Naivete' online

[Aethian]

Sometimes I want to post something that happened to me at work but I don't because I feel like no one will believe me. Like the time i got attacked by a cat... Lately I've been feeling bad about even mentioning what's been going on in my life because its starting to get to the point where I have no luck except bad. Except I do have coworkers, paper work, and even two police cases to back it up if it was ever questioned.

[Andara Bledin]

I kind of feel bad for a couple of posters who, based on history, I believe have told legitimate stories that ended up being excessively popular only to have someone come in and question the veracity of their OPs.

I honestly find such question in-thread like that to be not only in poor taste, but kind of a side-swipe FTSTS without actually doing so.

Sure, there are people who embellish their stories. But even a large compilation of anecdata doesn't mean that a person who appears to get an abnormally high number of freakish encounters doesn't actually get an abnormally high number of freakish encounters.

I worked retail at an entertainment location for years. Before that, I worked craft shows several times a year for nearly a decade. However, my stories from all of that can be counted on 1 hand. I'm an extreme outlier. The curve on this would be necessarily bell-shaped, and there will be outliers on the other extreme.

Without proof that a person is not one of those, I don't bother judging because it's, honestly, a waste of energy. I enjoy the story for what it is, maybe comment on the overall situation (ways to avoid that happening in future, speculation on the type of person that would do such a thing, mockery of the same, etc) and move on.

If someone really is making up stories to tell, then I feel sorry that their lives are so empty that they feel the need to do so just to feel better. However, provided that all they ever do is go in for ego stroking, I just can't be bothered to really care.

[BlaqueKatt]

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.

Problem is, threads like that can and do very easily get buried because of the "embellishing attention seekers". I myself very rarely bother posting anymore and I've actually been a member of CS under various names(hacks under Mr. Slugger, made you reregister) since 1996. Any thread I post gets a response or two, and buried by the "popular" or EAS members. I actually did have a "someone please help me" thread, 3 people and the mods saw it IIRC, I deleted it after an hour or so, because I didn't want people to think I was attention seeking(and I was pretty sure no one cared-because of the aforementioned, threads buried within hours, usually by older threads bumped due to popularity of the OP), and one of the mods somehow found my address.

[MadMike]

I know what you mean. There are some members whose posts I don't even bother reading, because I can tell they're full of crap. Unfortunately, there's no rule against it, and it's not exactly easy to prove.

I think everyone just wants to be the next "Vinegar Boy." And I'll admit, I had my doubts about that particular story, but the more I thought about it, it all fit together too well to be a load of crap. Plus, if I remember correctly, "Aaron" wasn't constantly posting outlandish stories like this one. Most of what he posted was mundane stuff like the rest of our members normally post.

[Ginger Tea]

There was the incident in the library one that got the OP hospitalised, that had so many holes in it looking back (well it was old when I heard about it) it was posted as happening some time ago, to a few days ago to perhaps even the extreme of this has just happened, all within a few pages.
Granted this was follow up incidents and not the whole event, but if he did want to sell this as fact he needed to work on his fiction.

I have no idea if the poster has posted since, but one welsh security guard had a nasty incident with an OAP which seemed far fetched in some aspects, but all too plausible in others.

But, there are the anthology posts, some even preface that these are from a job x years ago and happened over a long time frame, but skimming that part makes it seem like s/he is a crazy magnet and called into question.
The fact that the preface is ignored is hammered home when people ask if they are OK or give advice on what to do next, what to do next was 5 years ago, so those that think these old tales are modern and also BS then take that on board when they have a new customer facing roll and have their first in years 0-WTF bat shit crazy story.

[patiokitty]

Considering the subject matter on the board I expect to read stories about insanity experienced either as a front-line employee or a bystander. Some of it is over the top - and I do remember at least one blatant liar that got caught out when their story went right off the rails. I am a little fuzzy on the details though, although I think it was the same story Ginger Tea is referring to.

I know I don't post a whole lot in the community section, but I do hope that my posts in the Heart of the Site aren't any of the ones being taken as a load of bs. They most certainly are not - I just don't tend to post about the good days at work because they're rather boring and mundane. I mean, who wants to hear about my conversations with my fellow employees about work-related stuff?

[Ginger Tea]

I am a little fuzzy on the details though, although I think it was the same story Ginger Tea is referring to.

I think it went along the lines of a well used dildo and a shove off a ladder resulting in a hospital stay.

I just don't tend to post about the good days at work because they're rather boring and mundane. I mean, who wants to hear about my conversations with my fellow employees about work-related stuff?

As has been said on CS before, SC's stick out more as they are arseholes, a quick and easy transaction with someone you may never see again, well they might be 99% of your core customers, some thing outstanding has to happen to bring them to mind.

I'm sure a few employees have me pegged as "Oh god it's him again." as my brain to mouth filter was never really installed.
Hell I knew I was digging a hole for myself recently but thought "Oh well she thinks I'm weird already one more line wont matter."

What started off as shopping for a few last minute costume replacements for my Magenta costume for the RHPS (it looks weird without the Picture initial even though it was live) when they came to Cambridge and saying one of my earliest participations was after moving and it was the "Sing a long a" production at the Corn exchange, but my memory has it as a small projector akin to when we had movies at junior school in the assembly, something that would have been better in a cinema if it weren't for the audience size being far larger. How I almost did the Sound of music one, but was limited to Nun Leider hosen or Prince Harry for costumes and maybe walking around Cambridge in the evening dressed as a member of the Hitler Youth wouldn't be the best of ideas.
But my brain Eureka'd for my 'sploitation movie and I just had to share, it ended up something like "Lesbian Nazi Nun's VS Vampire's" or some order thereof.

So upon paying I said to the Manager "I know you've got a job vacancy in the window, if I ever apply, tear up the application, if I have a conversations like I've just had upstairs as a customer, I really don't think I should be allowed anywhere near them as an employee."

[NorthernZel]

Regarding the OP, I have seen stories that seemed a little bit off - but due to the FTSTS policy, I've either kept my mouth shut or posted a sympathetic comment wherein I would ask for some more details.

My guess is that if only more people reported disreptiancies to the Mods over at CS.com, more BS stories would be seeped through.

[Gravekeeper]

I must admit I read a lot less CS these days then I use too because of this. I tend to stick with the posters I already know are legit and be rather dubious of new posters with low post counts. Especially if their first story is either outrageous, or worse yet is a "Oh Snap" type story. One where they "owned" an SC to adoring applause kind of thing.

Yeah, sure you did. Even I in my 10 years of experience have never "owned" an SC like some people claim to on the forum. Because its unprofessional and would likely get you fired ;p

Heck, in the worst highlights of my posts the problem is typically that I can't tell an SC off. So I'm stuck enduring it at length.

[Racket_Man]

One of th biggest reasons I do not do much OPing on CS is that most of my days are SSDD as in literally Same Shit Different Day.

It is only when I either get a string of really annoying SCs doing the same thing or something unusual happens that I will post. I have been backed up by other delivery drivers on CS on some of the things that happen.

I have never blatanly "powned" a customer (because they DO have the power to either get me in real trouble or possibly fired) nor have I embelished a story that I posted. Embellishment, in my case, is not needed.

I have however been called out for FTSTS and at one point one or two posts really brought out the "WELL you (or my company) should do XYZ to correct the situation." with XYZ being something that we as lowly peons could NOT change even though the company was informed, very dipolmacially, that what there were doing was killing sales, openning us up for scamming, and generally pissing people off.

A few posters back then were resistant to the idea that I DO NOT have control over a lot of things about my job/my company makes its OWN decisions even IF there are negative consequences to those decisions/management rarely listens to us peons about what we perceive as a poor decision/customers DO admit to doing stupid and bad things to the peons faces and the company will let them get away with it.

If my company makes a foolish deicision we the groundpounders (complete with blistered feet) have to follow that line no matter what.

[bainsidhe]

I'm naive, I admit it, and I tend to take most CS posts at face value. But I also chalk up a lot of the posts to good story-retelling. I assume the post will be written in way to show the SCs as great idiots or horrible people, and the OP as some poor, defenseless employee.

When I worked retail, I encountered my fair share of SCs and terrible CWs. However, few of the SCs were really worth mentioning and I generally forgot about them in a few minutes. Yet someone on CS will post a very similar situation, yet it's suddenly worthy of multiple paragraphs and quite dramatic. This means I either have an incredibly thick skin (I don't), or someone is just good at retelling a minor situation with "flare".

The thing that's always bugged me is how the OP is always innocent and was caught unawares by the SC's furor. We're all human beings and even the best of us will show irritation at unreasonable customers. And some of us are better at soothing an SC's irrational behavior than others. So when a post has an SC completely fly off the handle, I always wonder if the OP was getting a bit snarky and (perhaps unwittingly) making the situation worse. Especially when it's the same posters who keep encountering raging SCs.

[Ginger Tea]

Speaking of being caught unawares, this happened to me as a customer, I was buying some thick socks at a 'supermarket' not one of the big three in the UK as well as some food that I went in there for, the socks came in handy as I worked in a fridge and all I had at the time were thin had to double up on 'shirt and tie" type socks.

everything gets rung up cept the socks don't scan, she needed to call a manager, no biggie, I even offered to stand aside and let her deal with the queue behind me.
What I didn't expect was for her to start tearing up, not a visual bawling, but crying, over socks?
I avoided that shop for a few years after that, I had to rethink my steps to see if I said anything that could have been taken another way, in my head I was willing to restart my small transaction with the manager and let her get on with everyone else, that or pay for everything bar the socks and pay the manager, I forget which, it was 7+ years ago, but I had to wonder what I actually said if it brought on the water works.

Unless un priced socks killed her family?

[Pixilated]

I'm naive, I admit it, and I tend to take most CS posts at face value. But I also chalk up a lot of the posts to good story-retelling. I assume the post will be written in way to show the SCs as great idiots or horrible people, and the OP as some poor, defenseless employee.

Same here. Glad to hear I'm not the only one. I think it's just because I honestly don't think there's much of a limit on what an annoyed customer will do (keeping in mind that some SCs have problems extending beyond mere SC-ness).

When I worked retail, I encountered my fair share of SCs and terrible CWs. However, few of the SCs were really worth mentioning and I generally forgot about them in a few minutes. Yet someone on CS will post a very similar situation, yet it's suddenly worthy of multiple paragraphs and quite dramatic. This means I either have an incredibly thick skin (I don't), or someone is just good at retelling a minor situation with "flare".

I do have a thick skin so upset customers don't leave me worrying into the night. Also, for whatever reason, my encounters with SCs have been rare indeed, and those I've run into (or even heard about from CWs) have usually been nothing more than snotty.

And yeah, some people do tend to embellish their stories for dramatic purposes. Usually it's just icing on the cake, I think.

The thing that's always bugged me is how the OP is always innocent and was caught unawares by the SC's furor. We're all human beings and even the best of us will show irritation at unreasonable customers. And some of us are better at soothing an SC's irrational behavior than others. So when a post has an SC completely fly off the handle, I always wonder if the OP was getting a bit snarky and (perhaps unwittingly) making the situation worse. Especially when it's the same posters who keep encountering raging SCs.

Some very valid points here. Someone having a bad day due to non-work-related issues could very easily aggravate a situation, intentionally or otherwise. And sometimes you don't "read" a customer properly, especially if there are different cultures involved.

[Andara Bledin]

everything gets rung up cept the socks don't scan, she needed to call a manager, no biggie, I even offered to stand aside and let her deal with the queue behind me.
What I didn't expect was for her to start tearing up, not a visual bawling, but crying, over socks?

Two possibilities:
One: She'd been having a bad day and that was just what pushed her over that final edge into breaking down entirely.
Two: She'd been having a bad day and you're being a decent human being pushed her totally in the opposite direction, with your being sympathetic to 'things happening' that she felt safe enough that crying was an option.

[Ree]

I do remember at least one blatant liar that got caught out when their story went right off the rails.

I caught one dude red-handed in a blatant lie a few years ago.
I called him on discrepancies, and he tried to back pedal and do a run around on the truth and the time frames of his posts.
It was all such garbage.

You would not believe just how much "evidence" I have compiled over the years when some rather popular storytellers went off the rails with the truth. I have found big gaping holes in their stories, and they have made posts several months apart that contradicted each other, and nobody ever noticed.

I recall one tale that seemed so familiar, and when I did a search, I discovered it was actually a scene in a really bad movie way back in the 80's.

There was even one rather popular story that made the OP out to be a hero.
There was something vaguely familiar about the wording in one of the posts, so on a whim, I did a search of the whole "Vinegar Boy" saga, and sure enough, there was almost the same sentence. The OP's comment could almost have been lifted right out of Aaron's pages.

That was around the time I came up with "VBS" or "Vinegar Boy Syndrome" as a term in the CS Glossary:

VBS = Vinegar Boy Syndrome (when a poster tries to inflate their tale with enough manure to fertilize a few acres, just to gain acclaim from the good members of the board, all in hopes of becoming as famous as that tale.)

So, yeah, I tend to be really jaded when it comes to some members and their stories.

I only ever spoke up that one time because the guy was new and his story just stunk so badly that I couldn't stay quiet.

Most of the time, I just figure it's entertainment, and the members seem to like it.

After reading some of the comments, I'm rather glad to see that the naivete isn't as widespread as originally thought, and that others are just approaching it with the same idea.