Only the employee sees them, and they go right into an envelope. I could understand if its obviously illegal or underage... but man, how are people supposed to get their naughty bits photographed ?
If i did it on a digital camera,and plugged my memory stick in the machine to get them printed.. would you still refuse?
(not you personally.. the store)
From my time at the Kmart photo center, it's store policy not to sell pornography. Regardless of source or attractiveness of people involved. If we proccessed the photos, we had to shred them, dispose of them and tell the customer that we couldn't process them before returning the negatives. If they sent them off for the cheaper service (1 week or so) the envelopes would come back empty with just the negatives and a note as well.
As for why not just shove them into the envelopes cause noone else sees them: Have you seen how fucked up the 1 hour processing racks get? You screw up and give some 13 year old looking for her birthday pictures the envelop with an amateur pornstars latest portfolio and you've got a whole world of trouble. Often times the customers would go through the photos at the counter. Not a problem if you mix up most of them, but again, some soccer mom gets that one wrong envelope...
As for the digital camera memory stick, if I had to assist you with the machine, then no, couldn't do it. If you could follow the onscreen prompts and got them printed and packaged yourself I wouldn't care. If I can't see it I can't stop it right? Store policy might disagree though (I can't imagine they've got someone somewhere monitoring what's on those printing stations in real time).
see317 on
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[Paragon]I'm a real doctor, for pretend!North DakotaRegistered Userregular
edited July 2007
Today was....interesting.
Interesting in the way that everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
First three pallets of water tip over due to road construction meaning that once I got to the store they go to I had to spend a good 30 minutes restacking pallets before I could deliver them. Oy.
My electric pallet jack got stuck (soft ground is no good). Left my computer in a store in the middle of nowhere, and didn't realize until I got 30 miles away. (Drive back and get it, turn around and go back to my next stop).
And the really fun thing, I turned down a road we've taken before and had always had no problems with. Ended up clipping a power line (live line) that had decided to break and had it drape over my cab. Had to call the power company and then sit in the middle of nowhere until they could get out there and save my ass (took them 45 minutes).
So what was supposed to be a short day (like 9 hours tops) turned into a 13 hour day. Grawr.
(the coke guy)
[Paragon] on
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SirUltimosDon't talk, Rusty. Just paint.Registered Userregular
My coworker has two schedules. The one the company makes for him, and the one HE makes for himself.
Suffice it to say, he plans the days he is calling out well in advance.
In my retail job we once had someone called in sick for two weeks at once. Not once per day, but one day she called in and said she was sick for the next two weeks. Then the next day during the time when she was supposed to be working everyone found her in the store shopping, healthy as can be.
That was the last day she ever worked in the store.
Wait, she called in sick and then, during her sick leave, was shoping in the store she worked at? That is level 5 retardness right there.
Yeah, I never understood it.
A few months later she was shopping again and her daughter said somehting to her along the lines of "Mom, you worked in retail!" and I had to fight the urge to say "No, you called in sick to retail". When I told my co-workers about that they said I should've said it.
Yesterday, after a nice 13 hour day, I tore down the freeway for home. About 20 miles into the drive, I realized I still had the big magnetic orange "EXPLOSIVES" placards on my truck. I wasn't carrying any, I'm not liscensed to on the open road, only the job site. Still, even driving with the placards on with no cargo on an open road is a felony offense.
Whoops.
Thank god there is just about no state patrol in this area.
I work QA for a small games and software developer. It's been boring for the vast majority of the time working there. But last week I started doing what is essentially producer-level work. I'm handling all the ins and outs for a client, and networking with 3 or 4 other entities/people. I'm also responsible for testing various hardware related to the project.
And I'm still making $11 an hour. I've been there for a year, on contract. And the CEO is definitely from the old school of game dev. "Exploit the workers because they need you and you don't need them."
Yesterday, after a nice 13 hour day, I tore down the freeway for home. About 20 miles into the drive, I realized I still had the big magnetic orange "EXPLOSIVES" placards on my truck. I wasn't carrying any, I'm not liscensed to on the open road, only the job site. Still, even driving with the placards on with no cargo on an open road is a felony offense.
Whoops.
Thank god there is just about no state patrol in this area.
Yesterday, after a nice 13 hour day, I tore down the freeway for home. About 20 miles into the drive, I realized I still had the big magnetic orange "EXPLOSIVES" placards on my truck. I wasn't carrying any, I'm not liscensed to on the open road, only the job site. Still, even driving with the placards on with no cargo on an open road is a felony offense.
Whoops.
Thank god there is just about no state patrol in this area.
I bet you didn't have anyone tailgating that day!
I had a pretty good buffer space around me most of the time, and people were giving me some odd looks as I passed them. That also explains why the truckers were giving me more room than usual.
Only the employee sees them, and they go right into an envelope. I could understand if its obviously illegal or underage... but man, how are people supposed to get their naughty bits photographed ?
I'm not sure why that policy is the way it is(Ironically, if we do discover child porn we print the pictures and actually give them to the person while secretly notifying the police), but its one of the policies that LP is incredibly strict about so I follow it. Also I'm sure there are photo labs that have no problem printing pornography, just not the family-oriented drugstore.
If i did it on a digital camera,and plugged my memory stick in the machine to get them printed.. would you still refuse?
(not you personally.. the store)
Yes, but then at my store the way the kiosks work is you do all the choose/correcting crap and then it sends it to the primary(and only) printer in the lab where the tech prints them out.(I think it is actually done that way not because of digital media but because there is a scanner attached and people were making copies of copywrited pictures, which is a huge fucking no-no)
I don't want to derail the thread, but as cheap as digital cameras are these day, why the HELL is anyone still using film to take pictures of their naked selves and sending them to the photo lab?
Cameron_Talley on
Switch Friend Code: SW-4598-4278-8875
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
It was around one-o-clock in the morning, and all was well at the shop as I came back from a delivery.
Sandwiches being made. Ice machine clinking. A man talking to a pickle.
There were a few people in line at the moment, and my manager was making their sandwiches. She leaned over to me when I came up to the table to help and whispered that the guy over at the booth seemed a little strange. Her story was that he babbled a little before ordering a pickle, and only a pickle. After we finished making sandwiches for three or four drunks, I took a casual look over and saw that she was wrong.
The man was not a little strange. The man was genuinely and completely insane.
Let me paint the scene for you here: a group of people at a booth, talking loudly about their drunken escapades, another group getting ready to leave with their sandwiches in bags, and in the middle of all the action, a man, alone at a table, gesticulating wildly in a fierce argument with a pickle. It was all I could do not to laugh.
He held the pickle directly in front of his face, examining it closely. He peered at it, shook his head, then rotated it, peered at it again and shook his head once more. He held half of the pickle in one hand, and half of the pickle in the other.
This whole time my manager was busying herself with some chores. I stood transfixed. I couldn't tear myself away from the shelf I was leaning against. I watched as he studied both halves of the pickle, lining them up side by side, nodding, then shaking his head, then saying something. I was too far away to hear, but still I stood in amazement. It was then that he extricated himself from the booth and stood up.
He glided toward the counter, every step calculated, a walking motion so smooth that his entire upper body stayed completely still when he moved. He calmly approached me and in a very normal tone of voice asked me for a knife.
Knife!
I nervously said something about how we're not allowed to let customers use the knives, but that if he wanted me to cut his pickle, I could cut it for him. He slowly hovered back to the table, and then slowly came back to the counter, presenting his pickled prisoner to me. He said to cut each half straight down the middle to make fourths. I did so. He smiled devilishly as I did it; getting some sort of joy out of torturing the pickle before he devoured it. He was the pickle-king, and I was the man hired to torture his prisoners before he ate them.
Tears streamed down my face as I completed my dark task.
He took the pickle back, carrying it ceremoniously back to his chosen booth. He sat down and placed the remains of the pickle directly in front of him. It was now quiet enough in the store that I could hear very clearly when he thrust his hand forward in a cutting motion and screamed at the pickle:
"Straight down the middle!"
The pickle-king began to feast, slowly. It took him nearly half an hour to finish his feast, and the look of delight on his face was so genuine that it made me reconsider my life. After this was over, he continued to stare strangely around the shop, even stumbling awkwardly into a conversation with some guys at a booth near him.
After the feast was over, he got up, walked to the front counter, grinned at me and dropped about sixty cents into our tip jar. I suddenly realized that I needed to get very far away from this man and found an excuse to run to the back. There, I found a broom, and on pretense of sweeping, came out to the lobby and watched him from further away.
I watched him walk away as I swept the lobby. He pushed open the door and strolled out into the night, presumably to hunt down and mercilessly torture more vegetables. And in that moment, I was envious of him. In that moment, I wished that I was the pickle-king.
People, lend me your ears. When you ask me if I have a game in stock, please tell me which goddamn system you want it for if its a multi-platform one. I'm not a fucking psychic.
Also, to the retarded kid who called today, when I say I am out of stock on Gamecube cheat devices, do not ask me if I have any the store, or if I have any hacking devices for cheating. My answer will not change.
Oh, AND WE DONT HAVE WII's. NO I DONT KNOW WHEN WE ARE GETTING MORE, AND IF I DID WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD I TELL YOU AND EVERY OTHER FAGGOT WHO ASKS ME EVERYDAY. THINK BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE PHONE
Well, tonight has been kind of cool. Two of us (myself included) have their DS with them, so we are in the midst of a quick round robin tourney in Mario Kart DS. Random tracks, first to 3 wins. I got smoked 3-1 and 3-0 in my two matchups, so I'm already out, which explains why I'm typing this now.
That means it's story time, though, so here's one from when I first started the job way back in 1999. Copy/paste from way back when (yeah, I had a blog ), so yes, the quotes are pretty much spot on.
The True Meanings of AC and GM
My first month of work was under my belt at this point, but I still had plenty to learn. There are dozens of different kinds of alarm panels, and each one has its own set of intricacies. Older panels send in general signals, while newer ones tell us what particular zone triggered the alarm. For example, during power loss situations, most older panels will send in a signal that says "AC LOSS," but their newer counterparts would send in "AC Power Loss." Now, I knew what the signals meant, but it turns out one of our customers was less than pleased when I left a message for him.
There was a pretty nasty storm rolling through our area, and about 40-50 of our customers (both commercial and residential) lost power. As we were working though the list to call them, I got one from an older panel that was installed in large commercial warehouse. First step is to call the premise, and since it was the weekend, I got no answer. The first number on the emergency list was the home number for the company's GM. I got no answer and left a message telling him we received "an AC loss signal" from the alarm. I got in touch with the assistant GM at the second number and informed him of what happened. He thanked me for letting him know what was going on and requested a call back if we got any other trouble signals. I told him we would definitely do so and wished him a good day.
I was getting ready to continue down the queue of signals when the phone rang. As the lowest guy on the totem pole, I was first in line for the phones if I happened to be free at the time. I put the current alarm I was handling on hold for another dispatcher and answered the phone. I no sooner put the headset to my ear when this middle-aged gentleman started demanding "detailed information" about a call he just received.
This was before we had any sort of caller ID here, so I asked for his name and the account he was calling about, got his password to verify everything, then brought up the alarm history so I knew what was going on. Sure enough, this was the GM I had just left a message for in regards to the power loss, so I asked him what information he needed.
"I need to know why you guys called my home number to tell me that the air conditioning at BUSINESS NAME went out!"
"I, um...I'm sorry, sir, but we don't monitor any form of air conditioning systems. Perhaps the call was in reference to a power loss? We've received a number of them today from the storms."
"No. Whoever left this message said there was an 'AC loss' at the building. 'AC' means 'air conditioning.' And if you don't even track this kind of stuff, why the hell did you call me at home?"
I assume he kept referencing the fact that he was home simply because we pulled him away from something extremely (un)important. His voice was getting louder and louder, and being the newbie there, I was getting a bit upset about the whole thing. Trying to keep my cool, I responded and hoped to keep this from getting worse.
"Sir, I'm sorry to have disturbed you at home today, but out procedure is to follow the emergency list in order from the beginning until we speak to a live person. The reason for our call was in reference to a power loss we received from the business, and it has nothing to do with the air conditioning system there. I am sorry for any confusion about this."
And all of a sudden...
"Listen here, buddy. I'm the GM of this company, OK? You know what that means? That means that I'm the guy who pays all this money every month so you can get your shitty paycheck. That also means that you need to do your damn job properly. If it's a power loss, than say it's a power loss, not an 'AC loss.' I don't know what that shit means with all your fancy codes and shit, OK?
So, OK, first off, I need you name, right now."
I gave him my first name, and when he asked for my last name, I told him that they could identify me using my dispatcher ID (which is true).
"OK, Mr. No Last Name, listen carefully. Here's what you are going to do. You're going to get a list of all the 'codes' and shit that you guys use and fax it to me right now. The fax number here is ###, and I expect it here within five minutes. You got that? All your fancy codes better be in there, or I am going to shitcan your ass come Monday. You got that?"
Well, we had ourselves a situation here. First off, it's Saturday, the main office is locked tight, and we don't have access to a fax machine on weekends. Secondly, he threatened me, and being green, I was shaking like a leaf at this point, both from anger and fear. Now, I knew he couldn't fire me, but if I lost control with a customer, I figured I was as good as fired. So, I did what most people would do at this point.
"Sir, can you hold for a minute, please?"
"You better be sending that fax!"
The other dispatchers noticed that I was pretty upset, so they asked what happened. I explained to them what had transpired, and one of them said he'd take care of it. He picked up the phone and took care of business.
"Sir...Yes, sorry, the other person you were talking to is busy now...No, sir, that fax will not be sent. If you...No, sir, if you want a nonexistent list of our imaginary codes, you'll have to call back when the office is open at 8AM on Monday. I...Oh, I'm sorry, sir, but even though you are the garbage man for your company, we can't do that. Thank you for calling, and have a great day."
Surprisingly, the GM never called back. I thanked my fellow dispatcher for the help, and on Monday I got a call from my supervisor as a follow-up. She said that this GM called back and gave her six kinds of hell, so our owner decided to tangle with him. The end result was quite enjoyable: we gave him a 60-day notice that we were going to be canceling his service due to abuse of our employees.
I learned a lot from that first nasty customer, but the most important thing was this pearl of wisdom that the owner gave to me.
"Anytime a customer does anything you feel could be considered abuse, you are free to give it back in kind. I have no problem losing a customer who thinks they can abuse my people."
It's cool to have work friends/make friends at work.
But never work with your friends, management will always come down hard on you because they're douche bags and will automatically assume that you are fucking around no matter how hard you work and how many times you cover the company's fucking ass.
Also sucks when you have a fallout with that friend because you're now realizing after 7 year's that he's a selfish douche bag and you work 40 hours a week and have to see him for 30 of em'.
God I can't wait till summer's over and I can quit this fucking place.
"Anytime a customer does anything you feel could be considered abuse, you are free to give it back in kind. I have no problem losing a customer who thinks they can abuse my people."
More companies need to adopt this policy. I believe it would lead to a much more polite society, as people would learn that if they dish out abuse, they're going to be treated poorly because of it. Too many customers get a sadistic thrill out of abusing employees with the gleeful knowledge that they can't fight back.
A year ago we started having our fan question emails handled by a guy who only had a couple of weeks left to go in his employment before leaving for school. His replies were sarcastic and often made fun of the sender's spelling or random facts they'd include. ("Oh, we're out of 'Noctrine.' But, we do have 'Nocturne,'
maybe that's what you were thinking of when you wrote this and forgot to spellcheck it.") ("Every one of our repacks is thoroughly tested by our division in an underground facility beneath Half Dome in Yellowstone National Park.") ("You did Guitly Gear cosplay? Seriously? What's wrong with you!?")
Oddly enough, we received a great deal of responses after he left by people he'd written to, who liked getting stuff like that from a company. We were aghast, and he was gone, so it all worked out, I suppose.
Anyway, the only people who write letters these days are the crazies. And prisoners.
Bursar on
GNU Terry Pratchett
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
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I don't want to derail the thread, but as cheap as digital cameras are these day, why the HELL is anyone still using film to take pictures of their naked selves and sending them to the photo lab?
After a month in a print and copy store, let me assure you, you can never underestimate how little someone can know when it comes to technology. I still get people using fucking zip drives, and when they want it burnt onto a CD, they figure it'll take three or four discs.
I work QA for a small games and software developer. It's been boring for the vast majority of the time working there. But last week I started doing what is essentially producer-level work. I'm handling all the ins and outs for a client, and networking with 3 or 4 other entities/people. I'm also responsible for testing various hardware related to the project.
And I'm still making $11 an hour. I've been there for a year, on contract. And the CEO is definitely from the old school of game dev. "Exploit the workers because they need you and you don't need them."
Seriously? That's terrible. I have a friend who works at a bike shop who makes $12/hour.
It's cool to have work friends/make friends at work.
But never work with your friends, management will always come down hard on you because they're douche bags and will automatically assume that you are fucking around no matter how hard you work and how many times you cover the company's fucking ass.
Also sucks when you have a fallout with that friend because you're now realizing after 7 year's that he's a selfish douche bag and you work 40 hours a week and have to see him for 30 of em'.
God I can't wait till summer's over and I can quit this fucking place.
Sorry to break this to you man, but there's a reason we assume you're just fucking around. Because 99% of the time, friends that are working together do just fuck around. As someone that managed three different pairs of friends, I had to watch them like a fucking hawk, or they would have done nothing but stand behind the counter and talk.
In my situation there is NO reason for management to bust anyone's ass, they're breaking so many laws and lying to their customers so much that it's hilarious.
I realize that it's not my place and it isn't an excuse to fuck around but the problem is I don't fuck around and barely talk to the friend now a days.
This is by the way, a call/case board based support team. Calls are evenly distributed to technicians and everyone works together on the case board, there's absolutely no way you can "slack off" because if you get a call and you don't pick it up, it's gonna roll to a manger and you're gonna get canned.
As for the case board, everyone works on it, we're allowed to work on it at our own pace but we do have a set amount of time that a case must be finished in, otherwise, people are gonna get canned.
All that aside, I like to think that I'm a hard worker and it's more my friend slacking off and logging off the phones consistently that's having management breathe down my neck as he's a senior technician and used to work hard before I got here.
People, lend me your ears. When you ask me if I have a game in stock, please tell me which goddamn system you want it for if its a multi-platform one. I'm not a fucking psychic.
I had a guy who asked me for some game whose name escapes me but it was multiplatform, so I ask "Which system?" He just said the name of the game again. It went like this back and forth like 4 or 5 times, while he was getting increasingly more angry. I got fed up and just told him we didn't have it.
Oh, AND WE DONT HAVE WII's. NO I DONT KNOW WHEN WE ARE GETTING MORE, AND IF I DID WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD I TELL YOU AND EVERY OTHER FAGGOT WHO ASKS ME EVERYDAY. THINK BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE PHONE
While I understand your frustration, it's really Nintendo's fault and not the fault of those of us who are still trying to wrangle Wiis. It seems like phoning a store and asking them if they have a product that it is perfectly logical they should carry is thinking. Also, if you are out of a product the logical follow up question is "when do you think you'll get some?"
Having said that, if I worked retail at a game store right now, I would probably be sick of that question as well.
Also, do you have any Wiis or have any idea when you are going to get any in?
Having said that, if I worked retail at a game store right now, I would probably be sick of that question as well.
Also, do you have any Wiis or have any idea when you are going to get any in?
You don't understand. If you had received those two questions in conjunction on average of 30 times a day FOR THE LAST 8 MONTHS, it might make you want to murder someone as well.
"Do you have any Wii's?"
"Do you know when you're going to get any?"
I say this in my head whenever someone comes up, it makes me feel like a fucking psychic.
They should have a game where you use the wii-mote to virtually beat customers who are shopping for Wii's. I'll need a Wii to play it, of course; do you have any in?
Wolfrider on
If this had been an actual alien invasion, you would have protected as many as SOME of your population. Congratulations.
Sure, normally, telling people when something should get here inst a problem. Except when we only get 3-6 in at a time. And we usually get at least 5 or more calls like that a day. And I dont want a line out the door that day
Wouldn't it be easy just to make a sign that says 'NO WE DO NOT HAVE WIIS IN STOCK.' and hang it above the counter or something?
We weren't allowed to hang any signage that either guaranteed, or didn't guarantee an item, for any reason.
"It would drive away potential customers!"
No, not having stock in a popular item drives away potential customers. Geniuses.
I'm so tempted to stop by one of the Gamestops nearby and secretly post a sign outside the door that says:
"We might have the Nintendo Wii IN STOCK right now! C'mon in and ask us!"
Also, I'm |--| this close to quitting Gamestop. I haven't yet because they've only had me work 5 hours in the past 2 months, and I'm still getting my discount.
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Librarians harbor a terrible secret. Find it.
From my time at the Kmart photo center, it's store policy not to sell pornography. Regardless of source or attractiveness of people involved. If we proccessed the photos, we had to shred them, dispose of them and tell the customer that we couldn't process them before returning the negatives. If they sent them off for the cheaper service (1 week or so) the envelopes would come back empty with just the negatives and a note as well.
As for why not just shove them into the envelopes cause noone else sees them: Have you seen how fucked up the 1 hour processing racks get? You screw up and give some 13 year old looking for her birthday pictures the envelop with an amateur pornstars latest portfolio and you've got a whole world of trouble. Often times the customers would go through the photos at the counter. Not a problem if you mix up most of them, but again, some soccer mom gets that one wrong envelope...
As for the digital camera memory stick, if I had to assist you with the machine, then no, couldn't do it. If you could follow the onscreen prompts and got them printed and packaged yourself I wouldn't care. If I can't see it I can't stop it right? Store policy might disagree though (I can't imagine they've got someone somewhere monitoring what's on those printing stations in real time).
Interesting in the way that everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
First three pallets of water tip over due to road construction meaning that once I got to the store they go to I had to spend a good 30 minutes restacking pallets before I could deliver them. Oy.
My electric pallet jack got stuck (soft ground is no good). Left my computer in a store in the middle of nowhere, and didn't realize until I got 30 miles away. (Drive back and get it, turn around and go back to my next stop).
And the really fun thing, I turned down a road we've taken before and had always had no problems with. Ended up clipping a power line (live line) that had decided to break and had it drape over my cab. Had to call the power company and then sit in the middle of nowhere until they could get out there and save my ass (took them 45 minutes).
So what was supposed to be a short day (like 9 hours tops) turned into a 13 hour day. Grawr.
In my retail job we once had someone called in sick for two weeks at once. Not once per day, but one day she called in and said she was sick for the next two weeks. Then the next day during the time when she was supposed to be working everyone found her in the store shopping, healthy as can be.
That was the last day she ever worked in the store.
Yeah, I never understood it.
A few months later she was shopping again and her daughter said somehting to her along the lines of "Mom, you worked in retail!" and I had to fight the urge to say "No, you called in sick to retail". When I told my co-workers about that they said I should've said it.
Whoops.
Thank god there is just about no state patrol in this area.
And I'm still making $11 an hour. I've been there for a year, on contract. And the CEO is definitely from the old school of game dev. "Exploit the workers because they need you and you don't need them."
I bet you didn't have anyone tailgating that day!
I had a pretty good buffer space around me most of the time, and people were giving me some odd looks as I passed them. That also explains why the truckers were giving me more room than usual.
I'm not sure why that policy is the way it is(Ironically, if we do discover child porn we print the pictures and actually give them to the person while secretly notifying the police), but its one of the policies that LP is incredibly strict about so I follow it. Also I'm sure there are photo labs that have no problem printing pornography, just not the family-oriented drugstore.
Yes, but then at my store the way the kiosks work is you do all the choose/correcting crap and then it sends it to the primary(and only) printer in the lab where the tech prints them out.(I think it is actually done that way not because of digital media but because there is a scanner attached and people were making copies of copywrited pictures, which is a huge fucking no-no)
3DS Friend Code: 0404-6826-4588 PM if you add.
Sandwiches being made. Ice machine clinking. A man talking to a pickle.
There were a few people in line at the moment, and my manager was making their sandwiches. She leaned over to me when I came up to the table to help and whispered that the guy over at the booth seemed a little strange. Her story was that he babbled a little before ordering a pickle, and only a pickle. After we finished making sandwiches for three or four drunks, I took a casual look over and saw that she was wrong.
The man was not a little strange. The man was genuinely and completely insane.
Let me paint the scene for you here: a group of people at a booth, talking loudly about their drunken escapades, another group getting ready to leave with their sandwiches in bags, and in the middle of all the action, a man, alone at a table, gesticulating wildly in a fierce argument with a pickle. It was all I could do not to laugh.
He held the pickle directly in front of his face, examining it closely. He peered at it, shook his head, then rotated it, peered at it again and shook his head once more. He held half of the pickle in one hand, and half of the pickle in the other.
This whole time my manager was busying herself with some chores. I stood transfixed. I couldn't tear myself away from the shelf I was leaning against. I watched as he studied both halves of the pickle, lining them up side by side, nodding, then shaking his head, then saying something. I was too far away to hear, but still I stood in amazement. It was then that he extricated himself from the booth and stood up.
He glided toward the counter, every step calculated, a walking motion so smooth that his entire upper body stayed completely still when he moved. He calmly approached me and in a very normal tone of voice asked me for a knife.
Knife!
I nervously said something about how we're not allowed to let customers use the knives, but that if he wanted me to cut his pickle, I could cut it for him. He slowly hovered back to the table, and then slowly came back to the counter, presenting his pickled prisoner to me. He said to cut each half straight down the middle to make fourths. I did so. He smiled devilishly as I did it; getting some sort of joy out of torturing the pickle before he devoured it. He was the pickle-king, and I was the man hired to torture his prisoners before he ate them.
Tears streamed down my face as I completed my dark task.
He took the pickle back, carrying it ceremoniously back to his chosen booth. He sat down and placed the remains of the pickle directly in front of him. It was now quiet enough in the store that I could hear very clearly when he thrust his hand forward in a cutting motion and screamed at the pickle:
"Straight down the middle!"
The pickle-king began to feast, slowly. It took him nearly half an hour to finish his feast, and the look of delight on his face was so genuine that it made me reconsider my life. After this was over, he continued to stare strangely around the shop, even stumbling awkwardly into a conversation with some guys at a booth near him.
After the feast was over, he got up, walked to the front counter, grinned at me and dropped about sixty cents into our tip jar. I suddenly realized that I needed to get very far away from this man and found an excuse to run to the back. There, I found a broom, and on pretense of sweeping, came out to the lobby and watched him from further away.
I watched him walk away as I swept the lobby. He pushed open the door and strolled out into the night, presumably to hunt down and mercilessly torture more vegetables. And in that moment, I was envious of him. In that moment, I wished that I was the pickle-king.
But alas, to me, they are cucumbers soiled by some evil devil substance.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Also, to the retarded kid who called today, when I say I am out of stock on Gamecube cheat devices, do not ask me if I have any the store, or if I have any hacking devices for cheating. My answer will not change.
Oh, AND WE DONT HAVE WII's. NO I DONT KNOW WHEN WE ARE GETTING MORE, AND IF I DID WHY IN THE FUCK WOULD I TELL YOU AND EVERY OTHER FAGGOT WHO ASKS ME EVERYDAY. THINK BEFORE YOU PICK UP THE PHONE
typical customer:
I'd like a pop and a popcorn.
Me: What kind of pop?
Uhhh, Sprite
Me: And what size?
Uhhh, Medium
Me: And what size popcorn?
Uhhhh, large
Why not just tell me you want a medium Sprite and a large popcorn?
That means it's story time, though, so here's one from when I first started the job way back in 1999. Copy/paste from way back when (yeah, I had a blog
The True Meanings of AC and GM
My first month of work was under my belt at this point, but I still had plenty to learn. There are dozens of different kinds of alarm panels, and each one has its own set of intricacies. Older panels send in general signals, while newer ones tell us what particular zone triggered the alarm. For example, during power loss situations, most older panels will send in a signal that says "AC LOSS," but their newer counterparts would send in "AC Power Loss." Now, I knew what the signals meant, but it turns out one of our customers was less than pleased when I left a message for him.
There was a pretty nasty storm rolling through our area, and about 40-50 of our customers (both commercial and residential) lost power. As we were working though the list to call them, I got one from an older panel that was installed in large commercial warehouse. First step is to call the premise, and since it was the weekend, I got no answer. The first number on the emergency list was the home number for the company's GM. I got no answer and left a message telling him we received "an AC loss signal" from the alarm. I got in touch with the assistant GM at the second number and informed him of what happened. He thanked me for letting him know what was going on and requested a call back if we got any other trouble signals. I told him we would definitely do so and wished him a good day.
I was getting ready to continue down the queue of signals when the phone rang. As the lowest guy on the totem pole, I was first in line for the phones if I happened to be free at the time. I put the current alarm I was handling on hold for another dispatcher and answered the phone. I no sooner put the headset to my ear when this middle-aged gentleman started demanding "detailed information" about a call he just received.
This was before we had any sort of caller ID here, so I asked for his name and the account he was calling about, got his password to verify everything, then brought up the alarm history so I knew what was going on. Sure enough, this was the GM I had just left a message for in regards to the power loss, so I asked him what information he needed.
"I need to know why you guys called my home number to tell me that the air conditioning at BUSINESS NAME went out!"
"I, um...I'm sorry, sir, but we don't monitor any form of air conditioning systems. Perhaps the call was in reference to a power loss? We've received a number of them today from the storms."
"No. Whoever left this message said there was an 'AC loss' at the building. 'AC' means 'air conditioning.' And if you don't even track this kind of stuff, why the hell did you call me at home?"
I assume he kept referencing the fact that he was home simply because we pulled him away from something extremely (un)important. His voice was getting louder and louder, and being the newbie there, I was getting a bit upset about the whole thing. Trying to keep my cool, I responded and hoped to keep this from getting worse.
"Sir, I'm sorry to have disturbed you at home today, but out procedure is to follow the emergency list in order from the beginning until we speak to a live person. The reason for our call was in reference to a power loss we received from the business, and it has nothing to do with the air conditioning system there. I am sorry for any confusion about this."
And all of a sudden...
"Listen here, buddy. I'm the GM of this company, OK? You know what that means? That means that I'm the guy who pays all this money every month so you can get your shitty paycheck. That also means that you need to do your damn job properly. If it's a power loss, than say it's a power loss, not an 'AC loss.' I don't know what that shit means with all your fancy codes and shit, OK?
So, OK, first off, I need you name, right now."
I gave him my first name, and when he asked for my last name, I told him that they could identify me using my dispatcher ID (which is true).
"OK, Mr. No Last Name, listen carefully. Here's what you are going to do. You're going to get a list of all the 'codes' and shit that you guys use and fax it to me right now. The fax number here is ###, and I expect it here within five minutes. You got that? All your fancy codes better be in there, or I am going to shitcan your ass come Monday. You got that?"
Well, we had ourselves a situation here. First off, it's Saturday, the main office is locked tight, and we don't have access to a fax machine on weekends. Secondly, he threatened me, and being green, I was shaking like a leaf at this point, both from anger and fear. Now, I knew he couldn't fire me, but if I lost control with a customer, I figured I was as good as fired. So, I did what most people would do at this point.
"Sir, can you hold for a minute, please?"
"You better be sending that fax!"
The other dispatchers noticed that I was pretty upset, so they asked what happened. I explained to them what had transpired, and one of them said he'd take care of it. He picked up the phone and took care of business.
"Sir...Yes, sorry, the other person you were talking to is busy now...No, sir, that fax will not be sent. If you...No, sir, if you want a nonexistent list of our imaginary codes, you'll have to call back when the office is open at 8AM on Monday. I...Oh, I'm sorry, sir, but even though you are the garbage man for your company, we can't do that. Thank you for calling, and have a great day."
Surprisingly, the GM never called back. I thanked my fellow dispatcher for the help, and on Monday I got a call from my supervisor as a follow-up. She said that this GM called back and gave her six kinds of hell, so our owner decided to tangle with him. The end result was quite enjoyable: we gave him a 60-day notice that we were going to be canceling his service due to abuse of our employees.
I learned a lot from that first nasty customer, but the most important thing was this pearl of wisdom that the owner gave to me.
"Anytime a customer does anything you feel could be considered abuse, you are free to give it back in kind. I have no problem losing a customer who thinks they can abuse my people."
It's cool to have work friends/make friends at work.
But never work with your friends, management will always come down hard on you because they're douche bags and will automatically assume that you are fucking around no matter how hard you work and how many times you cover the company's fucking ass.
Also sucks when you have a fallout with that friend because you're now realizing after 7 year's that he's a selfish douche bag and you work 40 hours a week and have to see him for 30 of em'.
God I can't wait till summer's over and I can quit this fucking place.
More companies need to adopt this policy. I believe it would lead to a much more polite society, as people would learn that if they dish out abuse, they're going to be treated poorly because of it. Too many customers get a sadistic thrill out of abusing employees with the gleeful knowledge that they can't fight back.
maybe that's what you were thinking of when you wrote this and forgot to spellcheck it.") ("Every one of our repacks is thoroughly tested by our division in an underground facility beneath Half Dome in Yellowstone National Park.") ("You did Guitly Gear cosplay? Seriously? What's wrong with you!?")
Oddly enough, we received a great deal of responses after he left by people he'd written to, who liked getting stuff like that from a company. We were aghast, and he was gone, so it all worked out, I suppose.
Anyway, the only people who write letters these days are the crazies. And prisoners.
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
After a month in a print and copy store, let me assure you, you can never underestimate how little someone can know when it comes to technology. I still get people using fucking zip drives, and when they want it burnt onto a CD, they figure it'll take three or four discs.
Seriously? That's terrible. I have a friend who works at a bike shop who makes $12/hour.
Sorry to break this to you man, but there's a reason we assume you're just fucking around. Because 99% of the time, friends that are working together do just fuck around. As someone that managed three different pairs of friends, I had to watch them like a fucking hawk, or they would have done nothing but stand behind the counter and talk.
I realize that it's not my place and it isn't an excuse to fuck around but the problem is I don't fuck around and barely talk to the friend now a days.
This is by the way, a call/case board based support team. Calls are evenly distributed to technicians and everyone works together on the case board, there's absolutely no way you can "slack off" because if you get a call and you don't pick it up, it's gonna roll to a manger and you're gonna get canned.
As for the case board, everyone works on it, we're allowed to work on it at our own pace but we do have a set amount of time that a case must be finished in, otherwise, people are gonna get canned.
All that aside, I like to think that I'm a hard worker and it's more my friend slacking off and logging off the phones consistently that's having management breathe down my neck as he's a senior technician and used to work hard before I got here.
I had a guy who asked me for some game whose name escapes me but it was multiplatform, so I ask "Which system?" He just said the name of the game again. It went like this back and forth like 4 or 5 times, while he was getting increasingly more angry. I got fed up and just told him we didn't have it.
While I understand your frustration, it's really Nintendo's fault and not the fault of those of us who are still trying to wrangle Wiis. It seems like phoning a store and asking them if they have a product that it is perfectly logical they should carry is thinking. Also, if you are out of a product the logical follow up question is "when do you think you'll get some?"
Having said that, if I worked retail at a game store right now, I would probably be sick of that question as well.
Also, do you have any Wiis or have any idea when you are going to get any in?
You don't understand. If you had received those two questions in conjunction on average of 30 times a day FOR THE LAST 8 MONTHS, it might make you want to murder someone as well.
"Do you have any Wii's?"
"Do you know when you're going to get any?"
I say this in my head whenever someone comes up, it makes me feel like a fucking psychic.
Truth be told, we would average (easily) 100 calls/walk ins a day on it, and that was right before I left Gamestop, not but a few months ago.
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
We weren't allowed to hang any signage that either guaranteed, or didn't guarantee an item, for any reason.
"It would drive away potential customers!"
No, not having stock in a popular item drives away potential customers. Geniuses.
"We might have the Nintendo Wii IN STOCK right now! C'mon in and ask us!"
Also, I'm |--| this close to quitting Gamestop. I haven't yet because they've only had me work 5 hours in the past 2 months, and I'm still getting my discount.