Last week I had an interesting occurrence at work.
A van pulled up to one of the pumps and everyone trooped inside without getting gas, which in and of itself is not unusual. Plenty of people pre-pay. They wandered the store for a bit, and one of them finally came up to the counter.
"Can I use ya'lls phone?"
My coworker was watching the registers while I stocked some cigs in the display.
"Is it a local call?" She asked.
"Yes, it's a Denver number."
"I'm sorry, that's not local, we're not allowed."
"Oh." And the woman wandered away, and they conferred in the dining area.
They spread out and took up every table, making a general nuisance of themselves.
Shortly, another one of them walked up while I was the only one at the register, and I braced myself for an attempt at fooling me into thinking it was a local number.
I was pleasantly surprised that instead of asking for the phone, the young woman politely asked me to dial an 800 number for her. She spent a few minutes on the phone, then brought it back with thanks.
An hour later the phone rang and I answered, only to hear a recording. It was an automated notice from a motor club saying that their service would be there in fifteen minutes.
I let them know and went about my work until the local guy who gets those calls came in after doing their "service."
They'd been out of gas, and out of money. They had parked at a gas pump for a couple of hours, preventing anyone else from using that pump, and made a huge mess in the dining area. Aside from the one young lady who actually called the motor club, they showed a lack of manners and common courtesy that made me wish I was allowed to kick them out.
And when the guy showed up to fulfill their service call to the motor club, they demanded enough gas to get them to Denver.
The grin on his face when he related that he'd told them the motor club only allowed him to bring two gallons of gas was just slightly malicious.
That kind of welfare mentality is killing our country.
"I don't have the money for it, but someone owes it to me."
No, folks, they don't. All that's owed you is what you've earned, so get off your ass and take care of business. If you're driving from Texas to Denver, plan far enough ahead to be able to actually get there, and don't spend all of your money on snacks and toys to keep the screaming child quiet. Especially if they don't keep the screaming child quiet. When you need three trips to bring in the kid's toys from the van and I overhear you saying "But Baby this one is NEW we just got it the last time we stopped, you can't be bored with it yet" on three separate occasions while holding different toys, then it's pretty clear to me that your money management skills are lacking.
I'm disappointed in humanity.
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14 comments:
Not only their money management skills but their child rearing skills.
My wife operates a free clothing store for our church. They've been serving folks for three years. On the average, once a month, someone will come in and ask for money instead of clothes. They don't understand why they're shown the door.
The store receives a lot of donations. When the place isn't open, they'll leave clothes in plastic bags by the door. Inevitably, someone will come by and take the bags. Folks call us all the time that someone is stealing the clothes. We don't really care 'cause we're going to give them away anyway---after we launder them. Some of the clothes comes in nastily.
It's too much trouble to come in when the store if open for clean clothes when it's easier to steal dirty ones!
I saw this a lot when I was working security for concerts. "Can I just come in and stand in the foyer?" was a close second to "Can I go out and smoke and then bring in my buddies?"
Some people just weren't raised right.
As someone who has worked for a major roadside assistance program....I had a girl call for the 3rd time in one day for us to bring us gas "because you guys don't bring me enough!" When I explained that A: our policy is only enough gas to get to the nearest gas station (most drivers just pour in a 5 gallon can cause its easier than figuring distance unless its the middle of nowhere), and that B: she's only allowed 4 free service calls in a year and she's about to use her 4th for another 5 gallons of gas she got quite upset. She wasn't the first one either.
Sadly, I employ people who have the same ability to think that far forward.
I employ a male who can barely think far enough into the future to tuck in before zipping up, if you get my drift. And the women who, on payday, have enough money to get their nails done, but cry for money to buy diapers 2 days later....
Then there are the folks who spend wildly just after payday, but are broke by Wednesday and bumming gas money to get them to work on Friday (payday). But on Saturday, they buy lunch for their coworkers....Then we start the cycle all over again.....and over, and over, and over.
They can't wait for Obamacare, 'cause they think it's gonna give 'em something else for free....
Yep, life sucks, but it's ALWAYS somebody else fault and not theirs... sigh... I would have booted their asses out of there, but then I'm not PC and I'm old and grouchy
*sigh*
the entitlement mentality is so very frustrating.
Same people encountered in car sales. "Folks, if we can find someone stupid enough to loan you money, this is the only car they will finance" is not well received.
The next person that says "You owe me" I'll shoot, multiple times.
It is all our fault you know.
We work to damn hard and worry to damn much.
We're to damn accoountable to ourselves and generous.
We've entitled them.
We're to damn nice when we should be kicking them in the butts.
Boy did we screw up!
The next person that says "You owe me" I'll shoot, multiple times.
It is all our fault you know.
We work to damn hard and worry to damn much.
We're to damn accoountable to ourselves and generous.
We've entitled them.
We're to damn nice when we should be kicking them in the butts.
Boy did we screw up!
We refer to it as the "cycle of finance" at work.
We work and are paid for what we do. We pay taxes. Our taxes are given out as Medicare (loosely speaking). People bring their kids to the ER. Medicare pays for those ER visits which pays our salaries.
And those people who don't pay a dime for that health care are the most demanding, meanest people (in general). Very much the entitlement mentality, from birth on up.
"Aside from the one young lady who actually called the motor club, they showed a lack of manners and common courtesy that made me wish I was allowed to kick them out."
WAIT just a damned second. Your place of employment doesn't even give you the authority to kick out loiterers who aren't spending money, and are taking up space and preventing trade?
I've kicked a LOT of transients to the curb on the say-so of a convenience store clerk. It's a standard level of authority. I've written a lot of Criminal Trespass Warning notices on the authority of the most junior clerks in the stores, too. You might see about getting that authority from your store manager; this is a safety issue, and a money issue.
What I don't understand is if the road side assistance is only there to give you enough gas to get to the nearest gas station and the van is already parked at a pump... See, if I drove the tow truck, I would have said "Assisted!" and gotten a cup of coffee.
Matt: unless a customer complains, according to my manager, I'm supposed to leave them be, because, and I quote "They MIGHT buy something, and customer service is our number one priority." If they're throwing shit around and or being belligerent, I assume I can throw them out, but just being a pain in the ass I've been informed is not within my purview.
JimJim: He damn near did. The look on his face when he came in the door and asked me where to find the people he was supposed to be assisting was fairly priceless.
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