Getting to Know You, May 2018

[Darkmeer]

22 hours ago, Morihalda said:

May 7: What part of the painting process are you good at?

 

I am happy with my color schemes and how I decide them.  Everyone has a "Style" and I'm good at my style.

 

Outside of that, I think Inarah hit most of us over the head with "buying the figures."

 

[Jokemeister]

22 hours ago, Morihalda said:

May 7: What part of the painting process are you good at?

 

Being completely honest, I really don't know what part I would be comfortable saying I'm good at.
 

Not so long ago, I would have said that I was good at "good enough" - i.e. I was comfortable with the knowledge that I was painting at a tabletop level and wasn't really pushing myself to get better.

 

However, I then started on some KDM minis and despite my initial thought of painting to a tabletop level, I couldn't help myself and have been trying to do some OSL on the mini.* 

 

* They are still tabletop level but the fact that I'm even trying something new makes me wonder why I'm trying to push my skills again and learn something new when I made a pact to first get through some of my hoard of minis!

[klarg1]

23 hours ago, Morihalda said:

May 7: What part of the painting process are you good at?

 

Taking this question a little bit more seriously, Based on the painters I've met, and comments on this forum, I think I enjoy freehand more than the average painter, which means I also do more of it. I will go ahead and claim that I am pretty good at painting small-scale writing and designs for somebody of my general skill level.

[OneBoot]

On 5/6/2018 at 7:51 PM, Morihalda said:

May 7: What part of the painting process are you good at?

 

Tiny, fiddly, finicky little detail bits. Like pouches and belts and jewelry and such. I don't know why, I just really enjoy painting those, and seem to have a bizarre knack for it.

 

Besides that, I'd say painting huge minis with tiny brushes and ridiculous time frames. Because that's literally the only way I seem to be able to paint the things.

 

Oh, and organizing paints. I could do that alllll day long. Especially when I'm supposed to be doing other things (like actually using them... ).

 

Huzzah!

--OneBoot :D

[Morihalda]

My husband and I had an incredible server at a restaurant recently and we exchanged wild stories. We try to be super nice customers because we understand the pain....

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries? Do you have any crazy stories?

Edited May 8, 2018 by Morihalda

[Clearman]

In a former life I worked an IT help desk.  Since leaving that position, I've had to make many, many of my own calls, some for reasons I should have been able to solve myself.  I feel for them because I know that pain. 

 

Nothing so incredibly sad like the system was unplugged or the cup holder was broken... 

[TGP]

1 hour ago, Morihalda said:

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries? 

I think so, I can be patient, but my experiences in the area are more than two decades old. 

 

(I am quite open to the hypothesis that collectively humans are more wretched, stupid, dim-witted, and knuckleheaded than they used to be.  )

 

1 hour ago, Morihalda said:

Do you have any crazy stories?

I was on shift at a Toys R Us on Xmas eve...to exit the store when my shift was up, I wadded up my uniform vest, stuffed it in a pocket, and pretended to be a civilian. 

 

There was a sea of desperate humanity in the aisles of that store. 

 

Again, multiple decades ago. 

[Cyradis]

1 hour ago, Morihalda said:

My husband and I had an incredible server at a restaurant recently and we exchanged wild stories. We try to be super nice customers because we understand the pain....

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries? Do you have any crazy stories?

 

I worked for a semester at a hat shop. One semester was good experience for working with people; I could not make that a career. 

 

Considering my recent peacock paintjob this is funny...

 

A lady told us we'd be cursed to have bad luck and infertility due to the peacock feathers in the hat shop. She went rambling on for a while about that. I nodded. Boss lady just had a baby too; no infertility there!

[paintybeard]

2 hours ago, Morihalda said:

My husband and I had an incredible server at a restaurant recently and we exchanged wild stories. We try to be super nice customers because we understand the pain....

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries? Do you have any crazy stories?

 

Absolutely not. Intolerant is my middle name.

[WhiteWulfe]

2 hours ago, Morihalda said:

My husband and I had an incredible server at a restaurant recently and we exchanged wild stories. We try to be super nice customers because we understand the pain....

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries?

 

Do you have any crazy stories?

 

*laughs nervously* Despite having done retail (and fast food!) for years upon years in my past, yeah, no, I don't have the patience for that, and I probably never did.   Sure, my current job is technically customer service but we're talking easy mode - I'm the coffee delivery guy! 

 

As for crazy stories, hmmm... One or two come to mind... 

 

- first two weeks at Best Buy, opening the store in a city I used to live in.  We had just gotten a shipment of Halo 2 disks in, two boxes - one collector's edition, the other non.  Store hadn't opened yet (grand opening was a week and a half later), and while we were working on various stock items, I took a look and one of the boxes looked a tad off, as if it had been moved, and there was a slight gap in the middle.  Asked the other staff in my department if anyone had started working on those, answer was no all around.  Counted the disks, box had 249/250... Asked the inventory guys, and answer again was nope.  Let management know....  Yeah, one of the staff in another section had taken a copy and put it in their backpack... They didn't understand why they were escorted away in handcuffs by the RC's.... (RCMP for those who don't know that shorthand - aka Canadian cops). 

 

- worked for Convergys, an inbound call center.  My center was working for AT&T Wireless, specifically 2G customer care (this was when GSM/3G was new, and CDMA and TDMA phones were still the norm).   Six weeks of training before I hit the floor by myself, and the four times shadowing someone else things were simple and easy.  Drummed up the nerve to finally enter the queue for my first call...  $90k in fraud on the account, poor customer had had their phone's serial number skimmed, and internal security had already taken action.  Rest of the day was easy sailing after that! 

 

Edit: another Convergys story...  One call I had I was on for 14 hours..  Yes, fourteen. Long. Hours.  Had a chatty as all sin customer, and she had the ability to breathe while talking, and we weren't allowed to interrupt, nor were we allowed to disconnect calls unless it was a verbal harassment situation.  By the end, I had two red hats, two supervisors, and the closing manager all waiting, and rotation on the second headset to listen in because they didn't believe I couldn't get a word in edgewise.  Best part?  It was a bill payment.  Second best part?  System selected that one for recording.  My supervisor just said "I've heard the stories from the floor staff, I'm not listening to it and just marking you as 5/5 for sheer patience" (end edit) 

 

- a city I used to live in had five Subways, each of them owned by the same person.  I was one of the "designated" on call people, aka those who had volunteered to work at other stores if they were short handed.  Downtown's opening team was a no show, and their closers hadn't done prep....  And it was Saturday morning.  I'd closed my store the night before, and so was somewhat grumble over the phone, but given how good I was at prep they figured give it a shot.  Busiest day that store had ever seen in years, and despite having been told I'd only be doing prep in the back, it wasn't long before I had to come up front to help with making food due to the sheer volume of customers.  That day went by really, REALLY quickly, as I spent most of the day bouncing from prepping supplies to helping make food. 

 

- had a stint for a while working in kitchens... Wound up working at one downtown that set records for the entire chain for two weeks straight...  Openers were being asked to stay until 9pm (or later, some wound up helping with the close!), and it wasn't uncommon for orders to go out at +45 or "plus not a (censored) clue, stop (censored expletive censored) asking!" - our printer was spitting so many orders out our sixteen foot speed rail couldn't hold all the orders, and that was with them stacked on too of each other with a quarter inch non-overlap!  Five people in a station designed for two, but we managed, more or less.  That night was a massive blur, and there definitely were several items that were "oops, it's burnt" so we at least had a snack since nobody got breaks that night...  I decided pretty much that night once it calmed down that yeah, not interested in a commercial kitchen. 

Edited May 8, 2018 by WhiteWulfe
Added another story.

[NebulousMissy]

2 hours ago, Morihalda said:

My husband and I had an incredible server at a restaurant recently and we exchanged wild stories. We try to be super nice customers because we understand the pain....

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries? Do you have any crazy stories?

 

Ugh not anymore. I worked at my FLGS during college when that town still had a FLGS. We had dull katanas (iaitos) behind the counter for two reasons. One, the boss practiced Iaido and so we carried the supplies for sale and prettiness. This was the minor reason. Two, for our protection in case of belligerent customers. This reason was publicly discussed in front of customers due to... issues. Namely, the store sat on the first floor of an apartment building the county used as a halfway house for storing their local crazies. 

 

I never had to use the iaito. I did have to take it down from its display mounting once though. The guy would not stop screaming about how I was hiding all the video game consoles when it was obvious we only sold board, card, RPG, and traditional games.

 

Also, the stinky neckbeard with his 12th level paladin stereotype? I totally met him. My nose hairs are still curled 11 years later.

[redambrosia]

2 hours ago, Morihalda said:

My husband and I had an incredible server at a restaurant recently and we exchanged wild stories. We try to be super nice customers because we understand the pain....

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries? Do you have any crazy stories?

Hahahaha! No, I don't have the patience or willpower. Nonetheless, I work at a hotel. I work graveyard though, which is both better and worse. Better, because there's fewer people overall. Worse, because those people are generally drunker or stupider than average. 

 

The most interesting occurance at this hotel (prostitute fight that ended in bear spray and one of them jumping through the window) happened during the day time, so I luckily wasn't here for it. But I've had to evict people for drug use, noisy porn, and drunkenness.

 

The funniest thing to me, right now, was the drunk guy who tried to bribe me to ride the bike yesterday. Drunk people are so dumb. 

[Pezler the Polychromatic]

2 hours ago, Morihalda said:

My husband and I had an incredible server at a restaurant recently and we exchanged wild stories. We try to be super nice customers because we understand the pain....

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries? Do you have any crazy stories?

Yes. If you need proof, I can tell you that I was customer care for AT&T Wireless for 5 and a half years.

 

I have far more stories than I could ever tell, and these forums are definitely not the right venue for some of them. Ask me about them on Hangouts some time.

[Dai-Mongar]

4 hours ago, Morihalda said:

My husband and I had an incredible server at a restaurant recently and we exchanged wild stories. We try to be super nice customers because we understand the pain....

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries? Do you have any crazy stories?

 

I've been working at McDonald's on and off for the last 18 years, so... yeah. I'm very good at it, too. Probably why my boss made me the customer experience manager for my restaurant.

Crazy stories... we're in a student town so... I've seen people thrown over the counter, nude people running through the drive thru, fist fights, food fights, shopping trolleys are frequently left in the parking lot, and so on.

Honestly though, they're the exception and most people are perfectly nice. It's important not to fall victim to negative confirmation bias.

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

5 hours ago, Morihalda said:

My husband and I had an incredible server at a restaurant recently and we exchanged wild stories. We try to be super nice customers because we understand the pain....

May 8: Do you have the patience and willpower for customer service or retail industries? Do you have any crazy stories?

Not anymore. I did two stints as front of house in my younger years and the only reason I survived it was because at both places I had been an established regular before working there. This meant that I knew most of the customers already, so the wise elf banter that would get me fired from an "upscale" establishment was actually a boon. (it's also how I found myself the official waiter of the bus drivers, a regular 16 top that would come in once they got done with thier morning school runs. They were ornery as hell, but could be pacified with ham. They tipped well though)

It also helped that a sizable precentage of our customer base was retired folks. Due to fixed incomes the tips weren't all that great, but they were easy to deal with and since for most of them it was a social outlet moreso than a meal they were often a source of good conversation. Once I was able to convince the owner to start showing the history channel on the bar side, (back when it was actually the ww2 channel), after several of them got a few drinks in em, they'd begin either refighting the war, (pacific theater vets vs european), or loudly correcting the tv when it got something wrong. 

Of course it wasn't always wine and roses, (although I was drinking plenty of wine in those days), there was a group of older women who were Kendall County's version of the golden girls. They usually came in on the evening shifts so I didn't deal with them much, but when I did.....the first time I waited on them I was forced to "dance like Elvis" for my tip. My arguments of this being insulting to the memory of the King fell on deaf ears. I also learned very quickly to get thier drinks refilled at speed due to the one I shall refer to as "the lobster". Who unfortunately was taken as a role model for thier entire group. So for a time I gained +2 Agility.

But for the most part it was a community, customers and servers actually got to know each other, and so were able to treat one another as people. If something went sideways, an honest apology and replacement was enough, not like what I've seen recently were the customers demand someone being fired. This became more prevelant as the whole "upscaling" thing progressed. The older folks got priced out and thier replacements became the sort of folks who decided that food servers are lower status than themselves so it became socially acceptable to vent thier frustrations out on them. 

Granted this has always been a thing, but not to the extent it is now. Also years ago we had ways of solving this on our own. (statute of limitations passed on this several years ago so I can now tell of it.)

We had a group of business types come in for a long drunken lunch and they thought it would be fun to drive one of our waitresses to tears. (she was new and it was I think only her 2nd table by herself) So I took over and my first act when they wanted more beer was to inform them that we were out of the stuff they were drinking but had a slightly higher grade in stock. Now they've been bumped into a higher percantage booze and the way they were getting louder over the next half hour, this was having it's intended effect. (we'd also oversalted the appitizers to get them drinking more)

The pizza came out more or less on time, and was not in any way shape or form different from any other pizza we served. (no floor spice, no bodily fluids etc) 

The chef was very adament on that, and was proven right as the least drunk of thier number thought to check. (having seen the death glare I wasn't entirely able to hide.) But it passed inspection and none of them thought to check the parmesan cheese.

Chef had mixed in a measured dose of ground up sleeping aids into it. Not enough to be fatal, even if one of them had dumped the whole jar in his mouth, but enough to mix nicely with the beer. So over the course of the meal, they're getting sleepy and one of them planted his face in his plate. 

This was when we went into action. 

Local constabulary was summoned and our problem table found themselves escorted off on public drunkeness and drunk and disorderly charges. We almost got theft of services rolled in as well but one of them had the presence of mind to pay the bill before being hauled off. Oh well we still hit em for an extra 15 on beers.

The point being we looked out for each other back then. Now the manager would fire the waitress without a second thought, the businessmen would have their little ego boost and every other employee would know that they'd be thrown under the bus without thought if it was them. Which I saw a lot of working in Austin resturants, and why I stay back of house now. Not that there's any more loyalty there, but I don't risk losing my job just because some rando has had a crap day and is looking for someone to take it out on.