Naivete' online

[Peppergirl]

And yes, I may be referring to our sister site.

What amazes me more than some of the outlandish stories people tell online is the fact that otherwise seemingly intelligent people fall for them, hook-line and sinker.

It's very disheartening to me, and frustrating as a mod. I often find myself wanting to reach through my screen and shake people and say, 'wake up'!

Does anyone else wonder if people they perceive as naïve online are as gullible in real life? I do, especially lately.

[Andara Bledin]

Personally, unless it's a sob story looking for a hand out or sympathy, I really don't care too much.

I have a friend with a story that sounds utterly ridiculous and most people would likely judge it as being fabricated or at the least, embellished. I don't really care about that, either.

[HYHYBT]

One thing to remember is that improbable things do happen.

[s_stabeler]

Exhibit A: 419 scams. QED. They are just as gullible in real life.

[Peppergirl]

One thing to remember is that improbable things do happen.

I would agree to this, as improbable things happen occasionally. But to happen *every* time someone steps out of their home? Sorry, no. Or that *every* interaction with a customer results in over-the-top drama, cursing, and histrionics? Every single time? No.

[BlaqueKatt]

I would agree to this, as improbable things happen occasionally. But to happen *every* time someone steps out of their home?

And those are the posters that get tons of attention, so they keep doing it. There are several posters I skip 100% because of that.

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

I think the universal skeptic is fairly rare. Most people have blindspots that come from believing things they want to believe.

They want to believe that a customer can be that stupid, or they want to believe a government is evil, or they want to believe a story about racism not because they like those things but because regardless of how plausible the story actually is, it validates something they actually think.

I just tend to enjoy the excuse to laugh.

[anakhouri]

There are some people who seem to interact with or witness terrible behavior so much, I think, "Where are they that everyone in their vicinity was raised by wolves?"

But whether it is true or not doesn't impact my life; as others have said, if they're not asking for donations or something else to defraud people, I don't mind. I just sort of roll my eyes if it seems too outlandish (especially when they/someone else puts down the SC and everyone in the store breaks into spontaneous applause. I can't ever imagine this actually happening outsode of a movie).

[Peppergirl]

But whether it is true or not doesn't impact my life; as others have said, if they're not asking for donations or something else to defraud people, I don't mind. I just sort of roll my eyes if it seems too outlandish (especially when they/someone else puts down the SC and everyone in the store breaks into spontaneous applause. I can't ever imagine this actually happening outsode of a movie).

Fair point. I suppose, as a mod, I see much more of it than average. And I've rolled my eyes so much I've practically had seizures.

I guess it annoys me that drama-queen story tellers get sooooo much attention, which therefore makes them seek it more. The cycle perpetuates.

I do find myself wondering if it's like that on many web communities or just ours, as I don't really frequent many outside of CS and Fratch.

[Greenday]

Or that *every* interaction with a customer results in over-the-top drama, cursing, and histrionics? Every single time? No.

Some posts contain more idiots than I've seen in years. Look, I've worked at a pharmacy, I've been to college, I've worked at a horse racing track, I've worked for the government/military and now I work at a senior living apartments. I've dealt with my share of dumb people over the years. But it honestly seems like an implausible amount I see with some people.

[Ginger Tea]

No idea which posters are in the embellishment camp, I do enjoy some posters for the giggles, Arga's seem more on the up and up as people do park illegally all the time, how much of the douch level is expanded on, I care not, I'm just glad I live in another country and wont have to encounter these maroons.

I do tire of the fast food ones though, as sometimes it's the same thing just a different day and a bump thread with "Oh god it happened again" would be preferable than the 20th by the same OP.

CRML posts I'm not sure if people are genuinely that stupid "wiping seat dry in the rain", but I don't know where in the UK he is, so it may be something in the water.

For the down right creative writing I go to the not always sites, that has a high dose of implausible events and "That escalated quickly"

[Ree]

Personally, unless it's a sob story looking for a hand out or sympathy, I really don't care too much.

as others have said, if they're not asking for donations or something else to defraud people, I don't mind.

But what if they are?

We have some very kind hearted members, and I have seen more than a few storytellers over the years who have written such amazing tales that some have been taken in by the attention seekers.

Some have even handed over money, or have gone out of their way to help them find work or shelter, or have worried about their claims of suicidal thoughts.

(I recall one member a while back who claimed to have taken a cocktail of drugs and was just waiting to die. As the evening wore on, we were getting regular updates of the suicide attempt, and people were frantic with worry. I grew suspicious at the length of time it was taking for the pills to take effect, as well as the clarity of the posts. Some went above and beyond to find out her location and get help to the member.
I did some research and found that the specific combination of drugs would have caused irreversible damage to numerous body organs, yet she was back only days later with no lasting effects at all, angry at the people who had tried to help.)

On the surface, it may not seem like a big deal, but it does bother me that people may come to the site and read some of the more fantastic stuff and actually think we believe it, especially when there are pages and pages of responses with people lapping it up like sweet cream.

Oh well, we can't save people from themselves, and if they choose to believe what some might see as Munchausen worthy material, what cane one do?

[HYHYBT]

On the other hand, if someone just posted "I can't take this anymore. I'm going to kill myself now. Goodbye" and nothing further, *ever,* and nobody who saw it had tried to do anything.... well, I think that's firmly within "better safe than sorry" territory. If they come back complaining because they were just joking and didn't appreciate the police showing up, that's their problem.

They want to believe that a customer can be that stupid

Well, that's the trouble. It's not a matter of wanting to believe that. We *know*. However stupid a storyteller might make their customers, there will be a real one somewhere at least as dim. If people can be dumb enough that they have to ask the difference between a chicken sandwich and a fish sandwich, there's no limit.

Except, of course, as mentioned, the limit to how common it is.

(The people asking the difference between the crispy chicken sandwich and the grilled chicken sandwich were bad enough, and that was happening about every week for a while.)

[Ginger Tea]

I think it was not always that had a story about someone working at a vegan café and telling someone they didn't serve beef and why, well duh it's a vegan café.
Only to later find them eating Beef cooked there, why the manager/owner called it a vegan café to appease his daughter who had no idea what veganism meant , but it made her happy.

the poster quit for a real vegan establishment later on, but I cant recall if the original business folded when the vegans found they had been duped.

But I've read too many stories where Chicken is vegan to belive that some air heads have no idea what is going on within conscious eating choices (if that's the right phrase), I've joked that i'm eating vegetarian meals when chowing on beef as the cow was a vegetarian.
But then again I know what it means.

I've also had fall out from a co worker sending Kosher meals instead of Halal* and the ticket also saying Halal meal (must not contain pork), both meals were bought in pre packed from Kosher and Halal factories so they were legit, although I did hear that another company during the horse/beef scandal was using pig in either products.

*Some of it can be attributed to English as a 2nd language and the dominance of Halal vs Kosher so sending the one you know where it lives vs looking in the freezer for that one box in 20 of the other.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

I think a lot of it too falls under the law of averages. Take my daughter. She has a summer job at the local Walmart as a cashier.

Now she sees a lot of people in a shift going through her register. As a result she has at least one customer that sticks out and is remembered in her mind. This is one out of perhaps 100 people in her average 8-hour shift.

Either it's someone who is an asshole, someone who is an extreme couponer who tries to get Walmart to pay them for walking out with a cart load of goods (and getting pissy when Walmart sets policies to prevent the fraud), someone who is unpleasant to be near (unwashed, smelly, poorly dressed, or a combination of the three), or someone who buys a large quantity of odd things (like today's was the tale of the person who bought two, 12-unit boxes of chewing tobacco and admits to going through 2-3 bags a day).

I'm willing to wager that the majority of people that she sees are normal people who come in, buy stuff, pay and leave. Nothing memorable, nothing sucky...just plain Jane, simple transactions that she does and forgets.

It's not so much that she's attracting weirdos, but simply that out of every "X" number of people per day, "Y" number of them are going to be the ones that stick out. In her case...she gets one to two stories of SC's per day.

I do agree that there are a number of stories that seem to try to outclass everyone else and I do wish they wouldn't embellish the tales quite so much. Customer's Suck to me is more for having a place to vent frustrations about all the assholes out there in the world than it is for the entertainment value. Granted a lot of entertainment is there to be had simply because the attitudes and behaviors of the SC's are amusing in their own right, but the funny stories are funny because of the situation and don't really need much (if any) embellishment.