What the hell happened to common sense? The city of Royal Oak has to deal with gun-rights activists who want the city to drop the ban on openly carried guns. In their wisdom Michigan’s State Supreme court in 2003 affirmed the right to carry guns in public buildings like universities, city hall, recreation centers and libraries.
What are people thinking? Why on earth should anyone want to take a gun into a public building? And I am afraid of anyone who does find it necessary.
So back to Royal Oak. Their city ordinance contradicts the court ruling so these gun activists are going out of their way to carry their guns all around the city making a point of going into stores with their guns on their hips.
Is this Dodge City? Are we in a stupid western movie from the 50’s?
And if the store tells them to leave these lunatics will post the name of the store on their website (could actually increase business).
Members of this dumb group are planning a protest in Pontiac “to bring gun ownership out of the closet” according to Brian Jeffs, founder of this lunatic fringe. Are they gay, too?
Are the lunatics running the asylum? Once again I raise the question. Europeans don’t deal with these stupid issues. Are they more civilized or more sane?
Does everybody need rights to do whatever they want whenever they want? We have to function as a society; it means living in harmony, having some respect for people and at least making a pretense of being sane. All this makes me want to hunker down in my home and avoid society. I just don’t understand why somebody like Paul Dalrymple finds it necessary to wear his handgun at the local Starbucks to exercise his right to bear arms. Step back and realize how silly you are.
Tag: starbucks
A Check arrives in the Mail
I certainly received a surprise. Almost didn’t open the envelope as the return address was Chase Bank. I closed out my accounts there nearly one year ago and they keep sending me advertising. Arm raised, ready to pitch it in the trash when I paused, saw the check-like appearance of the paper in the clear windowed envelope.
I slit it open. Here was a $30 check from someone I didn’t know. The return address was some guy, street address in Grand Rapids. Then I saw the fine print – tips. Check issued by the online bill paying service on April 30.
Remember, Partnerline Debbie-Does-Dallas told me it was taken care of and the check was mailed April 21.
Now that manager, Marissa, is a dumb twat. First she sends cash. Now she has her boyfriend use the online bill paying service. They still have no proof I got the check or cashed it. They debit the money straight from the account and since they cannot send me electronic info (like they do with the big charge companies and utilities) they have to cut a check and mail it. The money is already out of the account whether I cash it or not.
No wonder Marissa manages the store the way she does. And she wants to be a full-time photographer. How can she run her own business? As long as live in boyfriend/fiance has a full-time job she can just putz along doing her photography without ever really having to make a living at it.
Can’t rant about the silly bitch any more. Story closed.
And will I cash the check? What do you think?
–The End—
Starbucks – No Ethics
I have not received the supposed second check for the missing tip money. Can’t believe the manager would lie about mailing it. She was forgetful and disorganzied, typical 30 something, always apologizing, fake cheery barista, but I didn’t think she would lie. If you just keep saying you’re sorry it doesn’t matter how much of a fuck up you are, right? Wrong.
I can’t fathom why a second item mailed to me would not reach me. I will not pursue the corporation about this any longer.
What is the problem inherent in large corporations? A company starts out with a vision; the more altruistic of them include employee benefits like health care, profit sharing, decent wages. They they get big and bigger and become anonymous always looking to the bottom line. Just because you say our company is caring and you institue a partnerline to handle complaints and even hire a third party to answer your hotline doesn’t mean it works! Just putting up the sign for a customer service number and advertising that we give better service doesn’t make it so. Yet as corporations grow they follow a path to a disconnect. The top implements programs that the executives love and their marketing people say will work wonders or sales. No – when will they learn it is the front line, bottom people that take care of the customers, not the ads and signs and new color schemes.
Starbucks is already passe, isn’t it? I love that I finally am drinking great tasting coffee without that burnt taste. (No more free weekly one pound coffee for me.) So many Americans have totally killed their taste buds.
And yes, Howard Schulz, your dream no longer lives in your extensive network of stores, licensees, retail outlets, and so on. You simply can’t have a mega-empire and deliver top quality personal service and product.
Starbucks Pays Up
I will be receiving my tips. The chipper little girl at the Partnerline called me to let me know. As typical of her generation (yeah, I’m making a judgement call about her age based on her speech and voice and position) it was very hard to clarify to her that the address used in early March was valid – I did not move until the end of March. Anyway, I have mail forwarding. Little Cary seems convinced that I am at fault haven’t been so inconsiderate as to move and lose my mail. No you silly bitch – the manager sent the funds by cash! Regular mail. She is a silly bitch too. Stop trying to find a reason that I did something wrong. Well, I did get fired but considering the level of dysfunction among the ADD and alcoholic coworkers (and high maintainence clients) I don’t consider it a fault on my behalf. Yeah, I never really bought in to the Starbucks as an experience concept.
Ethics and Starbucks
Yes, once they were a model company for their treatment of employees and for providing medical benefits to part-time employees. Now they are a mega corporation struggling with an economic depression, personnel problems typical of mega corporations, and no longer a media darling.
Right now my specific problem is that when I parted ways with Starbucks I asked the Store Manager to send me my tips. She heartedly agreed! Such a good Starbucks employee – never say no! I waited a week for the money along with my last pay statement. Alas, no gifts came in the mail. I contacted her, giving her the benefit of the doubt – too busy perhaps. No, she sent them out three days later than promised, but mailed.
Waited a bit longer. Still nothing. When I called her found out she sent CASH! In the mail! And she adds that she checked and found out my paycheck hadn’t been cashed. What paycheck? It was a pay statement and direct deposited. Who are these people and why are they in charge of anything.
I also contact her District Manager by text message asking that he help her resolve the situation. Of course I get no reply, so typical of her, more evidence of the new way they now treat employees. Store Manager tells me the DM is unhappy with her for sending cash and not using certified mail. She says she is not sure of where to get the money to pay me my tips.
Time passes I hear nothing. I contact the help line. This is so wrong; bad enough I’m taxed on more tip income than I ever actually receive, but now I don’t even get the tips. Granted the money isn’t much but I abhor stupidity.
From the third-party confidential help line I get a call from Partner Resources. In a nutshell, the DM states they are not responsible for my tips. But Partner Resources will work with him to see if they can resolve this.
Okay asshole DM what you are responsible for is that the Manager should never touch tips. You have no proof she ever mailed it. And you are responsible for agreeing to do something. Write the bitch up. Go ahead and check the tip slip – verify that I signed for my tips. I dare you.
Yeah, it’s only a fucking $28 or so.
This is what happens when you give people without common sense positions with responsibility. And I don’t miss the work at all. It became demeaning. High maintainance customers, psychologically unbalanced co-workers, and the standard low motivation college kids. And now I can buy good coffee beans instead of the weekly one pound freebie.
Only Thirty yet Bankrupt, Divorced, and Medicated
Like I always say, it could always be worse. One of my former co-workers was a thirty year old who put her husband through med school (using some of her own inhertiance) put her own ‘career’ in retail merchanding on hold, just to have the guy dump on when he finished school.
So there she is, working in a coffee shop, living at home, owing $32,000 in medical bills, and on anti-depressants. Okay, I can understand the anti-depressants; I only wish I could have got some from my doctor.
But with all this, what does she do with her life: part time job in a coffee shop partiying like there’s no tomorrow with college kids. Her best friends are a lesbian and gay guy and she complains she can’t meet any good men. It’s drinking until you vomit or are drunk enough to have sex with a stranger.
Spends her near minimum wage earnings on Madonna and Brittany Spears concerts and staying in hotels ordering room service. On a night out in Chicago they ran up a $200 bar tab, went to the room and ordered room service, more than once; next night hit a wine bar. And this all was just to pick up someone from the airport, a 2 -3 hour drive from their home.
I was so lucky when I was a college since we had no money, no charge cards, so were really limited in the damage we could do to ourselves. Cheap wine and maybe someone else would share some pot with the rest of us.
I just don’t get the insanity I see these adults. And I find it hard to listen to their complaints that they have no money. Are these the people I’ll be relying on to pay into Social Security so I can have my benefits?
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