Tweet
I had a woman come in and prepay a pump that had a bag on it. I wasn't the one who did this transaction, it was my oblivious CW who didn't know that the pump was broken because nobody had said anything because most people aren't dumb enough to try to take the bag off to use it. So she prepays with 15 in cash and 10 on her credit card. When she attempts to pump it obviously it doesn't work right and only pumps about 4 cents and then won't allow her to pump anymore. As soon as you pick up the pump and put it back down the transaction is final. All we can do at that point is refund you the rest of your money and you can then put it on another pump. However if anybody has any decent idea of how creditcards work, there is a hold and those funds are no longer available until that hold is over.
So she stupidly tries to pump with a broken pump and then that 10.00 is on hold in her account. I can't put it back on the pump and for Pete's sake that's the only 10 in her WHOLE BANK ACCOUNT.
SC: You have to figure out how to do this. I need that 25 dollars of gas. I can't just get there on 15 dollars of gas and I'm in a hurry so you have to figure this out quick.
Me: Well there's not a whole lot I can do. If the funds aren't available on the card, your card is useless. I can't transfer it to another pump because that's not how the system works. I can get you the 15 dollars but not the other ten.
SC: BUT I NEED THAT OTHER TEN DOLLARS NOW. I will call [name of person with same last name as the owners but is not one of the owners]!!!
Me: .....okay? That's fine I guess. Let me call my supervisor.
Needless to say the supervisor called her oblivious and told me that it's just as much her fault as ours and there was nothing I could do. She watched me talk to the supervisor from the door to the office and stormed out before I could be as apologetic as he'd wanted me to be. Whoops. Haha. If you're going to try to name-drop like that, you better be sure you've got the right name.
It happened yesterday too. Some old man came up. (Names changed to protect the rich and powerful.)
SC: When did you turn to this prepay crap?
Me: About a month ago.
SC: Well CARL said he'd never do that!
Me: You mean CRAIG?
SC: NO CARL, THE OWNER.
Me: ....Craig is the CEO...there's a Carl on the board...?
SC: Oh.
We get a milk delivery about twice a week and the same guy delivers other stuff to the store as well as takes our paperwork bags to and from the office. He drives a BIG tractor-trailer semi and has to park it fairly close to the store in order to get the milk in as quickly as possible. When the milk guy is parked where he is parked there is no way to get around him. That's no big deal for regular cars, they can just go the other way around. But for some reason this just drives the truckers bonkers that they would have to go the other way around. It's like they're too lazy to think "will I fit under that canopy?"
SC: Your guy is parked out there and I can get around him.
Me: ...well I dunno what you want me to do, we have to get our delivery just like any other store.
SC: Well he's a jerk-off too, if I had my way and this wasn't a public place his teeth would be out the back of his skull!
Me: He'll be gone in like...
SC: Fifteen minutes, I'm only in this store for about FIVE, he needs to get the hell out of the way!
Me: ......uhm. I dunno what you want me to do.
SC: I HOPE HE DOESN'T GET HOME TONIGHT. I HOPE HE CRASHES AND DIES.
Me: ...okay?
SC: You need to talk to somebody about him!
Me: .......I think you're sorely misunderstanding my position in this company.
He went on and on about how I should be doing something about this guy and finally when he left I turned to the person I was serving and said, "I gotta be honest. I really don't care." They laughed. When the milk guy came out to swap paperwork he had this huuuuge grin on his face and he was like, "I'm really makin' them mad tonight huh?" He chuckled the whole night. I think it really put a bounce in his step.
My CEO is a pretty nice guy. He's as smart as CEOs go and he's got a good thing going. Expanded his business through a recession and he's got a grade-A team put together in corporate and on the store level. They're doing good stuff. I'm not personally attached to him in any way (although for some reason his wife can recognize my voice on the phone and one day asked me how I was doing...that was weird.)
SC: I'm surprised you can even afford to work here.
Me: Hmm?
SC: [CEO's NAME] is a criminal! [Insert rants that don't make much sense.] They pay you dirt I bet and how do you think they make all their money, by this gas crap! Driving up the price of gas!
Me: Actually we only make about 12 cents per gallon on any gas sale. The price of gas is not determined at the level of even corporate, it is a severely volatile market that is controlled by speculator pricing and governmental whims. Also they pay us very well for working here. I have a college degree and my "real" job could never pay me as much as they do here. We start off new hires at over nine dollars an hour, more for third shift, which is so much higher than minimum wage that we attract dozens of phone calls a day asking if we're hiring.
SC: ......
Me:
So she stupidly tries to pump with a broken pump and then that 10.00 is on hold in her account. I can't put it back on the pump and for Pete's sake that's the only 10 in her WHOLE BANK ACCOUNT.
SC: You have to figure out how to do this. I need that 25 dollars of gas. I can't just get there on 15 dollars of gas and I'm in a hurry so you have to figure this out quick.
Me: Well there's not a whole lot I can do. If the funds aren't available on the card, your card is useless. I can't transfer it to another pump because that's not how the system works. I can get you the 15 dollars but not the other ten.
SC: BUT I NEED THAT OTHER TEN DOLLARS NOW. I will call [name of person with same last name as the owners but is not one of the owners]!!!
Me: .....okay? That's fine I guess. Let me call my supervisor.
Needless to say the supervisor called her oblivious and told me that it's just as much her fault as ours and there was nothing I could do. She watched me talk to the supervisor from the door to the office and stormed out before I could be as apologetic as he'd wanted me to be. Whoops. Haha. If you're going to try to name-drop like that, you better be sure you've got the right name.
It happened yesterday too. Some old man came up. (Names changed to protect the rich and powerful.)
SC: When did you turn to this prepay crap?
Me: About a month ago.
SC: Well CARL said he'd never do that!
Me: You mean CRAIG?
SC: NO CARL, THE OWNER.
Me: ....Craig is the CEO...there's a Carl on the board...?
SC: Oh.
We get a milk delivery about twice a week and the same guy delivers other stuff to the store as well as takes our paperwork bags to and from the office. He drives a BIG tractor-trailer semi and has to park it fairly close to the store in order to get the milk in as quickly as possible. When the milk guy is parked where he is parked there is no way to get around him. That's no big deal for regular cars, they can just go the other way around. But for some reason this just drives the truckers bonkers that they would have to go the other way around. It's like they're too lazy to think "will I fit under that canopy?"
SC: Your guy is parked out there and I can get around him.
Me: ...well I dunno what you want me to do, we have to get our delivery just like any other store.
SC: Well he's a jerk-off too, if I had my way and this wasn't a public place his teeth would be out the back of his skull!
Me: He'll be gone in like...
SC: Fifteen minutes, I'm only in this store for about FIVE, he needs to get the hell out of the way!
Me: ......uhm. I dunno what you want me to do.
SC: I HOPE HE DOESN'T GET HOME TONIGHT. I HOPE HE CRASHES AND DIES.
Me: ...okay?
SC: You need to talk to somebody about him!
Me: .......I think you're sorely misunderstanding my position in this company.
He went on and on about how I should be doing something about this guy and finally when he left I turned to the person I was serving and said, "I gotta be honest. I really don't care." They laughed. When the milk guy came out to swap paperwork he had this huuuuge grin on his face and he was like, "I'm really makin' them mad tonight huh?" He chuckled the whole night. I think it really put a bounce in his step.
My CEO is a pretty nice guy. He's as smart as CEOs go and he's got a good thing going. Expanded his business through a recession and he's got a grade-A team put together in corporate and on the store level. They're doing good stuff. I'm not personally attached to him in any way (although for some reason his wife can recognize my voice on the phone and one day asked me how I was doing...that was weird.)
SC: I'm surprised you can even afford to work here.
Me: Hmm?
SC: [CEO's NAME] is a criminal! [Insert rants that don't make much sense.] They pay you dirt I bet and how do you think they make all their money, by this gas crap! Driving up the price of gas!
Me: Actually we only make about 12 cents per gallon on any gas sale. The price of gas is not determined at the level of even corporate, it is a severely volatile market that is controlled by speculator pricing and governmental whims. Also they pay us very well for working here. I have a college degree and my "real" job could never pay me as much as they do here. We start off new hires at over nine dollars an hour, more for third shift, which is so much higher than minimum wage that we attract dozens of phone calls a day asking if we're hiring.
SC: ......
Me:
Comment