Behind the Scenes @ Work

[aggieAXO]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I worked for years at the Texas Renaissance Festival. Turkey legs that were not sold one year - were frozen and kept until the next year.
YUM.

yuk. I use to go every year to the one in Magnolia Texas. Luckily I don't eat turkey but my friend would have a turkey leg every year. I will have to tell her what you said

OK one from me. If your (insert animal here, usually a dog) got into pot be honest with me. I can spot a pot dog coming in the door (so can most of the staff)and if you are not honest with me you will have about a 1000$ estimate. If you are honest with me then it will just be the exam fee and a "he'll sleep it off tonight" comment. I promise I won't call the police or CPS. Just tell me the truth. BTW I know your neighbor didn't just throw it in your yard either-get real

Also, if you are a dick to me about how long you have been waiting, you WILL be waiting much longer so be nice.

[CarolinaCutie]

From when I worked in jewelry:
- In my experience, ALWAYS buy the service plan when it comes to a nice piece of jewelry. When you buy the service plan, ALWAYS follow the terms of the agreement (usually coming in and having it cleaned and checked every so often). If you do this, the store will usually pay for anything that goes wrong... which can include replacing missing stones, prong retipping, new rhodium plating, all kinds of expensive things. But if you don't buy the service plan, or if you miss your inspection dates, and your big 1 carat stone pops out of its setting... we could care less if it's over 90 days. And you will be mad when you have to replace that big sucker on your own dime.

- We sell jewelry cleaner in a box, but what we use in our store's sonic cleaner is one part Mr. Clean, one part water. Use a toothbrush to get it really clean and don't forget to go behind the setting. People who don't take their rings off much have some really funky and gross stuff back there.

-Don't put your silver in regular cleaner though... use toothpaste for that or a cleaner for silver jewelry.

And from what I do now:
- Dollar store pregnancy tests are not accurate. If you want an accurate test, you need to buy the expensive kind in the store or you need to go to the doctor's office. (that may seem like common sense to some of you, but you never know...)
- You can be still getting some form of period every month and still be pregnant. You can still be pregnant and have a negative urine test. These are things that usually run in someone's family, so if you think you might be pregnant but you're still menstruating or you are still getting negatives at home, ask your mom or other family members who've been pregnant before. Sometimes you need a blood test or an ultrasound to confirm.

[tld221]

Originally Posted by CarolinaCutie

Dollar store pregnancy tests are not accurate. If you want an accurate test, you need to buy the expensive kind in the store or you need to go to the doctor's office. (that may seem like common sense to some of you, but you never know...)

you know, there are some things you shouldnt skimp on... while i'd like to think that generic brand XYZ would work "just like name brand ABC" (as imitations tend to disclaim on their packaging), i would rather just shell the $ out on the good ish.

[KSig RC]

Honestly, is there any reason (besides the small-% cut taken by a CC company, which I believe has already been addressed) why a contractor or 'small business' would take up to TWENTY PERCENT off, other than the 'advantages' afforded by untraceable cash transactions?

Interestingly, 20% would be slightly below the tax burden on that item . . . hm, odd.

"Cash flow" can't be correct, since small businesses almost always live off their credit line for day-to-day costs anyway (and the amount of time needed to make another payment, say check, 'liquid' seems negligible in the grand scheme of things) . . . anything else?

Also, why don't larger businesses do this? Why do many large companies specifically avoid dealing with cash transactions?

[SWTXBelle]

I will never understand why some people believe that if they treat you poorly you will JUMP to take care of them immediately. Yes siree, please treat me like crap! Let me drop everything to take care of YOU, since you are so much more important than everyone else.
I think everyone should have to work one Christmas season in retail. They would then be sooooo much nicer and more understanding. At least in theory . . .

[AlethiaSi]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I will never understand why some people believe that if they treat you poorly you will JUMP to take care of them immediately. Yes siree, please treat me like crap! Let me drop everything to take care of YOU, since you are so much more important than everyone else.
I think everyone should have to work one Christmas season in retail. They would then be sooooo much nicer and more understanding. At least in theory . . .

I TOTALLY AGREE! work in retail or in the service industry (at any time) .... I think people would be a hell of a lot nicer.

[ZTAngel]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I think everyone should have to work one Christmas season in retail. They would then be sooooo much nicer and more understanding. At least in theory . . .

Yes. I think some customers were rude just because they enjoyed the power trip they had over the sales associate. I am always friendly to the sales associates because I know the pain they go through!

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by ZTAngel

Yes. I think some customers were rude just because they enjoyed the power trip they had over the sales associate. I am always friendly to the sales associates because I know the pain they go through!

Or even more so they just plain think they're better than the sales associate. The number of times I've heard people say "at least I got a college education" is disturbing. (And completely ignores the fact that most salespeople I know have or are getting a college education. Or even a Masters! OMG they're smarter than you! /sarcasm)

[aggieAXO]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I will never understand why some people believe that if they treat you poorly you will JUMP to take care of them immediately. Yes siree, please treat me like crap! Let me drop everything to take care of YOU, since you are so much more important than everyone else.
I think everyone should have to work one Christmas season in retail. They would then be sooooo much nicer and more understanding. At least in theory . . .

I also think people should go and hang out in a human ER on a holiday so they realize that waiting 3 hours at an animal ER is not so bad.

[minDyG]

One thing I wished all people knew/kept in mind back when I worked in inbound telemarketing was that, when you request to be removed from a mailing list, you do actually have to give the TSR your address. Just because we have caller ID doesn't mean we can find your address in some database which may contain millions of phone numbers. If you ask to be removed from a calling list or mailing list, it is the law that your wish has to be carried out, so by refusing to provide the operator with your address you're just hindering the process. And on the flip side, if you do ever ask a telemarketer to remove your number from their calling list, make sure they actually have your number and ask multiple times to ensure they really do it. Oftentimes outbound telemarketing calls are preprogrammed into a call list so the TSR's don't necessarily have the phone number in front of them either.

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by aggieAXO

I also think people should go and hang out in a human ER on a holiday so they realize that waiting 3 hours at an animal ER is not so bad.

Oddly enough, I worked the 4th one year (I'm English, what do I care? It's holiday pay!) and we got three calls in 24 hours. The ER was deserted.

Here's a tip: when the ambulance comes, please have a list of medications and medical history ready and if you treat us like crap, remember that we're the ones with the needles and you do not want a 14 gauge needle. It's okay to give us your social security number, we just need it for paperwork and records. That's it.
We know you're panicking over your loved one, but we cannot work well if you hover around and try to be 'helpful'. We need you to back off. We do this everyday, we can do our job better than you can. It's why you called us.

Oh, and we're not a taxi service. I am not going to kill my back at 23 because you're too fat to take a bus to the ER or your doctor appointment.

We're not cops either. Do not lie. We need all the details to treat you properly. If someone ODs on a street drug, you need to tell us, not pretend everything's okay so you don't get into trouble.

We eat meals when we can, so if I get a call in the middle of dinner, I'm not going to be very nice. Sorry about that. Oh, and we may laugh about you afterwards. It's a form of release though.

[mystikchick]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I will never understand why some people believe that if they treat you poorly you will JUMP to take care of them immediately. Yes siree, please treat me like crap! Let me drop everything to take care of YOU, since you are so much more important than everyone else.
I think everyone should have to work one Christmas season in retail. They would then be sooooo much nicer and more understanding. At least in theory . . .

So very, very true. I've worked at dining services at college for the last three years because it's one of the few jobs I can get on campus as a non-work study person (but that's another rant for another day). The spoilt attitude of my peers never ceases to astound me. It's made me so much more conscious of smiling and being understanding even if the cashier/sales person takes awhile to get things done or messes up, because I know how panicked you get in that situation, making a mistake and trying to fix it asap so you can get them out of there. I cringe inside when my dad (who can be truly awful to salespeople/waitstaff by being really cranky and irritable) treats service staff rudely, and I make it a point to smile and thank them profusely.

Or people should have to go deal with French waiters Either be polite or the extra bread you asked for will not appear for the next half hour (true story).

[sageofages]

I heard a story on "this American Life" (by Ira Glass), how if you treat customers more indifferently or more rudely, you get bigger tips.

They ran some "informal experiments" at a restaurant...

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1177

"The allure of mean friends"

Very interesting.........

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by KSig RC

Honestly, is there any reason (besides the small-% cut taken by a CC company, which I believe has already been addressed) why a contractor or 'small business' would take up to TWENTY PERCENT off, other than the 'advantages' afforded by untraceable cash transactions?

Interestingly, 20% would be slightly below the tax burden on that item . . . hm, odd.

"Cash flow" can't be correct, since small businesses almost always live off their credit line for day-to-day costs anyway (and the amount of time needed to make another payment, say check, 'liquid' seems negligible in the grand scheme of things) . . . anything else?

Also, why don't larger businesses do this? Why do many large companies specifically avoid dealing with cash transactions?

Our business doesn't take a % off, but when I work my A/R's, I can see the advantage. We've had smaller bills that took literally 30 phone calls, plus faxes, letters, etc to collect. It's just irritating fighting with a company over $500, when the majority of our invoices are closer to $50,000. Anymore, we only do work for new companies "COD" - you hand the plumber a check and he'll get to work. The old companies that have had a history of slow payments get an extra 35% or so added to their bills to cover collection costs.