customer stories

i hate people like hat tryperwyre, the young fucks who think theyre tuff. on monday my cuz and i went to the mall and we had to take a leak so we head downstair to the bathroom. and theres this lil fuck there, couldnt be more than 18 ith lighter setting it off constantly and asked us if we were skaters. we stood there for a few and said no and walked off mimicking him. on our way out he started botherring this old guy and kept looking over to us as if he was looking for approval. what the fuck, some people are just dumb man

right now im doing a volunteer job for a tv show. basiclaly is end out emails promoting the show. i fucking hate it though cause i get all these dumb fucking ditsy broads emailing me back asking who i am, where i got their email from and why im sending them email. mean while if htye learned how to properly read they would see the faq i attatched that answers all those questions. fuckign dumb people, some are pretty cool about it though

yea, slothfullness is pretty prevelant in society today it seems. i've become very adept at explaining things to people though. not that it matters, everyone's attention span has been screwed up by tv and advertisements lately.

Television... that was that thing with the flashy lights that I threw out my window a few years ago in disgust, right?

righto, see the thread about "pulling the cord" it should be around here somewhere...

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by trypdwyre [/i]
[B]well the first one said in a letter addressed to me and my branch manager "One of you will die"
the second guy, actually said it to my face. after saying he's going to sue the library for kicking him out for looking at porn. he said "what's your name? you're going to die you stupid motherfucker"
and i laugh when people say "that sounds like a easy and quiet job" [/B][/QUOTE]

trypd, mein gut mann, i hope you went to the police with that letter. any crackpot stupid enough to send a letter, threaten someone, and then sign his name to it deserves to be in chokey. by the way, seeing as he hasn't acted on his threat, maybe you could get him for mail fraud, too?

another item, you don't like being told what to do. neither do i. another characteristically german trait. maybe we were separated at birth.

who knows fram, who knows. you know if you're related to any "Lehmann"s? that would be my mom's side of the family.
yea, went to the police with the note (oddly enough, against the director's suggestion to have him appologize for it and then forget it) who talked our director into having the little bugger criminaly tresspassed from my branch. i don't think the police have come across him, but i did find out he has 1 or 2 other warrents out for his arrest, never found out what for though. i have no faith in my employer. damn good thing my job is a union job, yes, all public libraries have a union.

God, there a lot of little ****s around!

I went past the library yesterday and I noticed all these big signs with 'FREE INTERNET' on. It's funny, the English are so behind.
I wonder if they'll let you look up porn. On our school computers they block out any website with a swearword, or the word 'sex' in. So when my year group tried to do a project on the town Essex, they couldn't do it!

Anyway, good luck trypdwyre.

no lehmanns that i can recall. behms, auers, pliels, ramstedts, rundstedts that's about all i remember.

can't believe your boss didn't want to follow up with the police. that's so lame.

do you like polkas? there's one that's right up your alley. some of the lyrics are: "robbers broke into our house, they broke out again, cause the clock struck five and these were union men." i love polkas.

[QUOTE]I wonder if they'll let you look up porn. On our school computers they block out any website with a swearword, or the word 'sex' in. So when my year group tried to do a project on the town Essex, they couldn't do it![/QUOTE]
there's always a way around it. take for instance the filtering software we use here N2H2 , it doesn't block out anything that come through chat rooms and yahoo profiles. and those are just loopholes that are impossible for them to close up without blocking out all of yahoo. there are other more creative ways around it.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by SnowWhite [/i]
[B] On our school computers they block out any website with a swearword, or the word 'sex' in. So when my year group tried to do a project on the town Essex, they couldn't do it! [/B][/QUOTE]

hahahaahah lol

I thought this was about customer stories.

Anyway, I answer phones at a pizza place...everytime you order delivery and someone answers the phone....just think of me, thinking that you area fucking imbecile.

I have people all the time who don't knowwhat they want...but they call anyway...people who don't know their ADDRESS! but want delivery. All the time, it's hard to come up with one good anecdote because it is such a common occurance...another common situation is people who decide to mix pizza with alcohol and so they call our store incoherently drunk. Read my essay on working at marco's pizza in the FAN section of the cult under: "Adventures in Minimalism, Vol. 3."

i always liked the calvin and hobbes cartoon, calvin: pick up the phone as it's ringing and says, yes, i'd like to order a large anchovy pizza. the puzzlement in the next cell was audible.

[QUOTE]people who don't know their ADDRESS![/QUOTE]
i'm one of those slow people, but only when i order from work, i know my home address. or if i'm calling from a friend's house, i usually don't have their addresses memorized.

that's what my filofax is for, remembering things. even something simple, like my own name.

i had a really bad bathroom cleaning experience the other day, the girls bathroom is never very bad, but this was ridiculous.
i lifted up the toilet seat and someone had managed to shit all over the bottom of the toilet seat. nothing was on the actual rim of the toilet though...which makes me wonder...how the fuck did they do that?
it was pretty gross, but i was more bewildered than grossed out. i just stared at it for a second trying to figure out the mechanics involved that could make such a feat possible.

also, people who dont return their movies for a month get the full purchase price of the movie charged to their credit card. that same day, some 18 year old kid came in all pissed off b/c his roommates never returned his movies...unfortunately for him, we already charged his card...he got all mad and started swearing. we said "sorry" and showed him his signed agreement. as he was walking out the door, he grumbled "i know people"...
who the fuck do you know? and what are they going to do? bomb the video store? leave a fish wrapped in a newspaper on our doorstep? i laughed at that kid for a while.

"Hey kids check this shit ah-howt..." (Mr. Show)

I, coincidentially, also work at a video store, and one of my favorites to tell people goes as follows:

Again and again we make the rounds reshelving returned movies, and I was doing just that when a little kid ran up to the stacks of Harry Potter and Chamber of Secrets. He was really excited and asked his mom:
"Can we get this, mom? Can we?"
"No we can't."
"Why not?"
"Because it's propaganda of the worst kind and I don't want you watching that crap."

I'm not kidding. It was funny and sad at the same time. Poor kid.

andy

that's hilarious!

I get really embarassed when I go into the video store. I rent out a hell of a lot of Bmovies and crap, and when I give them my card, or they're looking at the details on the computer, I look a right freak.

snow white, except video clerks don't think ppl who rent b movies are freaks...because we've seen them, too.

people who rent "ready to drop 12" and "toy story" at the same time are freaks. they're extra freaky when they make their 3 year old kid run in with the returns.

i love toy story because how i ended up in a wheel chair is related to tripping over my nephew's toys.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by aheffel [/i]
[B]...people who don't know their ADDRESS! [/B][/QUOTE]

I call for a freaking pizza, they always ask me for my phone number. I don't know my own phone number. [b]I have never called that number![/b] Sure, I am an idiot, I suppose, but the only thing I use my home phone line for is the computer. I call the pizza joint on the cell phone. No, I don't know that number, either. The freaking cell company has changed the number on me twice since I got it. And... [b]I have never called [i]any[/i] of those numbers either![/b]

Sorry. Venting.

yeah, deca, right on. the reason these food service mofos ask for your number is because the contact management software they're using requires a phone # to look up your address. that way they don't need to always ask for your address. slick, huh?

big brother yo yo ma is watching from the chinese restaurant down the street.

Yeah, I know that. Orrrrrrrrr, they [i]could[/i] use Caller ID and have the same damn result. Anyway, when I finally *do* track down my phone number and give it to them... "Nope, you're not in our system. Address, please?" Every. Freakin'. Time. I have been calling the same pizza joint every ten days or so for the last two years. I like pizza, and theirs is particularily good. :::sigh::: And I tip! Quite well, too, so it's not like they're screwing with me 'cos I'm a jerk.

Mmmm, pizza...

yeah, you're right about that, too. caller id didn't occur to me. the pitfalls of narrow thinking. i went to have an oil change recently at jiffy lube or something like that. they asked for my phone number. i said why? i just want an oil change. she said, you need to be in our system. of course. should've know. i told her, ok, here's my name and my license plate number, but i am not going to give you my address or phone. she just looks up at me and says we have to have that information. i said no you don't. not for an oil change you don't where i am paying cash. needless to say she broke down and i am not in their system.

i am not a number. i am a free man. the prisoner.

Why do people start looking for their wallets only after they hear the total from the cashier. This happens at restaurants, markets, the movies, everwhere. It drives me crazy.

When I used to wait tables people used to look at the bill and say, "hohoho, looks like I'll have to wash dishes" to imply the bill was high.

I would either say "hohoho" back or "ohhhh, we already have a dishwasher, you'll have to go to prison" depending on my mood.

haha i'm one of those loser customers that goes to the checkout with my wallet/money in my hand, all counted up. i have no idea why i do this, i guess it's cuz women look like total WANGS fumbling around in their handbags for half and hour

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by framstedt [/i]
[B]yeah, you're right about that, too. caller id didn't occur to me. the pitfalls of narrow thinking. i went to have an oil change recently at jiffy lube or something like that. they asked for my phone number. i said why? i just want an oil change. she said, you need to be in our system. of course. should've know. i told her, ok, here's my name and my license plate number, but i am not going to give you my address or phone. she just looks up at me and says we have to have that information. i said no you don't. not for an oil change you don't where i am paying cash. needless to say she broke down and i am not in their system.

i am not a number. i am a free man. the prisoner. [/B][/QUOTE]

I had to quite the fight getting a library card recently because I wouldn't give them my SS #. What the hell

you'll have to go to prison! yuck, yuck, yuck. stop cracking me up, you card, you.

i know what you mean though, mirkah. nevertheless, i grew up with the cartwright bonanza cartwright mentality of cash on the barrelhead always.

ho ho ho, we already have a dishwasher. yuck, yuck , yuck, pay up or it's bedtime for bonzo, chowderhead.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by RuByLiCiouS [/i]
[B]haha i'm one of those loser customers that goes to the checkout with my wallet/money in my hand, all counted up. i have no idea why i do this, i guess it's cuz women look like total WANGS fumbling around in their handbags for half and hour [/B][/QUOTE]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by framstedt [/i]
[B]you'll have to go to prison! yuck, yuck, yuck. stop cracking me up, you card, you.

i know what you mean though, mirkah. nevertheless, i grew up with the cartwright bonanza cartwright mentality of cash on the barrelhead always.

ho ho ho, we already have a dishwasher. yuck, yuck , yuck, pay up or it's bedtime for bonzo, chowderhead. [/B][/QUOTE]

You say "No" to people in elevators when they say "excuse me" a beat too late. I almost put your name instead of Rilkes as the person I most identify with in the Good Questionaire thread. You was a contender!! HOHOHO

Try and buy some freakin' AA batteries at Radio Shack some time. Jesus.

"What's your Zip code?"
"Why?"
"I need to look you up in our system."
"I'm not in your system."
"Then I need to [i]put[/i] you in."
"No you don't." and so on...

Yes, bypass Radio Shack and buy your batteries on Ebay:)

Hey, does Amazon sell batteries? Maybe Dennis can put a link up and get a %

the titanium ones from energizer rock. long live the bunny.

mrikah, flattery gets you very far in my world. thanks for the compliment. i really do say no when some people say excuse me when what they really mean is gangway.

btw, i know you know this, never, never give out your ssn to anyone other than the government, state government, job applications, bank and securities accounts, etc. no one else on god green earth has any business asking for it, certainly not your library. ask trypd? trypd? where are you man? does your library require an ssn for a library card?

A utility bill will usually get you a library card. 'Round these parts, anyways...

Thats always been my experience in the past. I brought a bill and filled out the application, ignoring the space for the SS # for all the reasons Fram listed above. But they wouldn't proccess it unless I filled it out completely.

I won in the end and got to take 5 books home with me that very day:)

And Dec, maybe you should give your business to another pizza joint. After two years of devoted patronage they should send you birthday cards!

Anyone _insists_ on having your SSN, give 'em any nine numbers that pop in your head. What can they do?

But this place makes *great* pizza! You'd think that, living in the Little Italy section of Pittsburgh, I'd have dozens of choices for great pizza, but no.... Sure, there are lots of places, but they mostly are pretty mediocre. Bah.

Yep, for great pizza, I'd put up with a little inconvience. Its a testament to your fine character that you still tip.

Another waiter story. This one happened to my friend *Adam*. A customer complained about his soup being too hot.
Adam, apologizes and says he'll be right back. He comes back 2 minutes later and say "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting sir . How is the soup, is it still too hot?"

Now [i]that's[/i] fucking funny.

it's a testimony to our culture that we tip. service in this country and abroad leaves much to be desired. that said, when i enjoy above average service i tip 20%; average service i double the tax (in nyc that means nearly 17%; below average 10 - 15% depending; if i get really lousy service, i mean really lousy service i leave a quarter with a note asking them to call someone they know for a new job. these cretins shouldn't be anywhere near the public, especially not serving food.

I also worked at a video / video-game store, but we had the misfortune of selling pogs. If there's one thing worse than dealing with stupid customers, it's dealing with stupid kids. Worse than that is dealing with stupid kids' mothers. No mother can acknowledge the fact that their kid is an idiot, a liar, or a thief and that I am not responsible for their wellbeing between their house and our store or back again, nor am I merely a stationary, medium-wage babysitter (hey, some of the kids were cool, but it's not like I could just let them sit around in the store all day and not buy anything), nor does my $4.25 an hour mean I gotta take shit from a nine-year-old (I was 17 at the time, I think).

Other than that, the worst individual customer I ever had was while I was selling stereos at Circuit City. This woman named Vivian Lee (and really, the name's the only interesting part of the story).

I get a call from a customer (to whom I never sold anything) who says her mini-stereo isn't working. I ask her a few questions, and it sounds like it's actually broken, not just unplugged, volume down, unconnected speakers, etc ("When I put my CD in, all I hear is static." "Is the knob set to 'CD'?" "No, it says AM. What should I do now?"), so I tell her to bring it down to the store, we'll check it out, and if it's not working, we have another one in stock we can swap it out for.

An hour later, a woman walks up to me out of the blue and says, "Do you have my stereo?"

"Your stereo?" I ask.

"STEER-EE-OOOH! Do you have it?!" she asks like I'm retarded.

"Uh, why would I have your stereo?"

"I called about an hour ago. You said you'd have a new stereo for me."

"Oh, ok, you're the person who called with the stereo that isn't working. Yes, I have the replacement saved on a ticket so it will stay in inventory. Did you bring yours?"

"Why don't you have it already out here and set up?"

"You mean the one from inventory? Well, I can't take it out and open in until we know you're going to need it."

"That's bullshit. I called you an hour ago. You should have had it ready."

"It is as ready as I can make it, ma'am."

"Fine. Whatever. Come get this stereo out of my care. Your lucky I didn't make your ass drive to my office and pick it up. I can't believe this shit."

I turn and give my buddies a look and follow her out to her car where she proceeds to throw it out of her back seat at me.

So I start to say, "You know ma'am, I'm sorry, but I work on commission, and seeing as I didn't sell you this stereo, I am not going to put up with this. I'm going to have to get the manager."

"Good. Go get your manager. I want to tell him what a fuck-up you are."

Only my mother's teachings and my own job-preservation instincts kept me from laying her out on her ass at that point. So I walk off to get the manager, but by the time I say a dozen words to him she has cut across the store and starts yelling, "You want to know what's going on? I'll tell you what's going on. This guy..." My manager sees the look on my face and tells me to go take a smoke break.

By this time the whole store knows what's going on and my buddies meet me out back sometime around the point where I'd hurled two shopping carts across the back lot. They were equally commisserating and amused.

And yeah, the bitch got $50 off her stereo.

working in pizza is about the funniest job ever, i should know, i've worked at the same dominos store since i was 15, and i am 20 now. In my lengthy experience i have had some funny shit, and i totally agree with the other person who says that every phone call is a testament to how dumb and rude most people are. I am trying to think of the funniest thing i have seen. Hmmm... Well, i was about 16 or 17 and had just started delivering pizzas, it was within the first week or so, and i was delivering to this local apartment complex for the elderly. I go up to the door, and some old grandma lady opens the door, and invites me in, which was fine cuz i figured she probably had to get the money out of her purse or something, but after stepping in, i noticed the exact amount plus a few dollars lying on the counter. She asked me if i was new, cuz she had never seen me around before, and i figured she was just making small talk, until the conversation led to her asking me what time i got out of work. EWWWWW. this lady was at least 70. I told her i was working until 4 in the morning, and she said too bad, gave me the money and tip, and i left.

Once the pizza I had been ordered was delivered to my neighbors house by mistake and they just paid for it and pretended they had ordered it. I called the pizza place back to find out why it was taking so long and they insisted they had delivered it. They put the delivery guy on the phone and he said he asked them was this *1234 street* and they said yes.

I ordered another pizza and went to by neighbors to get a slice while I waited for my pizza. They were pretty embarresed.

[QUOTE]Anyone _insists_ on having your SSN, give 'em any nine numbers that pop in your head. What can they do?[/QUOTE]
just ignore it, by law they cannot force you to give out your SSN, never ever put down a random 9 numbers for the express reason if they check your id, you can get into some serious shit for not putting down the correct one.
i advise people against giving out their SSN when i get them a library card.

i really like anchovies on my pizza, you know.

[QUOTE]And yeah, the bitch got $50 off her stereo.[/QUOTE]

classical conditioning, i'm telling you.

i have one "reverse customer" story though, about the bitchiest waitress ever...

::dream sequence sound::

Five of my friends and I always go to Chili's in Nashua to eat. We go there so much that we have friendly relationships with most of the wait staff in the smoking section, especially a waitress named Nichole, who I would pretty much call a friend at this point. When we go to eat there and Nichole is working, she brings us the drinks we always order when she first comes over to the table and brings us chips and salsa and sour cream without us having to order it. With her we can order "the usual," and if we order something different, she often expresses surprise. That's how often we are customers there.

A few weeks ago, all of us went there for dinner and sat at one of the high top tables in the smoking lounge, smoking (duh), eating and talking. Well. There were other people at the table next to us who seemed to take exception to us doing all of the above. Apparently they're regulars also, who "belong" to another waitress, Maria. And apparently Maria sided with them when they objected to us smoking, in the smoking lounge, because the woman in the party was pregnant.

Look, liberal though we are, we have no desire to harm unborn children. However, I for one am indignant, indignant, that these people would come into the smoking lounge of their own free will and expect us to modify what we came there for because the woman is pregnant. That is just bass-ackwards, right there, and though we attempted to be accomadating as much as we could (holding our cigs and blowing smoke away from their table), we were not going to not smoke in the clearly-labeled smoking section, one of the last places we're allowed to smoke inside, because these people had decided to come to dinner.

So jump to another night a little later, when we walked into Chili's as usual, into the smoking lounge as usual. Maria, the waitress who "belonged" to the other people offended by our smoking, was the waitress in the lounge. There is only one waiter or waitress in the smoking lounge unless it's insanely busy, because the lounge is only nine tables, and on a night like last night, only half at best are full. Another party of six was crammed into one of the other booths, chain-smoking, yelling at the top of their lungs and laughing obnoxiously. And yet Maria, the waitress from before, was waiting on them patiently and kept ignoring us. We waited for about fifteen minutes before finally, I said to Maria, "Could we order, please?"

She tried really hard to keep walking and ignore me, but I essentially made it impossible. Giving me a glare worthy of Medusa, she said snottily, "I'll send someone over."

Here's why, if you're a waitress, you should never, ever fuck with regulars: we go there often enough, and have enough of a close relationship with the other waitstaff to know that if the waiter or waitress in the smoking lounge "sends someone over" to wait on you, they are deliberately not waiting on you, because there's only supposed to be them in that room waiting on all the parties. So coupled with her attitude in saying so, we pretty much knew that this woman was refusing to wait on us.

A couple more minutes went by. Another waitress was nowhere in sight. The other parties all had their food, and Maria kept walking back and forth, smiling cordially and bringing them food while we just sat there. Finally, I'd had enough, and I caught Maria over behind the bar.

"Look. We know you're deliberately not waiting on us, and I'd really like to know what the reason is. If there's some kind of problem, I hope we can resolve it." I said. This, in my mind, was more than generous--this woman was refusing to do her job, and being inconceivably rude.

From the beginning, she had an oh-fuck look on her face. I could tell Miss High and Mighty had not expected to be called on this. She hemmed and hawed and stammered, and finally said, with an insouciant look on her face, "I just don't think I'm going to be able to give you good service."

"Why is that?" I asked, and I mean this, I asked it as nicely as I could. "Really, if there is a problem, I'd like to be able to resolve it."

She just looked at me, then slowly rolled her shoulders up, down, in a shrug. She didn't answer.

"So we're not going to be able to talk about this?"

Shrug.

"Like adults."

Shrug.

I was speechless. Finally she repeated, "I want you guys to have a good experience here. I want you guys to have a good time. That's why I'm having Betty--" she gestured to a wide-eyed timid girl who had approached our table. "--wait on you tonight. I want you guys to be able to have a good experience."

Now I was pissed. Not only was she being incredibly rude, but she was also treating me like I was stupid, despite the fact that I had figured out what was going on already, and the fact that I had approached her as calmly and rationally as I could to try and work things out. "Well, to tell you the truth, I'm already having a pretty bad experience"--the word dripped with sarcasm--"knowing that a waitress who doesn't even know me dislikes me so much for reasons I can't determine that she refuses to wait on me even though it's HER JOB."

She looked slapped. The shrug again.

"I mean, you've waited on us before."

Her eyebrows shot up, and then her eyes darkened. "Yeah," she said, and the word was heavy with meaning, but, unfortunately, she was still not ready to divulge what that meaning was. In fact, she never did. We went round and round some more, basically repeating the same conversation above, until finally when she pointed out poor Betty for the third time, I said, "You know what, she doesn't have to fucking bother." And walked off.

I walked up to poor Betty, and said, shaking with anger, "Do you know Nichole?"

"Yeah?" she peeped.

"OK. Well, we're regulars of hers. When we never come back here again, tell her it's because of her." I jabbed a finger toward Maria, still behind the bar, giving me a death glare.

We had walked out of the restaurant when my boyfriend suggested we go back in and talk to a manager. We did. The manager gave us certificates for a free meal, but we still left. There was no way we were going to be able to sit there and look at Maria's face while we ate. So we went to Uno's, where, oddly enough, we ran into Nichole. She was livid to hear of Maria's behavior, and said she'd get to the bottom of it.

But really--I don't care what Maria's fucking problem is. None of us do. She's a waitress, and at a shitty little chain restaurant in Nowheresville at that. What irks me the most, though, is that even though there was no conceivable justification for what she did in the first place, I approached her as one person to another to try and resolve the issue in a mature way, and she couldn't even give me an explanation as to why she was acting that way. To me, if you have the big brass ones to deliberately snub people it's your job to serve, you should also have the guts to tell them why if they catch you at it and ask. That's what bothers me.

omfg!!!

i just have to vent about this.

fucking asshole calls the paper where i work, talks about how he's got such a big story, all self-important, etc., starts rambling on about the story, i'm not really listening, then he starts in with how we should call our competitor in the city because "they don't answer the goddamn phone on saturday night, i guess it's a boys' night out or something," which is the most ridiculous, ignorant statement to make, and so i'm blocking him out even more, and then he starts being like, "well, who am i talking to?" and i reluctantly tell him my name, we get lots of fucking psychos calling us, and what does he need my name for? so i ask him. "well, he says testily, i'm making a contact here at the [paper] and i want to be able to get back to you." as if i've signed on to do this story personally for him. and i was like, "look, i can pass the story along to the editors..." and he goes "how often are you there, is it just saturday nights, or during the week as well?" he just asked it in this completely pretentious way, and like i'm going to tell some strange guy what my name is and not only where but when i work. so i refused to answer, telling him again i'd pass his story along to the editors and then he demands to know, "who are these editors??" like he's all suspicious. and i'm like, "well, when do you want, during the week or on the weekend?" and he's like, "whenever."

"well..." i pause. we're not supposed to give out editorial contact information for anyone who isn't from the paper--ppl are supposed to use just the main numbers etc. finally i say "[editor's name] is the editor on the weekends."

"was it really [I]that[/I] hard to answer?" he asks witheringly.

i lose it. "look, what do you want me to do, here?" i demand. "i'm going to pass this along, it's the editor's decision, none of them are available [i.e. most of them have better things to do than] to talk to you right now. i'm sorry if i don't want to share the details of my employment with you, but i don't see how that, or my editors' phone numbers is any of your business."

"i'm a journalist too, ok?" he hollers.

THEN WHY DON'T YOU WRITE THE FUCKING STORY??? i'm thinking.

he sighs heavily, and in a wounded voice, he says, "i'll find out for myself." and hangs up.

asshole!!

and that, boys and girls, is how you tell a story.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by insomnomaniac
But really--I don't care what Maria's fucking problem is. None of us do. She's a waitress, and at a shitty little chain restaurant in Nowheresville at that. [/QUOTE]

That was a hilarious story but that bit I quoted took me by suprise considering you recomend Erlich's book Nickel and Dimed.

I've worked a lot of wait jobs and speaking from experience you're not allowed to tell customers what you think of them. Not even if they ask. Not even if they ask in a reasonable tone. Not even if the customer already suspects and is just asking to confirm they're right.

One thing the more decent places let you do is pass on customers on to other waiters if you feel you can't give them a "good experience". Obviously you're not supposed to make them wait 15 minutes or ignore them. You just hightail your butt over to *Betty* and say "Betty, can you pick up the fourtop at table 7 in the lounge? I'll totally owe you one!" No one gets snubbed, no one feels bad.

Maria seems like she might need a vacation from her job. Anyone that gets that worked up and vindictive at work needs to regroup. Then again she might be pure evil and thats how she gets her kicks....

Mmmmm, pure evil...

Sounds like there's a whole subculture associated with waitressing.