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Do we need a rant forum?

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22:02 / 05.10.04

Do we need a rant forum for rants like this:

So I'm in Sainsburys today, I've had a long, tiring day, and I'm doing a quick shop. Naturally, it being 7 at night, the whole place is packed. So I get in the cue, wait for ages, and finally it comes time for me to pay for my goods. I hand her my card, sign the paper and the bitch wastes mine and everyone else's time by taking a relaly close look at the signature and says it's not exactly the same as the one on the card.

She makes me redo my signature four times before accepting it... Damned signature nazi. What the fuck is that?? They never check the signatures and everyone just does a squiggle.

ARGH!

I suppose it's the only power she has in this world.

22:15 / 05.10.04

We have a thread for headsick and rage

Although, I object to your nasty little spiel on several levels. As if re-writing your signature 4 times over is a trial that compares with working a shift dealing with jumped-up shits who think they’re too important to even write their name the same way twice. Calm the fuck down and get over yourself.

22:38 / 05.10.04

Don't listen to Bedhead, Source. I know exactly what you mean. 'Cept I get all rage and stompy if people *don't* scrutinise credit card slip. I mean, how does she know that I'm the owner of the card? Does she have any idea how much time and effort I devote to keeping my money secure from fraud and theft??!!?? Like, that squiggle couldn't possibly be a crude approximation of my signature(!)
Fucking bitches.

22:48 / 05.10.04

Be thankful for that scrutiny. Only one out of ten cashiers looks at the back of my card to check if I'm me. There was a guy a couple of years ago that decided to see how far he could go with his signature before anyone called him on the fact that it didn't resemble the sig on his ID. He went so far as to draw a grid on one slip where his name should have gone- the cashier accepted it, and his bank honored it as legitimate.

Worrisome to say the least.

So yeah, maybe this woman took it a little too far, but at least she was paying attention.

23:01 / 05.10.04

Bedhead - Thank you for your contribution, but what are you getting so upset about - I was just having a little rant, geese.

BLS & Lekvar - Fair play, I didn't really think of it like that. I've never suffered from Credit Card fraud and I never really worry about it (except on the few occasions when I'm ordered products from a small online company).

23:54 / 05.10.04

Geese?

You’re seriously asking? Okay: you’re grumpy because you’ve been held up in a queue - I’ll assume that’s what you meant to write - well, fine. Huggles, even. Come to Barbelith and let us all get pissed and moan about how tired we are and what a day we’ve had.

But, using this incident to make out like it’s any kind of a big fucking deal for you to write your name more than once does actually make you look a little, er, rubbish. And that you’re mistaken in assuming this *very* minor inconvenience justifies using words like bitch and nazi like that and to have such a venomous tone. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, I hardly think it’s very fair for you to ask why I’m getting so upset when you’re the one who’s nursed that hatred all the way home from Sainsburys and still felt moved to spunk nastiness all over the internet five hours later, just because you’ve been asked to write your name on a straight line.

23:59 / 05.10.04

Every person should have to spend six months of their life as a cashier/waiter/retail monkey/coffee monkey/etc. This would lead to much more understanding and sympathy, and far fewer nasty, nasty customers.

00:10 / 06.10.04

No two of my signatures tend to look alike unless I really, really try. I have an amorphous handwriting.

00:22 / 06.10.04

This IS the rant forum.

04:13 / 06.10.04

Fucking hell.

06:11 / 06.10.04

Bedhead, you are right. You really are...Source blew things out of proportion and said some rude things.

But you are going about 'correcting' him in all the wrong ways. What was your reason for posting in response to Source? Did you want to chastise him? Make him feel bad? Offend him? and me? You both ranted, both showed venom, hate, and anger. The difference, he kept his calm at the store, and saved his frustration for this (what he hoped would be a safe) forum. The clerk didn’t have to see his anger, she doesn't know that she has been called a nazi. You attempted to tear Source a new one (and I wouldn’t be surprised if you try to respond to me in like). You attacked him in front of his peers. You kicked him when he was down. He came to Barbelith to unload a giant shit, and it stunk, and I am okay with that. Maybe that post helped him keep just that much more sanity. He vented steam here, instead of a in a post office with an AK47.

You saw it here folks, Barbelith changing the world, one rant at a time, saving lives. All because we have the common sense to know that people need to blow off steam without having their heads bit off in some super intellectual psychobabble bullshit way.

Source, rant on friend, we are listening.

06:55 / 06.10.04

I'm with you, Source! Fucking BITCH! After you've had a hard day handing out soup to the homeless or building affordable housing or rescuing kitties from being drowned in ponds or whatever it is that makes you so tired, the last thing you want is some minimum wage CUNT whose only bit of POWER in the world is delaying you for THIRTY SECONDS! Don't these people realise how important you are? Fucking BITCH. Fucking NAZI bitch. Because, you know, you probably couldn't get a fag paper between her and HITLER. I bet when she goes home after a good day holding people up in the CUE (whatever the fuck THAT is) she sits at home plotting the fucking HOLOCAUST or something! Yeah! BITCH. Because, you know, just because people like ME got stung for SEVEN HUNDRED QUID when someone nicked my credit card, doesn't mean people like YOU should be held up in fucking bitching nazi cunting SAINSBURY'S.

Word.

07:42 / 06.10.04

Ahem. At least the till girl wasn't being faced with an American tourist who claimed "No, I was told never to sign my credit cards as it encourages fraud". I've met a few. Drives both me and them wild when they have no other form of payment and you have to take down all their passport details instead in case it turns out to be hooky. Just sign the fucking thing then we can pretend your signature matches like we always do.

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:49 / 06.10.04

He came to Barbelith to unload a giant shit, and it stunk, and I am okay with that.

Of course you are, benfox: you're a moron too. And it's thanks to people like you and Source that Barbelith is starting to resemble a toilet. Well done! Now please leave.

08:10 / 06.10.04

I'm useless at signatures, especially in pubs funnily enough. I appreciate getting called on it every now an again. The poor sods waiting for their lager don't seem to though.

Chip and pin cards are the way forward. #drunkenly mashes keypad#

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:22 / 06.10.04

Benfox: I realise you haven't been on Barbelith very long, which makes me slightly confused about why you're telling other people what it is for and how to behave on it, but here's the skinny.

People get called on their shit here. We are (largely) adults, and we are able to disagree with each other, even to the point of expressing our irritation. Source's point has been criticised on two levels:

1) That checking signatures is necessary to avoid fraud, and that he should therefore not be so angry with somebody who is ultimately following the behaviours that protect him and others from credit card fraud. Hopefully chip and PIN will shortly render this frustration for him a thing of the past.

2) That the tone he adopted was so disproportionate to the level of annoyance caused that he has left, as you say, a big dump in the middle of Barbelith. You may be happy to go about your business with shit on your living room carpet, but traditionally people are not.

So, if you say call somebody a nazi, or assume that when people do not laugh at your jokes about syphillitic darkies that it is their fault for being humourless or indeed that society must be protected against the baby-killing Bengalis of old Whitechapel town, you can expect that people who have a lor invested in Barbelith not being a place where such behaviour goes unchallenged, will challenge it.

If you are unhappy with this, a large number of bulletin boards will be happy to provide a more suitable environment. Or you could hang around here and keep trying to tip the balance that turns Barbelith into a more suitable environment, which will hopefully lead to some pushback. Or you could take a break from telling people how they should be behaving on Barbelith and have a gander at how other people are behaving on Barbelith. Your choice.

Tryphena Absent

08:32 / 06.10.04

or rescuing kitties from being drowned in ponds

You mean you can get a job doing that? Why have I been wasting time looking at all those stupid websites if I can save kitties?

Haus of Mystery

10:41 / 06.10.04

People in the service industry recieve far too much public bile.

Remember folks: MINIMUM Wage.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:16 / 06.10.04

Hear hear. Ultimately, if you want better service be ready to pay extra for your food and have the difference put into wages.

I'd also like to inaugrate "be kind to your call centre" day.

11:27 / 06.10.04

You mean you can get a job doing that? Why have I been wasting time looking at all those stupid websites if I can save kitties?

Yes, but be warned -two weeks of every month you're on kittycall and have to be ready to rush to the pond at any hour of the day or night if a cat in distress pages you.

Whisky Priestess

11:57 / 06.10.04

Is it silly of me to suggest a move for deletion of this thread and a (perhaps toned down) reposting of the original post in Headsick and Rage? (I haven't moved for it yet but will do unless I hear objections)

I'm just a bit tired of seeing threads derailed by bitching. Sorry.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:03 / 06.10.04

I think it would be overmoderation, to be honest. People have the choice of starting new threads in the Conversation even if what they have to say could be fit into a previously extant thread. Also, TBH, I don't see the thread is being derailed per se - it's been broadened out to a more general examination of how to treat people in service industries, essentially.

To get back on topic. Do we need a rant forum? I think probably not, for the same reasons we don't have a Gaming forum - there's simply not the volume of posting going on to justify a forum devoted to it.

ONLY NICE THINGS

12:05 / 06.10.04

Also, IMHO, a moderator should never alter the text of what somebody has said. Much better to delete it outright. It's not our function to act as editors.

Haus of Mystery

14:29 / 06.10.04

Perhaps the thread title could be changed. The current header is pretty redundant, but a discussion of the service industry seems like a perfectly valid thread. I for one have a LOT to share...

But siriusly, I agree that removal would constitute over-moderation. If a thread is lifeless it'll drop off no matter how much trolling is done. The Rage thread, from a shitty beginning, bloomed into one of the most interesting and energised threads in a long time.

21:08 / 15.10.04

Jesus you guys are uptight, huh? Lighten up a bit!!

Okay, first of all: Bedhead = I'm deeply sorry that I offended you with my little outburst.

But come on, everyone has something small that gets on their nerves every once in a while. No matter how small it may be to others, for some reason, it's something small that may push you over the edge to the point where you lose rational thought, and that one last little thing annoys you to the point of my little outburst above.

That said, I'd like to thank Bedhead - It's good to be told to get over yourself when you're annoyed by somethings as stupid as I was above.

I have no problem with anyone "calling me on my shit" on this board.

I consider it (quite obviously) to be a part of this board.

However, I do think that sometimes you guys all take yourselves waaay too seriously. I had already explained to Bedhead that I was just having a little rant, making the point that it didn't really matter. Yet, he felt moved to reply and restate the exact point he had already made in his original post (and I think he did a better job in the original post, too). Furthermore, several other Barby regulars joined in the philisophical discussion of why Bedhead felt the need to chastise me for moaning about something quite obviously so benign and pointless.

I mean, is that seriously how you guys feel about all this? Are we that bored in this place that this was the most interesting topic to discuss?

Bush loses the Haus keys again - Excellent post.

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:27 / 17.10.04

But come on, everyone has something small that gets on their nerves every once in a while.

Yes, and in many people's case what gets on their nerves is hateful, ignorant, self-absorbed obnoxiousness.

17:57 / 17.10.04

OOOOOH! snap!

the 'everyone should have a shitty job for a while' theory is one i also subscribe to.

something like three months in a call centre, three in a bar/waiting job, one each in a supermarket and an abbatoir should be built into the school curriculum.(obviously any of yer actual vegans can forgo the killing, but anyone who eats meat should be willing to make it dead. maybe vegans should do a month in the sewers instead?)
i feel that way people might appreciate what they are getting when they get good service, and understand more of how the world works.
the hidden world where the features of your life get built is so often ignored by people who havent seen it first hand.

20:21 / 17.10.04

Sax: Cue - A Billard Stick

When I sign my name, it is always different. I have tons of trouble at the bank and I always have to show my id. It quite embarrasses me that I cannot maintain a consistant signature. Unfortunately, it is from a wound I recieved to my hand, and not just from being overly artistic, or lazy.

I like the term amorphous handwriting, BillR. I think I might adopt it.

08:37 / 18.10.04

I need to spend less time on the internet. Would you believe I actually had a dream last night where I was at a store and had to keep re-doing my signature? And I was thinking to myself, hey this is just like that thread on Barbelith. Odd.

And while I'm here ... I think the notion that any customer who has a problem with a service industry employee must be an arsehole who's never seen the other side is slightly suspect. I worked in the service industry for years and I was always nice to every single customer. The fact that I'm pulling beers or stacking shelves for minimum wage does not give me the right to be rude to a complete stranger who has committed the offence of coming into my store. And I don't think that experience has made me a more understanding customer. I'm polite to store assistants because they're fellow humans, not because I've done their job. Courtesy works both ways, and there is no excuse for either the customer or the employee to be anything less than courteous to each other. A customer who goes home and rants about a minimum wage employee is no better or worse that an employee who goes home and rants about a customer who might, for all they know, be dealing with a lot more shit than they are. Who can judge?

My £0.02.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:05 / 18.10.04

Well, we can judge. Based on the story of what happened as Source tells it. As in his first post.

09:49 / 18.10.04

Well every story has room for interpretation, and I can't help but feel that the subsequent deification of service staff in this thread is a little one-sided. For every snotty customer there's a snotty till operator or bartender, and plenty of customers are minimum-wagers themselves.

10:37 / 18.10.04

Yes, but we know for a fact that Source is a snotty customer. The woman working on the till might well be equally snotty, but she didn't feel the need to moan and whine about it on Barbelith.

Plus it's pretty fucking obvious that Source feels he's superior to anyone working on a till, snotty or not. So, y'know, fuck him.

10:52 / 18.10.04

Fair enough. I was just thinking on some intimations upthread that anyone in the service industry has the right to be shitty at customers, simply because they've got a shitty job, rather than the specific rights and wrongs of Source or hir local Sainsbury's staff.

13:18 / 18.10.04

Hugo Constantinople Letterhead - What are you talking about?

I didn't think I was superior to this girl - Even after I had signed my signature for the last time, I said I was sorry and smiled, while she looked pissed off and mumbled something under her breath (which I didn't hear). She was being a moody cow to the two people in front of me, too.

I'm perfectly nice to salespeople, even when they are being assholes, because it's just not worth getting in a ruckus with them about nothing.

I did, however, on this occasion, feel the need to bitch about this till operator, who was being bitchy to everyone who crossed her path.

Everyone has worked a shitty retail job at some point at the start of their careers, but that doesn't give them the right to act like an ass to the customers while in that job. Do you guys think that working in a shitty job somehow gives you the right to act like an asshole with your customers, or excuses those actions? If that's how you guys acted with your customers, then I hope and presume that you were fired.

So, kindly stop talking to about working shitty jobs, when you know nothing about me. If this is how you guys usually work then your incompetence must be an inspiration to idiots everywhere.

Get your facts straight; and if you don't have the facts then don't spew out torturous tirades of tedium when you clearly don't know anything about who or what you're talking about.

I haven't attacked or sworn at anyone in this forum (until now), but since that seems to be the only language you muppets understand, this is for you:

Grow 'the fuck' up, get 'the fuck' over yourselves and stop spending so much 'fucking' time jerking each other off in this forum - there's crusty cum all over the walls.

There's way too much mutual mental masturbation going on amongst the veterans in this place.

13:27 / 18.10.04

Is it just me or is Barbelith really funny today? Funny in an Alan Partridge/Office sort of way I mean.

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