Don't You Know Who I Am??

[Primer]

Personally, I have never been impressed by fame or infamy. I treat everybody the same.

One evening I was at a local resaurant, waiting at the bar to meet up with a group of friends for Happy Hour. There was a gentleman sitting a few stools down, smoking a cigarette. I asked him, "Mind if I share?" referring to the ashtray, which was on the other side of him from me. He gave me a funny look, and tried to hand me his cigarette! I said, "No, no, the ashtray!" We both laughed as he set the ashtray between us.

He picked up his to-go order that he was waiting for, and headed on out.

The bartender then asked me, "Don't you know who that was?!? That was Ray Benson, from Asleep at the Wheel!"

To his credit, Ray was a really nice guy, even though I had no idea who he was.

He did come back in a few hours later, and I jokingly offered him my cigarette, but I didn't make a fuss over him.

[Bliss]

A certain lead actor from a certain classic sci-fi tv show rented a car from us once, and didn't want to sign his contract because he "wasn't here to sign autographs."

And let me guess, he still insisted to treat you to one hour of himself dramatically narrating lyrics to several songs... didn't he?

[TonyDonuts]

, and so when we got to the "do you know who I am" phase of the process, I would generally look earnestly at their driver's license and read the name. :

And then you look up, with a puzzled look, and say something like, "This ain't you?"

Good times.

[Ringtail Z28]

I think the best answer to "don't you know who I am" is "of course I do, you're a valued customer!" This has to be accompanied by an alarmingly earnest sh*t-eating grin for the full effect.

I've never had to use it.

The closest I've come to this is when government employees come in. I live just outside of Washington DC, so we have a lot of military and government folks, in my store, and in general. Some of them seem to have a real attitude...no offense to anyone involved in political circles, I realize that the idiots are but a fraction of the population. Anyway, one of them was very displeased with me because our system wouldn't accept his government credit card.

I don't believe you're supposed to use government credit cards to rent irritating movies for your equally irritating children.

Me: I'm sorry, I can't accept this.
Him: ...
Me: ...
Him: That's a government credit card.
Me: I realize that, Sir, but -
Him: a government credit card.
Me: Our system won't -
Him: A government...credit card.
Me: *pausing to make sure he's done* It's just that -
Him: A...government...credit...card.

I hate people who wait for you to start talking and then interrupt you. Luckily for him, this was my first or second week on the job (my first job), and I wasn't a shift manager yet. I would have been much less friendly if I'd had the confidence in my job security that I do now. In fact, I might have taken down his name and informed his superiors that he was using his government...credit...card to rent movies.

Working in a government agency and being a card-holder myself I have absolutely saying that most other card-holders are complete piles of SHIT! The Procurement Cards (or P-Cards) as they're known, have so many security features on them that a lot of places simply can't accept them. That jerk should've known that. I put up with plenty of people like that during my days in retail and when I started working for a county agency I swore that I would never act like the rest of them. I have noticed when I use the card at stores that a lot of cashiers start to become defensive, like their expecting me to start acting like a jerk at any moment.

[Bugg]

At my job we have different entrance times to the store depending on the type of membership you have, the one for business owners and the upgraded membership get in at 10.30 and the basic gets you in at 11.00...this often causes problems during opening. I remember one time where a man came up to the door and I told him that his membership type has to wait.at the time about 15 min, so he goes away and then comes right back with his wallet open and the card on top of his police badge, and asked "How long do I have to wait?....at least i got to say, still 15 minutes, sir, with a large smile

[blas]

I'm not even lying or exaggerating when I say that the people I dealt with at the gas station, (in their owns minds, mind you) thought that they were all big, famous, and deserved VIP treatment.........meaning first in line, record time checkout, no hassle over checks and credit cards, no carding for ciggs, etc etc.

When they'd come in and it was slammed, they were always the ones who'd stomp their feet, huff and puff, and glare at me for DARING to be busy and not wait on them first, hand and foot.

"Yes, you disgusting entitlement issued pig, how can I help you?" is what I always wanted to say.

I still have a thing against people in general, but poor SCs the most. Many could argue that rich customers are worst, I think poor ones are. You can be very low income and still have manners and class. My family was extremely poor when I was a little kid. Did my parents act the way that all the customers at the gas station do? NO. Manners and class are priceless.

[Jester]

I have dealt with a number of people, personally and professionally, who were famous but did not pull that kind of crap, and were actually very very nice. (The ones that jump right to mind that were polite and nice are Sandra Bullock, Rob Schneider, Mark McGwire and Cheech Marin).

And I have dealt with some serious asswipes who had serious superiority issues. (The more Vanessa Williams' career goes into the crappier, the happier I am.)

But the only time I ever had to deal with a celeb's "do you know who I am?", it wasn't the celebrity himself, but his entourage. The Super Bowl was in Phoenix (1996), and our place was jumping, much later than normal, but at the time in Arizona, you could NOT serve alcohol after 1 a.m. State law. And I had been serving Dan Patrick of ESPN and his group, and as 1:00 rolled around, I broke the sad news to them that there would be no more booze, the night, at least at our establishment, was over. To which one of them said, "Do you know who this is?" My response: "Yes, I do. And I love your work, Mr. Patrick. But unfortunately, the State of Arizona has very strict liquor laws and will not bend them, no matter how much I may wish otherwise." Dan was very cool about this whole thing, but the original instigator was a reall asshat. And no, I did not serve them after that.

I still hate when I card someone for alcohol and they or one of their friends breaks out a badge or says they are a cop. "Right. Then you should KNOW that I need to see ID to serve alcohol!" They always have trouble arguing that particular point.

[thelong1]

[QUOTE=Primer] I asked him, "Mind if I share?" referring to the ashtray, which was on the other side of him from me. He gave me a funny look, and tried to hand me his cigarette! I said, "No, no, the ashtray!" We both laughed as he set the ashtray between us.
QUOTE]

LOL That was hilarious. I don't care who you are, if you are willing to share your cigarette with a complete stranger then you have to be a nice person.

[thelong1]

Many could argue that rich customers are worst, I think poor ones are. You can be very low income and still have manners and class. My family was extremely poor when I was a little kid. Did my parents act the way that all the customers at the gas station do? NO. Manners and class are priceless.

I'll agree with that statement. In my experience rich people have way more entitlement issues than poor people. Its not like I'm saying poor people know their place or anything like that, but a lot rich people just have this "I'm better than you" attitude.

When I worked for Blockbuster I would sometimes go to the other stores in our district to help out if they were short staffed or sometimes to help sell rewards (because I was the bomb ) but when I went to the stores in the "poor" neighborhoods I would get so much less grief from customers about late fees it was almost alarming.

[Mixed Bag]

Politician: C'mon, buddy, don't you want to help me out? I am a senator, you should help out your public servants.

Hubby: (long, hard pause, where he collected himself. ) YOU want a handout from ME????? (this was actually late in the evening, not a lot of folks in the store. Hubby got away with murder on a regular basis, frankly.) Lemme get this straight, you tax the hell out of MY paycheck, I'm in here working for peanuts, theres' no way you're ever giving ME a break, and now you are in here asking for a handout from ME???

Guy kind of freaked out a little and fairly fled the store, H following along behind him, saying "I can't believe you are asking a handout from ME!"

RK, having been somewhat critical of your husband in an earlier post, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate what I imagine are typically wonderful comebacks from him--especially now that I'm not so new here and I "know who you are."

[Mr. Rager!]

p1: Do you know who I am?
p2: No. Do you know who I am?
P1: No.
p2: Then we're even.

[dragonflygrrl]

And let me guess, he still insisted to treat you to one hour of himself dramatically narrating lyrics to several songs... didn't he?

Oh yeah...he's a...rocket...man... LOL

And then you look up, with a puzzled look, and say something like, "This ain't you?"

Good times.

My gods, were you there? The trick is doing it with absolutely no irony in your voice or expression.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

At my job we have different entrance times to the store depending on the type of membership you have, the one for business owners and the upgraded membership get in at 10.30 and the basic gets you in at 11.00...this often causes problems during opening. I remember one time where a man came up to the door and I told him that his membership type has to wait.at the time about 15 min, so he goes away and then comes right back with his wallet open and the card on top of his police badge, and asked "How long do I have to wait?....at least i got to say, still 15 minutes, sir, with a large smile

Do these people think when they do this that we are thinking "oooh, I better do what he says! He might put me in jail!"

Do they think we are all 6 years old?

I'm just going to say this, and I hope I don't offend anyone. I'm just being honest. In general, I don't like cops.

There. I said it. this is not to say I think all cops are bad, or that I think the profession is bad. I dont'. I think there are enough of these kind of douchbags who abuse their positions, and bullies, in the profession to sully it, though. Enough that I have developed a predjudice against cops, and when I encounter one, I am wary until they give me a reason to NOT be wary. I'd have to say I've encountered more bad cops than good ones in my life.

Is this wrong of me? I dunno. Like I said, I'm just being honest.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

RK, having been somewhat critical of your husband in an earlier post, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate what I imagine are typically wonderful comebacks from him--especially now that I'm not so new here and I "know who you are."

Hehehe...thanks. He is an extremely no-nonsense sort of guy. He's very nice, but he doesn't suffer fools at all. He tends to call BS when he sees it, and doesn't care much about the repercussions of it. And his particular wit leads to some really amusing quips.

[SwanJun]

Not quite, AFP only works on a federal level and in ACT. The RCMP in addition to it's federal duties is the provincial police in 8 provinces and 3 territories as well and the municipal police in Ottawa and many small towns.

<Smiles>

I actually got that information off some Aussie Police site, and they actually said that the AFP is the equivalent of the Canadian RCMP, because they are both community, state and Federal ... or something like that. I can't quite recall.

<points at the monitor all innocent> So blame the net if I goofed it up. I can go all SC and demand that you are wrong and a moron because some obscure website told me otherwise...because...I know everything - I am never wrong MoohooHAHAHAHAAH

I actually, always thought that the FBI of Aussie was some mob called the CID...But apparently that group doesn't even exist.... <shrugs>

Oh <giggle> I can be pretty darn ignorant at times....

SJ

Edited to add: I'm not calling anyone a moron....just trying to be cute