First ever SC encounter?

[WishfulSpirit]

The woman who called me "racist" for making her kid obey the rules. I was a lifeguard. The rules are there to ensure your baboso doesn't drown, K?

[Seshat]

Delivering leaflets and the like, at the age where I was just starting to develop. Early teens, I think, and quite sheltered. Oh, and alone, riding my bike around a neighbourhood that was strange to me.

And a guy stopped me, and invited me to his house for a lingerie photo shoot.

[Mondestrucken]

I was still in training at the DMV. The requirements were not as strict back then, but the one cardinal rule was: for an original license or ID card, we must see your Birth Certificate. NOT a Xerox copy, and NOT the hospital birth certificate.

Well, this mom flipped out. She creamed. She yelled. She said that the hospital birth certificate was the only one ever issued to her. No one has a problem with it, what was wrong with me?

Now, I was a manager trainee, and the manager training me was at lunch. There were clerks there, but they were not giving me anything solid to argue with ("We just can't take them" doesn't happen in the face of howling rage).

Realizing that this was my first real test, I picked up the certificate and looked at it carefully. Oh, be still my heart! There on the back, it said: This is not a legal document. It cannot be used to prove name, date of birth, or citizenship. You will need to apply to the county clerk's office to obtain the actual birth certificate.

That shut mom up in full roar. It also taught to really look at documents. I have learned so much carefully looking legal docs over.

[HotelMinion]

Lol....ah, before restaurants and before retail, way back...before petsitting, I got this crazy idea when I was about 10. Mom used to work in a factory, and her boss gave her a whole boxful of slap bracelets. Those are the kind that slap your wrist and wrap around. So my best friend at the time and I decided to make some money by selling those to our neighbors (we lived in a huge apt complex). I decided to sell them for 50 cents each, and I didn't think anyone would want them, but a lot of people did. most of them didn't scam us, but I remember there was this old lady (for me, then, anyway) of twenty something, and she just kept arguing and haggling the price down. We're like, "ummmm...." so finally I just said yes since I didn't make them anyway and she ended up with them half price. Hagglers, I hate them even now they annoy me to death .
Even tho I know that what were doing was illegal. In the end, I still remember that I walked away with $3.50 for the box. I still remember that being a lot for me back then.

[KuariKaydrith]

My first real babysitting job saw me with my very first SC. This woman had posted an ad on the board in the complex laundry room that she was looking for a babysitter for at least one evening a week. I figured it would be nice to make some money of my own, and at the grand old age of not quite 13 I managed to land the job.

Looking back I should have realized why she was willing to take a sitter who was not yet 13, but I was young and naive back then. But not as naive as this woman apparently thought I was.

The first couple of nights she was home on time, paid right away, no problem. Too bad it didn't stay like that for long.

She started out staying later, even on a school night, and I would crash on the couch until she finally got home. And getting paid started to be a struggle, and if I'm not mistaken she never did pay me in full what she owed me by the time all was said and done. In the end I went over there on a day I knew she would be getting her paycheque, brought along my mother as back up, and demanded my final pay.

Well. Cat butt face doesn't even come close to describing how bitter a face this piece of work had.

You know the reason she gave for staying out later and later and not paying me properly? It was because I wasn't cleaning her house on the nights I was babysitting. Oh, I cleaned up after the kid and myself, but because I did not do the full sink of dishes, wash floors, vacuum carpets, and whatever else she wasn't going to pay me. And by staying out later she figured I'd have more time to do everything because she figured that the reason nothing was done was because as a kid I just needed more time. Even though nothing was ever said about cleaning the house in the first place.

She had a hell of a time finding a sitter in that complex ever again. Word about a bad customer has a way of getting out. I just wish I'd known about it much sooner...oh well. Lesson learned!

[wolfie]

They came back later that day and complained to the SAME manager that witnessed them throw a box at me that I was rude and that I needed to put on a bra (I am well endowed and I WAS wearing one)

Sounds like those customers need to be tied up using bras. After all, the purpose of a bra is to restrain boobs.

[Kogarashi]

for an original license or ID card, we must see your Birth Certificate. NOT a Xerox copy, and NOT the hospital birth certificate.

She said that the hospital birth certificate was the only one ever issued to her.

Hubby and I have run into this problem before, but with our marriage certificate instead. When we were married, we were given a certificate, but apparently not the legal document many places are looking for when they mention marriage certificates. Some offices we've dealt with have accepted the one we were given, thankfully. Recently we moved states and switched over our licenses, though, and the office here couldn't accept what we had (and certainly didn't help that my husband mistakenly grabbed a photocopy instead of the original because he didn't want to accidentally lose the original, not thinking that the office wouldn't accept a photocopy). Luckily I had a passport card thanks to a recent trip to Niagara Falls, so they took that as a second form of ID for the license.

The main difference between us and the woman with the birth certificate? We don't throw a fit when a given office won't accept our certificate.

[Aragarthiel]

Because of my insurance company being stupid, my daughter's hospital birth certificate actually had my maiden name on it. I have it stashed away in her baby book but don't ever try to use it. Then again, we still haven't gotten around to going down to the courthouse in the county where she was born and getting an official copy.

[HawaiianShirts]

Two stories of first-ever SCs come to mind. I know they happened around the same time (maybe even in the same month), but I don't remember which came first. Both were when I was delivering pizza. I was 17 at the time.

One SC family lived three whole blocks away from the pizza shop. They ordered a delivery. I took the pizza to them, and when I got back to the shop, I found that they were on the phone with the manager, complaining that the dough was "still raw." I doubted that, but I took a replacement to them as soon as it was ready. (They had only taken a couple bites off the original, so it wasn't one of those I-ate-it-but-give-me-a-replacement-anyway kind of things.) They actually inspected the replacement pizza the moment I handed it to them and shoved it back at me claiming that the dough was not cooked at all. Looked fine to me, but I took it back to the shop anyway. Repeat twice more, and each time we left the replacements in the oven a bit longer. The fifth time, we sent the replacement all the way through the oven twice. The edge crusts were black; the bottom crust was black; the cheese on top was dark brown and crunchy. Only then did the SC family accept the pizza as sufficiently baked.

Another SC family lived near the far edge of our delivery area, down a rural road next to a river. Their driveway, which was an uphill slope from the road, was not paved, nor was the path from the driveway to the house. I took an order of five pizzas, sides, and drinks to them one cold and rainy evening. The driveway had turned to mud, and my car tried to get stuck at the bottom, so I parked on the street. I then hiked up the hill and to the front door, slipping on the wet clay ground the whole way but somehow never falling down. The younger family members (aged 8-20, I would guess) took the food from me without a word and left me standing on the front porch in the rain while Mom/Grandma wrote a check. The order total was $74.95. She wrote the check for $75.00 even. When she handed it to me, she said, in what may be the most condescending tone I had heard to date, "That extra nickel in there is for you. You can keep that."

Guy went off on a rant about how I should know this, and did I expect him to go out to his car to check the spelling?

So he didn't know how to spell "Lexus" either, but he can call you stupid for it?

Because of my insurance company being stupid, my daughter's hospital birth certificate actually had my maiden name on it. I have it stashed away in her baby book but don't ever try to use it...

The hospital where my daughter was born misspelled her name (by just leaving out one letter from the standard spelling of the name) on the birth certificate and Social Security documentation. Getting a replacement certificate with the correct spelling from the county was a breeze. Getting a replacement SS card was a nightmare of "that's not a valid ID." In the end, the only thing the SS administration accepted as valid ID for a not-even-one-month-old-baby was a letter from her pediatrician.

[bhskittykatt]

First day as a housekeeper, first job ever, I walked into a room and it REEKED. I was just shocked before my supervisor came by and was like "Uh....yeah don't worry about this room." Turned out, someone decided to rent the room and use it as an overnight kennel for 14 dogs that either were not potty trained or just weren't let out. We were pet friendly but still not that pet friendly! They had to completely gut the room. Even with new carpet and paint, we still got complaints of pet odor from that room for months afterward.

[Quitbuggingmeandgoaway]

My first SC as a wage employee was at a Kings Restaurant in Pittsburgh. Although I was a busboy/dishwasher and didn't deal directly with customers, some customers made polite chitchat with me as I bussed tables. But my first SC...

He was an older man who lived near me until recently. He sold his house after his wife died. He was a very mean elderly man who would call the cops for everything. Kids in the neighborhood were terrified of this man.

So I suppose his new apartment was near our restaurant because he was a daily regular. He came in by himself daily, and if there was a line, he'd cut the line and seat himself at a table in our mid-section. If it were dirty, he'd look around for the first busboy he saw and angrily demand the table be cleaned. Management would just let him get away with this for whatever reason. On two occasions he grabbed my arm to get my attention while bussing tables. Had to deal with this guy for the year and a half I worked there (when I worked early mornings).

[catcul]

Actually, the first SC I encountered that I remember was this woman who had me ring her out at the electronics desk. I was working for the Wall at the time. She had me scan over $100 in merchandise. After she handed me cash for the transaction, she noticed that her diapers didn't ring at the price she expected. Before I could explain anything, she call me incompetent, demanded that I return her money, and took her stuff to another cashier.

Thankfully, the manager that voided the transaction sent me off to break.

Sounds like those customers need to be tied up using bras.

Thanks for that mental image. I'm just glad I'm sitting down.