Man that one was a doozie. I will never know how people can't use their higher brain functions when they're upset and understand that the person at the front desk isn't the person that you have to take issue with (and if something is your fault, you just have to eat crow and deal). It will never cease to amaze me. Glad you maintained your amicability despite it ruining your day.
I've got one that's more funny/mean than actual mean. Long story short, I used to work IT and one of my jobs was getting people's routers working proper with all their devices (along with hooking up wireless repeaters and things of that nature). I was on the tier 2 line, so I didn't get things like repair calls, or replacement calls for items. I'd been specifically trained to handle internet and router related issues. Now, sometimes, someone on the baseline would route a call to the wrong department and, since we'd been trained on baseline, we'd just have to suck it up and take the call. This didn't happen all the time but you just had to roll with it if it did.
Which is what happened to me. I'd been working routers all day and suddenly a call came in on a repair for a router accessory (basically a USB wireless internet attachment). The lady on the end was distraught because her device didn't turn on when plugged into her computer. I took her through the steps of trying to figure out the problem. About five minutes in and nothing is responding, she then gets to the heart of the matter. Apparently she was hoping I could magic this thing back to life but, at this point she'd need to send it for repair (since her device was within its warranty period and 'suddenly' shut down, we had to set it up for repair so we could determine the issue, and get her a replacement if it was on us and not a "I stabbed it with a steak knife" problem).
However, she then tells me that the reason it wasn't turning on, was that her 7 year old had somehow managed to drop this thing in a toilet. (Don't ask me how, I've no idea) She said that the 7 year old had taken it out of the toilet and left it out to dry for a few days, and then proceeded to tell me how stupid her child was, and how she couldn't believe how stupid he had to be to drop this thing in the toilet. While I agree that it was pretty incredible, I'm not partial to telling a 7 year old how stupid they are, and since the kid was standing next to mommy (and you could hear in her voice she was directing the remarks at her kid) I could only imagine the day he was having.
I told her that, because her son had damaged the product, she'd have to pay for the repair or just order a replacement. (Because, honestly, you'd be getting another one either way at that point, lol) Now, normally people yell at me, at this point. Often they'd tell me what an asshole I was that I followed company policy I had nothing to do with making, and so on and so forth. However, the woman starts yelling at her kid again and telling him what an idiot he is. Now, this grates on my nerves a lot (I might be a person with shallow emotions but it doesn't mean that I don't get irritated by stuff like this).
Half way into the call, after I'd asked her several times if the device had ever worked at any point (and before I knew about the water damage), the woman is arguing with her now very distraught 7 year old and blurts out "I don't care if it worked after it dried, you dropped it in the toilet!" I was a bit surprised because she'd said that it hadn't worked at any point so I asked her to explain. (I had to write a report about everything that was wrong with it anyhow so, it didn't hurt to ask for clarification). She said she'd plugged it in without knowing what'd happened to it initially, and that it'd worked fine. When her son came forward and told her he'd dropped it in the toilet, she'd flipped out, unplugged it, took it into the bathroom and scrubbed it down with rubbing alcohol, before blow-drying the damn thing.
Now, anybody who knows anything about how technology works, also knows you don't use rubbing alcohol to clean a device and you especially don't blow-dry them! I had to stop myself from cawing in her face when I realized what'd actually happened. So me being me, I decided it was time that the 7 year old had some payback. I said "Ma'am, in the instance of water damage, it is recommended in our instruction booklet that you leave the device alone to dry." She was quiet. "Your son did what the instructions asked and since it worked after the fact, it seems he'd done the right thing." she was still quiet and my schadenfreude was grinning. "However, using rubbing alcohol on the device, something we tell people never to do in our instructions, along with blow-drying the device, which is also something we tell people never to do in the event of water damage to avoid any potential for bodily harm, those two things would be the reason why your USB device is broken."
She was quiet for a few moments, and I know her son could hear me because I get this: "See, I told you mom!" out of the background. This lady, who had just spent nearly twenty minutes telling me what an idiot her child was, had to experience that moment of Looney Tunes when yo realize you're the maroon. So, I asked her "Would you like to order a replacement at this time?" and a more contrite woman says to me "I'll have to think about it." before hanging up. The entire thing was a complete waste of time, but I have to say, it certainly made my day.
Now, I'm not unsympathetic. I know that sometimes kids do dumb, frustrating stuff, but I come from the point of view of: I was a kid who did dumb stuff, so I can't very well berate another kid for doing the same or making a mistake. I just have to be a good example and have a discussion about it, I can be upset but I can't show that to the kid unless it's necessary ie. In the instance that the child could get hurt doing something stupid, I'd want them to know it scares me so they understand how grave the situation is, then be a good support for them as they live and learn. I only apply discipline when absolutely necessary and only after discussion doesn't solve the issue.
I definitely wouldn't try to embarrass them over the phone to a tech (especially if I hadn't read the instruction manual. Lol). So yeah, that's my sort of funny/mean story. I've got way worse ones but, I've tried to scrub that job from my memory. XD