So yesterday the blogger lady was kind enough to link to me when she was guest blogging at Instapundit. And I had the resulting instalanche of page views when people followed the links. It was to the story about the lady who wanted a refund on her purchase of clothes that she had wore at her niece's Communion instead of store credit. I got a lot of new comments and a lot of interesting viewpoints.
One of them in particular interested me was by Carol Herman who said:
"By the way, she's LOCAL. Your story is now all over the Internet! People who read this in Brooklyn, probably know your store. And, if so, they probably know the "local" restaurant, as well."
Now that might be true. Even though I use a non de plume because my real name is the same as a very famous person in New York, many people know who I am and have contacted me at the store. Commenters as diverse as Pogo and Ritmo have got in touch and a few have come by to say hello. But I think people who comment on blogs and spend a lot of time on the net overestimate the importance of what they are doing. When I mention blogs to most people they have no idea what I am talking about. Even big time blogs like Instapundit or Althouse or Ace of Spades are not on their radar. They have no idea what I am talking about. When we went to the Thai restaurant last night I was talking about it to all the people there and not one of them had ever heard of Instapundit let alone my little pop stand. I think people take themselves and their opinions way too seriously.
That in essence was what that lady in the original post did at the store. She pulled the "Don't you know who I am card." The answer to that is always the same. "Yes I know who you are....an asshole." Some of the comments on closed shops like boringheads have such an over the top pompous sense of their importance that is just laughable. Get over yourselves douchenozzles. As Brother Mattihas used to say "Hey there are about a billion Chinamen who don't care what you think moron." You can't take yourself too seriously. Life is too short. When you flounce off like a diva you can't honestly expect anyone to give too shits. There are way too many things going on in this world for anybody to be paying attention to what you have to say.
So the Instalanche was very nice. But I think my blog has a somewhat limited appeal. Not everybody gets it. Or likes it. But that's OK.
Just know one thing. No refunds. Only store credit.
17 comments:
I had a customer write to complain about her experience in my popsicle stand. She bragged that she was a restaurant critic blogger and that I would rue the day we treated her as poorly as we did. I eventually found her blog and she indeed roasted us.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there, does it make a sound?
You're right, people overestimate the importance and influence of their opinion. I frequently wish I could purchase some asshole for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth.
One of them in particular interested me was by Carol Herman who said:
I haven't trusted a word that "Carol Herman" said since she spouted off about prenatal care and Freeman and a couple of real mothers had to school her: link
I don't want to be ornery, I'm just tired of bad gamesmanship.
I don't know what to think of Carol. I hadn't been aware of her till recently so I have to withhold judgement. She does seem to be all over the map though.
Waddayagonnado?
I had a woman who I threw out of the store because she wanted to bring in a dog threaten to blog about it. I had to laugh.
I said to her "Hey baby you want to measure blogs?"
Just sayn'
We got some bad reviews on Yelp and other places and the wife was flipping out. I mean the good to bad ratio was about 10 to 1 and several of the bad ones were obviously writtin by one of our cheif rivals. Yelp offered to drop the bad reviews and put good ones up if I paid up for advertising. I said knock yourself out dude, it's no skin off my ass.
"Just know one thing. No refunds. Only store credit."
Store policy, eh? Well, unless you say otherwise. It IS your store afterall, so I support you on your ability to both set policy, and to stray from it, assuming no laws against it.
I gather you think your wife is more likely to stray than you, but hey, that's really between the two of you. In any case, since this woman asked to talk to your wife instead of you, that might have had you take an even stronger stance...because...hey...your wife "strays from store policy" more than you would like. Or so you tell us OFTEN! ha ha
I mean if this neighborhood babe had talked to you directly, the outcome would have been entirely different. Right?
Heck, you would have given her a discount on the clothes right up front, beings that you had this personal connection. ha ha
Does your wife ever poke you between the ribs about that?
Oh of course she does! No WAY the Trooper York's take themselves or their opinions too seriously.
Amirite?
My guess is she loves you even more when you get all "snarly" on the internets.
Too cute for words!
Oh, and one more thing.
Poke all you want at "Boringheads".
My "forever response" to those who are bored is this...
At least it FELT good to be bored.
Amirite? :P
I once knew a woman named "Carol Herman, too. She was an amateur viola da gamba player and a very nice person. I have no idea what became of her, but she probably isn't your "Carol Herman," because mine was 15 or 20 years older than I was many years ago, and I am now grown old and will be dead or wish I were in 15 or 20 years at most.
Your "Carol Herman" does it all wrong. She should be more like my "Carol Herman," and say quiet, intelligent things and play the viol lyra-way, something like this lady does. But then again, people who are quiet and intelligent generally don't set out to rile people up on the internet.
OTOH, Trooper, Carol Herman makes a valid point: what can get around, be it gossip, rumor or the truth, will get around (maybe less so with truth).
Eh, it's probably not true, but if it were, it probably wouldn't be a bad thing.
Finding out indirectly would allow the restaurateurs to go through all the histrionics in private, then re-compose themselves and figure out how they want to handle the loss of a really good customer.
my real name is the same as a very famous person in New York
There's another famous Trooper Kirby in NYC?
#obtuse
my real name is the same as a very famous person in New York.
Trooper Tweed?
Penny said...
I gather you think your wife is more likely to stray than you, but hey, that's really between the two of you"
She is the one who is adamant about the policy. She just wants me to enforce it. You see I am the "bad cop."
Actually two very famous people have the same name. One a newscaster and the other a real rich dude.
Trooper Trump?
To Trooper York.
Sir,
As the Ghost of a Gentleman, dead these 260 Years and more, I may tell you I have known many a striving Tradesman, and many who were likewise ambitious of becoming Authors. Such Aspirations were occasionally to be met with in One-and-the-Same Person, which you may see in the following Letter from the London Intelligencer of May 10th, 1711; Viz.:—
Mr. INTELLIGENCER,
SIR,
' YOUR having rendered such excellent
' Advice upon several curious Topicks
' emboldens me to apply to you at this
' Time. I am a Lady Shop-keeper, who,
' together with my Husband, keep a
' Dressmaker's Shop. I find by
' Experience that nothing but the
' utmost Diligence both of Husband
' and Wife (among trading People)
' can keep Affairs in any tolerable
' Order. My Husband at the Beginning
' of our Establishment shewed him
' self very assisting to me in my
' Business as much as could lie in his
' Way, which was in the keeping of
' Accompts, the Management of
' Mercers, Factors, & Warehousemen,
' and seeing to the Cartage of
' Bolts of Cloth, Sundries, &c. In
' short, he was the perfect Factotum.
' Of late, I must tell you, he has
' neglected his Duties, such that I have
' not had a proper Accounting as to
' Getting or Spending these past
' Three Months, and am grown very
' uneasy. Instead, he spends his Days
' scribbling Jests, for either his own
' Paper, or in Letters he sends other
' Papers, too fill'd with Party-Strife
' to attain to the Wit they pretend.
' I may tell you, Sir, his incessant
' praise of one Faction, and concomitant
' Disparagement of the Party opposite,
' causes me no end of Worry; as
' I care not whether Whig or
' Tory Ladies should pay me
' Custom, but that All whom I wait
' upon would be pleas'd. As it is, I
' fear my Trade may be in the Balance
' against my Husband's Ambitions.
' As you, Sir, are of the Grub-Street
' Tribe, and not unacquainted with
' Author's Disappointments, I pray you
' might know some Method of
' Discouragement I may apply, to bring
' my poor Husband to his senses, and
' tell me what I should do.
' Yours, &c.,
' Betty Hemstitch
' P.S.— A Shipment of choice
' silken party-colour'd Hoods is newly
' arriv'd from Paris, wherein a
' Lady may appear to Advantage in
' any Assembly.
' MADAM,
' IT would be far too churlish of me
' to encourage any Scheme of
' Disappointment against a Fellow-
' Author, for I am certain the World
' should soon enough perform the
' Action on its own. If you lack
' Patience, and fear enough for your
' Trade, you ought privately to
' engage a Keeper of Accompts, a
' Drayman, &c., and bear the
' Expense 'til your Husband recovers
' his Reason. He may, for a Time,
' become one of those Drones we
' see daily in Coffee-Houses,
' smoaking his Pipe, reading News-
' Papers, conversing with his
' Fellows, and scribbling in his
' Journal in Preparation for his
' next Literary Performance.
' I have known, Madam, several
' Traders become indifferent Authors;
' but, I know well one Author who
' became a well-to-do Trader.
' He says he thought One Day to
' better employ his Talents than
' in the writing of Lies for
' News-Papers in a Garret; and
' now he keeps a Shop in the
' Strand, and only writes on
' the Rarity of his Japan-Ware,
' or the Finesse of his Dresden
' Tea-Cups.
' I have every Hope, Madam,
' that your Husband may soon
' be thus employ'd, writing for
' you only on Hoop'd Skirts and
' French Sleeves.
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