Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Someone should have called me!

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Someone should have called me!

    As most people know, the government was shut down for a while. This caused agencies requiring federal funding to take emergency measures. One of those actions was to issue February's food stamps on or before January 17. Due to this being an emergency action, letters were not sent.

    I am spending this month at the front counter so, as a result, I am on the front line for client complaints.

    Compilation of conversations I have had today:

    SC: I got this letter from you and its too confusing, I want to know what it says.
    Me: I will be happy to help, but if you are having issues reading the material, I can also give you a number to call for someone to read it to you so you don't have to come to the office for this.
    SC: I can read just fine, I don't bother with the stuff you send because its sooooo confusing.
    Me: Ok, well, *previously unopened letter* this letter is dated 11/15/18 *points at date* and right here *points at the next line* it says that your renewal was approved for 6 months.
    SC: I didn't get my food stamps this month, what did you do?!?!
    Me: Actually, your February benefits loaded on January 17th.
    SC: No, that was money I had left over, I didn't get anything extra and I need my money NOW!
    Me: You received your January benefits on the 4th. You received your Feb benefits on the 17th. You won't get anything else until March 4th.
    SC: Well, how was I supposed to know that?
    Me: It was on TV, social media, the radio and in the newspaper.
    SC: Well, I don't watch the news, don't use my smart phone for anything computer related and nobody reads newspapers or listens to the radio anymore.
    Me: You just told me that you don't read the letters we send you either.
    SC: SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME!!!

    No fratching please. This isn't about the goberment or welfare. This is about people who willfully live under a rock and then blame other people for their problems.

  • #2
    (Fantasizes a Rube Goldberg printer with a wood-burning tip that would brand the notifications onto thier hams... I'd have a few...)
    I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
    Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
    Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

    Comment


    • #3
      "Someone should have called me!"

      If someone had called her/him, they would absolutely not have answered or listened to any message either. If someone had personally came to their door to tell them, they would not have answered, and even if they had, they would not have believed it or would have forgotten. Basically, there is no conceivable way to communicate with this sort of person. My mom recently decided that my step dad simply does not want to remember anything. She said he would write it down, or do any number of things to remember, but he still forgets. He doesn't have dementia (or at least he passed the test with the doctor), he just flat out doesn't want to be responsible for certain things. He's totally capable when he WANTS to be. He's just an ass.
      Replace anger management with stupidity management.

      Comment


      • #4
        I'm remembering one of the Medieval ways of keeping history for important events and the people involved. Rather cruel, but almost impossible to forge and loads cheaper than paper, scribes, artists and such.
        For the big signing/treaty/knighting/whatever, there would be a number of children brought in to the event to witness. The kids would get full run of things and a very good look at who was there, doing exactly what. Afterwards, said children would be horribly beaten to seal that memory in for the rest of their days. They would always be able to identify who was there, and point them out if questioned.

        It's so nice these days that we have these nice machines and paper mails to relay the message out to everyone, right?

        Comment


        • #5
          Wow, NAR, your dad sounds like my ex-husband! Props to your mom for dealing with it.

          Comment


          • #6
            Quoth Slave to the Phone View Post
            ...
            SC: SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME!!!
            ...
            Nobody was at work to call you. The government was shut down.
            "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

            Comment


            • #7
              I remember reading about that, Buzzard. As I understand, it was very effective.

              Willful ignorance is the offspring of avoidance and procrastination. If you cover your ears and sing LALALALA loudly enough, nothing bad can happen, right?

              Today a 28 year old male stoner managed to make my fellow front line worker run off to laugh and make me almost pee due to trying to not laugh.

              Very high guy comes up to my counter. (trust me, I know the smell and effect) We will call him HG.

              HG: Dude, I think my card is broke. I couldn't buy groceries today.
              Me: (after painful process of getting his case number) Actually, you got your Feb food stamps on Jan 17.
              HG: No, I didn't, that was because I filled up my punch card.
              CW: *stares, eyes wide*
              Me: *processes* I don't understand, what do you mean?
              HG: *very patiently, because he's explaining something to an idiot* My punch card. You know how when you buy 9 coffees, you get the 10th free?
              CW: *loud coughing fit*
              Me: *starting to have issues as well* Yes, but...
              HG: so that's why I got that extra money, because I'm such a good customer.
              CW: *runs past me to the security door, hands covering face while coughing*
              Me: That's not actually how it works, those were your food stamps for this month.
              HG: *sighs patiently* Is there someone else I can talk to?
              Me: Of course, I'll be right back. *exits stage left*

              After I was able to stop laughing, I told the sup of the day what was going on. She was able to convince him to leave without laughing, but I heard her behind the security door.

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth Slave to the Phone View Post
                SC: No, that was money I had left over,
                This comment made me sad, because a lot of people today seem to lack basic math skills (entitled attitude aside). Back when I was cashiering, it was common to have someone with $100 worth of goods and only $40 to their name. These customers knew all along that they only had $40 to spend, but they weren't counting what went into the cart and were surprised they couldn't get everything.
                A lion however, will only devour your corpse, whereas an SC is not sated until they have destroyed your soul. (Quote per infinitemonkies)

                Comment


                • #9
                  Quoth bainsidhe View Post
                  This comment made me sad, because a lot of people today seem to lack basic math skills (entitled attitude aside). Back when I was cashiering, it was common to have someone with $100 worth of goods and only $40 to their name. These customers knew all along that they only had $40 to spend, but they weren't counting what went into the cart and were surprised they couldn't get everything.
                  We used to have this little plastic calculator thing. I don't know where we got it. It had buttons on top that you pushed down to make the numbers move and do the basic calculations. There was no battery, it was totally analog, more like a toy, really, but it worked. We used to take it to the store for groceries and keep a running total to make sure we didn't go over the cash we had.

                  Of course, later, we had an actual calculator and did the same thing. I will probably be back to that practice shortly but at least I know that you can't spend more than you have.
                  When you start at zero, everything's progress.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Quoth Slave to the Phone View Post
                    SC: SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE CALLED ME!!!
                    I have a friend like this. While she's not on any type of assistance, she doesn't watch ANY news, read ANY newspaper, magazine, online news etc. Instead she gets snippets of news listening to the radio. And then is AMAZED when something happens or she hears about something that's been ALL over the news. Bonus points if she tells me about it months after its occurred. But acts like it JUST happened. I swear she lives under a rock most of the time.
                    Last edited by MadMike; 02-07-2019, 09:28 PM. Reason: Please don't quote the entire post. We've already read it.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth bainsidhe View Post
                      This comment made me sad, because a lot of people today seem to lack basic math skills (entitled attitude aside). (
                      I think they just don't care to bother. Math is hard. Paying attention to one's pay stub is too much for many people as well.

                      "I don't get pay stubs, I just get direct deposit."
                      "Your employer is legally required to give you access to your pay stubs, you probably have to look them up online."
                      "Oh, yeah, they showed us how to do that when I started. I don't bother, so I don't remember how to do it because I don't need them."
                      "How do you know that you are being paid correctly if you don't check your pay stub to see that you are getting paid for all the hours you worked?"
                      "Why, do you think they are cheating me?!?!"

                      And many variations of the same thing.

                      My favorite one:
                      "Hey, I'm looking at your pay stub and I can't see that you are paying Federal Taxes. Take a look at one, you are paying state and social security, but not Federal."
                      "Really? Is that why I make more than *friend* who works the same hours at the same wage?*
                      "Yes, this doesn't mean anything about your food stamps, but you might want to talk to your employer because you really aren't paying federal income tax."
                      "Do you think this could be an issue?"


                      Today, I had a gentleman come up to me to question the balance on his food stamp card while he was checking in for his renewal. As it happened, he lived off the grid* and asked why he had gotten more food stamps than he should have. When I explained what happened, he told me that he always kept track of how much he should have and was worried that he would get in trouble if he spent them before asking about the.

                      After he left, I told my co-worker. She accused me of making things up.

                      *There are a good percentage of clients out here who buy 40 acres in the middle of nowhere, throw a shack up in the middle and live off the land, so to speak. They haul their water, burn wood for heat, use general delivery for mail, no internet, no TV, nothing.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth Slave to the Phone View Post
                        Today, I had a gentleman come up to me to question the balance on his food stamp card while he was checking in for his renewal. As it happened, he lived off the grid* and asked why he had gotten more food stamps than he should have. When I explained what happened, he told me that he always kept track of how much he should have and was worried that he would get in trouble if he spent them before asking about the.

                        After he left, I told my co-worker. She accused me of making things up.
                        Sounds like you met another good one. Sure he's off the grid and not up to date on current events, but he also pays attention to what he has, and when he saw it was different, he didn't automatically assume "JACKPOT!" and go on a spending spree. He kept his spending normal until he could figure out how and why he got the extra.

                        For me, I'm on salary so the hours I work so I don't pay attention to my paystubs. As long as the amount that shows up in my account is the same every 2 weeks (okay it goes up late October when all the autowithdrawals like CPP and UI are maxed out), I figure its fine. But my pay is consistent enough that I am confident it is fine because it doesn't change.

                        Were I paid hourly, I'd likely be checking my paystubs every cycle to make sure.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I know that generalizations are not a good thing, but I'm going to do it now. For the most part, the off the grid folks are very prepared for what they are taking on. They know how much they spend, they know how much wood cutting they have to do for the winter and they don't whine about their living conditions. They also know what they need to do to keep their food stamps coming, so bring everything we might ask about. (I personally don't want to see water receipts as long as they are claiming a reasonable amount, some workers do.)

                          If I pull a case and see one of the off the grid addresses, it makes me happy because I know that I'm going to get a reasonable and patient client.

                          Most of my clients are working part time jobs and their hours change every week. They are also under the federal poverty levels, which means that money is tight. I really shouldn't be the one to tell them that there is an issue with their pay, they should have already noticed and acted on it. Math might be hard, but calculators are cheap. (Back when I was getting paid that way, I always checked my pay stubs and found mistakes often enough to set that habit in stone.)

                          I also know to the penny what I am going to be getting every pay day. I still check my pay stubs to be sure that my hours and PTO are counted correctly. I also check my available PTO, again to be sure that its credited correctly. While the system is very good, it involves humans. Humans sometimes make mistakes.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Quoth Slave to the Phone View Post
                            I know that generalizations are not a good thing, but I'm going to do it now. For the most part, the off the grid folks are very prepared for what they are taking on. They know how much they spend, they know how much wood cutting they have to do for the winter and they don't whine about their living conditions. They also know what they need to do to keep their food stamps coming, so bring everything we might ask about. (I personally don't want to see water receipts as long as they are claiming a reasonable amount, some workers do.)

                            If I pull a case and see one of the off the grid addresses, it makes me happy because I know that I'm going to get a reasonable and patient client.
                            I suspect that being off the grid means they do not want to call undue attention to themselves. Raising a fuss in a government office does just that. So they behave themselves, and get what they need a lot quicker.
                            "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I sure do wish I could have "Behave yourself and get out of here much faster." put on a big sign. It would be right next to the one that says "Be mean to one of us and we WILL take a fine tooth comb to your case and make the whole process much worse than is needed."

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X