Words of Wisdom

In the past week or so, I have learned some very valuable life lessons. You see, lately it seems that I've encountered several unpleasant people. I have two very good examples of this below.

For example, when the bf and I went to pick up the moving truck in Winston-Salem on Thursday, we arrived on time and were greeted by the most unpleasant, rude, unhelpful salesperson EVER! I have never encountered someone who seems to hate her job as much as this woman did and she let us know that as soon as we walked in. The bf had reserved a Budget Rent a Truck along with a car trailer online. We assumed there would be someone there to help us hook it up to the truck. We were wrong. The lady was a massive bitch and told us that she couldn't help and that we would have to hook up a car trailer to a 16 foot truck by ourselves. Did I mention that the parking lot was not wide enough to do this? Besides being completely unhelpful she also tried to send us on our way with a car trailer that was completely unsafe according the the nice folks at Budget Roadside assistance. When we told her this she got extremely defensive and starting yelling at the bf and I because we questioned her and called her out on being confrontational. Of course we called Budget to complain and are going to do this again very soon, because we feel like some sort of refund is in order for the manner in which we were treated. This woman needed to be fired, I have never in my life been treated with such disrespect! Because of the treatment we received we decided to leave the bf's car in NC for the summer because we didn't want to hassle with the car trailer anymore since we had already been at the Budget office for 4 hours.

Example number two, this morning as the bf and I arrived at our bar review course (he's in the morning session and I'm in the afternoon so I study while he's in class and vice versa, it works out well because we only have one car now). Anyway, he and I need to go to a wedding in Ohio next Thursday and we need to leave before 1:00. My class ends at 5, so I need to attend the morning session. The BarBri rep (will call her Brunette) that I spoke with told me to call the main BarBri office and explain the situation and that they may allow me to attend the morning session because of the circumstances. However, Blondie interrupted her and told her that she was wrong that they wouldn't allow me to attend. I was personally very embarrassed for Brunette, I felt like the Blondie was a complete bitch about it and could have said what she needed to say in a much more professional tone. I did overhear her later half-heartily apologize to the other rep but in my eyes this did not make the situation any better. About 10 minutes later a girl walks in and asks if she can attend the morning session and is essentially yelled at by Blondie for simply asking to attend the morning session. Blondie told the other girl that she wasn't where she needed to be and that she would have the call the BarBri offices and get permission (which is understandable) and then wouldn't even give the other girl the number for the Chicago office. Blondie then told the other girl that Blondie needed to go to class and showed absolutely no hint of politeness to the other girl. I'm sorry, but we've all paid upwards of $3,000 to take this class and I expect the BarBri reps to be polite and helpful for that price. I would also expect the BarBri reps to be courteous to one another and not be openly bitchy to one another.

Which brings me to the lesson here, THERE IS NEVER ANY EXCUSE FOR RUDENESS! Ever! I feel like the Golden Rule has been absolutely forgotten. I mean, is it really that much harder to treat other people as you wish to be treated? I understand that we all have bad days, but when it is YOUR JOB to interact with the public I feel like you shouldn't take your bad mood out on those whom you serve. Isn't it part of your job description to at least be pleasant and show those whom you are supposed to help at least a little bit of respect?

Am I expecting too much here? How would you handle these situations?

UPDATE: I called the BarBri office and explained the situation. I spoke with a very nice man who told me that they can't authorize me to attend the morning session because it is full. I told him that there are seats available and he said that since I need to miss class a week from now that he can't authorize me to attend at this point. However, he told me to show up for the morning session on the day I need to attend that session and that the BarBri rep on site could allow me to attend on the fly. I then explained the situation that I witnessed today and he said that he would check into it and to call him next Thursday morning and that if there are seats he would authorize me to attend the morning class. Wow Blondie, you really screwed up that one didn't you? You DO have the authority to allow people to attend the morning session, you've just a major bitch on a power trip! I wish I knew your name so that my observation about you to the main BarBri office would have been more effective.

UPDATE #2: I just spoke with the bf during his class break. He just got a voicemail from Budget calling to discuss our situation. He hasn't called them back yet, but I think the very nice lady in the Roadside Assistance Office told her superiors about the lady trying to send us on our way with unsafe equipment and well that's not okay. I'm glad that Budget actually follows up on its complaints with some promptness.