As anybody that has ever worked in public service knows, there are times when you encounter some interesting customers. Let’s take this back to a little over a week ago where I had the privilege of dealing with one the most ludicrous customers to date.

Picture a short hotheaded overweight Caucasian male with partially balding grey hair and wearing large 70’s style framed glasses. He is in his mid to late 50’s wearing faded oversized dad jeans strapped up to his mid abdomen.

He came in for FBI fingerprinting. He was holding a few papers but there was no fingerprint form to be seen. Right off the bat I could tell he was pissed off. The way he entered the office so abruptly as well as his overall demeanor.

After greeting him I asked, “Do you have a form?”

He angrily replies, “Aren’t you supposed to have the form?”

“We may provide you with a form, but we offer multiple FBI services. The type of application will depend on the reason for the FBI fingerprinting being done”.

Typically, when customers come in for fingerprinting, they bring in the forms with them. The type of service and price is dependent on the application type. We aren’t responsible for providing any live scan forms, but we can provide some of the more common ones if need be. Often, customers that don’t have a form don’t usually know what they specifically need. For FBI however, we have three different services. I informed him of this. Of course — it did not process.

At this point his patience was running very thin. Frustratingly pulling the papers from his folder, he hands them to me. “Is this not my application? I already created an FBI account, and this is what they gave me! I don’t understand what more you need!”

The papers he handed me provided no useful information as to what exactly he needed. “Sir, this isn’t enough to go from. All these pages show your general informa—.”

He interrupts, “You told me that you do can do FBI! I gave you what they gave me! I drove over an hour for this! This is bull@%&$! You probably think I’m upset at you? I’m not! They’re making this whole process a pain in the a#%! Why is the government always trying to screw me over!?”

He kept trying to say that he wasn’t mad at me, but honestly, who knows. Maybe he wasn’t and I was just there fortunate enough to take the brunt of his frustration.

“We do FBI, but I need to know what exactly what you need it for. I don’t want to move forward doing something that you don’t need and end up having to do this all over again”, I replied calmly.

I asked him multiple times what type of FBI fingerprinting he needed. Was it for personal review? Ink card? Electronic? Finally, he mentions that he needs it for traveling out of the country. So, I grabbed the appropriate application, told him he can have seat in the waiting area and fill it out there. As he was filling it out, I was in the middle of giving him the price breakdowns. Then, he explodes.

Slamming the clipboard on his right thigh, “A $100! This is ridiculous! I already paid them! Why are they making this so difficult! You have no idea what I have been going through to get this done! I hate this f-ing country!

It was during this tantrum that I was explaining to him how this is a different service then what he had previously done himself online. Since we are channelers, the company we go through charges us for every application we process. The total cost he was looking at included what we are charged as well as our service fee.

By this point, he knew. He had no choice but to get this done. His frustration was even shown in the way he was filling out the application. Digging the pen hard into the paper and frantically writing.

Nothing exciting happens from this point on. Though his attitude remained, he dialed back on his outbursts. Once the application and his fingerprints were finished, I processed his application, gave him copies of his forms, and sent him on his way.