Two young boys are sitting behind me on a flight to San Francisco. As we land, [Boy #1] says:
Boy #1: “Hey, I recognize this place!”
Boy #2: “[Boy #1], you live here.”
I had a fairly late call from security letting me know of a guest they busted smoking in the stairwell. This is a 300-room hotel with ten stories. The guest had been found actively smoking a cigarette on the third-floor landing of the fire escape. There were pictures documenting the incident, and the entire stairway smelled of smoke. The guest owned up to it but wanted to speak with a manager first thing in the morning.
After some review, I found that the guest was with a conference connected to a disorder that caused massive allergies. It was mostly young families trying to cope with and drive research for a cure. Mostly kids are affected, and they literally have to eat special food through a tube because they are so allergic to literally everything.
The guest decided that it was too cold — fifty degrees Fahrenheit — to bother following the state law of smoking outside and smoked in the stairway. So much for the sick kids they put at risk.
I confronted the guest in the morning and asked why they would put so many families at risk as well as break state law, and the response I got was that the guest smoking in the stairwell causing a fire risk and allergy issue was a retired firefighter and police officer.
When confronted with the danger he put the entire hotel and the very sick families in, his excuse was that he wasn’t affecting his wife who had the illness. The guest proceeded to spit-scream in my face that I wasn’t a firefighter and he was, and therefore, he should be able to smoke where he pleased.
Funnily enough, he changed his tone after I explained the issues and danger to the organizer of the conference.
Related:
Where There’s Smoke…
My parents are holding onto a pair of our neighbor’s escaped horses in our front yard when an animal control officer stops to talk to them.
Officer: “Are these your horses?”
Mom: “No, they belong to our neighbor. We’ve already called and they are on their way.”
Officer: “Good, I want to talk to them. This isn’t the first time I’ve been called about these horses. Do you see them loose often?”
Mom: “No, this is a first for us. The goat, on the other hand—”
Officer: “There’s a goat?”
Father: “There’s the goat!”
As they were talking about it, our neighbor’s little black goat came trotting down the street! All animals were returned home safely and the neighbor replaced their fence so there were no more escapees of the equine or caprine variety.
This story is part of our Horse roundup!
Read the next Horse roundup story!
Read the Horse roundup!
I work in a department store that offers store credit cards. We also order things that we don’t have in stock for customers. We are required to ask customers if they’d like to open a card before we finish a transaction. If they say no, we just move on. Also, when we order things, the system won’t allow debit, only credit, so we tell people when it asks for a PIN to just hit “next” and it will allow it to go through.
One lady is not having this.
Customer: “Why does it say, ‘Not authorized’?”
Me: “Oh, I forgot! When it asks for your PIN, just hit ‘next.’ It won’t allow debit. I don’t know why.”
Customer: “So, when I swipe my card, where does it go?”
Me: *Confused* “Um, well, it pays for your stuff. Then it goes away.”
Customer: “This doesn’t seem very secure. Where does my information go?”
Me: “What do you mean? It’s just paying for your items so we can ship them to your house.”
Customer: “So, you ask me for all my information, ask me if I want to open a credit card, and then this?”
Me: “Ma’am, I only asked for those things for shipping purposes. They need your name, address, and phone number to track your shipping.”
Customer: “Just start it over! This doesn’t seem right.”
My coworker walks up. The lady asks her right in front of me:
Customer: “Why is my order not authorized?”
Coworker: “Are you using debit? It won’t allow debit, so just bypass the PIN number.”
I start the whole transaction over, which takes several minutes. Of course, it does the same thing.
Customer: “It says, ‘Not Authorized,’ again. Why?”
Me: *Frustrated* “Because it won’t take debit and you keep putting in your PIN. Would you just like to cancel the order?”
Customer: “No. I want my stuff.”
Me: “Then you have to bypass the PIN—”
Customer: “That’s not secure! It should work like this!”
Me: “Well, maybe it’s your card, then.”
Customer: “I have thousands in my account. I know it isn’t my card!”
You’d think, if someone was worried about identity theft, they wouldn’t tell you how much money they have.
I gave up and asked her if she’d like to speak with a manager, instead. She said no. She finally did what I told her to do in the first place and it miraculously worked without a hitch. The whole time, she kept looking up at me like I was trying to cheat her. I handed her her receipt without a smile and walked away from the counter.
Related:
PIN-Headed, Part 16
PIN-Headed, Part 15
PIN-Headed, Part 14
PIN-Headed, Part 13
PIN-Headed, Part 12
There’s a public park next to our store situated on a popular walking trail. During this particular summer, the city has closed the public parking lot that gave you access to the trail due to road work, so people take it upon themselves to think that they can park in our parking lot — for free — and use the park. Most of the time, if they come in and purchase something, my boss — who also happens to be a lawyer — will let them park there. There are two incidents, however, that stick out in my mind.
A woman with THAT haircut parks in our lot and goes to the park. My boss comes outside.
Boss: “You can’t park in our lot if you’re not a customer.”
She starts screaming and yelling at us.
Woman: “I’ll be sending a letter to the city mayor about this!”
Boss: “Go ahead. You send her a letter and I will send her two.”
The second incident involves a man who parks his car DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF OUR WINDOWS and then tries walking to the park.
Boss: “Sir, you need to move your car.”
Man: “No.”
Boss: “Either you need to move the car or I will move it for you.”
Man: “No.”
He then ignores my boss and waves him off.
My boss gets our large commercial truck we use to move things and parks it directly behind this man’s car. Then, he gets on the phone and calls a tow truck. The man comes over and begins complaining.
Boss: “Are you going to move it now?”
Finally, after much complaining, he agrees to move his car.
I get that the city had no backup plan for parking and many of the people who wanted to use this park could not because they didn’t want to purchase anything from our store. The city’s lack of planning isn’t everyone else’s fault, but still, I wonder to this day: why do people think that because a city closed the public parking lot it gives them the right to park wherever they want?
Related:
A Parking Spot Of Bother
