Should I be mad about this?
Today I was standing in line outside my campus bookstore waiting for the manager to come so that I can buy textbooks for my courses. He was supposed to open the bookstore at 10am, but there was a snowstorm outside and he was late by around 20-25 minutes.
When he arrived, he didn't even bother apologizing to any of the students for being late. When it was finally my turn in line, I casually asked him "So do we get a discount on our textbooks since you were late?" He responded with "No, not really. Life moves on". This pissed me off so much. It sounded as if he didn't really care that he made students wait for him just because he was in traffic. I felt like speaking up and saying something to him like "Why don't you f*k*ng apologize for being late then?", however I didn't want to start an argument since there were like 15 people behind me in line.
I'm also not sure if my anger is justified. If you were in this situation, what would you have done? Would you have spoken up, or would you just let it go? I feel guilty for just letting it go, and I wanted to speak up but I didn't. Should I be mad about this, and what would you guys do?
22 Comments • Newest first
There's nothing that happened that you should feel mad about. He didn't do anything that warrants an apology.
Your remark to him was rude and unnecessary and you should have just quietly marched in, got what you needed and walked out.
Exercise a little patience, oui?
@windowlegs: A pair of webos...baby
@voidwreck: for no reason? smh next time just get your textbooks quietly and leave
@genostigma: grow a pair of what?
blaming your lateness on inclement weather is rather pathetic. If you know its going to be inclement the next day, then you should know to get up earlier and leave earlier if the weather permits it. And we all know traffic is gonna be slow with the inclement weather. so thats a pathetic blame. If you are late, you are in trouble. and causing other people to wait outside in the inclement weather and NOT apologize is rude and makes the company you work for look like crap. I personally say speak to their higher up.
That's funny.
Sigh. How do I lock the thread? I don't want this to turn into a huge flame war.
I thought this is a scenario called frustration.
You thought you could apply your maple grief skills to your irl book keeper. Sorry brah, in the real life you have to suck it up and grow a pair.
@wontpostmuch: Exactly my thoughts
@sezbeth: I guess you're right
@voidwreck: The response hardly seems like anything of significance; when someone says something like "life goes on" in this context, they're just acknowledging that inconveniences happen and there's no point in getting caught up in them. The manager was not at fault for the inconvenience, thus I don't see why he needed to apologize for anything.
From the description provided in this thread, it sounds like he already has to deal with disgruntled adolescents and early adults. I honestly wouldn't expect him to give "customer service with a smile".
Also, the absence of a notice hardly seems like his fault; as mentioned before, the inclement weather is out of his control, as well as any complications that may come with it. It's highly unlikely that he could've sent out a notification from his car, seeing as most university employees (excluding academic faculty, though that's still difficult even for us)don't have access to those accounts from their phones.
@shoutbox: @thiefy996: @sezbeth: @silverfoxr: @tashie: @latepuberty: You guys are misinterpreting my thread. I was obviously not expecting a discount. I even said in my thread that I "casually" asked him, meaning that it was just a joke just to try and start a conversation since my social skills are piss poor. I only got pissed off after he responded the way that he did. It just felt like it's "yeah whatever" for being late. It almost sounded like he doesn't care about other people's time. And there was this one girl in line who even called him out on it and told him that if he was going to be late, he should have at lease posted some type of update online so that students would be aware of it instead of standing for 30 mins for no reason. But with regards to the discount, I wasn't serious about him "rewarding" me for being late. It was just a form of conversation.
@wontpostmuch: And how exactly did I embarrass myself irl? I didn't speak up to him or yell at him. And who honestly cares about being judged online? It's 2016, get with the times bro. I only made this thread to see what other people would have done in this situation.
Lol nice job embarrassing yourself irl and online.
You clearly have an anger problem, He had a good excuse. I wish you would've spoken up so you would've made a fool of yourself infront of all the students and no he doesn't have to say sorry or give discounts for being in traffic.
no you shouldn't be mad about that at all. he wasn't even that late to begin; what, you can't wait 20-25 minutes without pitching a fit? jeez dude
Lol..he had a justifiable reason for being late and that reason is a SNOWSTORM...really you think you're entitled to a discount because he was late 20-25mins? He is right to tell you no and that life moves on....he could have just said screw it and not come in but he risked driving in that weather to get to his job...now that's some dedication....if I were you and in the famous words of Elsa LET IT GO
Wow... do you realize how much of a self-entitled doucebag you sound like right now? You're mad, because the guy was late due to a SNOWSTORM and didn't give you a reward for being inconvenienced. You're almost lucky he made it to open the store at all, let alone took a look outside, said it wasn't worth risking the drive over and have the store closed for the day.
To be completely blunt, it's people like you that makes retail work suck... try being in that guy's shoes for even a DAY and you'd probably change your tune pretty quickly.
Inclement weather hardly sounds like something anyone could control; you haven't the faintest clue to what degree of traffic he was in, nor the distance he may have had to drive to get to the campus. It's not as simple as "leaving earlier" so he could make it on time. In any event, 20-25 minutes isn't a significant amount of time to wait for something; you're all adults now, you should realize that in some cases, "s!@$#" just happens. Even in the event that someone is late for class, this weather is a perfectly valid excuse for such that even I would accept with my students.
Frankly, you, and anyone who approached this situation in then same manner seem like entitled children in this scenario. If this situation seems to justify getting angry over a discount and inclement weather, you have a lot of growing up to do.
books are cheaper online
he's a manager, he should f*ing know better than to come late. if you have a job, you have a responsibility. if you can't even come on time to open a store, the f* are you doing?
reminds me of the pansy little managers @ chick fil a i worked at. comes late, doesn't apologize, makes you work 2x faster / harder to open the store before it's too late.
i'd say yeah, i'd be pissed. got me waiting in a snowstorm cuz ur ass doesn't know how to do ur job.
no. i wouldn't expect a discount nor an apology from someone being just 20 minutes late.
honestly it just sounds like you want to be angry for the sake of being angry