I was going to write about my dog being silly this morning, but then I got angry so there is this instead.

Forgive me if at some point I ramble off on a tangent or my ideas seem disconnected. I write oddly when I'm angry.

So yesterday we had a customer come into the store to get some work done on his guitar. Turns out he wanted sixty dollars worth of work done for ten dollars, and our tech couldn't do that and offered to do it for fifty instead of sixty, which is ten dollars off, but it's impossible to charge only ten dollars for parts and labor both when just the parts themselves cost thirty dollars.

He was loud and agitated, and left in a huff, but he called an hour after he left and asked for the contact information for our manager so he could complain. He'd only spoken to our repair techs while he was here, and so I knew exactly who he was going to complain about. I gave him the information, and then warned the tech involved that he was going to send an e-mail.

The e-mail was read by our manager this morning, printed, and given to the people he complained about. Imagine my surprise, friends, when I myself was mentioned.

First, he accused me of ignoring him and playing video games while he waited for the tech to be available. I did, however, greet him when he came in. And I don't play video games. I don't own any kind of video game. So unless he saw me playing solitaire, which I didn't play at all yesterday, I'm very sure he didn't see me playing any games. As to ignoring him, I greeted him when he arrived, as I am required to do unless customers are on their cell phones, and I pointed him to the tech and told him he would be with him when he was available. He then proceeded to walk up to a different employee, who was the wrong tech, and have a conversation. My job does not require that I do anything beyond greeting and saying goodbye, unless someone approaches and asks for help. Since he knew who he needed and was waiting, I did not need to have anything else to do with him. I went back to my computer, where I was busy reading reviews of my newest chapter for my fan-fiction.

Second, this man accused me of ignoring our security monitors the entire time he was here. This man was the only customer in the store at the time. There was literally nothing to watch on the monitors, and it is quite clear that, as far as my job goes, as long as I answer the phones, greet people, and watch the store when it is extremely busy, I am allowed to do whatever I want. So I read, I play solitaire, I blog, I read and write various fan fictions, and sometimes I draw and pop bubble wrap. As long as I stay in my seat, it is made clear that I can literally do whatever I please. 

Third, this man said, and I quote, "I saw the girl at the front desk sign onto her Facebook twice and decided to leave." 

Well, I do have my Facebook up on my browser twenty-four seven. I never close out my Facebook. I'm permanently signed in. So he could not possibly have seen me "sign in" twice. Second, I happen to know for a fact that the entire time that loud and obnoxious man was in our store, making a fuss and generally acting like a baby, I was actually on HPFF checking and responding to the reviews of my loyal fans. All of my responses are time coded, and prove that I was using HPFF while he was in the store. I answered thirty six reviews and was still responding after he'd gone. His visit is time coded and matches with the times of my reviews. Needless to say, I wasn't on my Facebook while he was here. And since he was being a general jerk, I actually had my headphones in to block out his noise. And while answering reviews isn't really any more professional than playing video games, I'd like to point out that he was lying. 

Or he'd been in another day and saw me playing games but decided to throw it in because he's a fucking asshole.

But he didn't complain about the headphones, which would have been his only valid complaint if he had chosen to say something about it.

As to what he said about the tech who he waited for, he accused him of being disinterested and annoyed when asked questions, and even said that he, the customer, was more entitled to our tech's paycheck. And then proceeded to say he was an expert player and has been a teacher for forty years and he's not sure he wants to give us his business or his students' business anymore because of myself and the tech that he spoke to. This man forgets his own rudeness, his tantrum, and the fact that he ignored me when, despite his attitude, I wished him, brightly, to "have a great day!" 

And even when he called, despite the fact that he was rude and on the verge of yelling at me over the phone, I was still polite and never failed to sound happy and helpful.

However, since he seemed so very desperate to single me out when I had absolutely nothing to do with anything that was going on and was very much minding my own business and doing my job, I'm tired of being nice.

That man, Mr. Real Prick Crawdad, is a selfish, delusional, arrogant Jerkface, and I couldn't care less about the store losing his business. Since our tech has hundreds of repeat clients who will go to no one except himself for his repairs, it can only be reasoned that this one customer is just an asshole. And while our manager did respond and offer a polite apology for the misunderstanding, he made it clear that we were both doing our jobs, and that he could kindly get over it or take his business elsewhere because it is completely inexcusable to behave to inappropriately towards his employees.

Score one to Manager for taking up for us. Granted, I do play on Facebook a lot when I'm at work, and there have been people who have offered snide or snarky comments about it. But this man was groundless in his accusations. Had it been any other time or any other day, he would have been right. In fact, he'd probably seen me play on my Facebook when he came in all of the other times, but he didn't complain then when I was actually doing it. He could have complained about me being on my cell phone and I wouldn't have argued it, though I am allowed to talk on it as long as it doesn't interfere with my other duties. But the fact is, he only even mentioned me because he wanted to complain about everyone in the store because he was mad about not being able to pay less than cost for repairs he needed.

At one point in his e-mail, which was two pages long, he even suggested he was more entitled to our tech's paychecks because he knew more about repairs.

My question?

If he knows so god-damn much about repairing guitars, why the hell was he bringing it to us to fix? He could have just bought the parts and done it himself. But he obviously knows nothing about guitar repairs, which he plainly proved when he said, "Can't you just pop the new saddle into place?" Anybody who knows anything about guitar parts knows that every saddle comes the same size and you have to shape it and sand it down to specifically fit any guitar. It is not "one size fits all" it is "every saddle must be customized and comes in a standard size that fits nothing." And if you don't fit it exactly, then the guitar strings don't rest right and the sound is wrong and the strings break.

Duh.

But it doesn't matter. People have sent in complaints about the color and length of our hair before, so we just let the comments go.

You know what? I don't actually have a problem with people complaining about me, so long as I was actually doing what I've been accused of. Granted, I only don't care because I'm doing exactly what I'm allowed to do and there will be no repercussions for the complaint. But I hate being accused of something I wasn't doing. Doesn't matter what it was. It just makes me want to go out and do what I've been accused of, like when Padawan thinks I've slammed a door and I haven't, if he won't apologize I'll go out and slam the door so that his accusation is justified and I feel I deserve it. It's a compulsion I can't help. People complain when they see my computer up at all, even if I've only got word pad or the calculator up. People complain when they see me reading or drawing. It's what people do: they complain because they have nothing better to do or they're jealous that their job isn't nearly as cool as mine.