h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Oh, and a customer service story :

One Sunday morning at a convenience store I worked at, a customer comes in and wants to buy a pack of cigarettes witha $100 bill. Naturally, Sundays being slow, we have not even had enough business to make change ( we started with a $50 till) Also we really aren't supposed to make change for big bills if we can help it, because it may encourage robbery if people think we have a lot of cash. My friend, the Assistant Manager, tells the man he can't break the bill. The man flies into a rage and tells us we MUST break it because it is legal tender. He and my friend ( who is something of a hothead in his own right) argue the point for several minutes. Finally, my friend relents but explains that he will have to open the store safe to come up with the change- which will take about 10 minutes. The man agrees to wait. 10 minutes later, he opens the safe
and changes the bill- with $1 bills ! The man received 96 dollar bills as change. He flew into a rage again, at which point my friend told him he would have to acept the change in this fashion because it was legal tender ! I had a good laugh over that one...That is the type of thing I wish i could do with problem customers, but unfortunately I'm too nice a person...

He should have used pennies

Courtesy

I bet he would have if there had been enough !

Of course there is the side issue of not allowing people to pay for their purchases with legal tender. I take a contrary view from Bryce in this matter. I have had a $100 bill refused once when it was a $90 purchase at a convenience store before. It was not till I asked if I paid for a $10 purchase with a $20 bill if it also would be refused.

Well, of course Marv's example is ridiculous. I used to get snitty little notes at the last place I worked for taking too many $100 bills. I finally resolved it by noting the amount of the purchases involved. Clearly, if most of the bill is being spent there, there shouldn't be a problem. On the other hand, if you want to use the legal tender argument to say I MUST take your bill, hopefully you wouldn't complain about receiving change like the "gentleman" in the story !

Even though the fine in question was only 60 cents, I refused to write it off because that would be unfair to the people who do pay their fines. There are people who always expect special treatment and who think if they complain long enough they'll get their way - just to shut them up.

sometimes principle is more important than the amount of money involved. Apparently both you and the patron felt that way ( though she is clearly an idiot) .I try to be kind and tolerant even to all the idiots I encounter daily, but some days that's just too difficult.

I have one custormer service horror story! when I was 17 I had a summer job at a theme park supervising the children on a "soft play area" a big maze of slides, nets and ball pools, I'm sure you know the sort of thing I mean.

It was desgined for 2-8 year olds who were too small for the rest of the park.

We used to have an upper age limit as it would get chaotic if you let older children in and the youngher children would get hurt. Then in a TV advert the theme park used the slogan "fun for children of all ages" over a shot of the soft play area. So the mother of a 15 year old child came and complained that were wouldn't let her son on the area. Then they made us let all children under the age of 16 on. Gangs of teenagers playing chase in a enclosing space with lots of smalll children about was nightmare.. and lots more small chlidren did get hurt. IN the end the staff refused to open it unless they chagnged the policy.

In the US we have Chuck-E-Cheese, which is a pizza and entertainment business for children. Many kids have birthday parties there, and there are video games, indoor gym equipment, etc. When I attended a friend's child's birthday party there a couple of years ago, I noticed that alot of the "kids" were 15 or 16 years old. They made alot of noise and roughhoused . O thers hung out at the front of the establishment and smoked. Many of the little kids were too intimidated to even play (understandably), and many of the parents were uncomfortable.

2 questions:

1) Why on earth would any teenager want to hang out at a place like this around little kids ? Don't they have any lives of their own ?

2)why aren't the employees of these types of places policing the behaviour of these "kids"

[dw2]

I can't remember if I've told y'all this, but my customer services stroy is from then I was working in BHS (Dept. Store) as a Saturday Girl. And as a Saturday Girl, as I'm sure you appreciate, I am about as loww on the food chain of command over this chain of stores as it is possible to get. So why a customer once chose me to come and rant at about the quality and range of goods we sold I will never know. What really irritated me is that when I pointed out that I had very little authority to actually do something about her complaint, I could take her to someone who could take her seriously. She refused, though, and just carried on ranting. I guess she just wanted a bit of a shout. It was Xmas, and while this meant it was doubly inconvenient for me to have to stand there and smile politely while the queue backed up, she was probably suffereing from shopping overload.

Well, in addition to this Foxtrot Tango explanetion for Atled's name, it's also possible that 'Atled' is a verb form. "By the time I finished the mystery novel I was thoroughly atled."

Atled, we await your explanation.

I was asked for my car's registration number during a routine traffic stop, I think it was an immigration checkpoint. I have used a mnemonic to learn my plate number, and it is not the least bit orthodox. "116 Monkeys With Dobros," I told him.

At the post office I have had people come in, buy a 37 cent stamp, and pay for it with a $20. It's their way of making change for other, presumably more important errands. I will always ask if they have smaller notes, but have never refused a purchase. I think it's the heady fear of doing something wrong while a federal employee.


My sprynet addy has been hijacked for spam. An email just arrived notifying me of failed delivery for a whole set of strange addresses. I shall retire it immediately. This means losing my yellow star at eBay.

... and I've had a look at your poems. I dunno, I thought the quilt thing worked quite well. Especially because, as well as the echos, it's a quilt not a person, and that's the point, I'd imagine. I do like your poems, Ben. I like the way some of them (like 'Travelling' look nice as well as read nice. I'm less keen on 'the price' as it's a more regular sort of shape.

A slightly late announcement but I wan't paying attention properly - the Paper Baby has been born! F74902?thread=297141

It's been a good month for babies.

{[caer]} trying not to get all nervous and excited about going to the car showroom.

{[Cassie ]} keeping a close watch on the shed in case either of the Siamese appear from behind it.

[]
[<¤o¤>]

They're digging up the road outside The Nest again! Something to do with telecoms for the bank next-door-but-two.

Amy

I think your hole diggers must be part of an overtime creation scheme.

1. dig a hole for some service or other, in doing so they inevitably damage a pipe or cable for another service.

2. dig hole to repair service previously damaged , in doing so they inevitably damage a pipe or cable for another service.

3. goto 2

[BB]

[LIL]
busy changing all her accounts away from defunct addy

[p]