Mini Rants

[ztemhead]

and getting a boob thread back on track to it's original purpose is a sin against the board.

Every now and then in the market, we play this little game I like to call, "how dishonest can we be."

As I approach the check out counter, I get this sinking feeling like I've forgotten something important- oh yeah, my shopper's rewards card. Doh!

Cashier: "Do you have your rewards card?"

Me: "No, I left it in the car. And it's on an old phone number so-"

Cashier: "What's your phone number?"

Me: "-you can't look it up by that." sometimes I add, "I don't give out my phone number since I was released from prison."

Casheir: "Well here, we'll just sign you up for a new one. Fill this out and drop it off next time you're in the store."

And the majestic dance of capitalism continues. Really, must we? Can't you just give me the lower prices without playing this little game? Do I have to be always reduced to this same banal, intellectually dishonest conversation every time I leave my other set of keys in the car? There's a thousand other things I'd rather chat about in the short time we have together. Last time there I tried to keep it real and share my feelings on the matter, but instead of praising my refreshing honesty, she got this hurt look in her eyes like, "Hey buddy I'm only trying to help, why do you have to give me shit?"

anyone else have anything rant worthy happen the last couple days?

[Elrostar]

Refreshing honesty isn't something people find.... refreshing, usually :)

Usually, I find if I smile nicely (or if my wife does), they'll use their card for me. I realize this subverts their entire system of tracking my purchases and knowing everything about what's going on, but I don't care. I've received the lower prices!

And yes, I'm a terrible subversive. In all possible meanings of that phrase.

[Nichole]

When I tell you that someone is on the phone for you

ANSWER THE PHONE!!!!

[Weak With The Dawn]

The secretary at my office is cause for plenty of mini rants. The latest?

I was fixing her computer because it's a giant piece of garbage. I got up out of the chair to go grab a drink of water and while I'm in the kitchen I hear BAM! CRASH! Beep...Beep...Beep...Beep... :stunned:

As I rush back over I see her lifting the computer from the floor, it's still beeping angrily (reminiscent of r2d2 in a way) and she looks up at me and says: "I don't know what happened, I was just standing here and the computer fell off the desk! I wasn't even doing anything!"

The computer had been in the middle of the desk. I should have known better then to leave her alone with it. She's the type of person to yank on things in the hopes of fixing it and saying "See I helped you out, I'm pretty good with this stuff, right?". That scenario rarely happens.

It was another week before I got her computer fixed :bang: , I can only hope she never touches anything but the keyboard again....

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

Me: "No, I left it in the car. And it's on an old phone number so-"

Cashier: "What's your phone number?"

Me: "-you can't look it up by that." sometimes I add, "I don't give out my phone number since I was released from prison."

480-555-1212. Myself an a billion other people just put down the number for information. It will get you there at any store.

[ztemhead]

but see, now we're back to being dishonest again. I'm trying to free myself of all these lies!

[Mack Kilimaro]

ztem, what you need to do is give up this notion of thinking that there's something shameful about being dishonest about the rewards card process. Instead, turn it around and realize that you're sticking it to The Man in the biggest way you possibly can. By going through your charade of falsehoods, you are enjoying the benefits of the lower prices without having your every purchase being tracked and attributed to you, thus diluting the usefulness of the overall system. If only more people engaged in this level of duplicity, then we might get somewhere. Still, every little bit counts.

I signed up for one of these shortly after Bush took office and my form listed my address as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. As I smoldered with liberal rage over the latest, I could at least imagine unwanted Food Lion mail making its way through the White House mail system. More likely, someone who enters all that crap into a system realized it was fake and threw away the application with a sigh.

Later, I worked as a cashier at that same grocery store, and I happily subverted the entire process by giving out a set of reward cards without making people fill out applications. I guess you just need to find a cashier who's looking to stick it to The Man. Most all of them who think twice will be looking to stick it to The Man.

Now that there's a new president, maybe I need to find a new recipient for all the junk mail, though.

[litechick]

Thank you Mack. Now I have the most delightful image in my head of someone sorting mail labelled "George Bush or current resident." :lol:

I finally broke down and got a rewards card for the local convenience store since I spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars there and they didn't require filling out a form. I'm trying to decide whether they might still track me by mating the card number with the number of my credit card and whether I'm paranoid enough to let that keep me from using the rewards program.

On principle, I don't sell my personal information for contest entries or discounts.

[Datepalm]

OK, speaking of markets then - they are not a tourist attraction! And if they have to be, can it be not on Friday Morning, when the market is at its most busy and stressed anyway?

I'll ignore the bourgeiousation, the stupid little restaraunts literally 2x2 meters, because hey, you're occupying a market stall! The reason you have no room to put your stupid little tables and your stupid little customers is becuase all that was ever supposed to be there was lettuce. And I'll ignore the overpriced "vintage" second hand clothes shop and the frigging pretentious art gallery ("A ceramic art co-operative." I couldn't make this stuff up.)and the whole end of the market that sells menorahs and tourist junk now. i'll tolerate the fancy expensive brand foods (at least they're food.) and hippy indian clothes shops (at least they're cheap), but I draw the line at packs of camera clicking, aisle blocking, non-shopping, crawling tourists on friday morning!

Ok, I admit, I've been to walmart (Very exotic). I can understand that the main Jerusalem market is something of a different experience. Fine. Do guided tours of the place. Ok. You're hapless tourists and don't know better. But the guides should have the basic respect to people who actually, y'know, need fruit and bread and fish and whatnot, not to block up passages 2 meters wide with six busloads of tourists on...friday morning. Show up wendnesday. Is that so hard?

[Arbor Gold]

Later, I worked as a cashier at that same grocery store, and I happily subverted the entire process by giving out a set of reward cards without making people fill out applications.

If smiling at the person behind me doesn't work, I just get the card, take the application, put the card in my wallet, and throw the application away. I've had like 12 Safeway cards in the past four years, and I've never filled out the form. Not because I give a shit about them tracking me or whatever, but because I'm just too damn lazy. The only downside is that I don't get a "Thank you, Miss Gold" as the cashier hands me my receipt, which is kind of a bummer.

Hmmm, can't think of anything to mini rant about...

[Ocean of Notions]

As someone who has worked retail and is currently back to retail for a few months, I always feel like I'm caught between a rock and a hard place when considering my feelings on store credit and rewards cards. When I worked for a large department store, it was easier to not care about the system or how you're affecting the system. I wasn't as strict about giving away discounts or coupons and hardly ever bothered to actively sell our products or credit card. Now that I work for a boutique, you're actually part of a team with set goals (not that bigger stores don't have goals, but they don't really enforce it on entry levelers) that you're constantly striving towards. The managers work the floor, cash wrap, fitting rooms, etc. with you on a daily basis. I can't imagine purposefully committing acts that are against the interest of the store when I know exactly who is going to get reamed out by a higher up for not making plan. Yeah, the system is evil, look out for the little guy, what have you. But most people seem to forget that the system is made up of "little people" and they're just trying to make a living.

...And no, they can't just give you the lower price without the card, that's the entire point of the card. Don't blame the person behind the cash wrap. They just do what they're told.

[TheBigTEA]

I get extremely angry at tech's when they come in and ask me a question and then when I am in the middle of explaining it interrupt me to tell me the answer that they think they know, but also turns out to be completely wrong.

Shut the fuck up, listen to what I have to say. You obviously came to me to get an answer, let me give you one.

[BloodRider]

When I tell you that someone is on the phone for you

ANSWER THE PHONE!!!!

HA! Is this something from direct experience?

[The Meereense Knot]

I find this question odd because whenever I've forgotten my card, I've never had to ask a cashier to scan theirs for me. They usually just do it.

[Lightning Lord]

So, I ask if I've misunderstood and you say no. You're obviously upset, so I eschew the banal "Are you upset?" and go straight to "I don't understand what's happened here, why are you upset?" At which point she says she has to go. And also that she probably won't be around next weekend when I visit. But that she isn't upset. I try again, since there is obviously a problem. No, no, no problem. But she's going to go with her friends to Gyeongju, even though two hours earlier we had talked about good times to be had together that weekend.

Night ends with her happily hugging me and saying she can't wait to see me again.

:stunned:

[MrSarichFan]

I find this question odd because whenever I've forgotten my card, I've never had to ask a cashier to scan theirs for me. They usually just do it.

QFT

At least on CVS the first thing they said to you after having to ask for the card is that if the client doesn´t have one, always use the register one, becouse if you don´t people will complaint about not getting the sale price.

[ztemhead]

I think my new strategy is going to be playing dumb whenever people act as mindless instruments for larger entities. Hopefully it will force them to consider, in a nice way, my personal befuddlement.

Example, today in the cab one of my fares didn't show, something that happens all the time at this one place. Instead of getting pissed off and walking away quickly, I said to the counter person, "I don't understand. Why would they order a taxi and then not show up?"

"Oh well, it's an automated system, and it seems someone didn't cancel it when the person got picked up by someone else."

Me: "But why would they not cancel the cab they ordered if they know I'm on my way over here, burning my gas, unable to take any other calls? It doesn't make sense." Then I wait for an answer. I'm going to keep up this idiot routine until those people get sick of me and get their shit together.

Maybe next time I'll try it out on the cashier. It's got to be better received than the brutal honesty routine was, I just hope she can follow along rather than cutting me off to help the next customer.

[Ocean of Notions]

Rant of the day: some jackass called the store during working hours. The conversation as follows...

Me: Thank you for calling Express, this is ________, how may I help you?

Her: Is this _______ Mall?

Me: Yes this is.

Her: What's the vitamin store called in the mall?

Me: Uh... you mean Vitamin World?

Her: No, I want the other one.

Me: GNC?

Her: Yeah, I'd like their number.

Me: You've called a specific store in the mall. This is Express. We're not the mall's office.

Her: I was given this number by a directory. Can you give me the number to the mall?

Me: I can try to find it. Could you hold a minute?

*ties to get the other person on staff on the walkie-talkie, but they're busy*

Me: You know, I really don't know the number. We're a specific store in the mall and not their general office. If you know which store you want, you could try -

The other person then hangs up on me.

:tantrum:

I shouldn't have even bothered being nice. I should've just told her she called the wrong number and hung up, instead, she wasted my time while I was trying to get other shit done. I don't see why she couldn't have the decency to at least hear me out and at least attempt to be polite. She called the damn wrong number and then expected me to provide her with some service that wasn't part of my job in the slightest. She could've just looked in the damn phone book for the damn number of GNC, which is what I was going to suggest to her. I can even understand if this situation really wasn't her fault, but that doesn't mean she had to be a total prick about it.

[Lord O' Bones]

Rant of the day: some jackass called the store during working hours. The conversation as follows...

I have adopted the following philosophy:

Unless you truly don't have the time, it's always OK to go that extra mile. Who knows? You could really help someone out. They may even surprise you by doing something awesome in return. But, some people just suck. Some people will always suck. Some people don't suck but are just having a bad one. If you go that extra mile, and your efforts aren't appreciated, just feel safe with the knowledge that while you may have wasted a little bit of time, at least you know that you don't suck.

[BLU-RAY]

When I tell you that someone is on the phone for you

GET TO DA CHOPPA!!!!

If smiling at the person behind me doesn't work

Wait, smiling at the person behind the register, or smiling at the person behind you to use their card? If I'm in Safeway and the person in front of me in line looks at me more than in passing, about half the time I wish I were armed.

<-- should shop less at 2:30 AM.