Officious and Illiterate are not a good combination

The BBQ Pit
#1

To the imperious, illiterate clerk: You are a petty asshole. What gives you the right to act like a customer is a criminal because they want to buy a decongestant? When you need to say something to a customer, anything at all, you do not need to announce it to the fucking store. You spoke at a reasonable volume right up to the point I said that I wanted to buy Sudafed. Then you decided that each statement needed to be announced to the whole fucking store. As annoying as that stupid law is, that ID mush be presented to by cold medicine, there is no need to assume that any one who wants to buy a single box of Sudafed is a criminal. If you need to see a current state issued ID to sell certain items to a customer, then FUCKING LEARN TO RECOGNIZE A VALID FUCKING STATE ISSUED DRIVER’S LICENSE. If the customer tells you that a license is valid and has been renewed, and slides it back to you LOOK AT THE SIDE OF THE LICENSE THEY ARE PRESENTING YOU! If you had you might have noticed a HUGE IRIDESCENT STICKER THAT SAYS THAT THE LICENSE HAS BEEN RENEWED.

And how the fuck did you get a job in a pharmacy when you can’t even read? How much clearer can that be? “There is only one date anywhere on that license, it has not been renewed. It is not valid.” GO TO HELL! YES IT IS that is what CERTIFICATE OF EXTENSION means. There was no need to be nasty to me. Had you not been so busy copping an attitude you might have had time to read the back of the license and do your job. Oh, and by the way stop telling me what I can do. “You can come back and buy the Sudafed after you get your license renewed.” I would never come back to anyplace that has a clerk who acts like you. A clerk with even half a brain would have phrased it in terms of what the clerk can do. “I’m sorry; I can only sell that item to a customer with a valid license.” You may have to enforce store policy and the law, but there is no need to act like customers who are making reasonable attempts to comply with the law are drug crazed thieves. Your entire expression changed when I said I wanted to buy Sudafed, HOW DARE YOU! If you don’t want to sell cold medicine, then STOP WORKING IN A PHARMACY.

To the idiot manager: Don’t treat me like a fucking criminal because I am angry and your god damn officious twat of a clerk can’t read, and FUCKING TRAIN YOUR STAFF! There is no fucking excuse for the twat’s tone or manner. There is no fucking excuse for her to not see an iridescent sticker that covers nearly half of the back of the license. And there is no excuse for you not to train your staff in how to recognize a valid license. How dare you act like I am a criminal before at least glancing at the evidence? I hope you got whiplash from your head snapping back so hard when you flipped over the license and saw those big red letters. After you treat someone like a criminal it is a little late to suck up to try to keep business. I never wanted anyone to suck up, I wanted to be sold my medicine without being patronized or humiliated.

All of our ongoing prescriptions will be transferred to another drug store. If I count correctly there are eight currently. Also my weekly trips there to get the good candy will stop. A drop in the bucket no doubt, but I won’t be going back there at all.

#2

While, admittedly, what the clerk did was dumb, I think there’s a chance you might be overreacting a little.

#3

Coming off of a meth trip is a bitch, huh?

#4

I don’t think she’s overreacting. While I don’t expect to get my ass kissed, the “Come back when you get your licence renewed” statement would have gotten my dander up too. That’s not how you treat your customers.

#5

My state sticks a renewal sticker on licenses, and it appears to be made of the same paper as address labels, meaning that it looks like you made it yourself, AND it wears off rapidly. I finally just went to the DMV and bought a replacement license because I was going to be flying with no baggage on 9/11 and didn’t want to be delayed by my fake-looking ID.

And I understand the arguments for it, but I hate not being able to get ephedra, and now having to go to the pharmacy for Sudafed for my chronic allergies.

#6

I’m with you, lee. I had a crappy little extension sticker like that on my license for a while, too. The moment they slapped it on at the DPS I knew it’d be trouble, but what can you do about it? The state says, “there’s your extension, motherfucker”, and all you can say is “thanks”.

That having been said, have you considered writing to whatever corporate headquarters this place has? Odds are they would be less than pleased at the treatment you received.

#7

From Alaska, are you? :smiley:

#8

Good god. That law has got to be the stupidest thing going. My girlfriend somehow got on the list of persons who’re prohibited from buying ephedra drugs. And there’s apparently no way to get off the list. “Nope, sorry, you can’t buy ephedra, but just let me ring up that scrip for 100 extra strength Vicodins, and we’ll have you one your way.”

So, I gotta buy it when she needs it now.

#9

I don’t mean to hijack, but while we’re on the subject of officious and illiterate, my ex-wife (and still my good friend) was at the Department of Motor Vehicles yesterday, to register her car. The person in front of her in line had the following conversation with the clerk:

DMV Hag: OK, the fee for your title and tags will be [amount].
**Poor Schmuck: ** How can it possibly be that much?!?
**DMVH: ** *(flips over application form and points to fee schedule) * See, here it says. You purchased your car for $12,000 so your fee is [amount]. *(flips application back over and points to declared purchase price) * See? $12,000.
**Poor Schmuck: ** No, that’s $2,000. See? That isn’t a “1”, it’s a stray pencil mark.
**DMVH: ** *(looks mistrustfully at customer) * Sir, that says $12,000. (looks behind her, presumably for a supervisor or some other form of backup)
Poor Schmuck: Ma’am, look at the form. It’s a 2000 Neon. Why would I spend $12,000 on a 2000 Neon?!?
DMVH: You’re going to need to…
Poor Schmuck: Lady, I wrote the number myself! I filled this form out in your lobby, half an hour ago! And I think I know what I paid for the car!

He ended up getting turned away to go get some kind of documentation or affadavit of the purchase price from the seller. All over a stray pencil mark. :mad:

#10

Mrs. Evil Captor once nailed an officious DMV clerk but good.

They’ve since cleaned up their act, but a few years ago getting a tag renewed could mean standing in line for several hours, especially if you’re a month or two overdue on doing it, as we were. So Mrs. Evil Captor goes to the DMV to handle the chore one day, stands in the long, long line, and when it’s her turn, the clerk looks at her form, notes it’s overdue and asks loudly, “Well, where have YOU been?”

“Standing in line,” Mrs. Evil Captor said firmly.

The whole line behind her just cracked up. It was sweet.

#11

Throw some ire at your state for not issuing new licenses. Anyone can print up a sticker.

#12

True. But you’d also think that if you’re a clerk who often has to check ID, you’d be aware that the state cheaps out and uses a renewal sticker. What are they going to do - refuse all their patrons who have a renewal sticker instead of paying $$$ for a new card? (Where I live it’s $64 CAD for a renewal and $22 CAD for a card replacement)

And even if the OPs license was completely expired, and not renewed, that still doesn’t justify the clerk rudely treating them like a criminal. I’ve been a cashier who had to refuse people due to expired ID (can’t buy liquor, or cigarettes), and you just politely state the policy.

#13

It is not a crappy little sticker. It is nearly thick again as the license, and in special anti-counterfeit anti-copy iridescent plastic. The adhesive is also impressive; I knew when I peeled off the backing that I would not be repositioning it. For drivers with unblemished records, Illinois does not make them go into the DMV to renew. Just fill a form online and they mail you the certificate of extension.

And no, I don’t think I am over reacting.
[ul]
[li]She acted like I was doing something wrong before the difficulty with my license. I was buying Sudafed. In a drug store. That is not wrong, that is what one does at a drug store.[/li][li]Her eyes lit up and she got a smile like the Grinch thinking of stealing Christmas when she noticed that the date was 2004.[/li][li]She used a loud and sneering voice to read out the date and say the license was invalid. She had talked in a more normal tone when I had asked if my prescription was ready, so I know she had a more normal tone to use.[/li][li]She announced that the license was invalid before checking the back at all. [/li][li]Even afer I told her in a cold. low tone that the license was valid, that it had been renewed and was good enough to drive with, and that she should check again, sliding the license back to her backside up with the sticker so she could read it, rather than look at it, she began a loud lecture about me renewing my license. [/li][/ul]

It is bad enough we have stupid laws that require identification for buying cold medicine, there is no need to make it worse by delighting in causing frustration and humiliation, especially doing so in the invalid premise that my license was expired.

#14

California doesn’t make you go in, either. Just fill out a form, and they mail you a new license.

But, yeah, she sounds like a total bitch.

#15

Not for long, unfortunately.

#16

Was this a chain store? Write a letter to the head offices and call to get the district manager’s phone number and talk to him. Nothing scares a manager faster than having corporate get involved and chains will jump all over stores that have bad customer service complaints.

#17

This sounds so much like Walgreens. I will never go to that craphole again for reasons not unlike this.

#18

I had a problem with a hospital bill here in Nashville and couldn’t get it straightened out. It was just going in circles. I sent an email to HCA Corporate Offices (in response to some sort of birthday promotion they had going on their website). I wished them a happy birthday, asked about this particular hospital’s ranking and told this anonymous person about my problem with billing.

I received a phone call from the hospital explaining that the erroneous charges had been removed or whatever the problem was had been taken care of.

Then I received an email from Thomas Frist, CEO of HCA and brother of the now Senate Majority Leader, asking if everything had been resolved to my satisfaction.

It was such a total snort!

You just never know.

lee, I don’t think you are over-reacting. There was no reason at any time why all parties involved could not have listened carefully to each other and treated each other with dignity. They were in the wrong.

#19

I’m with lee, &al. If they’re going to ask for ID, it’s their job to recognoze valid ID when they see it. If they don’t, you have every right to get pissed. If they’re snotty and wrong, you may go ballistic.

-saoirse, who is fortunate to live in a state where meth hasn’t caught on yet.

#20

I fly at least 4-5 times a year, and I’ve never had any security personnel even blink when I showed them the renewal sticker. In fact, at the time (IIRC) it didn’t have all of those extra security features and was just a little white sticker. My current license is a regular one; I think you only get one renewal sticker and when that runs out, you go in person again, and can get another sticker after that expires.

I’d goddamned well expect a pharmacist in the state of Illinois, where we have those renewal stickers - for good drivers. Maybe he was a suckass driver and thus has never gotten out of having to go to the Secretary of State office (which handles driver’s licenses in IL), but even then I’m sure that this must have come up before. Who knows how many other people he’s been a jerk to?