Gps

FYI those blue hyperlinks are automatically generated when the board sees certain words in your post. It is a way for us to generate some revenue to help pay for this forum. We instituted it in June.

As for GPS. I believe GPS is worth the money if you are a business traveler or someone who often drives to unfamiliar places when going on vacation. Often times if traveling alone on business or with children on a vacation you can not safely read a map and drive at the same time, since GPS gives voice guidance, it eliminates the distraction of reading a map. Also, GPS has the distinct advantage of being able to automatically re-route you if you miss a turn. Miss a turn using a map and you are SOL until you can pull over and figure out where you are and how to get to where you need to be. Probably the best feature GPS has is the POI or points of interest. Being able to locate a ATM, hospital or restaurant is really handy, and it is something most maps won't do.

Will I ever have a GPS? Probably not. For one, I can think of better ways to spend my money. For two, I have an impeccable sense of direction and a photographic memory. Last year I made a 700 mile trip that required me to drive on 4 different interstates plus make 20 some different exits. I looked at my mapquest directions for 10 minutes before I left the house and didn't have to look at them again. I arrived at my destination with no deviation from the mapquest directions. On the way back I didn't have mapquest directions, but I knew I needed to to northeast to get back home, so without directions and without a map, but with my car's compass, I managed to get home going a different route than the one I took to get to my destination.

If I do end up traveling for business at some point, I might change my mind, but for now, I'll stick to my sense of direction and mapquest.

I was in a fast food restaurant the other day and ordered something that was $2.09. On the counter I placed two dollar bills, a dime and four pennies. The lady slid the pennies back to me and said that I gave her too much. I slid them back and asked her to give me a nickel back in change...

Some folks...

And then you have difficult customers like one I had last week.

She brought in 3 items to exchange, which cost $37.94.

She went and got other items totaling more than $150 dollars. When I credited her account for the items she was exchanging, the total bill was well over a hundred dollars. She immediately said in a rather unkind voice that I had made a mistake and stated that her exchange items were at least $50.00, so there was no way that the bill could be over a hundred dollars.

I'm a mechanical engineering major with an outstanding GPA, I've passed Calc I, II and III with flying colors, as well as Statistics, Discrete Mathematics and Differential Equations. I never use the register to tell me what change to give back and I've never had my drawer ring up over or under by one red cent. By my math, her credit should have been $37.94. She disagreed, continuing to insist that she should have a $50 credit.

I wasn't in the mood to put up with this woman. I politely informed her that she was incorrect and that her bill was indeed over one hundred dollars. She still would not believe me, so I pulled out a calculator and did the math for her. Even after that she was rather nasty with me, insisting that since I was screwing her on her return that I give her a 15% discount. Even though that is against the rules since technically the exchange made it a past purchase, I did it. She paid and left the store.

Not two minutes later she came back in saying that I had made a mistake on her order. She said that I charged her too much for an item. I said "show me". She promptly pulled out the receipt and showed me where I had charged her $17.99 for an item that was supposed to be $13.99. Directly under where it said $17.99 it said DISCOUNT $6.10. I said to her, ma'am, I charged you $13.99 for the item and gave you a 15% discount. She informed me that I was wrong in that same nasty voice that she had used earlier. I was not going to argue with her. I took the receipt to the manager, who looked at it and said I had indeed given her the correct price and discount. I went back and explained to her that there was nothing wrong with her order. She then informed me that the $11.89 she was charged for the item was not 15% off of $13.99, but 15% off of $17.99.

Of course, it isn't, $11.89 is 15% off of $13.99. The reason the price said $17.99 on the receipt with a discount of $6.10 was because our receipts always print the original price of the item before it was adjusted and then list price adjustments as discounts, any other discount you give on the item is based on the adjusted price, but the register combines the discounts so we don't have to print really long receipts. Lets do some math here. $17.99 minus the $4.00 it takes to adjust the price to $13.99 plus 15% of $13.99 or $2.10 is $6.10, $17.99-$6.10 is $11.89, which is exactly the price I charged her for the item.

When I presented this to her, it was obvious that she didn't understand what I was saying. When I offered to get the manager to explain it to her she again got nasty with me. So you know what I did, I said, "fine ma'am, I'll give it to you for $13.99, but if I have to redo this entire transaction, I'm not giving you any discount whatsoever."

At that point she turned around and walked out.

I have never been more glad to see a customer walk out the door. That woman was stupid, rude and wasted not only my time, but every other customer in the stores time. Had I made a mistake, I would have gladly corrected it. I'm a good employee and consistently get high marks on customer service. I have never lost it with a customer before, and a customer has to push me pretty hard to make me even start to lose my patience with them, but I was about to with this one.

Moral of the story: Don't think just because someone works retail that they like being treated like snip. Treating the person behind the counter with some civility and respect goes a long way. If you treat us kindly, we will go out of our way to help you. If you treat us like this woman did, you WILL NOT get good treatment.

BTW, in the story I listed above, I did not treat the woman badly or mock her in any way (well, at least not to her face). I have been the store clerk behind the counter (gas station clerk all through college).

I wasn't implying that you were mean to the woman. I was simply stating for those who have never worked in retail that it isn't an easy job, especially if you have difficult and rude customers.

Since you've worked retail, I assume you can attest to the fact that pleasant customers are treated better than mean ones.