Not much to explain, really. Useful, intuitive design. Wonderfully executed.

Make sure to download/printout the infraction forms and keep them in your glovebox for violators.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: anti, Cool Website, Etiquette, idiots

I stopped in at the drugstore (S.A.) in order to score (purchase) some non-prescription uppers (Jolt Cherry Bomb Cola) and in the middle of negotiations (while standing in line at the checkout) some strange cat (dude) bursts in the door, and in a casually-cruel tone directed at the two ladies behind the counter says, "Your fucking gas pumps don't work for shit, so I'm taking my business someplace else."

His attitude was so leisurely about the whole thing, and the women's reaction to it was so mild, I thought they must know him from somewhere. I laughed, and so did both ladies behind the counter and the two other people in line. Then the guy turned and stormed out. I turned to the person behind the counter and she just shook her head. I still couldn't tell exactly what had just happened. Maybe he was a mentally disturbed person making his daily circuit? Perhaps it was a coworker, trying to be funny? An out-of-work Improv actor who, at any moment, would come bursting back in with another strange persona?

"Was that guy serious?" I asked, still smiling.

"Afraid so," was the reply.

My smile faded. Strange how she wasn't surprised at all. "How, um, how often does *that* happen?"

"Every day."

"Yeah," the other lady chimed in, "at *least* once a day."

I suddenly felt the way I imagine Neo felt swallowing the red pill and having the veil of falseness ripped out from between himself and the rest of the world. Except maybe divide that by a couple million, but still... At least once per day, some dickhead takes out their aggression on the people behind the counter? AT LEAST ONCE PER DAY? Wow. This is what I'm talking about when I use the term Americans as a derogatory adjective.

If you have bad service, or receive bad product, or have a bad experience at a business, here are some things you can do that Don't entail wrecking the day of someone right out of High School who works for minimum wage and has to deal with dickheads like You all day...

1- Write a letter. Leave a letter for the manager, and let them know what a bad experience you had. This assumes you know how to write, you dickhead.

2- Send an e-mail. This assumes you have access to a computer, or at least a friend who has access to a computer. If you weren't such a dickhead, you might actually have some friends who would help you with this.

3- Ask to see the manager, and ask him/her what he/she is going to do about this problem. This is a huge pain in the ass, I know. But, the manager is the only one who gets paid to give a crap about making complaining dickheads like you happy. The manager is also the only one who might give a crap and do something about your complaint. Otherwise you are wasting your breath. The people behind the counter just laugh at you. The ones who aren't dickheads themselves will wait until after you are gone to laugh at you.

4- Don't Patronize That Place of Business. This one is the easiest, and even a dickhead like you should be able to pull this one off.

5- Don't Patronize That Place of Business and Tell Everyone You Know Not To Patronize It Either. I was recently at the CC Club and watched some positively Horrendous service in action from two separate bartenders. I know of some people (non-dickheads, in case you were wondering) who are going to #5 that place big time.

6 - Realize That There Are Other Dickheads In The World Besides Yourself, And Some Of Them Work In The Customer Service Industry. And you might just hold back judgement of an entire business based on your experience with one person. Just like everyone else should hold back judgement of your family based on their experience with a dickhead like you.

Every fucking day. Wow.

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: americans, anti, Business Phenomena, Etiquette

OK, so today I learned a valuable lesson, which I thought I would pass along to you at no cost other than your time spent reading about it. Today, I received yet-another-message-designed-to-spread-fear-insecurity-and-paranoia. (This one involved a woman filling her car at a gas station, and an assailant who jumped in the backseat, etc...) I checked it out at snopes.com and discovered what I already knew, that this e-mail is as old as e-mail itself, and maybe (just maybe) based on a half-truth.

I hit Reply, and told this person (My Tae Kwon Do Instructor) that the e-mail was junk, and he shouldn't pass things along of this nature without checking them out, further, that it was better not to pass them along at all. Perhaps a touch cold, but certainly how I felt. I decided that he could send a retraction to Tae Kwon Do School if he thought it was necessary.

I was surprised when immediately after sending my reply, it returned to my own mailbox! On closer inspection, I realized when I hit Reply, the message went the the Entire Group at Yahoo.com!!!! All the students, All the other instructors. (Oh boy.)

Needless to say, I am still in shock, (just realized this ten minutes ago...) But the lesson I learned is this. In E-mail, when leaving phone messages, when writing letters, etc. Realize your communication could be repeated, forwarded, posted, blogged, recorded and shown on COPS, etc, so don't say something through other mediums that you wouldn't say to the person, um..., in person.

...and double check the address before you press Send...

Blog on,
-C

Labels: A Day In The Life, Etiquette, idiots

This blog post is intended for all e-mailers prone to sending e-mails containing confidential information; the rest of you can ignore this:

I recently received an e-mail with this thoughtful disclaimer/signature at the end…

“The information contained in this message is privileged and confidential information intended only for the use of the individual or entity named. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby on notice that you are in possession of confidential and privileged information. Any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. You will immediately notify the sender of your inadvertent receipt and return the original message to the sender.”

This may come as a surprise to some people, but if you are sending “privileged and confidential” information via e-mail, then you are an IDIOT! Unless you have some kind of signed agreement with the recipient, any e-mail you send becomes the property of the recipient just as fast as you can push the Send button, and they can do whatever they like with it. If they want to post it on a website, if they want to forward it to all of your friends to make you look like a fool, or if they want to pay Janet Jackson to tattoo it on her breast and then whip it out on national television, then expect it to happen, and no cowardly-half-hearted-attempt-at-ass-covering-pseudo-disclaimer is likely stop it.

With this knowledge, we can now reinterpret the disclaimer to read:

“I am an idiot who truly does not understand that e-mail is an incredibly insecure format that flows through the hands of many, many people, each of whom could quite easily read my communications and use them to get me fired, arrested, or (at the very least) publicly humiliated. I am hoping that you are as stupid as I am, and that this ‘disclaimer’ will trick you into believing that you have no right to ‘disseminate, distribute, or copy’ this e-mail.”

Please send “privileged and confidential” information by registered mail, or perhaps via encrypted/encoded e-mail, and take any ridiculous disclaimers like this off of your e-mail signatures. Honestly! Next, I suppose you will want me to sign a waiver before speaking with you at the water cooler…

-CZ

Labels: Etiquette, Open Letter