Tuesday, October 28, 2008

People make it hard for me to be nice to them. and yet, I am still nice. But I want to sick pirahnas on them. Specifically, a few customers this past week.

So, at a fair over a month ago, this guy, who wasn't the brightest crayon in the knife drawer, wanted a custom bottlecap necklace. I was like, sure. They are $7. I handed him a business card and said he could get a hold of me via email and since he was local I could deliver it. This guy doesn't have a computer. After much deliberation- and this is not something I do lightly- I gave him my phone number so he could contact me. (hindsight. 20/20) He asked how long it would take. I said give me a couple weeks, as I had other fairs to get out of the way. He was fine with that. He said he'd give me a call. Well, a month passes. I didn't honestly expect to hear from the guy again, given his demeanor and the fact that most people who take cards and swear they will order from me don't. So this past saturday, he appears calls out of the blue, asking about the necklace, is it done, and to call him. I had made the thing, so I said, yes, it's done. I can get it to you tomorrow.

He said he would call tomorrow then and we could set up a meeting as he was short on time at the moment. He asked when he could call. i said after 11am. Done. easy, right? No.

It was a busy weekend with halloween coming up and lots of errands that didn't get taken care of the previous weekend since we had been out of town. I go to bed. husband and friend are up playing video games. My "customer" drunk dials us TWICE at 1:30 AM because someone he didn't know called him. So he called us. Husband answered and said the guy was quite drunk. I didn't have to field this fortunately, but the bloody phone woke me up and I had trouble getting back to sleep after that.

FUN.

we wake up. I'm grumpy. I don't expect this guy to actually call when he said- he's likely hung over. At 11:30 I ask the peanut gallery when it would be safe to call and try and arrange a time to get this exchange (which would take all of a couple minutes) over with. They say go ahead and call. I do. he's awake, seems to have vaguely forgotten that he was going to call and couldn't remember the price I quoted him. Not a good sign. He says he'll call back after dinner time as he is busy.(5pm)---so we still don't manage to actually set anything up.

He never called back and I'm certainly not going to chase down this guy for a measley $7 for something he can't even remember he wants. What image did he want? Jesus. He needs Jesus alright. He needs to not look for him at the bottom of a bottle.

Ebay sucks. Ebay sucks when you are trying to clean out your house of unwanted stuff and the things you have are present in a great quantity that they don't move well. I've been trying to get rid of these very well kept vintage hats and gloves that I'm not using for costuming anymore, so after one try if them not selling, I gave it some time and posted them again. I had not one but TWO people, buying things for halloween less than a week before the holiday. And keep in mind the listings are up for a designated amount of days, so the soonest anyone could pay was sunday.
I have on the pages that I ship after I receive payment (because sometimes people don't pay) and that items ship within 1-2 business days of receipt of payment. I also say that I notify customers when I ship packages, via email.

So the hat customer, after being the only bid on a $6 vintage hat which should have gone for far more, asks me monday to let her know when I'm shipping. Seems a little impatient, as that was already covered, but I said i would- and that I would be shipping it the next day. Today, I go to the post office. I mail said hat. I come home to another message saying she wants the hat for halloween and let her know when it has shipped.

Note my expression at this point. it's not hard to imagine.

I was nice, and sent her a nice note explaining that the hat had shipped, but I was unaware that she was going to plan so poorly and not read the page fully, so she may not get it in time. First class mail- which is what she paid for, and honestly I didn't charge quite enough- may or may not get there in time. I apologized for the inconvenience while burning her in effigy in my mind.

The bottom line, I am tired of going out of my way for people who can't read, can't pay attention, can't think through what they are asking or doing long enough to figure out that they are being fucking annoying.

I am tired of the stupid.

A snog line comes to mind- I've love to love you but I just can't do it... I just can't do it cuz you're so fucking stupid.

I'm still nice to people. I don't go out of my way to be an asshole, if I do something wrong I apologize and I'm usually self conscious about doing something that may adversely affect others anyhow. If I know that I'm not all with it, I apologize ahead of time and do my best to not make things difficult. In other words, I have my moments, but i'm obviously trying. I can't say that for these people.

WHY THE HELL CAN'T OTHER PEOPLE DO THIS KIND OF SHIT???!

This is why I hated food service jobs so much. I got tired of having to be nice to people who kept being inconsiderate. I'm not the type to rant AT them, but I certainly have had it with people not taking a hint or getting a clue.

The outcome of this sort of thing? I withdraw and don't want to be around people. Because, rather than turn about and throw their shit back at them, I'd rather ignore the fucktards of our world all together. I just would like them to stop wasting my time. Go away. Go annoy each other. Have fun with it. get off my lawn.

this is one of those times where I need to meditate on the people who I've enjoyed being around, who don't annoy me.

Sigh.

this is why I listen to metal.