Restive State

Tis the season to be getting ones Holiday err, Christmas cards. I work at a mail-order* company that specializes in Christmas cards this time of year. It sucks. We get extremely busy, the customers get extremely rude and they expect you to have their card in stock, even though you have been selling them since July, and this is the last week of November. For some reason people expect to be catered to, inspite of their shortcomings. I've been yelled at, called "interesting" things, hit on - by men and women, told I was stupid and generally treated like a Al-Queda operative who was also a pedophile. Of course, being a customer-centric environment, I have to be pleasant, polite and understanding...of course you should hear the things we say after you've gotten off of the phone with us. But I digress.

After doing this job for awhile I came to a realization, actually several of them: 1. People are just stupid. 2. People who own their own business are the stupidest of the bunch**. 3. People believe that just because you are on the phone with them, they can abuse you anyway they want.

So in regards to these stupid, or at least, mis-guided folks, I present a Christmas offering from the Wall of Shame, which is tacked to my cubicle wall to the great enjoyment of my fellow cube dwellers.

Let me set the stage...
Our Christmas card catalog is sent out to businesses, not individuals. As such, in deference to our PC overlords, we manage to leave out almost any mention of religiosity. So there are no cards proclaiming "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanuakkah" or a simple mention of religious root of the holiday. Mind you though, as one of options for personalizing the "Holiday" cards, there are verses that reflect a very Christian Christmas sentiment, even beyond that, you have room to add your own personal lines to the card at no cost.
So we get a piece of mail in which is just the order page of the catalog. Scrawled across in big black Sharpee scrict reads to following:

What!? You mean to tell me that in spite of having the verses, the custom option and several cards that are very, very nice and reflect a very Christmas sentiment the customer just had to send this to us. What was it supposed to do, make us feel bad? Change our marketing and design bureau to fit in with the precepts of the Christian Coalition? The fact is, it did nothing, except make us laugh, especially when I pointed out that the person had sent it in their own envelope, with postage. Why not just leave it alone? And more importantly, why didn't you stop to make sure you spelled everything correctly? So there it is, Christmas cards and stupid people, what more could you want to brighten your holidays?

Til' later...


*mail order includes faxes and many, many stupid people calling in to our 800#

**Now before I send the small business community into full-blown litigious mode, let me publish a caveat...they're not stupid, some are very very smart and being so, they don't order from us. I have come to the theory that the reason why some people own their own business is because they are too stupid to work for someone else.