Special Snowflake Stories

[RingTailedLemur]

Yes, I had a friend get very upset with me when I wouldn't serve her alcohol at the pub I worked in.  I was over 18 and she was a few months short of being 18.

Serving her alcohol would have been illegal, and could result in the place being shut down and all sorts.

[LadyClaire]

I just got a part-time seasonal job at a big department store. We get a pretty good discount when you factor in that it stacks with coupons and sale prices (one of the women working there said she ended up paying $36 for a $200 sweater). Suddenly everyone I know is asking if they can use my discount. First, it's against policy..only my husband is eligible to receive my discount, and they do keep an eye on the registers to make sure you're not misusing it. Second thing is, you get the discount by using a store credit card that they give you. So in order for someone else to use my discount, I'd have to hand over my credit card to them, or buy the item myself and have them pay me back. Which I am not going to do, because again..credit card. I'm not racking up debt just so people can save some extra money, especially since I wouldn't trust some of the ones who are asking to actually pay me back. One even said "Oh, it's a credit card? So you could buy it for me and I could just pay you back at the end of the billing cycle!"

Another person asked if I could give a discount by marking the item as damaged (those get an extra 10% off) even if it's not. Um..no. Stop asking! If you want a discount, get a job at the store yourself.

Ugh, I hate that!  I lost a so-called "friendship" over it when I refused to let them use my discount.  It turned into a huge fight (not on store grounds, luckily), and I asked, "Is my worth to you measured by what you can get out of me?"  The response was, "You're so selfish!"  Yeah, I guess I am!  Such as it was, I wanted to keep my job.

I also had a customer report me to a manager for rudeness by giving her a flat-out "no" when she asked for the same.  She didn't like "blunt refusals", according to her.  She didn't get her discount. 

My husband also gets it. He works as an optician, and gets a hefty discount on glasses. His mother is awful about saying "Oh, you should go to XYZ Optical Place..my son can give you a big discount on glasses!"

The only way he can share his discount is by using one of the few coupons they give employees for that purpose. He gets only 6 of those per year, and people are constantly asking him for them so they tend to be spoken for before he even gets a new booklet of them.

[gramma dishes]

...   My husband also gets it. He works as an optician, and gets a hefty discount on glasses. His mother is awful about saying "Oh, you should go to XYZ Optical Place..my son can give you a big discount on glasses!" ...

Can't he just ask (tell) his Mom to stop doing that?

[LadyClaire]

...   My husband also gets it. He works as an optician, and gets a hefty discount on glasses. His mother is awful about saying "Oh, you should go to XYZ Optical Place..my son can give you a big discount on glasses!" ...

Can't he just ask (tell) his Mom to stop doing that?

He has told her several times to stop. Unfortunately telling her to stop doing something is like telling the wind to stop blowing. She'll just keep doing it anyways.

[gramma dishes]

...   My husband also gets it. He works as an optician, and gets a hefty discount on glasses. His mother is awful about saying "Oh, you should go to XYZ Optical Place..my son can give you a big discount on glasses!" ...

Can't he just ask (tell) his Mom to stop doing that?

He has told her several times to stop. Unfortunately telling her to stop doing something is like telling the wind to stop blowing. She'll just keep doing it anyways.

How about turning it back on her?  Like "Mom, you know when you promise your friends I can get them big discounts on their glasses, it really makes YOU look bad when it turns out that I really can't do that!  Having to tell them that that just won't be possible is kind of embarrassing even for me.  I can't imagine how embarrassing it must be for you!"

[MissRose]

I am glad I had no issues with people using discounts when I worked at a mall's Golden Arches years ago.  Some people would be in their store uniforms, other places that didn't have them, people had to wear a badge or name tag showing the place they worked at.  I know the discount wasn't significant but still the 5 or 6 food court places in the mall did that out of good will.  If we recognized a regular who was not in a uniform or did not have their badge/tag, we could still give the discount.  I never had random people ask for it thankfully.

[MindsEye]

...   My husband also gets it. He works as an optician, and gets a hefty discount on glasses. His mother is awful about saying "Oh, you should go to XYZ Optical Place..my son can give you a big discount on glasses!" ...

Can't he just ask (tell) his Mom to stop doing that?

He has told her several times to stop. Unfortunately telling her to stop doing something is like telling the wind to stop blowing. She'll just keep doing it anyways.

I could almost swear (other than the little details of gender and profession of the annoyed person) that your MIL is my aunt.

My cousin works at a boutique that offers a very generous (and strictly regulated) discount to employees.  My aunt did the same thing as your MIL - telling all and sundry to "go to X Boutique!  My daughter works there and will give you a huge discount!"  Everything my cousin said to her went in one ear and straight out the other. 

The only thing that finally got my aunt to quit it was when my cousin started telling everyone who would come in looking for her to give a discount because her mom/my aunt had promised one - "That's simply not true.  I cannot give out discounts like that and my Mom knows it.  I have no idea why she lied to you about this."

Of course, my cousin was pretty fed up by the time she got to this point, and had no problems with causing her mom lots of public embarrassment.  (YMMV!) 

It worked to the point that my aunt has selectively edited history and now hotly denies that she ever did any of this!

[siamesecat2965]

UGH. The dreaded employee discount. I work, and ahve worked, in a women's store PT for the last 7 years. Thankfully, that issue hasn't ever come up for me.  Technially we are not supposed to use our discount for anyone but ourselves, and gifts. However, in my store, they don't really mind if we use it mom's, daughters, sisters, and family. As long as its not abused, its ok.

I do remember one year, about 20 years ago, working for the holidays in a large, well-known dept. store. I was working in the fashion jewelry dept, and a customer came in, someone who I didn't know, but recognized as we sometimes took the same bus into NYC. But I didn't know her name or anything.  She actualy had the nerve to ask me if I could buy something with my discount, and she'd give me the "bread" later on. I politely said sorry, I'm not allowed to do that, which i wasn't but even if I was, as I didn't know her, I wouldn't have done it!

[MerryCat]

<Quote tree trimmed>
Of course, my cousin was pretty fed up by the time she got to this point, and had no problems with causing her mom lots of public embarrassment.  (YMMV!) 

It worked to the point that my aunt has selectively edited history and now hotly denies that she ever did any of this!

I think your DH might have to do something like this with your MIL. I think that hooking people up with a "good deal" gives your MIL a certain sense of importance, while your DH has to be the bad guy and say no. There's no reason for her to stop unless there are negative consequences to her.

[snowflake]

UGH. The dreaded employee discount. I work, and ahve worked, in a women's store PT for the last 7 years. Thankfully, that issue hasn't ever come up for me.  Technially we are not supposed to use our discount for anyone but ourselves, and gifts. However, in my store, they don't really mind if we use it mom's, daughters, sisters, and family. As long as its not abused, its ok.

I do remember one year, about 20 years ago, working for the holidays in a large, well-known dept. store. I was working in the fashion jewelry dept, and a customer came in, someone who I didn't know, but recognized as we sometimes took the same bus into NYC. But I didn't know her name or anything.  She actualy had the nerve to ask me if I could buy something with my discount, and she'd give me the "bread" later on. I politely said sorry, I'm not allowed to do that, which i wasn't but even if I was, as I didn't know her, I wouldn't have done it!

Don't get me started on employee discounts!  One of my best friends works for Giant Hotel chain.  That means that she can 1) Tell people where there are deals. If a specific Hotel has too many vacancies, they will drop the prices of the rooms.  (Her job is to work on computational models that calculate prices that will maximize profit but sell out the rooms.) 2) get a fixed number of coupons per year for free stays.

So people assume that 1) She can just set any price at any hotel in any city on request and 2) Offer up unending free stays.  In fact, her sister will call her up and say, "I've just gotta get away this weekend.  Can you get me a suite at the swanky Las Vegas location for $50 a night.  Oh, and I'll need to drop of the kids too!  What do you mean there aren't rooms?  I've offered to pay!"

She finally decided one year that she was going to get it all over with and posted on Facebook: "I have X coupons for this year.  The first X people who respond will get one and after that don't ask until next year.  Her cousin started berating her for being selfish (Friend kept half of the coupons for herself.) 

Points of the rant:

How dare she keep her coupons when she had other benefits like health and dental.

If Friend had a smart phone  she could sure as heck pay for her own hotels and leave the freebies for people who couldn't afford them. 

Since Friend was offering some coupons, she had a moral obligation to pay for all friends on Facebook who wanted a free nights' stay - even if she had to pay for it out of pocket.

Friend was so rude for offering coupons that were not available on "black out" days.  And once again, if they couldn't use the coupons on the dates they wanted, friend was morally obligated to pay.

Friend's chain did not have a local hotel and the coupons were too inconvenient for her. 

Um, alrighty.  My friend responded by simply emailing her a link to the HR website and suggested that she apply.  Whenever we have GNO, said friend will always drink a little faster when mentioning whatever new rudeness she's been subjected to over her work freebees.

[Midnight Kitty]

SS Driver:  On my way home after Thanksgiving Dinner, I followed a large tour bus on a narrow 2-lane coastal road.  I was impressed that the tour bus driver was clearly familiar with the road as he never dipped below the speed limit.  I was perfectly happy following him as the speed was comfortable and the bus was pulling my little Honda down the road (great mileage!).

Then SS Driver behind me put his high beams on, which drew my attention to his weaving from one side of the lane to the other.  This entire section of road for miles is striped and signs posted "no passing."  He keeps closing in on my bumper, so I lightly tapped my brakes.  He gets a clue, turns the high beams off and backs off my bumper ... and swerves into the other lane - the one with oncoming traffic! I could see us getting hit by pieces of cars as these 2 vehicles meet head on, so I braked and let SS Driver in between me and the tour bus.  The driver of the oncoming vehicle had a terrified expression on their face, knowing how close he came to death.  SS Driver then again crosses the double center line to pass the tour bus and zooms off down the windy road.

[Shalamar]

I used to work for a dinner theatre, and my friends constantly bugged me to get them free tickets.  Um, no.  It wasn't a great job (I've posted before about getting a nasty letter from a potential customer when I didn't know every last detail about the current show), but I didn't want to lose it!  Luckily, I was able to pacify them by saying "Tell you what - when you call to book tickets, make sure you ask for me, and I'll do everything I can to get you the best seats in the house."  (They didn't need to know that I did that for every customer.)

[BarensMom]

UGH. The dreaded employee discount. I work, and ahve worked, in a women's store PT for the last 7 years. Thankfully, that issue hasn't ever come up for me.  Technially we are not supposed to use our discount for anyone but ourselves, and gifts. However, in my store, they don't really mind if we use it mom's, daughters, sisters, and family. As long as its not abused, its ok.

I do remember one year, about 20 years ago, working for the holidays in a large, well-known dept. store. I was working in the fashion jewelry dept, and a customer came in, someone who I didn't know, but recognized as we sometimes took the same bus into NYC. But I didn't know her name or anything.  She actualy had the nerve to ask me if I could buy something with my discount, and she'd give me the "bread" later on. I politely said sorry, I'm not allowed to do that, which i wasn't but even if I was, as I didn't know her, I wouldn't have done it!

Don't get me started on employee discounts!  One of my best friends works for Giant Hotel chain.  That means that she can 1) Tell people where there are deals. If a specific Hotel has too many vacancies, they will drop the prices of the rooms.  (Her job is to work on computational models that calculate prices that will maximize profit but sell out the rooms.) 2) get a fixed number of coupons per year for free stays.

So people assume that 1) She can just set any price at any hotel in any city on request and 2) Offer up unending free stays.  In fact, her sister will call her up and say, "I've just gotta get away this weekend.  Can you get me a suite at the swanky Las Vegas location for $50 a night.  Oh, and I'll need to drop of the kids too!  What do you mean there aren't rooms?  I've offered to pay!"

She finally decided one year that she was going to get it all over with and posted on Facebook: "I have X coupons for this year.  The first X people who respond will get one and after that don't ask until next year.  Her cousin started berating her for being selfish (Friend kept half of the coupons for herself.) 

Points of the rant:

How dare she keep her coupons when she had other benefits like health and dental.

If Friend had a smart phone  she could sure as heck pay for her own hotels and leave the freebies for people who couldn't afford them. 

Since Friend was offering some coupons, she had a moral obligation to pay for all friends on Facebook who wanted a free nights' stay - even if she had to pay for it out of pocket.

Friend was so rude for offering coupons that were not available on "black out" days.  And once again, if they couldn't use the coupons on the dates they wanted, friend was morally obligated to pay.

Friend's chain did not have a local hotel and the coupons were too inconvenient for her. 

Um, alrighty.  My friend responded by simply emailing her a link to the HR website and suggested that she apply.  Whenever we have GNO, said friend will always drink a little faster when mentioning whatever new rudeness she's been subjected to over her work freebees.

What does benefits and a smart phone have to do with it?

[elephantschild]

Perhaps that cousin thought those things meant Friend was ever-so-much-more-fortunate than others and that she be offering her freebies as consolation prizes to those who weren't so lucky?   (Which is headache-inducing in itself ...)

[ica171]

A rant like that should have ensured not only a block on Facebook but that Cousin received no coupons or discounts ever.