Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

As someone that has been in Technical Support with a bit of customer service mixed into his career, I'm normally not a complainer. I tend to chalk up bad service to inexperience or fatigue or something similar, which is where most poor service starts. I also know when a line is crossed someone higher up has to be informed of the happenings. I know what it's like to get pasted by a boss that just got pasted by a VP at a customer company. That has stayed with me. However, now, as a manager, I want to know when my employees are screwing up so that I can correct it before I get pasted by the VP of some customer company.

I've been running into situations lately that seem borderline to me and I was wondering if I took the right line. Answer one or all of them, but if you split your answers and complain about some and don't complain about others, would you mind giving a reason?

1. While waiting for the gas attendant to mosey over to fill my tank, I notice that he's smoking while filling the SUV in front of me.

2. In line at the grocery store the cashier was either really bad at using the scanner for certain items, or the scanner was malfunctioning. She would flash the bar code to the scanner five times. Only after five failures and a grimace would she key in the item code manually.

3. At the Atlanta airport, an Oriental woman with little to no English skills is having a hard-time understanding a TSA security guard instructing to remove her sweater vest. The person between her and I finally makes her understand by taking his hoodie off. As she passes through the metal detector and hoodie guy is ready to go, the security guard says "Stupid mother-[censored] dyke chink, learn English" loudly enough so that at least three of us and one other guard hear this very clearly.

4. In an extremely busy bar, two guys to my right are incorrectly given full Guiness drafts when they asked for Black & Tans. The bartender throws them down on the glasses shelf and 10-15 minutes later, while waiting on the servers, sends those two drafts out with a waitress to the restaurant.


There are plenty of others that come up in day to day situations, and they happen to everyone. I'm just wondering how people would normally react. Other borderline situations are welcome, I find my on the spot rationale in these situation varies greatly.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

1. "Would you mind putting that cigarette out before you fill up my tank?"
2. Ask for a receipt.
3. Ignore, unless you are "Oriental" (lol) like me. I would say "don't make me pull a VATech on your ass"
4. if the bartender looks busy/stressed I wouldn't bother.

P.S. You suck at life if these are borderline.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

1. Is this actually dangerous? If so I complain. If not I don't

2. What is she supposed to do here? No complaint, but I might switch lines

3. If he had said something like, "wow I hate it when people can't understand English" I don't care at all. But those words are way over the line.

4. This is not a big deal at all, assuming they didn't taste the beers.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

Kot,

I think life is too short to wig out about any of the ones you put forth. However, I'm always amazed by hourly employees like the security guard who go home at the same time no matter what actually wigging out about something like that. It's not like she was keeping him from doing something else.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
1. Is this actually dangerous?

[/ QUOTE ]

He's smoking three feet away from a hose full of flammable liquid, which hooks up to an underground tank with thousands of gallons of it. I would say that's fairly dangerous, even with the hose and tank containing everything.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

1. Definitely complain. wtf kind of retard does that?

2. This one is kind of meh. There's a level of expectation when dealing with people working minimum wage jobs.

3. This is a huge one. I would go right to the supervisor without question. And I don't think I'm being nitty. This is unacceptable behaviour.

4. Meh.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

I would say one and three are definite complaining situations, and two is definitely not a complaining situation. I don't think four is a complaining situation either, especially given that it's a busy bar and the Guinness was going to move soon anyway.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
1. Is this actually dangerous?

[/ QUOTE ]

He's smoking three feet away from a hose full of flammable liquid, which hooks up to an underground tank with thousands of gallons of it. I would say that's fairly dangerous, even with the hose and tank containing everything.

[/ QUOTE ]

But that's the thing... can you actually ignite the gas even if you tried? I'm almost positive it wouldn't shoot up the hose and into the tank.

I mean, I guess it's not the smartest thing to do just in case. But it seems like it's really not a big deal.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

3. I mostly laughed because he threw dyke in the mix. In reality, I've always just been passive when confronted with this sort of racism. I used to hear it all the time at an old job of mine (factory across from the projects). I'd always just keep my mouth shut. The only way I'd say anything to this guy is if he addressed me. i.e., "Can you believe this chink?" "Ya dude, what a dyke."

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

Those would all have me saying something if I was in charge of those people or something, but as just an innocent bystander, im just ignoring it, cuz its not worth the drama.

All except number 3 however tho. The other 3 are just people doing [censored] work at their jobs, thsi guy however is just a [censored] person and Id have let him know personally how ignorant I thought he was, then I would have demanded to speak to his supervisor, then depending on how that went I may or may not have written a letter to TSA with the guys name and what happened. I realize the writing a letter is a bit extreme, but if I felt like the supervisor or whoever didnt give a [censored], then im doing it cuz I cant [censored] stand racists and it would make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to get the Ahole [censored] canned.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

yeah see I'd just be more concerned about finally getting to relax a few minutes before getting on the plane. It's noble what you're saying and all, but right when deciding to do something about it I'd realize that talking to his boss and filing a complaint and all that crap is going to take forever.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

1. Full-serve? What? I don't say anything here, anyway.

2. Standard.

3. I think I make sure I get the person's name and write a letter to complain because I don't need the extra aggravation while I'm traveling.

4. No draft beers for me at this bar, but I wouldn't complain.

All retail sucks, I buy as much as I can online. General stupidity/bad service is pretty much the rule these days, so unless it's completely ridiculous I don't complain. If I continued to let myself get worked up over this stuff like I used to I wouldn't make it to 40 so now I take a deep breath and ignore it.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
1. Is this actually dangerous?

[/ QUOTE ]

He's smoking three feet away from a hose full of flammable liquid, which hooks up to an underground tank with thousands of gallons of it. I would say that's fairly dangerous, even with the hose and tank containing everything.

[/ QUOTE ]

But that's the thing... can you actually ignite the gas even if you tried?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure--there are plenty of cases of gasoline getting lit with just static electricity.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I would say one and three are definite complaining situations, and two is definitely not a complaining situation. I don't think four is a complaining situation either, especially given that it's a busy bar and the Guinness was going to move soon anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the way you complain about situations like this is by taking your business elsewhere next time.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

i would

1) say something b/c that's dangerous
2) grin and bear it
3) wouldn't necessarily say anything to him (depends on my mood) but i'd find a supervisor/contact someone
4) eh whatever

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
As she passes through the metal detector and hoodie guy is ready to go, the security guard says "Stupid mother-[censored] dyke chink, learn English" loudly enough so that at least three of us and one other guard hear this very clearly.


[/ QUOTE ]

This person should not have a job anymore.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

4) Properly poured Guinness should sit and rest after a pour. Perhaps this was a bit long but certainly no big deal.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

1. Def say something to employee and to manager. Cuz I don't want to explode.

2. No, no one cares

3. Wouldn't say anything, but would silently judge guard.

4. Nope

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

Since even fumes can ignite, I'd be worried about the guy at the gas station smoking. You don't even have to be lit afire, a chunk of shrapnel in the kidney will do just fine.

The racist guy sounds like a turd. I think this is something most people would not take any personal responsibility for unless their family member was a member of that race(married across racial lines, whatever). I don't think that's right, though. But I've shined on things like this myself before.

Bar code scanners fail all the time. Often the bar code label is smeared or a little faint, or the reader isn't sensitive enough. I wouldn't blame the cashier. What DOES bug me is that cashiers love to roll my sparkling beverages of choice down the ramp, instead of picking them up and placing them by the bagging area, so whatever I wanted to drink explodes in my face when I go home and open it. Thanks a lot.

Bar thing, a bummer but like I say, I usually go elsewhere unless there is a real health or cleanliness issue. Last week I went to a salad bar and there was so much oil on every single set of tongs and spoons that my hands were absolutely filthy with oil before I got 1/4 of the way through the line. And they just kept getting more disgusting. It was seriously repulsive. I saw the manager next to the cashier and mentioned it, and I could tell it would go nowhere just from the look in her eye. Then she confirmed it by saying they change that stuff every 3 hours. I told her it was filthy and pretty unappetizing, and that a much better idea was to clean things when they got dirty. She nodded reassuringly and immediately forgot about it.

I bumped into another manager and told him I liked the place, but I feel uncomfortable eating in a place that is not only very dirty, but doesn't care. I told him that every other customer is going to get oily, dirty hands coming through the line, so it's not just all about me, but probably something he should think about. And that three hours is a long time for a restaurant to be filthy. He handled it the way he should have; by checking out the tongs/ladles etc. and having the dirty ones changed. That was much more professional that the "who gives a crap about being clean in a restaurant, even when your customers point it out?" attitude of the other manager. I thanked him for his courtesy and professionalism.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

1 is no big deal and not even very dangerous. Worst case some of the fumes catch fire and he has to hit the emergency shut off (this is actually extremely unlikely). Only time bad [censored] happens here is if the guy panics and pulls the gas nozzel out of the car's gas tank. Then he just ends up roasting himself. Car isn't going to blow up. No way the flame gets anwhere near the underground tank. Just chill and let the guy kill himself slowly.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

None of these situations got me worked up, and I don't get worked up when I complain. Like I said in the OP, I don't normally complain about anything unless it's bad.


My lines


[ QUOTE ]
1. While waiting for the gas attendant to mosey over to fill my tank, I notice that he's smoking while filling the SUV in front of me.

[/ QUOTE ]

This one probably merited saying something to the store manager, but I didn't complain, I just drove away. I didn't have the time to waste complaining about it. But jeebus holy is that unsafe! I'm pretty sure that heavy fumes would go up in flames to an open cigarette! I know I've seen fumes go up because of static discharge.


[ QUOTE ]
2. In line at the grocery store the cashier was either really bad at using the scanner for certain items, or the scanner was malfunctioning. She would flash the bar code to the scanner five times. Only after five failures and a grimace would she key in the item code manually.

[/ QUOTE ]

Changing lines wasn't an option because there were only two cashiers, and one had their cashier light blinking. I didn't say anything, I was pretty engrossed in the Weekly World News, but she was life-tilting the rest of the store.

[ QUOTE ]
3. At the Atlanta airport, an Oriental woman with little to no English skills is having a hard-time understanding a TSA security guard instructing to remove her sweater vest. The person between her and I finally makes her understand by taking his hoodie off. As she passes through the metal detector and hoodie guy is ready to go, the security guard says "Stupid mother-[censored] dyke chink, learn English" loudly enough so that at least three of us and one other guard hear this very clearly.

[/ QUOTE ]

I feel badly that I didn't say anything or request a supervisor, but I didn't want to end up getting a cavity search and miss my flight. That was my rationale "TSA is full of [censored], I don't want to end up in jail" I suck. It's ridiculous that a guy like this has a job, let alone one in which he interacts with thousands of people a day.

[ QUOTE ]
4. In an extremely busy bar, two guys to my right are incorrectly given full Guiness drafts when they asked for Black & Tans. The bartender throws them down on the glasses shelf and 10-15 minutes later, while waiting on the servers, sends those two drafts out with a waitress to the restaurant.

[/ QUOTE ]

Being an ex-bartender, this is the one I complained about. That's just nasty to let a drink sit out and collect who knows what in it for 10-15 minutes before serving it. I don't care that there was nothing wrong with it, but with the amount of flies, gnats, smoke, liquids, hair and sweat behind a busy bar - SOMETHING was floating in that beer after 15 minutes. I complained to the manager, the bartender denied it, the guys on my right confirmed it and we all got a free round out of it -- no idea if the people that the drafts went to actually got anything out of it.


All of these except for the TSA thing happened in Alabama which is prone to fascinatingly slow service to begin with, so I wasn't really expecting much.


Paul B: Oriental is the play here ever since Big Lebowski. I used to try to guess the actual country of origin, but that pissed people off. I'm a geography nit, so I refuse to use "Asian" to describe anyone because friggin Russians and Indians are as Asian as Koreans. Oriental it is. Also, I may suck at life, but not for calling these borderline, judging by the thread, there are plenty of others that see a blurred line here.

LFS: Yes, Full Service. I know it's different in different states (I'm looking at you New Jersey and your ban on self-serve gas), but some states have the option of pumping your own gas and letting the attendant do it. I was on the phone, so I went full serve.

LFS, Tuq: None of them wig me out or get me worked up. The only thing that rages me up is NHL refereeing. Well and now OOTers that call hot chicks "weird" or "embarrassing". Alright, well, the guy calling nice oriental ladies "Dyke chinks" pissed me off.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]


3. Wouldn't say anything, but would silently judge guard.


[/ QUOTE ]

You get http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/9...raward1gy2.jpg

for the laugh.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

I'm imagining a news report about a gas station exploding because a guy was smoking while filling a tank. See, I have to imagine it because it never happened.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm imagining a news report about a gas station exploding because a guy was smoking while filling a tank. See, I have to imagine it because it never happened.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're really not worried about that--you're worried about the meathead lighting the gas and then pulling it out. He'll incinerate himself, but worse, flaming gas is going all over your car. It'll be a total write-off.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]

As someone that has been in Technical Support with a bit of customer service mixed into his career, I'm normally not a complainer. I tend to chalk up bad service to inexperience or fatigue or something similar, which is where most poor service starts. I also know when a line is crossed someone higher up has to be informed of the happenings. I know what it's like to get pasted by a boss that just got pasted by a VP at a customer company. That has stayed with me. However, now, as a manager, I want to know when my employees are screwing up so that I can correct it before I get pasted by the VP of some customer company.

I've been running into situations lately that seem borderline to me and I was wondering if I took the right line. Answer one or all of them, but if you split your answers and complain about some and don't complain about others, would you mind giving a reason?

1. While waiting for the gas attendant to mosey over to fill my tank, I notice that he's smoking while filling the SUV in front of me.

2. In line at the grocery store the cashier was either really bad at using the scanner for certain items, or the scanner was malfunctioning. She would flash the bar code to the scanner five times. Only after five failures and a grimace would she key in the item code manually.

3. At the Atlanta airport, an Oriental woman with little to no English skills is having a hard-time understanding a TSA security guard instructing to remove her sweater vest. The person between her and I finally makes her understand by taking his hoodie off. As she passes through the metal detector and hoodie guy is ready to go, the security guard says "Stupid mother-[censored] dyke chink, learn English" loudly enough so that at least three of us and one other guard hear this very clearly.

4. In an extremely busy bar, two guys to my right are incorrectly given full Guiness drafts when they asked for Black & Tans. The bartender throws them down on the glasses shelf and 10-15 minutes later, while waiting on the servers, sends those two drafts out with a waitress to the restaurant.


There are plenty of others that come up in day to day situations, and they happen to everyone. I'm just wondering how people would normally react. Other borderline situations are welcome, I find my on the spot rationale in these situation varies greatly.

[/ QUOTE ]

1. I definitely complain. This is a major safety hazard.
2. I don't complain. This is a minor inconvenience.
3. I definitely complain.
4. I don't complain.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

I had one of these on Monday: do i say something to this guy?

Scene: my work, typical cubical environment.

I finish pissing at the urinal and walk to the sink. As I begin to wash my hands an old guy walks out of one of the stalls. The toilet flushes as he walks out because theses toilets are on automatic flush. He briefly wets his hands at the sink (no soap) and walks out. I couldn't be 100% sure he took a dump; maybe he was pissing in the stall or blowing his nose.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

I dont complain in any of these situations.


1. I probably wouldnt even notice, if i did, Id make a joke about it so the guy gets the point.

2. no, this is pretty nitty, if I was in a hurry Id say "hey lady, I install these things for a living, they suck, just key them all in...friggen computers" she would laugh, Id get out of there faster

3. Id verbally abuse this douche in front of everyone "that is my adopted mom you douche bag, why dont you keep your mouth shut around people from now on, or do you want me to see if your supervisor thinks that is okay you [censored]"

4. nah, wouldnt say anything, guiness is good warm

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

I'm too busy enjoying life to notice all but the 3rd. In that case I'd probably make eye contact and just shake my head or something b/c that's super retarded negativity.

Yugoslav

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm imagining a news report about a gas station exploding because a guy was smoking while filling a tank. See, I have to imagine it because it never happened.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're really not worried about that--you're worried about the meathead lighting the gas and then pulling it out. He'll incinerate himself, but worse, flaming gas is going all over your car. It'll be a total write-off.

[/ QUOTE ]


I just really think this is a very very over emphasized hazard.

also, who is that in your avatar?

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm imagining a news report about a gas station exploding because a guy was smoking while filling a tank. See, I have to imagine it because it never happened.

[/ QUOTE ]


They can ignite, why can't a cigarette be the ignitor?

Ferrari burns

Man burns from static electricty.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm imagining a news report about a gas station exploding because a guy was smoking while filling a tank. See, I have to imagine it because it never happened.

[/ QUOTE ]


They can ignite, why can't a cigarette be the ignitor?

Ferrari burns

Man burns from static electricty.

[/ QUOTE ]

He was referring to the underground tanks. It's not impossible that they ignite, but it's highly unlikely.

Just as it's highly unlikely that static electricity ignites gas fumes. It is possible and does happen from time to time, but there's something like a 3% range of ideal conditions for it to happen, which is why the whole cell phones lighting gas on fire is BS.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

In borderline situations, you should do something at random.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]

Just as it's highly unlikely that static electricity ignites gas fumes. It is possible and does happen from time to time,

[/ QUOTE ]

So you should smoke.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

aren't TSA government employees? I expect way more than ignorant racist blathering from someone representing my country.

also, my industrial hygienist nit self has to point out that gasoline fumes will never ignite...mainly because there are no such things as "gasoline fumes". gasoline vapors will ignite, however.
for the gas thing, the lower explosion limit for gasoline is about 1 percent by volume, while the upper explosion limit is about 8 percent. I doubt you'd reach the LEL in the air around your car if you're just filling it normally, but if there's a spill (hose pulls out or something) it'll probably go up pretty quickly.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I had one of these on Monday: do i say something to this guy?

Scene: my work, typical cubical environment.

I finish pissing at the urinal and walk to the sink. As I begin to wash my hands an old guy walks out of one of the stalls. The toilet flushes as he walks out because theses toilets are on automatic flush. He briefly wets his hands at the sink (no soap) and walks out. I couldn't be 100% sure he took a dump; maybe he was pissing in the stall or blowing his nose.

[/ QUOTE ]

If your not working with food, why is this your problem?

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
In borderline situations, you should do something at random.

[/ QUOTE ]

lololol

oh man that is really really funny esp. considering i just finished reading a bunch of gt texts

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

1. Is this really that dangerous? If he's friendly I would probably make some friendly comment asking if that's a good idea. If not, I wouldnt bother.

2., 4. whatev

3. The eye contact and head shake is good. Or some short comment letting him know you dont approve. If it was someone I knew I would say "n1gga plz", but that doesnt seem like the best choice here.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
aren't TSA government employees? I expect way more than ignorant racist blathering from someone representing my country.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't. TSA employees aren't special. They're like cops without guns, so why would they have better behavior patterns?

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
aren't TSA government employees? I expect way more than ignorant racist blathering from someone representing my country.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't. TSA employees aren't special. They're like cops without guns, so why would they have better behavior patterns?

[/ QUOTE ]

Many years ago when I worked at Casa Gallardo Grill in St. Louis one of the bus-girls quit. Like three weeks later I saw her screening bags at Lambert. I'd like to think that hiring standards have changed, but I highly doubt it.

Re: Complain or ignore it? Borderline situations.
 

[ QUOTE ]

also, my industrial hygienist nit self has to point out that gasoline fumes will never ignite...mainly because there are no such things as "gasoline fumes". gasoline vapors will ignite, however.

[/ QUOTE ]

Isn't vapor just a type of fume?