customer service in the panopticon

[dhex]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv-tf7boDQU

[FortNinety]

Sorry, but I feel this guy's pain.

My only solace is that I'm not nearly as ridiculous looking when I blow my gasket at postal employees/fast food workers/MTA goons/whatever. Which ain't saying much, I know.

[isfet]

Matt, i would really, really appreciate it if you started calling people "sweetie" as you begin to lose it in situations like this.

[loopback]

Is there an online petition in place to get Fort to start calling everyone 'sweetie' in general?  I'll sign the crap out of that.

[dhex]

i'll sign it in blood.

i dunno, i try not to yell at people in general. even the tiny pokey people on the n train, god bless their child-sized polyethnic hearts.

[FortNinety]

Despite how justified or even cathartic it might be to yell in public, it really does no good, especially in NYC, where no one really gives a fuck. Which I learned from my dad, with all his yelling at fast food workers for fucking up his quarter pounders with cheese...

With the funny thing being that in bumblefuck Washington, any fast food worker's gaffs are nothing in comparison to the genuine idiots who are employed in these parts (again, I cut back on the fast food, not solely due to the health reasons, though that too, but to avoid aggravation). But when I do, and invariably get into an argument, I try not to yell, but given how I'm always loud in genera, you know...

But back to yelling, my dad would go on these tirades, with the assumption that he was speaking for the downtrodden, and it just doesn't work that way. And it's especially a bad idea, given the advent of spontaneous video recording thanks to cell phones. I'm honestly shocked that my dad hasn't surfaced on YouTube by now.

As for using 'sweetie'... $20 says the next time I do use it in public, when we go drinking, you all try to stop me in a heartbeat from ever doing it again.

[FortNinety]

May as well mention it here: almost had a conniption at my local post office earlier today.

Normally I waltz in, do my business with the automated machine and completely forgo the 30 person+ long line, and am on my merry way in less than three minutes. But the machine was broken, so I had to stand in line for close to an hour.

First off, the reason why the line was so long and moving so slow? Everyone had shit to send, but absolutely NO ONE had bothered to pack anything. Which meant the postal workers had to go get boxes and then tape them up, pack the contents, etc, which takes fucking forever, especially when you factor the ten minutes the customer wastes complaining over the price of the packing and everything, well after the fact.

Though what made me totally flip my lid was the Puerto Rican woman who totally cut in front of me. I basically asked "excuse me/what the fuck" and she said that she had been in line earlier and had to sit down because her legs were bothering her. BTW, this wasn't some frail looking 90 year old woman, maybe in her mid 40s? Also 500 pounds, so perhaps if she had lost weight, she might have not have joint issues. My response of "not my problem" did not go over very well.

She then claimed "hey, if you want to sit down, you can" inferring that she would save my spot (yeah, right), with my response being "I would never do that, that's my fucking point", which then caused her to explain that the guy in front of her said it was cool for her to cut, who clearly did not want to get involve, and I couldn't blame him. For the record, and not that this needs to be explained, but if you're gonna ask someone to save your spot, you ask the person behind you to avoid such a situation, though I personally would never even allow such a scenario to happen.

What followed was her bitching about me to everyone in ear shot in Spanish, which I couldn't understand (I was basically the only white guy in the whole place), with my response being "gee, it's a good thing I didn't concentrate in Spanish class, otherwise I'd be pissed at the shit you were saying!" And yes, I was cursing. At that point, I could have cared less if I looked like a racist dick to everyone. Here's the secret: I sorta am!

But I won them back! At least one person, the woman behind me, when my buddy Jason called and I explained to him how months back, there was signs stating how that particular office was being shut down. In front of the place was a local representative who was either looking to get re-elected or just was, who stated, and proclaimed "Obama has recently made available some stimulus money, and guess what? I'm gonna go get some of this stimulus money and keep the post office open, so we don't have to go to 190th Street to mail packages!" Note: the current location was 180th Street, and I like to walk.

I made mention how the ploy worked, but A) I thought stimulus money was towards creating new jobs, B) and not to help keep the jobs of already employed postal workers (who in a past conversation told me that they weren't going to lose their gigs more than likely but get transferred to a new location, which sucks and all, but hey, they still had their jobs), and C) I sure as hell did not see any new employees, otherwise the line wouldn't be so damn long. At least I got once person to nod and perhaps think I wasn't suck a piece of shit after all was said and done.

[dhex]

Everyone had shit to send, but absolutely NO ONE had bothered to pack anything.

that's always a bit odd, but i don't enjoy the post office as much as they do. the machines are a godsend.

[dmauro]

Yeah really, when I need to send something without any extra services, those machines really make my day.