Been There, Sold That, Got The T-Shirt

(I get a job via a temp agency to peddle a credit card offer for an out-of-state bank at a gas station for three separate four-hour shifts. This is my first conversation with my contact from the bank.)

Me: “So, people are applying for a credit card for an out-of-state bank? Is there anything else they get?”

Supervisor: “Yeah, they get an “America” t-shirt!”

Me: “Anything else? Do they get anything else? Like a gas card or something?”

Supervisor: “No, just the shirt.”

Me: “It sounds to me that it would be a tough sell on a t-shirt alone.”

Supervisor: “Yeah, but since 9/11 people will do a lot of stuff for America, so the shirt should be enough.”

(From start to finish, the entire job is a fiasco. There is supposed to be a supervisor from the bank as well as another employee, yet neither manifest. I am told to I HAVE wear one of the t-shirts that the bank is offering despite the fact that none are in my size. Worst of all, two hours before the end of my last humiliating shift, I get a call from my contact at the bank and I relate to him my trials in trying to get people to apply for a credit card with only a shirt to offer in return.)

Supervisor: “You mean no one’s wanting the gas card either?”

Me: “What gas card?”

Supervisor: “Oh, yeah, there’s a ten dollar gas card for applying. Didn’t you know?”

Me: *now frustrated* “NO! I even asked you when I started if there was anything else! I would’ve gotten at least double the signatures if I’d known about the gas card!”

Supervisor: “OH! Well, they get the gas card just for applying.”

(The original goal for the bonus was fifty signatures, but they cut it down to ten, seeing as I’d had such issues. I still missed it by one signature.)