Special Snowflake Stories

[cattlekid]

Oh, the dreaded employee discount.  Here's another good one....DH works at an auto dealership in the parts department.  He can get parts at a significant discount as an employee.  They don't mind if you get parts for a friend or family member, but DH has to pay up front.  There's no credit available. 

DH's long time friend does all his own auto repairs so of course, he saw this as a gold mine.  I saw it as a drain on our finances.  We would have to put up the money ahead of time and then wait around until DH could get to see said friend and deliver the part and get reimbursed.  But DH is a softer touch than I am and still will get his friend the occasional part when necessary.  He will at least clear it with me first.

When I totally put my foot down though, is when the friend started sending HIS friends over to DH to get parts.  These are people we have maybe met once and definitely do not see on a regular basis and I am sure as God made little green apples that we are not going to start supplying parts for any random person that anyone may send our way.  And yes, I've been accused by these "friends" of being cheap and unhelpful.  Sorry, that's the way things go.

[ladyknight1]

Oh, the dreaded employee discount.  Here's another good one....DH works at an auto dealership in the parts department.  He can get parts at a significant discount as an employee.  They don't mind if you get parts for a friend or family member, but DH has to pay up front.  There's no credit available. 

DH's long time friend does all his own auto repairs so of course, he saw this as a gold mine.  I saw it as a drain on our finances.  We would have to put up the money ahead of time and then wait around until DH could get to see said friend and deliver the part and get reimbursed.  But DH is a softer touch than I am and still will get his friend the occasional part when necessary.  He will at least clear it with me first.

When I totally put my foot down though, is when the friend started sending HIS friends over to DH to get parts.  These are people we have maybe met once and definitely do not see on a regular basis and I am sure as God made little green apples that we are not going to start supplying parts for any random person that anyone may send our way.  And yes, I've been accused by these "friends" of being cheap and unhelpful.  Sorry, that's the way things go.

That is right up there with an acquaintance knowing you have a pick-up truck and asking to borrow it to move. Hmm, no. I used to be such a pushover for "friends". One friend started having computer trouble, so we took a look at it, and $50 in parts and hours of labor later, there we were. We do have very good friends that we see and help when they need it, and vice versa. The difference is, the real friends want to be around you no when they don't want anything from you. It took me a long time to learn that lesson.

SS: I work with a woman who can be nice, but considers herself the specialist person ever to live. She is very particular on every possible subject. She took additional time off last week (we were given Thursday and Friday off as well as the usual weekend) and let her two employees have it off as well, which meant there was no staff at her office. This was not run by the big boss, and now SS is in hot water over that decision. She complained to me today that it is just not fair, that she is in trouble.

We have our departmental monthly meeting/holiday party coming up in a week and this time we are at a restaurant, which makes me so happy. SS is the most picky eater I have ever met, and I would rather go through torture than order food for her again and have to listen to her whine for years (no exaggeration here) that someone else got better food that she wanted over what she ordered.

[cattlekid]

I've been the pickup truck owner too.  When DH and I were just dating, one of his friends asked DH to borrow my truck so that he could move.  Note, I did not say that the friend asked ME, he asked DH.  Then when DH said, "you'll have to ask Cattlekid, it's her truck", the friend was mortally offended, so much so that he did not speak to DH for at least a year afterwards.  Friend could not fathom why DH would have to ask me to borrow a possession of which he did not have any ownership.  Apparently, a dating relationship was enough to have unilateral say-so on whether or not the truck was available. 

The nutcracker of all of it....if the friend would have bothered to pick up the phone and ask me directly, I would have gladly lent him the truck.

That is right up there with an acquaintance knowing you have a pick-up truck and asking to borrow it to move. Hmm, no. I used to be such a pushover for "friends". One friend started having computer trouble, so we took a look at it, and $50 in parts and hours of labor later, there we were. We do have very good friends that we see and help when they need it, and vice versa. The difference is, the real friends want to be around you no when they don't want anything from you. It took me a long time to learn that lesson.

[Diane AKA Traska]

I've been the pickup truck owner too.  When DH and I were just dating, one of his friends asked DH to borrow my truck so that he could move.  Note, I did not say that the friend asked ME, he asked DH.  Then when DH said, "you'll have to ask Cattlekid, it's her truck", the friend was mortally offended, so much so that he did not speak to DH for at least a year afterwards.  Friend could not fathom why DH would have to ask me to borrow a possession of which he did not have any ownership.  Apparently, a dating relationship was enough to have unilateral say-so on whether or not the truck was available. 

The nutcracker of all of it....if the friend would have bothered to pick up the phone and ask me directly, I would have gladly lent him the truck.

That is right up there with an acquaintance knowing you have a pick-up truck and asking to borrow it to move. Hmm, no. I used to be such a pushover for "friends". One friend started having computer trouble, so we took a look at it, and $50 in parts and hours of labor later, there we were. We do have very good friends that we see and help when they need it, and vice versa. The difference is, the real friends want to be around you no when they don't want anything from you. It took me a long time to learn that lesson.

Well, it's a truck, and he's the man, donchewknow.

[ladyknight1]

After working at Home Depot years ago, I sweetly remind the wanna be borrower that they can rent one for a reasonable fee there and avoid using their friends as rental agencies.

[Shea]

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.)

I worked at a large professional repertory theatre for many years, and one of the perks was getting lots of free tickets. Technically we were only supposed to share them with family, but absolutely everyone happily gave free tickets away to friends, a fact that was an open secret in the company. I, like everyone else, gave away lots of tickets to friends, many of whom wouldn't be able to afford to see plays otherwise. However, ex-BF got to be a bit of a Special Snowflake over it. We'd broken up while I was working at the theatre, and we didn't stay in touch all that much (not an especially bad break-up, but they're never good ). I soon noticed that the only time I ever heard from him was when he wanted me to give him a ticket to see a play. Yeah, not happening. It was less about the fact that he was my ex, and more that he seemed to view me as a free ticket dispenser. It took him a really long time to stop asking!

[mmswm]

Ugh.  Employee discounts are almost more trouble than they're worth.  When I worked for Major Bank, we got cashier's checks, money orders and wire transfers for free. We also had an employee cap on the interest rate of Major Bank credit card, which was well below what most consumers pay. I got hit up all the time by "friends" asking that I buy the checks or send wires for them so they could save the money, or to buy something on my card "since it doesn't cost you so much". Yeah, not going to happen. All the money that goes through your checking account is easily tracked, and if there's far too much money going through my account, that raises all sorts of red flags. I'm not willing to put my job on the line so a "friend" can save 30 bucks.

[HorseFreak]

The post about getting exes into the theater for free reminds me of this story. Ex and I dated for several years and we stayed at my brother's place twice while visiting Fun City. My brother didn't really have a problem with this and got up early a few times to get us into Attraction with his employee card (completely kosher at this job). One day my ex blew off looking at something my brother had created for school and was really proud of that would have only required about three minutes of his attention and a couple positive words of encouragement. My brother never really forgave him for that and wasn't unhappy that we broke up.

A few months after we broke up and were on friendly terms again ex asked if he could stay with my brother while he went on vacation to Fun City! I told him "probably not" and called my brother. The poor guy blew up and said he only tolerated him because I was dating him and he couldn't believe how rude he had been on that occasion after all the favors he had done over the years before we dated. I don't blame my brother one bit on that; my ex could be pretty oblivious when the situation required showing a little appreciation. He thought that paying for some meals and beer would cover any bad behavior on his part. 

[Midnight Kitty]

SS: I work with a woman who can be nice, but considers herself the specialist person ever to live.

I think you mean she thinks she is the "most special" since a specialist is someone who specializes in something and "specialest" is not a word.

Of course, she could be a specialist in Special Snowflake behavior since she does is so well.

[bloo]

SS can-i-abuse-use-your-discountus:

I work for the owner of a health food store. I'm given a fairly generous discount for my family to use. I do use it for some things but not all as there are some wholesalers that can still sell to me cheaper, even with my discount.

My Bff came with me to the store and I picked up some snacks for us to share using my discount. She must have told her special snowflakey sister about it then because a couple weeks later I got this call:

SS: Bloo, can you get me Supplement X and Vitamin Y at the store?

Bloo: Sure. You need me to pick them up for you when I go in?

SS: Yes, please. Bff said you get a good discount, so how much will those cost?

Bloo: ...then ...uh, I can't give you a discount.

SS: Why not? BFF told me to call you!

Bloo: I can't believe BFF would say that. I never told her that I'd use my discount for anybody other than my family. The sale of supplements is my boss's bread-n-butter. It'd be like stealing!

SS: cue annoying whining and explanations, then...I guess I'll just order them online.

Bloo: Okay.

I really stewed about what to say to my BFF knowing her flaky sister would go whining to her, then realized 'You know what Bloo? This is her (BFF's) problem. You never told her you'd give anybody who knows your name a discount. Just forget about it.' The more I thought about it, the more I was sure BFF would never say anything to me about it.

And I was right, she never did.

[LadyClaire]

<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.

He just tells people "what, you believed her? You know how she is..sorry, but I can't use my discount like that for you." A lot of the requests from family have died off since then, thankfully.

If he has coupons he will share them if they're not already spoken for, but usually he has a list of people who he has already promised them to.

I am really dreading her finding out that I'm working retail..I'm sure she will tell all and sundry that I can give them a discount.

[geekette]

Being in the IT field means that you're the first port of call whenever anyone you know has computer problems... Even if its the opposite kind of the computer to the sort you've used, and even if they're 4 hours drive away. Oh, but you can't ask them to push certain button combinations or click on certain places and then read out what the screen says, that's too hard. 

[jedikaiti]

Being in the IT field means that you're the first port of call whenever anyone you know has computer problems... Even if its the opposite kind of the computer to the sort you've used, and even if they're 4 hours drive away. Oh, but you can't ask them to push certain button combinations or click on certain places and then read out what the screen says, that's too hard. 

Send them all this link: http://xkcd.com/627/

[MissRose]

Being in the IT field means that you're the first port of call whenever anyone you know has computer problems... Even if its the opposite kind of the computer to the sort you've used, and even if they're 4 hours drive away. Oh, but you can't ask them to push certain button combinations or click on certain places and then read out what the screen says, that's too hard. 

I so know the feeling GRRRRRR

[VorFemme]

VorGuy came out of the bedroom a couple of hours after Thanksgiving dinner because his laptop did the BSOD and shut down - he was frantic because he's doing things online for work projects coming up this weekend and next (a marching competition & an awards banquet) and he NEEDS his computer.

I'm supposed to pull a repair disk out of the turkey carcass or something (no, I didn't take one on our long weekend trip) and FIX his computer.

By the time, I got it set up next to mine and touched the trackpad.....it had finished rebooting and had hibernated - so I unlocked it, made him a piece of pie with whipped topping, and took both of them to him (with DD carrying the pie).  He calmed down remarkably once the computer was working again.....although pie makes a great distraction.......