maskedpuppy
10-24-2011, 02:45 PM
Hello fellow CSers. It's been awhile, but I'm back, and I'm mad. Again.
I've got a couple stories for you this morning. First of all, the conclusion in a long saga of entitlement whoring over at "GameGo". Secondly, a rather widespread series of rant-worthy experiences in my recent uprise of commissions. Grab yourself an extra coffee and plant your butt; this is gonna take awhile.
I'm sick, so you should treat me like a god.
I am the first person to understand if someone is ill and needs special attention or deserves it for the shit they've been through. I'm NOTORIOUS for giving people extra attention and help if they show up in my store with a broken leg/arm/whatever, visibly sick, etc, and if we have any swag available I'll always set a sick kid up with something to make them smile. I'm softhearted like that. And it makes me feel great when they come in a week later feeling better and all healed up and commend me on giving them good service and going the extra mile when I can see they're not feeling their best.
That said, I do not put up with people demanding special treatment beyond the normal sympathy and extra attention I'd give them anyway. I understand being sick and wanting care, and the average person has more than a little room to be grumpy if they're not feeling well. I totally understand that.
But then there's Dave, and he is not the average person.
Dave has been a longstanding customer of ours for since before I worked there, so something like four or five years. He comes in every week or so and buys a handful of $5 and under PS2 games from the rack of discs we put out on the floor because we don't care about them getting stolen. So right off the bat, you can tell he doesn't spend much money with us, and he usually trades stuff in every few weeks as well, so half the money he spends with us we give him back anyway.
He's a bigger guy in his mid-late fifties and he always has a cane although he doesn't walk with any limp that I can tell. (I have a horrible feeling he carries the cane because he thinks it makes him look distinguished. He wears a fedora, too. The kind the sell in Spencer's for fourteen bucks on clearance.) He claims to have cancer.
Being at a high threat of and knowing many other victims of different types of cancer myself, I can totally sympathize with this. It SUCKS and I felt awful for him for awhile. But it's really hard to sympathize with this guy.
He has a pattern, you see. First, he'll blast through the door like a tornado, scowling and staring around. If you don't greet him within fifteen seconds of him walking inside the store, he'll shout "'That's a 0 on the survey for being greeted!" at the top of his lungs. Oh, by the way, he shouts EVERYTHING at the top of his lungs...even if he's standing less than a foot away from you, which if you're a female employee at this store, he's fond of doing. :/
After the greeting part is over, he'll walk over to the PS2 bins and start rifling through the games. While doing this, he'll shout dozens of titles to you over and over (whether you're in front of the computer to look them up or not). Sometimes he's not actually looking for the game, just wants your opinion on it. Sometimes he wants the price. Never does he ask a full question, he simply bellows the title of the game and expects you to know what he wants. Provide the wrong information and you can expect a scathing look and to have the ACTUAL question screamed at you in as patronizing a tone as he's capable of.
Once he picks out his 3 or so games (which takes an average of 2.4 hours. Yes, we time him) he asks if we have the cases. No. If we had the cases, the games would not be in the $5 and under bin, which is a bin for games that are simply in envelopes. He normally just grumbles about this; we apologize and ignore it, no big deal. This is where he gets really entitled.
EVERY SINGLE TIME, HE ASKS FOR A DISCOUNT BECAUSE OF HIS CANCER.
Yes I know your medical bills are high, Dave. Yep, insurance sure is expensive. Dave, could you step back and try to calm down? You're upsetting the other customers. No, Dave, I'm not threatening you. No, sir, I still can't discount your $12 total. No, sir, I can't give you my employee discount. No, sir, we don't have an "invalid discount" (his phrasing, not mine).
(By the way, is that a thing anywhere else? He assures me that most places give him a discount when they find out he has cancer. I think this is more that he bullies other places into giving him off of his totals, but I figure it's worth the question.)
This is bad enough, but last weekend, it got so much worse.
Someone tried to break into our store and snapped their fake key or whatever in the lock. We had to open a few hours late, unfortunately, as we had to wait for a locksmith to come remove and replace the lock. While waiting, Dave shows up and demands to be let into the store. On finding out we couldn't let him in, he threw an absolute FIT, then went into the coffee shop next door to wait.
Once we were open and set up, he came in and went through the normal pattern. While he was picking out his games, though, I noticed something odd; he was throwing the ones he didn't want on the ground. Weird. I figured he was having a pissy day and decided I'd clean up after him later.
So he gets his games and comes up to the counter and goes "I just missed my chemo appointment because of you assholes not being open. These will be free."
First of all, NO. Second of all, in what world does buying cheap video games come before HEALTH CARE?!
I told him no, Manager L told him HELL no, and he threw a fit. He snapped one of the discs and threw the rest at me, swore loudly (scaring the several children who were in the store), then left after swearing he'd never come into the store again.
I hope he doesn't.
I feel for the guy for being sick and I know cancer's a bitch. That sucks. But it does NOT give him some divine right to get whatever he wants, and it's not a get-out-of-courtesy-free card. x.x At least, it shouldn't be.
Art Whores WARNING, MILDLY GROSS
This one's a bit shorter, but just as infuriating to me.
As some of you know, I do commissioned artwork on the side as a sort of hobby-job. I don't make a whole lot of money at it but it's a fun way to earn some cash on the side that I can use for random fun stuff that's out of my normal budget, like video games and books and chocolate.
Lately I've had a massive influx of people wanting me to draw their character with my character.
I have NOTHING against this. I'm flattered that people like my generic red wolf chick. XD It's awesome they want to pay me to draw my own character. I'm down with that.
However, I'm not comfortable drawing my character in a "dirty diaper" having oral sex with your character and it is not fair or okay for you to demand it of me after I say no. Not at all. No way.
The person in question harassed me for several days. Direct quote (spelling errors fixed for your reading enjoyment):
"LOL, no, Bee, you can't tell me no when I offer you money for something. I can get you kicked off [art website] for refusing my commission."
Well, no, that's hilarious because no way can he do that, but this made me really mad. :/ I don't judge people who are into that stuff and I try to stay away from speaking my opinion on it, because to a lot of people saying "I'm not into that" is just as bad if not worse than saying "that's sick and disgusting and you're going to hell". But I am REALLY not into that, and it upset and infuriated me that he'd demand use of MY personal character in that way. I'm an artist, not a machine, and you can't simply expect me to accept money for whatever you want. Even worse, he was going to try to pay me only $1 for this nasty piece of artwork. >> My prices are low, sure, but logic dictates that if you wanted something that detailed, it'd cost at least upwards of $5.
Unfortunately, he's just an example of a trend that's been happening a lot lately. The sense of entitlement and selfishness there disgust me. I'm so sick of dealing with these people (Bladespark will know what I mean) that I almost want to quit the whole site over it! x.x
Phew, okay, so that's all for now. Thanks for listening, you guys; this is always quite therapeutic. :3 Hope I didn't get too long-winded for anyone. Enjoy your coffee and have a great day. <3
I've got a couple stories for you this morning. First of all, the conclusion in a long saga of entitlement whoring over at "GameGo". Secondly, a rather widespread series of rant-worthy experiences in my recent uprise of commissions. Grab yourself an extra coffee and plant your butt; this is gonna take awhile.
I'm sick, so you should treat me like a god.
I am the first person to understand if someone is ill and needs special attention or deserves it for the shit they've been through. I'm NOTORIOUS for giving people extra attention and help if they show up in my store with a broken leg/arm/whatever, visibly sick, etc, and if we have any swag available I'll always set a sick kid up with something to make them smile. I'm softhearted like that. And it makes me feel great when they come in a week later feeling better and all healed up and commend me on giving them good service and going the extra mile when I can see they're not feeling their best.
That said, I do not put up with people demanding special treatment beyond the normal sympathy and extra attention I'd give them anyway. I understand being sick and wanting care, and the average person has more than a little room to be grumpy if they're not feeling well. I totally understand that.
But then there's Dave, and he is not the average person.
Dave has been a longstanding customer of ours for since before I worked there, so something like four or five years. He comes in every week or so and buys a handful of $5 and under PS2 games from the rack of discs we put out on the floor because we don't care about them getting stolen. So right off the bat, you can tell he doesn't spend much money with us, and he usually trades stuff in every few weeks as well, so half the money he spends with us we give him back anyway.
He's a bigger guy in his mid-late fifties and he always has a cane although he doesn't walk with any limp that I can tell. (I have a horrible feeling he carries the cane because he thinks it makes him look distinguished. He wears a fedora, too. The kind the sell in Spencer's for fourteen bucks on clearance.) He claims to have cancer.
Being at a high threat of and knowing many other victims of different types of cancer myself, I can totally sympathize with this. It SUCKS and I felt awful for him for awhile. But it's really hard to sympathize with this guy.
He has a pattern, you see. First, he'll blast through the door like a tornado, scowling and staring around. If you don't greet him within fifteen seconds of him walking inside the store, he'll shout "'That's a 0 on the survey for being greeted!" at the top of his lungs. Oh, by the way, he shouts EVERYTHING at the top of his lungs...even if he's standing less than a foot away from you, which if you're a female employee at this store, he's fond of doing. :/
After the greeting part is over, he'll walk over to the PS2 bins and start rifling through the games. While doing this, he'll shout dozens of titles to you over and over (whether you're in front of the computer to look them up or not). Sometimes he's not actually looking for the game, just wants your opinion on it. Sometimes he wants the price. Never does he ask a full question, he simply bellows the title of the game and expects you to know what he wants. Provide the wrong information and you can expect a scathing look and to have the ACTUAL question screamed at you in as patronizing a tone as he's capable of.
Once he picks out his 3 or so games (which takes an average of 2.4 hours. Yes, we time him) he asks if we have the cases. No. If we had the cases, the games would not be in the $5 and under bin, which is a bin for games that are simply in envelopes. He normally just grumbles about this; we apologize and ignore it, no big deal. This is where he gets really entitled.
EVERY SINGLE TIME, HE ASKS FOR A DISCOUNT BECAUSE OF HIS CANCER.
Yes I know your medical bills are high, Dave. Yep, insurance sure is expensive. Dave, could you step back and try to calm down? You're upsetting the other customers. No, Dave, I'm not threatening you. No, sir, I still can't discount your $12 total. No, sir, I can't give you my employee discount. No, sir, we don't have an "invalid discount" (his phrasing, not mine).
(By the way, is that a thing anywhere else? He assures me that most places give him a discount when they find out he has cancer. I think this is more that he bullies other places into giving him off of his totals, but I figure it's worth the question.)
This is bad enough, but last weekend, it got so much worse.
Someone tried to break into our store and snapped their fake key or whatever in the lock. We had to open a few hours late, unfortunately, as we had to wait for a locksmith to come remove and replace the lock. While waiting, Dave shows up and demands to be let into the store. On finding out we couldn't let him in, he threw an absolute FIT, then went into the coffee shop next door to wait.
Once we were open and set up, he came in and went through the normal pattern. While he was picking out his games, though, I noticed something odd; he was throwing the ones he didn't want on the ground. Weird. I figured he was having a pissy day and decided I'd clean up after him later.
So he gets his games and comes up to the counter and goes "I just missed my chemo appointment because of you assholes not being open. These will be free."
First of all, NO. Second of all, in what world does buying cheap video games come before HEALTH CARE?!
I told him no, Manager L told him HELL no, and he threw a fit. He snapped one of the discs and threw the rest at me, swore loudly (scaring the several children who were in the store), then left after swearing he'd never come into the store again.
I hope he doesn't.
I feel for the guy for being sick and I know cancer's a bitch. That sucks. But it does NOT give him some divine right to get whatever he wants, and it's not a get-out-of-courtesy-free card. x.x At least, it shouldn't be.
Art Whores WARNING, MILDLY GROSS
This one's a bit shorter, but just as infuriating to me.
As some of you know, I do commissioned artwork on the side as a sort of hobby-job. I don't make a whole lot of money at it but it's a fun way to earn some cash on the side that I can use for random fun stuff that's out of my normal budget, like video games and books and chocolate.
Lately I've had a massive influx of people wanting me to draw their character with my character.
I have NOTHING against this. I'm flattered that people like my generic red wolf chick. XD It's awesome they want to pay me to draw my own character. I'm down with that.
However, I'm not comfortable drawing my character in a "dirty diaper" having oral sex with your character and it is not fair or okay for you to demand it of me after I say no. Not at all. No way.
The person in question harassed me for several days. Direct quote (spelling errors fixed for your reading enjoyment):
"LOL, no, Bee, you can't tell me no when I offer you money for something. I can get you kicked off [art website] for refusing my commission."
Well, no, that's hilarious because no way can he do that, but this made me really mad. :/ I don't judge people who are into that stuff and I try to stay away from speaking my opinion on it, because to a lot of people saying "I'm not into that" is just as bad if not worse than saying "that's sick and disgusting and you're going to hell". But I am REALLY not into that, and it upset and infuriated me that he'd demand use of MY personal character in that way. I'm an artist, not a machine, and you can't simply expect me to accept money for whatever you want. Even worse, he was going to try to pay me only $1 for this nasty piece of artwork. >> My prices are low, sure, but logic dictates that if you wanted something that detailed, it'd cost at least upwards of $5.
Unfortunately, he's just an example of a trend that's been happening a lot lately. The sense of entitlement and selfishness there disgust me. I'm so sick of dealing with these people (Bladespark will know what I mean) that I almost want to quit the whole site over it! x.x
Phew, okay, so that's all for now. Thanks for listening, you guys; this is always quite therapeutic. :3 Hope I didn't get too long-winded for anyone. Enjoy your coffee and have a great day. <3