# I just want to buy my crap and leave the store (long, mild and over reacting) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 12, 2005, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221 "2005-09-12T07:30:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Daisy\_Mae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Daisy\_Mae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daisy_Mae)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/61 "2005-09-13T08:12:43Z")
> [@Seven](#): > > If she doesn’t like it she should adjust her attitude instead of coping one and looking at me like she wants to crack my skull and saying “No, I’m not”. She could have shrugged, smiled and said “thought I’d ask”. Since you offered your script on what YOU think SHE should have said, why not just say “For a twenty dollar shelf? No thanks.” instead of the little “You’re kidding, right?” gem. I’ll have to agree with your tagline, over reacting seems to be the sum of it. Asking someone “You’re kidding, right?” when they’re clearly not kidding and just trying to do their job makes you a bit of a jackass and it’s hard to feel sorry for you for the pissing match that took place after that. You might have walked out after barking at the manager but she won because you wasted a trip to get something you wanted and fought with someone for doing their job. Bravo! ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/62 "2005-09-13T17:01:12Z")
> [@Daisy Mae](#): > > You might have walked out after barking at the manager but she won because you wasted a trip to get something you wanted and fought with someone for doing their job. Bravo! I think I won at the end of the day. The shelves were not really something I wanted, just something to make due until I found what I wanted. They stopped me from wasting my money AND showed me they are a store I shouldn’t bother with in the future. A $5 extended warrenty on a $20 shelf?? Give me a break. ---
**Author:** ![anamnesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@anamnesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anamnesis)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/63 "2005-09-13T17:46:31Z")
Nobody here is disagreeing with your position, they’re disagreeing with your approach. You over-reacted, you even said so yourself. If you feel that over-reacting to something this silly (and something which we all have to deal with when going into a retail store these days) makes you the “winner at the end of the day”, then perhaps you’ll be even more proud of yourself when you collapse at the mall from a brain embolism, heart attack, or stroke (or any other various stress-related events) after a survey taker at the mall asks if you have a minute. It’s something stupid we all have to deal with. I have to tell the kid at Best Buy that I don’t want an extended protection plan, a free subscription to Entertainment Weekly and Sports Illustrated, or a chance to participate in a satisfaction survey, every time I go there to buy something as insignificant as a speaker wire. The fact is, the cashier probably knows just as well as you do that the upsell policy is stupid, and only started to be difficult with you after you started up with her. Like everyone else here, I suggest that the next time it happens, simply take a breath, politely refuse the upsell, and go on about your day. They’ll get more enjoyment out of what is surely not a very enjoyable job, and you’ll get more enjoyment out of what sounds like a very good DVD collection, because you’ll live longer by not stressing about things that aren’t worth the time and effort to get stressed over. You think you won at the end of the day for giving her a difficult time, and she probably thinks thought she won at the end of the day for being difficult with you. In case it’s not obvious, most retail stores don’t give a damn about what their customers have to say anyway, whether it’s said to the cashier at the bottom, or to the store manager at the top … so why bother getting yourself and others riled up about it? We understand your frustration, but your misdirected angst towards a cashier at Office Max is inappropriate and benefits nobody, yourself included. Moral of the story: please calm down. ---
**Author:** ![MidnightRadio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@MidnightRadio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MidnightRadio)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/64 "2005-09-13T18:18:33Z")
When I worked at a call center taking calls for a certain well-known mobile service provider (I mention getting hired in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=210762) thread) they had an upselling program they called Maximizing. When a customer called in and I pulled their account up on my computer, there would be a section on the lower right-hand side of the screen that we called the Maximize box. In that little box, there would be a number of services and whatnot, such as daily or weekly balance notification, that we were supposed to upsell. We were told about this in training. What we weren’t told until training was almost over was that we had a Maximize quota. We were expected to successfully Maximize at least ten percent of all our calls. The thing was, a lot of the Maximize options were really hard to sell. For instance, on just about every other call, the Maximize box would have Sprint long distance services (for the customer’s land line). That’s almost impossible to upsell successfully (especially since about half the people I offered it to didn’t _have_ land lines). Also, if you upsold something—balance notification, for example—that sometimes appeared in the Maximize box but wasn’t there on that particular call, it didn’t count toward your quota. I worked there for about a month and a half before deciding I couldn’t take it anymore and quit (well actually, I just stopped showing up and they fired me). And you know, they focused on Maximizing almost to the exclusion of everything else. It was almost as if they didn’t care about providing good customer service, but only cared whether or not you Maximized a call. Every team meeting we had focused on how to increase Maximizes, not on how to provide better customer service. After leaving that job, I decided to get a job taking calls at home for NBC’s shop-at-home network, ShopNBC. At the time, I only had one phone line and dial-up Internet service, so I had to add a second phone line and upgrade to high-speed Internet. I’d heard some bad things about DSL, so I went with Cox’s cable Internet service. A few days after getting set up with the cable Internet, I called Southwestern Bell (well, I guess it’s SBC now) to get my second phone line installed. My God, that representative must have asked me _at least_ six times if I was interested in their DSL service. Even after I told her that I’d already gotten service through Cox and even after I told her I’d _signed a contract_ with Cox. I was so irritated by the time that call was over… ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/65 "2005-09-13T18:26:55Z")
> [@Seven](#): > > My plan?? > \ > That’d be fucking stupid. Classic, Seven, just classic. I’m not into humping DVDs, but can I reserve a spot in your moon city? ---
**Author:** ![The\_New\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@The\_New\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_New_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/66 "2005-09-13T18:29:10Z")
> [@Maeglin](#): > > The real problem is that you are completely full of shit. Spare us your stinking, peanutty twaddle. You know what’s the most annoying thing in the world? Nerds who imagine that they are clever, but are really just assholes. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/67 "2005-09-13T18:34:56Z")
> [@anamnesis](#): > > Moral of the story: please calm down. For the record I was never really mad. It was more of a major rolleye. My “you’re kidding right” comment wasn’t planned. It just popped out. Who in their right mind would buy an extended service contract on a shelf?? Even still I don’t think saying that was rude. Calling her a bitchy whore would be rude. Telling her she smells of mushroom soup would be rude. Chuckling and saying “you’re kidding” is not rude. If that comment was the main reason her customer service skills were so bad, then she needs to find a different job. As I don’t like to be hassled with upsales I avoid places that do it. That’s just me. If the store is more focused on greed then making customers happy, that’s fine. I’ll just shop elsewhere. If they can’t take no for an answer then I’ll leave. I thought it was kind of a funny story so I wrote about it. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/68 "2005-09-13T18:50:42Z")
> [@Seven](#): > > My plan?? > > I plan on collecting 800 DVD’s. At that time I’ll take them all out of the case, lay them on the floor and hump the lot of them. You see, this has been a fantasy of mine for some time. Any less then 800 won’t do. It MUST be 800. I also plan on taking pictures and movies of the event and starting up [www.Hump-a-pile-of-dvds.com](http://www.Hump-a-pile-of-dvds.com) for all the other “pile o’ DVD” fetishists out there (there’s quite a few of us you see). Once the site is on-line I’ll charge $19.95 per month for people to log in and download movies and pictures of me humping DVD’s. I even plan a photo series of me dancing around naked with the Special Edtion release of The Dukes of Hazzard wedged in my naked, hairy ass crack. Before long I’ll make my investment back and the rest is pure, sweet, profit. I figure within 3 years I should be able to buy a small island. I’ll STILL have a pile of DVD’s to hump anytime I want - as well as a big ass pile of cash. Once on the island I plan on starting my own country and space program. When the moon shuttle is running smoothly I plan on transporting enough people to create a small city on the moon. Then I’ll move there, retire, and open an ice cream shoppe. > > I just want to clear that up because I wouldn’t want anyone to think I **watched** these things or had a hobby of collecting movies I enjoy. > > That’d be fucking stupid. Wow. You might have been a bit hard on the salesperson, but you’ve repaid your karmic debt by giving the world this gem. ---
**Author:** ![The\_New\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@The\_New\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_New_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/69 "2005-09-13T18:58:42Z")
So anyway, ignoring Maeglin’s annoying diatribe… The credit card companies do nothing to enforce any kind of coherent security policy. As I said, it’s all over the map. First of all, from the link that was posted earlier: > [@](#): > > While a merchant may ask for identification if fraud is suspected, it is contrary to Visa policy to require the consumer to show identification as a condition of the sale. If a merchant asks for identification and the consumer is unable or unwilling to produce it, the merchant is still obliged to accept the consumer’s Visa card. Consumers who experience refusal of service based on identification may either call their card issuer to report the problem or call 1-800-VISA-911. Even a 3rd grader ought to be able to look at this paragraph and realize it makes no sense. Can they check ID or not? It says they can if they suspect fraud, but that you don’t have to show it to them. That’s contradictory. (Well I guess _technically_ it says they can _ask_ to see it, but not necessarily see it, which makes even _less_ sense. And what does “suspecting fraud” even mean? Is the thief going to stand in line at the cash register twirling his moustache and going, “Bwaaa ha ha…”? > [@lorinada](#): > > Old Navy ALWAYS asks for ID. I was, in fact, turned away from making a very large ON purchase (by my standards - it was about $80, certainly not enough to suspect fraud) when I was not able to produce ID becuase I had inadvertently left home without my driver’s license. More evidence that the practice is rampant. > [@Guin](#): > > When I was working retail, we only had to ask for ID if the back of the card was unsigned. Otherwise, no problem. More inconsistency. In fact, the signature on the back of the card is the most asinine security policy ever conceived. In my experience, the signature gets checked less than 10% of the time. And what good does it do even if they DO check? Sales clerks are not trained in signature comparison; how would they even know that a signature wasn’t valid? My signature doesn’t look _exactly_ the same every time I write it. Is someone with no training supposed to decide exactly how much variation from the original is allowed? It’s just silly. I’ve seen clerks, on the rare occasions when they _do_ check, and in cases where the card was never signed, have customers sign the card right then and there. What good does THAT do? Obviously the signatures will match, because it’s the SAME person. Doesn’t tell you if they’re the actual card owner, though. And then we have the gas station pumps that are PROGRAMMED to require the customers zip code before accepting the credit card. What the hell is that? Is that a security measure or marketing research? They don’t tell you, and they don’t offer any way to opt out of it. Awhile back, there was a thread about credit cards, and a person who works for one of the companies admitted that they write off fraud as a cost of doing business, and really aren’t that concerned with it. You can say that ALL these merchants are violating the agreement, but at some point you have to realize the the credit card companies simply have no interest in making their system work. ---
**Author:** ![5que](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/3bc359/32.png) [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/70 "2005-09-13T19:02:52Z")
> [@MidnightRadio](#): > > My God, that representative must have asked me _at least_ six times if I was interested in their DSL service. Even after I told her that I’d already gotten service through Cox and even after I told her I’d _signed a contract_ with Cox. I was so irritated by the time that call was over… I have my DirecTV dish next to my front door, and I still get Comcast salesmen coming by trying to sign me up for cable. ---
**Author:** ![MidnightRadio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@MidnightRadio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MidnightRadio)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/71 "2005-09-13T19:07:21Z")
> [@5que](#): > > I have my DirecTV dish next to my front door, and I still get Comcast salesmen coming by trying to sign me up for cable. I work for DirecTV now! ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/72 "2005-09-13T19:14:08Z")
> [@whiterabbit](#): > > I was once offered a $20 warranty on a $10 universal remote. The guy didn’t push it, though. He knew it was stupid but he had to ask. A Best Buy cashier once offered me a warranty on a spindle of CD-Rs. Beat that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/73 "2005-09-13T20:38:04Z")
> [@The New Guy](#): > > So anyway, ignoring Maeglin’s annoying diatribe… Speaking of annoying diatribes, do you have a point? It’s been established that you don’t have to show an ID to use a Mastercard. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/74 "2005-09-13T20:52:51Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > A Best Buy cashier once offered me a warranty on a spindle of CD-Rs. Beat that. 😃 I don’t think I can. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/75 "2005-09-13T21:32:29Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > If I buy a subscription during the first week, can I get a deep discount, like they do around here? Plus, think of the sheer cachet of being a Charter Member of something called ‘[hump-a-pile-of-dvds.com](http://hump-a-pile-of-dvds.com)’ And **Seven**? Your Ultimate Plan for the Dukes of Hazzard DVD is brilliant. Do you think you’ll have room up your ass for The Brother’s Grimm and the second Bridget Jones movie? ---
**Author:** ![The\_New\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@The\_New\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_New_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/76 "2005-09-13T21:50:27Z")
> [@Dag Otto](#): > > Speaking of annoying diatribes, do you have a point? It’s been established that you don’t have to show an ID to use a Mastercard. Read the post, idiot. ---
**Author:** ![Susie\_Derkins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@Susie\_Derkins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Susie_Derkins)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/77 "2005-09-13T22:04:50Z")
> [@Excalibre](#): > > Wow. You might have been a bit hard on the salesperson, but you’ve repaid your karmic debt by giving the world this gem. It’s even funnier if you picture [Russell Crowe](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=334402) humping the DVD’s. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/78 "2005-09-13T23:01:24Z")
Definitely Seven in the wrong here and in a big way. There’s not much more annoying than working in retail. While the truly assholish customer is rare, the truly supid customer is pretty common. The customers that come in and ask the most retarded questions you’ve ever heard. But it’s your job to be courteous and nice, no matter how stupid they are, and the jackass manager is also quite common. All of this combined is bad enough, but then you have the piece of shit, ignorant fuck customers that come in and start pitching a shit fit because of a simple question asked at checkout. Something that could at the maximum take 10 seconds to be done with. If you had given her the chance to be polite, I’d come down on your side Seven. I’ve been in a store before where I say “no thanks” to the assurance plan but continue to have it pounded in to me for a full minute or more. But, we don’t know that that was going to happen here. She asked you, and you gave her a big assholish reply. You’re the one that started acting like a bitch, she’s only human and I think she did the perfect thing. Ultimately I’d say _she_ won. She’s not going to get fired for this, she followed the book precisely. The worst she gets out of the exchange is a asschewing from the manager, but if she works in retail that rolls off her back like nothing by now. You, however, wasted an extensive amount of your time in the store for nothing. She’s getting paid to be there whether she has to deal with you or not. In all honesty while asshole customers were ANNOYING to me, when I worked retail as a young man–in all honesty they also broke up the horrible monotony of my job and gave me cool stories to tell my friends later. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/79 "2005-09-14T00:47:10Z")
I can’t fucking believe people are taking the cashier’s side here. Yes, working at a place where you have to pitch extended warrantees sucks. So fucking what? That gives her a free pass to provide bad service? Look, if you’re going to offer an extended warranty on _shelves_ that ring in at 25% of the value of the product, you’d damn well better be prepared for some snarky responses, because that’s some damn stupid shit you’re peddling. ---
**Author:** ![Seven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Seven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seven)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221/80 "2005-09-14T01:08:52Z")
She might as well asked “Would you mind if I charged $10 extra dollars on this sale to increase our profits?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-just-want-to-buy-my-crap-and-leave-the-store-long-mild-and-over-reacting/321221.md?page=5)