If there were fewer idiots on this planet, how would the rest of us know that we have tempers?
Today's episode:
I write a check at a local warehouse store. Because I have given into impulse and put far more than the dog biscuits I came in for into my cart (so who's the real idiot in this story?) the check requires the approval of a supervisor.
She looks at the check and says, "Would you write the word 'dollars' here?"
For a second, I want to ask her if she's afraid I'm trying to pay in simoleons or ToonTown jellybeans.
Then I realize that she means that on the line where the amount is spelled out, she wants me to write 'dollars' between the words and the fraction. I point out that the word 'dollars' is already printed on the check. "See? XXX and xx/100 Dollars."
"Oh," she says, pondering this wonder. I think we're done.
No, she insists I write the word 'dollars' after the XXX amount. "It's just a thing I have," she tells me.
WTF? I know what the 'thing' she has is. It's the pettiness of someone with less than one dollar's worth of power, but determined on exercising it to the full. She has improved, apparently, on the way we all write out negotiable instruments. And she has a clipboard. And a supervisor's vest. All bow down.
I look back at the people patiently -- so far -- waiting behind me in line. For their sake, I give in, and hand it back.
"Oh, now I need you to initial where you added the word 'dollars,'" she says, handing it back to me.
I have a nearly irresistible urge to tear the effing check in half and walkout, leaving her to restock my purchases. I don't do it. I initial the check and grit my teeth.
But I don't think I'll be back at this store any time soon.
That would be to risk losing my temper, and I'm saving my next tantrum for a better occasion.
Probably Election Day.
Photo above, "Mad As A Hornet," by P. Winberg from Morguefile.com. Photo © P. Winberg.
4 comments:
That's pretty stupid, all right. I'd have bitched to a manager, but then I can be a jerk like that.
Not just you Dusty - me too. I was in the post office the other day, and when I send packets overseas they insist on phone numbers. They've always said I had to have them.
You know, on occasion I'm sending stuff to famous people (as I was in this case), some of whom have had stalker problems, and do you really think they want their phone number displayed on the outside of a packet? I don't want my phone number displayed on the outside of a packet.
After telling me I had to have a phone number and me being removed from line, I said this was nuts, this was a huge security issue and that some people I know have a problem (quite rightly) with their phone number being casually displayed and then they tell me I don't have to have the phone number.
WTF?
I get back in line...
I agree with you Jan. The problem is people who don't have any power in their daily lives trying to have power SOMEWHERE. Hence why they're making a huge deal being in a slight position of power at their jobs. Society :::shakes head:::
I was at Petco the other day and this cashier was giving everyone in line total attitude. She was so slow at checking people out it was insane. Like, 15 min for two people. Anyway, she didn't know how to use the cash register (I'm hoping she was new) and instead of nicely asking her manager to help her, she starts screaming at him (the manager) along with everyone in line how stupid the Petco Pals thing was and how if people would just carry their card with them they wouldn't have a problem. (I guess the people in line she was helping didn't have the card with them so wanted to enter their phone number.) The store was pretty busy and the manager was also helping people in the next line over. He had to take time out to go over and take harrassment from her in front of customers while trying to show her how to do it. Instead of listening to him and watching what he was doing, she just continued to yell at him and tell him that he could just do it. If I were him I would have fired her on the spot!
JD, I forgot to confess that I did pause to fill out one of those "How was your shopping experience here today?" forms and bitched like hell.
Sandra, how irritating -- I've been through that one before, too. So here's the trick the next time some gets to insisting on these goofy rules -- put your own phone number on the package. Or make one up.
Tami! Acckk! I *hate* to watch one person publicly humiliate another, and I don't blame you at all for this reaction. I'm with you! If she's got some reason to be emotionally unstable -- a death in the family, a mental illness, an upsetting episode in her personal life -- give her time off to recover from it. Otherwise, fire her nasty ass -- whatever"help" she's providing isn't worth her attitude, and she's driving business away from the store.
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