Scrapple – Triple Word Score

I used to work at Kinko’s before I got my first full-fledged web gig.  There is some crazy action that goes on at those places – of course this was before they became FedEx Kinko’s.  With a wide variety of customers, from those who never wanted to pay for copies, to the ones with expense accounts and ridiculous requests, it actually wasn’t that bad of a place to work.

My favorite thing about working at Kinko’s back then was that as a company policy, they gave the employee the power to make crucial decisions regarding a customer’s job (read: how much the final price may or may not be).  Sure there were standards for everything, but if you wanted to make someone’s day, or try to help someone solve a problem you could give them all the help they needed and not charge them a dime when all was said and done.

I exercised this right one evening when a customer came in unhappy with work we had done for him regarding postcards.  His secretary had approved work we did (I was Assistant Manager of Technology – fancy title for schmuck in charge of the self serve computers) via fax, per their request, and when the order came out not to his satisfaction I sprung into action to help him with the situation.

I immediately understood the problem: this guy was a scamming ass hole.  He had orchestrated the entire deal to fail.  How do I know this?  Because I am not a complete retard, that’s how.  Everything from his demeanor to his half-assed explanations and expectations that I would bend over backwards for him, told me so.  I don’t mind giving top shelf customer service is if it is deserved – and as it turned out Goober here was not deserving of my discount loving.

Long story short: I wouldn’t budge on price and was backing up my fellow coworkers who originally had to deal with this clown.  He got completely irate and demanded to speak with our manager… that was me at the time.  He clamored on and on until he got my supervisor’s information, to which I discussed the matter with the next morning and told him to get bent.  Good times.

See how there is no point to my story?  I was thinking about a comment I left on a different blog about Scrapple and Denny’s, when I decided to look up Denny’s in Wikipedia.  Reading their diatribe about the American Institution reminded me of one of my old temporary coworkers who also worked for Denny’s part-time.  She would flirt with male customers and try to get them to visit her at Denny’s later when she was working – promoting some kind of Prime Rib special they had going on.  This tactic completely turned me off of Denny’s and Prime Rib.

Regardless I thought of it and decided to share it all with you.  Convenient huh?  By the way, when I quit working for Kinko’s I had just gotten a better job as an Office Manager making more money than I was with overtime at the copy shop.  It was payday and we received our bonuses (assistant managers got performance bonuses) and I hastily wrote a letter to my boss explaining that I was quitting and wished that job upon no one.

Burnt bridges: 1 – Kinko’s: 0

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