It was on the tv, it must be true!

[Argabarga]

A while back some pharmacists somewhere (was it Illinois?) made the news for refusing to fill RX's for Plan B, an emergency oral contraceptive for people who think they may have gotten pregnant while not on any regimen of birth control because they considered it the same as supporting abortion.

Since that story broke, well, If I had a dollar for every time someone called for it, obviously trying to catch me refusing to dispense it.......

[AFpheonix]

Not only did those pharmacists get in trouble, Wal-Mart as a company got in trouble for not stocking it.

Our pharmacy? We have it up on the fast rack with the rest of the fast moving drugs Interestingly, there's lots of boys who come in to purchase it. I kind of half wonder if it's because they're older than 18 and boinking a younger girl, but the law does not specify what gender the purchaser has to be, just the age.
And if it prevents one girl from conceiving who really shouldn't be a mom, I'm ok with that.

[Dreamstalker]

Back when I was working in customer service for a credit card company, Dateline did a "story" on how some companies used inmates to answer calls and take orders for products.

Was that before or after the CSI episode (You've Got Male, seaon two I believe) that used that as a plot point?

[Pagan]

Where's the exposé on the people killed by choking on food, or something like that? "Oh noes! People are dying by eating! When will these evil companies stop making food in such large portions! Everything must be bite sized!"

I'm surprised (or maybe not) that didn't happen after Dubya choked on a pretzel!

[BookstoreEscapee]

Not only did those pharmacists get in trouble, Wal-Mart as a company got in trouble for not stocking it.

...
And if it prevents one girl from conceiving who really shouldn't be a mom, I'm ok with that.

I completely agree with you. And a lot of states now have laws allowing pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception, and even regular birth control pills, and they often won't refer a person to somewhere they can get it. Same goes for doctors refusing to prescribe or provide other perfectly legal, safe, and effective treatments. They call them conscience clauses. I call them bull****. But I'll stop there before I have to kick it over to Fratching. I'm not much into politics but this one makes me very angry.

Kara, the Zombie Survival Guide is funny. I remember when it first came out cuz I used to take care of the humor section. It often finds its way onto the "Humorous Helpful and Odd" display in the store (either by planogram or by employees looking for things to fill it out with when it runs low).

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Even the grocery business has had negative publicity due to the newsmedia.

Back in the early 90's, there was an expose on "Primetime Live" about how a certain chain was not only handling meat in a questionable manner, but also how employees were forced by managers to work off the clock.

All the other chains went beserk updating santitation policies and whatnot. WD being no exception.

Until around 2000 when the local newshounds decided to take a hidden camera into Lawndale and snooped around to discover expired baby formula on the shelf. Needless to say, the store manager was fired, but reinstated the next and busted down to Produce Manager (the same manager who had hired me years ago no less.)

They didn't stop there - they then focused on other areas, such as the meat departments. It's a wonder that bozo that ran the Market at the Cone store still had a job after that - he was notorious for reducing meat items after they started changing colors and would leave it out there even if it were black Thankfully he was sent out of that store and things improved greatly when Irene took it over.

But still . . . at times it seems as if they go overboard, other times they can be right on the money. But anything can be taken overboard . . . leave it to the media to do it. And you'll have people who will believe it, hook line and sinker.

Herd mentality at it's best (or worst.)

[myswtghst]

I'm another evil call center rep, I work for one of the major corps that actually makes the cell phone. People are often told to try to contact us directly, instead of their service provider. Thing is, the sales call center I worked in (before I moved to my current call center) only supports dealers and resellers, not end users. The end users constantly called though, and thought, since we worked for *mycompany* we obviously had the ability to get them a new, free phone, or put them through to the prez of the company, regardless of the fact that we're not the right call center.

That gethuman.com website also drives me a little nuts, and it's how we get people hitting 0 on the IVR and ending up talking to someone who can't help them. We're trained at levels, and unless you've been through certain training, you can only do basic stuff. Hitting 0 gets you the first available rep, no matter their skill set. This leads to angry people who don't want to be transferred. Not my fault you were too impatient to push 2 buttons in the menu, buddy.

[Kara]

Kara, the Zombie Survival Guide is funny. I remember when it first came out cuz I used to take care of the humor section. It often finds its way onto the "Humorous Helpful and Odd" display in the store (either by planogram or by employees looking for things to fill it out with when it runs low).

Yeah, a few months back (February I think) I went into Borders for my monthly manga fix and they had a display up for national comedy month or something like that. I saw it there and figured I had no excuse not to add it to my collection. I love the great lengths he went to make it read like an "official" handbook. From the bogus references to undead attacks throughout history to the zoning restrictions involved in fortifying your home against potential Zombie outbreaks

[Andara Bledin]

I'm lucky in that I've never worked for any place that has been in the news.

But two of my major fandoms/hobbies get bashed quite heavily all the time by supposed news agencies. Gaming & Furry fandom.

My defense against the idiots fighting against violent video games is the fact that the violent crime rates in the US have been declining, fairly steadily, since they started keeping track. They are currently half, per capita, of what they were in the 70's.

With being a furry, it's a lot more difficult. Most people just don't seem to want to get the concept that furry fans are no better or worse than sci-fi fans, or comic fans, or even Nascar fans. *imagines the reactions of Nascar fans being compared to furries*

^-.-^

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

At my store we don't carry the large assortment of frozen and refrigerated grocery items we used to. Nowadays we have just a smattering of dairy products like milk, butter and ice cream, and frozen pizzas. It's nothing to go through and check the temperatures on the coolers and freezers and remove any exired product.

The State Pricing Auditors of Doom pose more of a threat, but I haven't heard of us having any major problems with them either.

[WHShit]

Not exactly... though when I wore an Ankh I had to deal with bible-thumper idiots hounding me every time some sermon or news article made it out to be a sign of the devil, and an EXTRAORDINARY amount of Vegans hitting my cafe job yelling about the latest 'discovery' proving that soy is so much better than real milk.

Do those count?

An Ankh, the sign of the Devil?! And here I was, for almost 15 years thinking it was the sign for Ace of Base...lol, remember them?

ps: I know it isn't the sign for Ace of Base...............lol..The Sign! Sorry, it is late and I need to go to bed to rid myself of the delirium.

[Getoutofmylobby]

The worst we hotel people have had was not on tv, but was thanks to the good ol' internet and some faulty word of mouth about hotels saving personal info on room keys. It was of course untrue but it had freaked alot of our SC's out.

One lady, as she was checking out, told my manager how great our place was, how clean the rooms were, how nice the people were and just before she handed him her keys, she stared at him and rubbed her keys on her cell phone. When he asked what she was doing she replied "Oh just making sure you people don't steal my identity."

[Fredrick2003]

Hahaha.

I don't understand, what was she trying to accomplish by rubbing the phone over it? Do phones erase data now or what lol!

[Jadedcarguy]

So...have any of you had to deal with the fallout from bad news stories that totally slam your profession?

Oh yeah. Ever see the news bit on car dealers cutting keys by VIN for thieves?
Damn near everyone screeched about that(what is it about cars that brings out the suck in people?) The one heathen wench that comes to mind wouldn't give me her VIN so I could look up the correct parts. I needed it to confirm an interior color code, but oh no, I was going to STEAL HER CAR! Sure I am, b*tch, a 96 Cavalier is my dream ride..........................sigh

[powerboy]

You don't have to worry about Zombies coming to get you. You are going to have to survive Aliens(Halo, Gears of War). I hate how everything has to be sooooo damn kid friendly now-a-days. Back when I was a kid, I had toy guns, NES wit the gun. And I am not going around and killing people.