage but not gas.
SC: Gas? This is an [I]electrical/I] generator, correct?
Me: **Muffled snorting sounds.**

She ended up not getting it when she found out it made noise.


Next up, a nice old gentleman and his wife rent a trencher. Everything is hunky dory until they come back. As I and the wife are walking across the parking lot I hear "It's stuck." This is never a good sign.
On the end of the trailer is what is called a "pivot jack" in my neck of the woods. It is a tiny wheel on a pole with a crank on it that can lift the hitch up and down and roll the trailer around when it is not on a truck. There is a pin that can be pulled so that the pole rotates 90 degrees to get it out of the way when the trailer is hitched. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_%28vehicle%29 and look at the first two pictures to see what I mean.
Well, obviously I wouldn't have gone through all of the above explanations if he hadn't driven down the highway with the jack down. The steel pin had been bent as the jack drug on the ground, the inside of the pole was a loose pile of greasy gears, and about a quarter of an inch had been shaved off of the little plastic wheel as it ground away on the street. It took me about three seconds to figure out how he had broken it and less than a minute to convince him he had broken it. His response:
"Oh. I thought it felt like something was dragging. And people were honking and waving at me the whole way here."



So he turned out to be a dear who had no problems with me keeping his deposit. He was upset for a few minutes because he thought we weren't going to be able to unhitch the trailer. (Solution: drive 3000 pound machine off of trailer, lift and move trailer by hand) I guess everything turned all right in the end.

[Apathy]

She ended up not getting it when she found out it made noise.

Moron. Maybe the university should have sent someone with at least somewhat of an idea of what a generator is.
I wonder if she called around asking for a silent one.

[olstar18]

Or maybe they shoulda kept the dope away from him for a couple hours before sending him.

[Evil Queen]

We had a pivot jack on our old Pop-Up camper. I didn't know they were called that. we called them "wheelie thingy"

We're so creative.

[Samaliel]

Moron. Maybe the university should have sent someone with at least somewhat of an idea of what a generator is.
I wonder if she called around asking for a silent one.

Well, I didn't know generators were running on gas... until I was 12.

[flybye023]

Moron. Maybe the university should have sent someone with at least somewhat of an idea of what a generator is.
I wonder if she called around asking for a silent one.

Actually, we recently had an church activity where they were demonstrating generators and there was one there that made less noise than a vacuum cleaner. Pretty darn near silent. It was awesome.

[edible_hat]

We had a pivot jack on our old Pop-Up camper. I didn't know they were called that. we called them "wheelie thingy"

We're so creative.

At my gaming club one time, somebody forgot to write the full name of a game on the lists (because we're affiliated with a university, we have to submit reports of all our activities. This is usually a list of what games were played ad how many people turned up, and yes we do count the security guard who comes to kick us out of the room when our booking runs out). The president remembered it had Mario in it, so he wrote "Super Mario Thingy" in the report.

[Arm]

We had a pivot jack on our old Pop-Up camper. I didn't know they were called that. we called them "wheelie thingy"

We're so creative.

you forgot 'goddamn' on the front of that

In our motor pool when I was in the army, I think we generally referred to them as 'damn fucking wheelie thingy,' but most of that was because they wouldn't fold when you wanted them, unfold when you wanted them, or stay cranked up/down.

...of course, that was also the equipment that the unit left behind* when it deployed. For good reason.

*(about 10% of the unit's personnel and equipment, roughly, are usually left behind if the unit has a stateside mission to support.)

[mattm04]

we have a 3K watt generator at home. We had a major snow/ice storm and we lost power for 24+ hours. After that we decided to get a generator. Well we got it and never had to use it for a year and half. Also we forgot to start it a few times.

The first time we needed it was in the middle of winter, a blizzard, about -2 (F) with 15-20 MPH winds, and a water rising in the basement. Since it had not been run in well over a year it was really fun trying to start it in the freezing cold. Of course to get at the little parts to drain the old gas fro the carb. you cant wear gloves.

Now have written on the calender every two months "RUN GENERATOR"