I once gave a free rental to a random customer at Blockbuster just so an asshole who was coming down RIGHT NOW couldn't have it, and I could honestly say it was out.

My Customer Service story:

When I worked at Suncoast we had a guy come in and pick out $1000 worth of laserdiscs (back when people still bought them and dvds were a rumor) in the summer when sales were thin and our store was small so $1000 was a huge deal, I wanted our store to get that sale so bad. (My asst manager was in the backroom at the time, probably watching the playboy videos we sold)

There was one catch, the guy was here on vacation and couldn't take them back on the plane, he wanted them shipped to his house. So I get the asst manager to tell him this. I was all excited, assuring my customer, that yes, we could do that. (we'd shipped stuff before) And I'm all "a THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! WHOO!!" , all we have to do is ship it. And the guy will PAY for the shipping!

AssManager says No. Absolutely not. We won't ship it doesn't matter if you'll pay we will not send this to your house. No.

I can't remember everythign that happened but the guy got upset and my assistant manager was a huge asshole and it ended with my asst manager leaving me and going to the backroom. The customer was so pissed off he pushed everything off the counters and stormed out.

He'd also told me I couldn't call the manger or the district manager about this and I was young so I did what he said.

After he and the manager left the new managment cleaned out the backroom and found opened playboy and soft core videos hidden all over the backroom and we started having dramatically less losses.

Ugh, that bites, askye. And what a worm of an asst. manager. That could easily be an extra chapter or two: the many ways management can dick you over and make the customer hate you; taking advantage of young folks on their first job; just so much unpleasant stuff if you unpack every rotten element of stories like that.

I only worked customer service for a couple years, being dramatically un-cut-out for it. But I'm sure between those couple years and living with an exotic dancer for a couple years, I can come up with some stories.

Oh and: Last month's winning haiku from ThinkGeek:

Client with no specs.
Wants results in two weeks time.
Must. Not. Kill. Must. Not.

Along those lines ... my boss is out the door, on her way to a new job! yay! (yesterday my choices came down to homicide, suicide, or chocolate ... I chose chocolate, 'cause they get so cranky when someone gets blood on the carpet). SHE thinks marketing in the for-profit sector is going to be less time-consuming and stressful than working at a not-for-profit. (insert evil chuckle)

There's a poll on board usage being discussed, please go here for more information - msbelle "Bureaucracy 4: Like Job. No, really, just like Job" Aug 3, 2007 7:52:20 am PDT

Is she crazy? Dear lord. I've done both. For-profit is/was much worse.

I have a really illustrative story about a guy who used to work in marketing for beer companies and quit to go hunt terrorists with the CIA, because it was less stressful. He said his boss (at Madison Ave company) had a heart attack at work because a proposal was 5 minutes late.

Anyone want to help me name a secondary character? Normally this isn't a problem for me, but she's stubbornly nameless.

Her bio and description: She's a Lowland Scot of good family (gentry or minor nobility), born around 1770 (she's in her 30's when we meet her). She's intelligent and wryly witty, and better educated than the average woman of her time. Extremely proper and reserved in public, reveals earthy sensuality in bed with my protagonist--one of her roles in the story is as his confidante/fuckbuddy, though I don't think they're each other's One True Love. She's taller than average, pretty but not beautiful, yellow blonde hair and brown eyes.

Names she CAN'T have to avoid duplication: Charlotte, Anna, Genevieve, Lavinia, Emma, Catherine. She'll share a lot of screen time with the first three, so it can't even be close to one of those.

Any ideas? I'm only worried about her first name for now--if I can just pin that down, it's easy enough to pick out a last name that matches and works with her background.