What would you have done in this situation?

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fiddlerpianist
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14 Dec 2009, 12:51 am

Janissy wrote:
I have been in situations where person#1 referred me to person #2 who referred me back to person#1. What did I do? I got angry. Really, loudly, yellingly angry.

Had a similar situation in a parking garage once, except mine didn't involve people. Exit B said to pay the cashier at Exit A. Exit A said "No Cashier on Duty; pay at Exit B." As I was sitting in my car in front of Exit A mulling over what I should do, some other guy comes barreling up to a gate next to mine, gets out of his car, snaps off the breakaway wood of the gate, shouts, "This lane's open!" and drives through.

It was about the funniest thing I think I have ever seen in a parking garage.


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Roxas_XIII
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14 Dec 2009, 2:23 am

I probably would have used Fire-2 to melt the friggin hunk of junk pay machine into a molten heap, then picked off the parking attendants with Bolt-3 set to a wide dispersal radius. And then, if I was still mad, I would levitate my car out of the way before using Hadoken on the entire friggin lot.

...sorry, that was my inner Black Mage speaking. But it still would have been bad.


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14 Dec 2009, 5:06 am

LOL that's such a good idea!!

Now that I've calmed down about it, I think most people would've just taken the car, gone through the exit, and when stopped, they would've told the guy the story and if he didn't get approval from the manager to let them pass, they would've just paid the extra money (and given up on the change of the first payment) and never gone back to that place again. Am I right?


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Marcia
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14 Dec 2009, 5:32 am

I think most people would've wanted their money back, but if someone was in a big hurry they might have paid extra on the day, made a verbal complaint and then written to the company to get their money back and make a complaint later.

For example, if someone had to go and collect children from school then they wouldn't have the time to spend trying to get it sorted out, but they still wouldn't be happy about losing their money and having to pay more.

As for how to get a receipt, as you asked Sue, I would simply have asked for a receipt. It would make sense on two levels - first, as proof of payment and second, as a means of getting past the barrier.

Edited to add: I'm going to be using one of these car parks with the ticket machines later today and I'm already thinking of what I'll do if the machine eats the card! :wink:



Greentea
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14 Dec 2009, 5:52 am

Well, they weren't even agreeing to listen or talk to me, so asking for a receipt would've been met by laughter from them.

And writing later on would've been met with the same ignoring, only much more, because when I'm not there to make a fuss, it's much easier to just ignore me.

The best you can do is always keep in your wallet small change for parking lots and other slot machines. That way, if it eats your money and they won't give it back, you won't be losing a big amount in the change that the machine didn't give back. Eg: never put in a 100$ bill into the machine when you're paying a 14$ parking bill because the bill may end up costing you $114 (the change, plus paying the bill twice). However, I hear that most machine vendors are extremely careful to give back any money eaten by their machines, I've heard they've even mailed people 10 cents!


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ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
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14 Dec 2009, 11:09 am

That kind of thing has happened to me before. What I did when I was refered to another party again, was tell them I already talked to the other party and they sent me there. At that point they shrug and go "oh" and figure out another party to send me to, or they do what they are supposed to, fill out the paper work or whatever so the situation is resolved.



marshall
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14 Dec 2009, 11:56 am

To be honest I wouldn't handle the situation as well as you did. I have a temper so I probably would have lost it completely. If they refused to listen to me or heaven forbid laughed at me I would be screaming obscenities at them.



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14 Dec 2009, 12:20 pm

Greentea wrote:
Of course, first thing I did was push the "help" button, for a long time, but no one answered. And as I said, there was no tel number on the machine.

Sue, I mean how would you have gotten them to give you a receipt?.


Elementary, my dear Greentea topic

The logic is that you already paid. No change was forthcoming. These computer machines record this stuff. If no receipt was electronically issued out of this gawdawful contraption, then they have to write you out a receipt stating that you paid for the parking. Simple logic. Are these operators brainless? :evil: :roll: :?


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Greentea
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14 Dec 2009, 1:06 pm

No, I'm not asking what the logic is behind it. That's clear. What I'm asking is how you would've "gotten them" to write you receipt, when you couldn't even get them to listen to you or talk to you because they kept saying "it's not my problem, go away".


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marshall
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14 Dec 2009, 1:41 pm

Greentea wrote:
No, I'm not asking what the logic is behind it. That's clear. What I'm asking is how you would've "gotten them" to write you receipt, when you couldn't even get them to listen to you or talk to you because they kept saying "it's not my problem, go away".

I think the most logical thing to do is just refuse to go away. If they have other tasks at hand they won't be able to perform them while someone is constantly demanding to be helped. Eventually their anxiety will build to the point where they will have to do something. Then they have two choices, either call security to escort you away or attempt to help you. A If they call security then the whole thing will escalate to the point where the story of the incident spreads through the whole company making them look horrible. Then the person will be very lucky if they keep their job. At this point the path of least resistance is for them to try and help you.



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14 Dec 2009, 1:59 pm

Yes, that's exactly what happened.

But I also realize that there were other courses of action possible. My sister, for example, never argues. She pays anything, however unfair. So everyone adores her, because she's not "difficult" or a "troublemaker", and never has stories like this one and she's always sweet and accomodating. (Then she gets her money back by stealing their lifelong, extremely hard-earned savings for old age from the old and poor, but that's a small detail that no one notices anyway). My ex best friend never argues either, she pays even big sums that are unfairly demanded from her, without a word. She says she doesn't like to argue. Then she charges the old and poor several hundred $ for just a signature on a document, which they have no choice but to pay because it's mandatory by law (she's a public accountant). These are the exemplary citizens, while I'm the witch because I neither steal from the weak nor let the powerful steal from me.

So I feel very guilty for not avoiding a scene at the mall, and breaking society's norm that one must always give in to those more powerful and take it out on the less powerful - the hierarchic law of nature.


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sartresue
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14 Dec 2009, 7:46 pm

marshall wrote:
Greentea wrote:
No, I'm not asking what the logic is behind it. That's clear. What I'm asking is how you would've "gotten them" to write you receipt, when you couldn't even get them to listen to you or talk to you because they kept saying "it's not my problem, go away".

I think the most logical thing to do is just refuse to go away. If they have other tasks at hand they won't be able to perform them while someone is constantly demanding to be helped. Eventually their anxiety will build to the point where they will have to do something. Then they have two choices, either call security to escort you away or attempt to help you. A If they call security then the whole thing will escalate to the point where the story of the incident spreads through the whole company making them look horrible. Then the person will be very lucky if they keep their job. At this point the path of least resistance is for them to try and help you.


Marshalling support topic

Exactly. :D Good for you, GT! :cheers:


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