
Paula is the host of the Monday Peeve and lo and behold it is perfect timing. https://lightmotifs.wordpress.com/2022/08/22/tmp70-experts-everywhere/
When I am out in public or talking to someone on the telephone I am careful to sound polite and respond appropriately, as the majority of the public treat salespeople and customer service people like crap. The other day I got off the phone with someone (can’t recall what I was inquiring about) and David said, “You are probably the nicest person they have talked to all day”. Which brings me to this morning…
I have a customer who is purchasing a miniature and would like it delivered on a specific day. I told the customer I would check with USPS and UPS to find out what services they offer. Now, I live in a small village and although I’ve only been here about 6 months I have been in the post office I don’t know how many times, shipping out packages. They know me, maybe not by name, but by face and box size…So I go up to one of the tellers, not the usual guy, and ask if there is a way to guarantee that a package can get delivered on one specific day. He told me no. So I rephrased my question to ask if there was a way to guarantee the delivery even though I was sure it would be costly. He told me “overnight it”. Okay. So I said, “I need it to get there the 29th, a Monday”. He said, “There is no guarantee”. So I said, “No, I mean for overnight”. I went on to ask, “So if that is the case then I should come back on Saturday to get it there by Monday, and he got all pissy with me and said, “There is no guarantee and if you send it today overnight it will get there tomorrow.” So, I said, “I understand, but I would have to come Saturday because you are closed Sunday, so the packaage gets there Monday?” And he got pissy again and said, “No, we are NOT open on Sunday!”
Okay, I get you are under a lot of stress but really? He didn’t even have to do anything except type in a few numbers on. his computer.
I was being nice. Can’t you at least be nice back?
Being nice does not guarantee that the recipient will reciprocate in kind. I consider myself lucky if half of the people that I address politely will respond with anything resembling kindness or class. But it’s like the only proverb, “Virtue is its own reward.” As long as you behave in a manner that is beyond reproach, you can take pride in that fact, and then move on.
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That is what I used to tell my students all the time. I worked in low income areas and they felt often like they were being treated poorly. I always said, as long as you know you are doing the right thing, that is what matters.
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Sometimes being nice is an effort. Hurray for us who had it ingrained at an early age.
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Right? It works both ways! Thanks for joining in ๐
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They donโt want to guarantee anything nowadays, to worried about the ramifications. So many jump on social media about anything ๐
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