A phone store employee reenacted several encounters with boomer customers in a viral TikTok posted on Saturday.
In TikToker Liv’s (@livvy.gilmore) latest video, viewed over 7 million times as of Sunday, she plays both herself and the different customers she interacted with at her job. In the clip, she fields questions and angry complaints about audio controls, Bluetooth connection, software updates, and 5G network concerns.
@livvy.gilmore #congress ♬ original sound – liv
In order to get their new phone to work, one customer “dunked it in motor oil 5 times” before coming into the store for help, Liv says.
Liv shares how another customer, when asked if they purchased a charger from the store while having trouble wirelessly charging their phone, said they microwaved it after seeing a Facebook post about a new software update allowing phones to charge that way.
Some customers allegedly demanded to speak to the manager, accusing the store of “scamming” them and selling them broken phones. In response to a complaint about a phone with a screen that wouldn’t turn on, Liv says she simply turned the brightness up. “Well, that’s ridiculous,” the customer allegedly replied.
A customer came into the store searching for a phone without a 5G antenna, Live says in the video. When she asked them why they wanted one, the customer allegedly responded, “I don’t want Joe Biden to spy on me.”
Another was dissatisfied with a “little rainbow symbol” in the corner of their screen, presumably referring to the Wi-Fi symbol. “I do not support you pushing LGBT on me. This is ridiculous,” Liv says the customer told her.
Commenters shared their experiences dealing with older customers in phone stores.
“I once told a customer their phone was water damaged and they said they never got water on it. 15 minutes later they told me their son peed on it,” user Margo (@margocady) wrote.
“I worked in a repair shop. I fixed a screen and the guy came back the next day yelling that I made his phone yellow. True Tone was on,” another user said.
Many users likened Liv’s experience to Thursday’s congressional hearing on the TikTok app, during which TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was interrogated for five hours by lawmakers in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“So the members of Congress are your customers?!” user Serra Elle (@serraelle) wrote.
“Do I have to be connected to the WiFi to use TikTok?” another user said, mocking Rep. Richard Hudson, R-North Carolina, from the hearing.
The video’s top comment with more than 85,000 likes simply stated, “This is legit how the Congress hearing went.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Liv via TikTok direct message.
