I did the same thing as Kate and called my CC company before heading to Europe. This was good for two reasons: one, it avoided any "fraud" issues over there, and two, it prevented the card from being used here in case it was stolen and brought back over here. I had to call my cc company when I landed back in the states to tell them I was home.
As far as companies not calling you but waiting until you call them, I think that's a great idea. Yes, it's a bit of a pain, especially if you're trying to buy something at the moment, but it's a great way to avoid phone scammers. I would never give out valuable information if someone called me and wanted to discuss financial matters.
First, Kmart is an armpit of a company. They don't like to even exchange their own items, much less give a refund. Everytime I've had problems, so I don't shop at that dump any longer. Also, many of their stores are not only dirty, but very messy and unkempt.
As far as credit, I've had ALL my companies call me at home (at the very least) after a purchase or cash advance. It was the "fraud" division wondering if I had actually made the purchase.
Other credit cards (Amex, Discover, Chase Visa) have slashed my limits - EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE LONG STANDING ACCOUNTS AND HAVE NEVER BEEN A SINGLE DAY LATE. IN FACT, I PAY THEM USUALLY THE DAY THE BILL COMES IN.
And these are the theives that we are "bailing out?"
This is a great article! I just borrowed the book Waiter Rant from the library and I think it will be an entertaining read and have similar types of revelations for food service people. I've worked in food services and retail at an amusement park in high school. The food services stint was good to have, because I learned that it's better to prepare your own food rather than eating out. You really can't trust what happened to your food in a restaurant. I did not notice all the stealing and false returns for the retail job, and generally people were pretty nice. I guess I was lucky that I didn't have any bad confrontations. How bad the retail experience is may depend on which stores too. I've noticed that workers at REI and Trader Joe's usually seem quite content. After finding out all the perks for REI employees, I was even thinking about getting a part-time job there.
After high school many moons ago, I had opportunity to work at a higher end retail store. Most striking were the different kinds of customers. A woman whose family suffered a fire and needed replacement clothes for her kids was a gem. (She even helped me bag). A woman from out of the country, came 15 minutes before closing, got a ton of stuff, took until after closing, AND wanted to pay by check (large checks had to be signed off by two managers, a fun thing to try to do after hours), was not. It made me much more aware of cashiers, (they were sort of invisible before), and taught me to place cash into their hand,(not just dump it on the counter), and try to lighten their day with a little freiendly chatter, eye contact and a smile. Good life lessons.
I will never forget the lady (and I'm using that term loosely here) who was incensed that the afternoon before Christmas we did not have a gift box for $10 ornament. She was an absolute pill about it. It was with great satisfaction that I pointed to the CVS store across the hall and told her that they might still have boxes "this late in the game" and that perhaps next year "shopping earlier might be a better plan".
Brother are you egotistical! I've been a Controller, HR Mgr. for 20 yrs. and these are the type of questions for insight into character flaws and problems. With this knowledge companies can help to eliminate problem candidates with the potential of becoming problem employees. Problem employees are those that companies can't legally terminate without just cause. These types of employees are most often the cause of EEOC and frivolous lawsuits. Nowadays companies can and do loose thousands of dollars through these procedures.
It is much easier and safer to hire a candidate with much the same skill set and fewer character flaws. Companies would rather pay the tuition to develop a good employee with the skills needed. We do it all the time. Companies don't like to pay profits to attorneys. Good luck with your job search....sounds like your going to need it.
sounds like the writer of these words works for one of the companies that charges people to take there timeshare what a contradiction "give it to someone it can help "but "its such a bad thing" by the way everything you own has a maint fee .you know like your clothes and your car etc.... dont DONATE your timeshare use it and try and spend some quality time with your family just some advice from a 17 year timeshare salesman who has seen it all
Some of you brought up some good points that I'd like to clarify:
1. I did call the credit card company from the store.. the number would ring once, and then would disconnect. I tried numerous times from both the store phone and my cell, with no luck. Turns out that they had a system outage for two hours the day that I was in the store.. and that their phones weren't able to operate correctly. This had never happened before, and it was part of the reason they compensated me to generously for my trouble. Just my dumb luck, huh?
2. As far as other methods of payment not being able to work, I'm still trying to resolve that matter. Kmart has a partnership with a check clearinghouse company, and they "preapprove" purchases made with personal checks and bank-issued debit cards. They really wouldn't give me much information after calling their corporate office. All they could tell me was that they use my past history (based on my drivers license, the number of checks I've written, the amount and check number) to determine if I'm a good credit "risk" before allowing my check to go through. Even though I've never written a bad check, and there was PLENTY of money in my account, they were somehow predicting I was an enormous credit risk. I'm not sure if it was due to the other CC being flagged or not. Their only solution for me was to apply for a VIP check writing account, which would bypass some of the credit risk rating practices.
All in all, the entire situation probably could not have been avoided in this particular case. I do love my credit card, the company has always been more than professional, and I'm willing to work with them for the stability, low APR, and rewards that I earn. I just need to be aware.
I also want to add that more and more credit cards are employing similar procedures (if they are not doing so already), so switching cards may be a short-term solution. (Especially as we see the economy driving more questionable card practices among consumers and criminals.)
I worked wrapping gifts (a free service during the holidays) at a mall for a couple of years while I was in college. That was an experience. People who didn't understand that it would take a couple of hours to get their gifts wrapped, wanted the good paper (we worked in the back of a Hallmark store and only offered certain paper. It was nice, but not the huge selection Hallmark has.) and, my favorite, wanted two identical, intimate items from Victoria's Secret in two seperate sizes wrapped separately. Maybe some people buy sexy underware for their mothers and daughters as well as their wives, but I'm guessing not as many as we wrapped.
Similar thing recently happened to me--I had a card issued for my husband on one of my accounts, but he never uses it because he has his own "faves". But then he used it twice in the course of a week (gas and a DVD vending machine!) and the account got flagged.
But it sounds like part of the problem was not just that your card got declined, but that your purchase was blocked at the store via any method of payment. They should have a way that to contact the CC company and get it cleared--that's worth an angry letter to Kmart about.
If you're going to be doing something with your credit card which you know is unusual for you, you can call your credit card company ahead of time and alert them to your plans.
I traveled to Russia and knew that I couldn't count on any one of my ATM or credit cards to work over there at any given time or place. I also knew that Russia is an epicenter of credit card theft usage, so any legitimate activity on my part might well look suspicious. I didn't want to be stranded in Russia with no access to my money. So I called up the banks that held my money and my credit and I gave them a head's up. I told them which cities I would be in and when I would be there, which airports I would be connecting through, etc. They were both delighted and stunned to have me proactively giving them this information. The rep I spoke with said they almost never get such calls, and they were extremely appreciative. I never had any problem at all during my travels.
Just saying. It may be a bit of a hassle to make such calls. But if the alternatives are either huge frustration or credit theft, I'll take a measure of proactive hassle.
I worked retail many moons ago. The level of theft really is shocking. I worked at one of those combination veterinary clinic & pet stores. We had a women come dashing into the store urgently asking to use the bathroom. Assuming she had a medical issue we quickly showed her the way. A few seconds after she locked herself in the bathroom the loss prevention crew from the department store across the street came running in looking for her. The manager unlocked the bathroom door to find her stuffing handfuls of womens underwear that she had stolen down the toilet. This also broke the one bathroom in the entire store until we could get a plumber to come unclog it.
We had someone steal a pot bellied pig out of a corral on the floor in the middle of pre-christmas shopping. He grabbed the pig, did a football run through the crowd and dove into a car waiting at the curb. It was totally surreal.
Then we had someone pick up a patio insert pet door off the floor and try to return it. The manager knew right away because we only kept one in stock and had not sold one since the store opened.
Oh and yes, everyone should be required to do a stint in retail so they understand the other side.
I've had my credit card company call me when my purchases went outside the norm. Apparently it's not uncommon. What makes me wonder about other's experiences is that it seems like the at least some company's policies have changed in that they wait for you to call rather than calling you.
Now, especially when I'm going to be traveling somewhere I don't normally go and especially if the plane ticket isn't on the same credit card, I call my credit card company before I leave. That way they can put a note in my account that I'll be in this city/area during these certain dates and they should expect some charges. This works out really well and saves everyone lots of time and hassle.
For those who are going to be changing their spending habits quickly (or changing locations or whatever) I recommend calling the card company and letting them know what you're expected. By working with the company you can probably avoid a lot of these types of hassles.
I've had that happen before both with the credit card and with the debit card. Once someone had actually snagged the number from a store I had used it at legitimately and used it to buy several thousand dollars worth of tile. So, I was glad they caught it.
Another time my card had been used at a place that had been compromised for security, and they were testing to make sure it was me. Don't get me wrong, Linsey. It was absolutely a total pain in the butt. And you're right, it's hard to be standing there in front of a bunch of people you don't know and your card not working.
In the end, I guess it's better than having to deal with the alternative. Getting a new card can be a serious pain, even if it's just a replacement card. The numbers will be different, obviously. So all of the items you had on auto pilot (Netflix and your newspaper for example) need to be set up again. Ditto with Amazon stuff and other similar situations.
I've never had that happen to me, but whenever one of us goes out-of-state, or when we've driven across the country, we've always received a call from our bank making sure that it was us making the transactions.
I feel your pain. I worked for Best Buy and Target. We were once holding 10 playstations for a guy to buy for a charity, and a guy threatened to sue if we didn't sell him one of the 10.
We also showed favoritism to local celebrities, including giving them products not yet released to the public (XBox 360 comes to mind).
A fraud alert happened to me several years ago. I bought a large appliance (something I might buy every 10-20 years) and my cc was placed on fraud alert for being an out-of-pattern purchase. The $800 purchase went through without a problem but my next purchase at the gas pump, I couldn't pay for $10 worth of gas. I contacted the cc company, found out about the fraud alert, and had the alert removed; the company said they were were just waiting for me to call to make sure my cc wasn't stolen.
I had heard of fraud alerts but thought that flagging an appliance purchase wasn't a good mechanism for detecting out-of-pattern purchases so I never used that card again. I never have had a problem with other cc companies, though one did detect fraud of small purchases in another state. So, it seems that not all fraud detection methods are created alike.
I don't carry large amounts of cash around either, just a couple of cc's in my wallet.
I think the fraud system works quite well, saved me a bunch of trouble(and I'm sure it saved the CC money) when the same thing happened to me, except I really wasn't the one using my card for purchases. It had been stolen and I hadn't even realized it yet... The MO of thieves is to test the card with small purchases at gas stations, buying cigarettes, snacks, gas... then if everything goes smoothly, they go on a shopping spree, in my case, Walmart and the grocery store.
I never used the card to purchase gas or buy groceries, the CC system recognized this and flagged the account. They called me and asked if I had been using the card, I thought it was a joke... until finally the woman said, go and see if you have your card, turns out someone had stolen my wallet out of my purse at work.
So I think the credit card company was right in shutting your card down when they detected behavior that wasn't normal... for a person that doesn't use the card to make small purchases like Subway, it seems like what they did made sense-- yeah, it's embarrassing to be declined... I wasn't so lucky in catching all of the checks they had forged around town and it was a pain clearing that mess up with the checking validation companies, but in the end... I would rather go through a little embarrassment then have to deal with weeks of filling out fraud paperwork and sitting on the phone in customer support hades forever.
I was just wondering if there was a customer service number on the card that you could have contacted while at the store. Or at least have your credit card company in your cell phone so you can call them in case you have any issues (like it being rejected for fraud).
I also wanted to say, no one should have to deal with this sort of disservice from a credit card company. I really can't imagine a credit card company screwing up much more than this (though I am sure the credit company involved here, whoever it is, will certainly try). There is no need to go to extremes to monitor your spending habits.
Really, none of this is necessary. All this sums is to, you need to have a credit card through a company with proper working fraud system.
Stop using the card and get a card from a company that has reputable service (you are more likely to receive better service from a credit union than a bank), it is very possible you will be able to find a better card as well.
I've worked food service and retail both, and I believe everyone should have to experience life as an employee of those operations. Neither one was all that bad, and they gave me money quickly, but what I learned was that I didn't want to spend my life doing either one. Working those jobs convinced me to go to college, so I guess they were some of the most valuable experiences I ever had. And one of the most pleasant memories in my life was a night during the Christmas holidays when a man left a very generous tip unexpectedly and I NEEDED it so much. I hadn't even done anything special for him; he just gave it to me, and I'll always be grateful. Now I have a Master's degree and a much higher paying job, but I've never felt as good about a raise as I did about that tip.
I really think that everyone should have a forced stint in retail- it would go a long way to improving how most people treat retail workers I think.
When I worked retail I think that the shop-lifting was the most shocking thing to me- "why yes I do see that 160 piece cutlery set that you are clutching under your jacket"
today instead. Lots of mail to mail tomorrow. tomorrow we are going to a mystery baby shower; mother is alone. thanks for all the great ideas in the thread. i still don't think that any child regardless of parental income should be asking for high ticket items, but that's just me.
I did the same thing as Kate and called my CC company before heading to Europe. This was good for two reasons: one, it avoided any "fraud" issues over there, and two, it prevented the card from being used here in case it was stolen and brought back over here. I had to call my cc company when I landed back in the states to tell them I was home.
As far as companies not calling you but waiting until you call them, I think that's a great idea. Yes, it's a bit of a pain, especially if you're trying to buy something at the moment, but it's a great way to avoid phone scammers. I would never give out valuable information if someone called me and wanted to discuss financial matters.
First, Kmart is an armpit of a company. They don't like to even exchange their own items, much less give a refund. Everytime I've had problems, so I don't shop at that dump any longer. Also, many of their stores are not only dirty, but very messy and unkempt.
As far as credit, I've had ALL my companies call me at home (at the very least) after a purchase or cash advance. It was the "fraud" division wondering if I had actually made the purchase.
Other credit cards (Amex, Discover, Chase Visa) have slashed my limits - EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE LONG STANDING ACCOUNTS AND HAVE NEVER BEEN A SINGLE DAY LATE. IN FACT, I PAY THEM USUALLY THE DAY THE BILL COMES IN.
And these are the theives that we are "bailing out?"
This is a great article! I just borrowed the book Waiter Rant from the library and I think it will be an entertaining read and have similar types of revelations for food service people. I've worked in food services and retail at an amusement park in high school. The food services stint was good to have, because I learned that it's better to prepare your own food rather than eating out. You really can't trust what happened to your food in a restaurant. I did not notice all the stealing and false returns for the retail job, and generally people were pretty nice. I guess I was lucky that I didn't have any bad confrontations. How bad the retail experience is may depend on which stores too. I've noticed that workers at REI and Trader Joe's usually seem quite content. After finding out all the perks for REI employees, I was even thinking about getting a part-time job there.
After high school many moons ago, I had opportunity to work at a higher end retail store. Most striking were the different kinds of customers. A woman whose family suffered a fire and needed replacement clothes for her kids was a gem. (She even helped me bag). A woman from out of the country, came 15 minutes before closing, got a ton of stuff, took until after closing, AND wanted to pay by check (large checks had to be signed off by two managers, a fun thing to try to do after hours), was not. It made me much more aware of cashiers, (they were sort of invisible before), and taught me to place cash into their hand,(not just dump it on the counter), and try to lighten their day with a little freiendly chatter, eye contact and a smile. Good life lessons.
I will never forget the lady (and I'm using that term loosely here) who was incensed that the afternoon before Christmas we did not have a gift box for $10 ornament. She was an absolute pill about it. It was with great satisfaction that I pointed to the CVS store across the hall and told her that they might still have boxes "this late in the game" and that perhaps next year "shopping earlier might be a better plan".
Brother are you egotistical! I've been a Controller, HR Mgr. for 20 yrs. and these are the type of questions for insight into character flaws and problems. With this knowledge companies can help to eliminate problem candidates with the potential of becoming problem employees. Problem employees are those that companies can't legally terminate without just cause. These types of employees are most often the cause of EEOC and frivolous lawsuits. Nowadays companies can and do loose thousands of dollars through these procedures.
It is much easier and safer to hire a candidate with much the same skill set and fewer character flaws. Companies would rather pay the tuition to develop a good employee with the skills needed. We do it all the time. Companies don't like to pay profits to attorneys. Good luck with your job search....sounds like your going to need it.
sounds like the writer of these words works for one of the companies that charges people to take there timeshare what a contradiction "give it to someone it can help "but "its such a bad thing" by the way everything you own has a maint fee .you know like your clothes and your car etc.... dont DONATE your timeshare use it and try and spend some quality time with your family just some advice from a 17 year timeshare salesman who has seen it all
Some of you brought up some good points that I'd like to clarify:
1. I did call the credit card company from the store.. the number would ring once, and then would disconnect. I tried numerous times from both the store phone and my cell, with no luck. Turns out that they had a system outage for two hours the day that I was in the store.. and that their phones weren't able to operate correctly. This had never happened before, and it was part of the reason they compensated me to generously for my trouble. Just my dumb luck, huh?
2. As far as other methods of payment not being able to work, I'm still trying to resolve that matter. Kmart has a partnership with a check clearinghouse company, and they "preapprove" purchases made with personal checks and bank-issued debit cards. They really wouldn't give me much information after calling their corporate office. All they could tell me was that they use my past history (based on my drivers license, the number of checks I've written, the amount and check number) to determine if I'm a good credit "risk" before allowing my check to go through. Even though I've never written a bad check, and there was PLENTY of money in my account, they were somehow predicting I was an enormous credit risk. I'm not sure if it was due to the other CC being flagged or not. Their only solution for me was to apply for a VIP check writing account, which would bypass some of the credit risk rating practices.
All in all, the entire situation probably could not have been avoided in this particular case. I do love my credit card, the company has always been more than professional, and I'm willing to work with them for the stability, low APR, and rewards that I earn. I just need to be aware.
I also want to add that more and more credit cards are employing similar procedures (if they are not doing so already), so switching cards may be a short-term solution. (Especially as we see the economy driving more questionable card practices among consumers and criminals.)
Thanks for the comments!
Linsey Knerl
I worked wrapping gifts (a free service during the holidays) at a mall for a couple of years while I was in college. That was an experience. People who didn't understand that it would take a couple of hours to get their gifts wrapped, wanted the good paper (we worked in the back of a Hallmark store and only offered certain paper. It was nice, but not the huge selection Hallmark has.) and, my favorite, wanted two identical, intimate items from Victoria's Secret in two seperate sizes wrapped separately. Maybe some people buy sexy underware for their mothers and daughters as well as their wives, but I'm guessing not as many as we wrapped.
Similar thing recently happened to me--I had a card issued for my husband on one of my accounts, but he never uses it because he has his own "faves". But then he used it twice in the course of a week (gas and a DVD vending machine!) and the account got flagged.
But it sounds like part of the problem was not just that your card got declined, but that your purchase was blocked at the store via any method of payment. They should have a way that to contact the CC company and get it cleared--that's worth an angry letter to Kmart about.
If you're going to be doing something with your credit card which you know is unusual for you, you can call your credit card company ahead of time and alert them to your plans.
I traveled to Russia and knew that I couldn't count on any one of my ATM or credit cards to work over there at any given time or place. I also knew that Russia is an epicenter of credit card theft usage, so any legitimate activity on my part might well look suspicious. I didn't want to be stranded in Russia with no access to my money. So I called up the banks that held my money and my credit and I gave them a head's up. I told them which cities I would be in and when I would be there, which airports I would be connecting through, etc. They were both delighted and stunned to have me proactively giving them this information. The rep I spoke with said they almost never get such calls, and they were extremely appreciative. I never had any problem at all during my travels.
Just saying. It may be a bit of a hassle to make such calls. But if the alternatives are either huge frustration or credit theft, I'll take a measure of proactive hassle.
I worked retail many moons ago. The level of theft really is shocking. I worked at one of those combination veterinary clinic & pet stores. We had a women come dashing into the store urgently asking to use the bathroom. Assuming she had a medical issue we quickly showed her the way. A few seconds after she locked herself in the bathroom the loss prevention crew from the department store across the street came running in looking for her. The manager unlocked the bathroom door to find her stuffing handfuls of womens underwear that she had stolen down the toilet. This also broke the one bathroom in the entire store until we could get a plumber to come unclog it.
We had someone steal a pot bellied pig out of a corral on the floor in the middle of pre-christmas shopping. He grabbed the pig, did a football run through the crowd and dove into a car waiting at the curb. It was totally surreal.
Then we had someone pick up a patio insert pet door off the floor and try to return it. The manager knew right away because we only kept one in stock and had not sold one since the store opened.
Oh and yes, everyone should be required to do a stint in retail so they understand the other side.
I've had my credit card company call me when my purchases went outside the norm. Apparently it's not uncommon. What makes me wonder about other's experiences is that it seems like the at least some company's policies have changed in that they wait for you to call rather than calling you.
Now, especially when I'm going to be traveling somewhere I don't normally go and especially if the plane ticket isn't on the same credit card, I call my credit card company before I leave. That way they can put a note in my account that I'll be in this city/area during these certain dates and they should expect some charges. This works out really well and saves everyone lots of time and hassle.
For those who are going to be changing their spending habits quickly (or changing locations or whatever) I recommend calling the card company and letting them know what you're expected. By working with the company you can probably avoid a lot of these types of hassles.
I've had that happen before both with the credit card and with the debit card. Once someone had actually snagged the number from a store I had used it at legitimately and used it to buy several thousand dollars worth of tile. So, I was glad they caught it.
Another time my card had been used at a place that had been compromised for security, and they were testing to make sure it was me. Don't get me wrong, Linsey. It was absolutely a total pain in the butt. And you're right, it's hard to be standing there in front of a bunch of people you don't know and your card not working.
In the end, I guess it's better than having to deal with the alternative. Getting a new card can be a serious pain, even if it's just a replacement card. The numbers will be different, obviously. So all of the items you had on auto pilot (Netflix and your newspaper for example) need to be set up again. Ditto with Amazon stuff and other similar situations.
I've never had that happen to me, but whenever one of us goes out-of-state, or when we've driven across the country, we've always received a call from our bank making sure that it was us making the transactions.
I feel your pain. I worked for Best Buy and Target. We were once holding 10 playstations for a guy to buy for a charity, and a guy threatened to sue if we didn't sell him one of the 10.
We also showed favoritism to local celebrities, including giving them products not yet released to the public (XBox 360 comes to mind).
A fraud alert happened to me several years ago. I bought a large appliance (something I might buy every 10-20 years) and my cc was placed on fraud alert for being an out-of-pattern purchase. The $800 purchase went through without a problem but my next purchase at the gas pump, I couldn't pay for $10 worth of gas. I contacted the cc company, found out about the fraud alert, and had the alert removed; the company said they were were just waiting for me to call to make sure my cc wasn't stolen.
I had heard of fraud alerts but thought that flagging an appliance purchase wasn't a good mechanism for detecting out-of-pattern purchases so I never used that card again. I never have had a problem with other cc companies, though one did detect fraud of small purchases in another state. So, it seems that not all fraud detection methods are created alike.
I don't carry large amounts of cash around either, just a couple of cc's in my wallet.
I think the fraud system works quite well, saved me a bunch of trouble(and I'm sure it saved the CC money) when the same thing happened to me, except I really wasn't the one using my card for purchases. It had been stolen and I hadn't even realized it yet... The MO of thieves is to test the card with small purchases at gas stations, buying cigarettes, snacks, gas... then if everything goes smoothly, they go on a shopping spree, in my case, Walmart and the grocery store.
I never used the card to purchase gas or buy groceries, the CC system recognized this and flagged the account. They called me and asked if I had been using the card, I thought it was a joke... until finally the woman said, go and see if you have your card, turns out someone had stolen my wallet out of my purse at work.
So I think the credit card company was right in shutting your card down when they detected behavior that wasn't normal... for a person that doesn't use the card to make small purchases like Subway, it seems like what they did made sense-- yeah, it's embarrassing to be declined... I wasn't so lucky in catching all of the checks they had forged around town and it was a pain clearing that mess up with the checking validation companies, but in the end... I would rather go through a little embarrassment then have to deal with weeks of filling out fraud paperwork and sitting on the phone in customer support hades forever.
I was just wondering if there was a customer service number on the card that you could have contacted while at the store. Or at least have your credit card company in your cell phone so you can call them in case you have any issues (like it being rejected for fraud).
Hmm can't add more to my comment.
I also wanted to say, no one should have to deal with this sort of disservice from a credit card company. I really can't imagine a credit card company screwing up much more than this (though I am sure the credit company involved here, whoever it is, will certainly try). There is no need to go to extremes to monitor your spending habits.
Really, none of this is necessary. All this sums is to, you need to have a credit card through a company with proper working fraud system.
Stop using the card and get a card from a company that has reputable service (you are more likely to receive better service from a credit union than a bank), it is very possible you will be able to find a better card as well.
I've worked food service and retail both, and I believe everyone should have to experience life as an employee of those operations. Neither one was all that bad, and they gave me money quickly, but what I learned was that I didn't want to spend my life doing either one. Working those jobs convinced me to go to college, so I guess they were some of the most valuable experiences I ever had. And one of the most pleasant memories in my life was a night during the Christmas holidays when a man left a very generous tip unexpectedly and I NEEDED it so much. I hadn't even done anything special for him; he just gave it to me, and I'll always be grateful. Now I have a Master's degree and a much higher paying job, but I've never felt as good about a raise as I did about that tip.
I really think that everyone should have a forced stint in retail- it would go a long way to improving how most people treat retail workers I think.
When I worked retail I think that the shop-lifting was the most shocking thing to me- "why yes I do see that 160 piece cutlery set that you are clutching under your jacket"
today instead. Lots of mail to mail tomorrow. tomorrow we are going to a mystery baby shower; mother is alone. thanks for all the great ideas in the thread. i still don't think that any child regardless of parental income should be asking for high ticket items, but that's just me.
Margaret Garcia-Couoh
Hi, I really want to join pinecone and have been trying to get registered. Can you help?