This morning, as I was having my groceries bagged, the clerk taped up the prepared food containers so they wouldn't pop open in the bag. "Thank you for putting tape on those," I said. She replied, "You're welcome. Some customers don't like it when we put tape on the containers. One customer recently got very upset when we did that, so we try to do it quickly before a customer notices and complains about it."
Thinking about how customers sometimes become unhinged for no good reason brought to mind a radio station meeting I attended in the '90s. An announcer asked the program director, "How should I respond to a caller who gets upset when we talk over the instrumental intro to (a syndicated program), as we're required to? A guy called and said he likes to record pristine copies of each week's show and doesn't like his recordings ruined by us talking over the instrumental." The program director rolled his eyes at the thought of a caller acting that way and said, under his breath, "Tell him where to go." He followed up quickly, in his regular voice, "Actually, say, 'I'm sorry that upset you.'"
Sometimes, it's easier just to say, 'Sorry,' to a listener even when an apology isn't deserved.
