So, this guy had to get into an arguement about whether he actually bought $81 *billion* dollars worth of fuel?!? WARNING: Another rant from jay Since when did we - as a society and culture - become so sadly clueless and simple that any inductive/deductive reasoning ability was lost? Eg: upon getting back from the hobby farm, swung by for a cup of mud and a sweet for me and my dad to nibble on. The bill came to $16.78. I dug around and handed the meth-mouth behind the counter a 20 bill, a loonie, three quarters, and three pennies. That's *easy* right? RIGHT? I expected a 5 bill as change Instead, meth mouth hands me back the loonie, the three quarters, and the three pennies. He hands me a "twonnie," a loonie, two dimes, and two pennies: $3.22 in change NO! :mad2: I tried to explain to meth-mouth the *reason* I handed him the f-bomb 20 bill, the loonie, the three quarters, and the three f-bomb pennies, was to get a mother f-bomb 5 bill as change. He looked at me: :noidea: (We need a smilie of The Deer In The Headlights!) So I tried to explain it again. Told meth-mouth we didn't need to get into partial derivatives or transforms, just simple f-bomb math so I could get a simple f-bomb 5 bill in change. Meth -F-Bomb-Mouth still had the deer in the headlights look. I was ready to :frusty: Since it seems the majority of younger people are simple meth-mouth losers, I guess I was expecting too much. :deadhorse: I need a drink
Just hand back the hand full of crap and say, "here is $5.00 in change and single dollars, can I have a $5.00 note before you close the till please?"
First the story says the pre-authorization was $81 billion. I'll need to see the statement to believe he was actually CHARGED $81 billion. Wouldn't the charge have been declined since it is over his credit limit?
Excellent, my evil plan must be working - although as usual I haven't a clue how I did it <fx: manic laughter> About tipping, I never like to give tips at the cash register or by credit card, I much prefer to leave it discreetly on the table. Is that odd?
Are you serious jayman or am I missing the sarcasm? Or are there different customs for tipping in Canada? Or are you just talking about counter service as opposed to table (or full) service?
It was a Timmies fer cryin out loud! Sarcasm aside, 'ole meth-mouth behind the till really was that slow Maybe I should explain a few terms to help: "Loonie" is a one dollar coin "Twonie" is a two dollar coin
Moxie, after your travels down under, I would have thought you would have realised that the rest of the world loves Americans because you always tip, whereas the rest of the world believes in tipping if they get decent service.
My wife and I discusses this topic during our motorcycle trip through the Balkans this last fall. Our group was made up of 4 American couples, an Australian couple, and a man from the UK. The Aussies expressed frustration and even anger that Americans are so culturally insensitive and self absorbed that they tip everywhere they travel even where tipping is not a local custom. This has lead to people in destinations popular with Americans to expect everyone that speaks english to tip 20%. I've always tried to research the area I'm traveling to and learn the major local customs including whether they tip or not. I've also received dirty looks and hostility from workers in the service industry when I follow local customs instead of giving a American sized tip. So my request to all Americans on PriusChat. STOP TIPPING WHEN YOU TRAVEL ABROAD. Our system is screwed up, stop spreading it to the rest of the world. Most places actually pay their staff a decent wage so no bribery is expected to get good service. Good service is simply part of the job.
I have posted this story before, so I will keep it brief (sort of): One of the engineers that used to work for me had a water meter problem. He lived on a hill, and the city was suffering from a water shortage. On several occasions his city water line went dry. Each time it refilled, the compressed air in front of the water made his water meter spin like a jet turbine. This produced, one would think, unbelievably high meter readings. As Jay has pointed out in his rant, it didn't matter to the city water people that it was impossible to use that much water. We did the volume calculations and all of the city would have been under several feet of water if he had used that much water. It simply couldn't happen. The water department was unimpressed. The asked questions such as "Did you water your lawn?" Eventually he got he bill corrected, but not without a huge fight. It's no wonder people climb bell towers with high powered hunting rifles. This sort of thing makes me crazy. Tom
To keep me from going completely monkeys***, getting an M24 (A Remington 700 bolt action rifle, very accurate and I highly recommend them!), climbing up a bell tower, and making national news headlines, I would have insisted on the city installing an air bleed valve before the meter The air bleed valve, as the name implies, will reliably bleed air out but prevent liquid from escaping and making a mess. Some well conditions are so nasty if you don't have such a valve, H2S will degas into your plumbing. Even worse, if trace methane is present in your well water .... you get the idea THis is a good article on various degassing methods Dissolved Gases in Well Water Your rant does support my theory that all customer "service" departments have been taken over by soulless Pod People
