詞彙：

• Shoe polish：鞋油
• Crate：板條箱
• Tin：罐頭, 像can
• Mix-up：搞混，錯誤
• Cough syrup：止咳糖漿
• Priority express：優先快遞
• QA：質量保證（quality assurance)
• "Desperate times call for desperate measures"：絕望的時代需要絕望的措施

台詞：

A: Hello?

B: Hi this is Desmond Shoe Polish, how can I help you?

A: Hi, yeah, I had a question about your shoe polish.

B: Is there a problem?

A: Well, actually, now that you mention it -- yes. Your polish doesn’t work.

B: Sir, I’m sorry to hear that. Could you give me more details about the situation?

A: Where to begin… Well, last week I ordered a crate of 300 tins of your shoe polish.

B: And they haven’t been delivered yet?

A: Oh no no no, they were delivered…

B: Was there a mix-up in the order? They sent you the wrong colors?

A: The colors were right, it’s just…

B: Ah, we sent you the wrong sizes!

A: Look, no, it’s not the size either, it’s--

B: Well, come on then, what’s the issue?!

A: I don’t think it’s actually real shoe polish.

B: What do you mean, it’s not real shoe polish?

A: I think you sent us cough syrup.

B: Cough syrup?

A: Yeah, it smells like cough syrup. And when I used it on my customer’s shoes, the shoes got all sticky.

B: Well, I’ll have to ask our QA team about that, I don’t know anything about cough syrup.

A: Ok, understood. But listen, I really need some actual shoe polish, it’s kind of urgent. Can you send me some via priority express?

B: It’ll take a couple weeks to go through the whole procedure with QA…

A: But I don’t have a few weeks. Look, can I just talk with your manager?

B: Oh, you’d like to talk with my manager? Certainly, sir. I’ll just have to discuss that idea with senior management…

A: What? No. No, don’t do that… Look, just answer me this… why is your company sending people cough syrup instead of shoe polish?

B: Well, desperate times call for desperate measures.

A: Desperate times…?

B: The economy.

A: Ah, right. But what does that--

B: Anyway, please do enjoy your cough syrup, and if there’s anything else I can do for you, don’t hesitate to reach out to us again. Thank you and have a nice day!

A: Hey, wait!