Conquer Club

So, I delivered to this company in Alabama today. Afterwards, I need to call my dispatcher to confirm delivery. Do you think they would let me use a phone? The receiver who unloaded me claimed there was no phone in the back. Blatant lie. What would they call an ambulance with if someone got injured. No such thing as a warehouse with no phone. But anyway, I can't call a customer a liar to his face, so I accept it at face value and go to the front office.

The receptionist bluntly tells me, in a very snotty tone, "we do not provide a public phone." Okay, I know she's thinking "who is this filthy pig?" That's what happens when you unload steel pipe -- you tend to get dirty. Steel mills are not clean places, and I didn't have time to change after unloading because it's almost the end of the day. I have eight minutes left to call the office before they close, and my time is ticking away.

Nope, you can't use our phone. I brought these people $26,000 of steel pipe, and they begrudge me a phone call. A free phone call, what's more, because it's a 1-800 number that costs them nothing.

I hit the road and look for a gas station with a phone booth. Phone booths are vanishing in the U.S., so I just pull in to a gas station at random and beg the clerk to use his phone. He's nicer than the people at the steel warehouse, and lets me use it. Too late. It's now 4:01 in Alabaman, 5:01 in Ontario. The office has closed, so now whatever miles I could have covered tonight will have to wait until the morning. All because some snotty cunts thought their phone was the equivalent of a sacred relic, not to be touched by working-class hands.

This is the famous Southern Hospitality? f*ck you! I hope their steel rusts into worthless dust! Filthy fucking selfish, selfish pricks.

Option b: Duke to receptionist, "Okay, then, would you please call this number and inform them I arrived with your load?"

Did you mention to the lady that you were the guy delivering the steel and helping to unload it?

e.g. "Good afternoon, ma'am. Apologies for my disreputable/dirty appearance. I just delivered blah bah blahb lah, and the boss is waiting to hear from me. May I use your phone?"

And, at all times, one must remain diplomatic and sincerely smile.



(ah, and good call, stahrgazer).

BigBallinStalin wrote:Did you mention to the lady that you were the guy delivering the steel and helping to unload it?

e.g. "Good afternoon, ma'am. Apologies for my disreputable/dirty appearance. I just delivered blah bah blahb lah, and the boss is waiting to hear from me. May I use your phone?"

And, at all times, one must remain diplomatic and sincerely smile.

I normally do, but sometimes cracks in the smile appear. With only eight minutes left I was probably a bit panicked and didn't have time to comport myself for full diplomatic deployment. I did convey all of that information, but probably not with the kind of charm that would have been possible if there was time to soften the ground with preliminary social banter. I was also totally flabbergasted by her initial salvo. I've never had someone hit me out of the blue with such a blatant discourtesy. It's one thing when you're in a bar fight and discourtesy is expected. It's quite something else when you walk into a customer's office with a perfectly normal and reasonable request.

I think it's because they consider you a Yankee!

I'm leased on with a Canadian company and a lot of their drivers who come down here have US phones. How, I don't know.

Next time, invest in a cheap track fone. (sp intentional). Saves grief for a variety of emergencies.

Or you could just do what sim, etc suggested... be polite. A lot of southerners resent northerners coming down and throwing their weight around.

Dukasaur wrote:

BigBallinStalin wrote:Did you mention to the lady that you were the guy delivering the steel and helping to unload it?

e.g. "Good afternoon, ma'am. Apologies for my disreputable/dirty appearance. I just delivered blah bah blahb lah, and the boss is waiting to hear from me. May I use your phone?"

And, at all times, one must remain diplomatic and sincerely smile.

I normally do, but sometimes cracks in the smile appear. With only eight minutes left I was probably a bit panicked and didn't have time to comport myself for full diplomatic deployment. I did convey all of that information, but probably not with the kind of charm that would have been possible if there was time to soften the ground with preliminary social banter. I was also totally flabbergasted by her initial salvo. I've never had someone hit me out of the blue with such a blatant discourtesy. It's one thing when you're in a bar fight and discourtesy is expected. It's quite something else when you walk into a customer's office with a perfectly normal and reasonable request.

Yeah.. that's a shame. Now you have plenty of time to play ConquerClub!! *(which isn't good for one's health)

Who was the company? I will take your story Duk and ensure I give them no business!

Buster Keaton did a great movie about southern hospitality. The family he was staying with wanted to kill him, but they wouldn't do it while he was in the house, so he just sort of moved in. Next time set up camp on the receptionist's lap.

Was the receptionist an owner or manager? I worked in retail for a few years, and we weren't allowed to let customers use the phone. It might not be fair to call her a cunt if she's just following orders. My 2 cents.

-TG

TA1LGUNN3R wrote:Was the receptionist an owner or manager? I worked in retail for a few years, and we weren't allowed to let customers use the phone. It might not be fair to call her a cunt if she's just following orders. My 2 cents.

-TG

I originally said "cunts" plural, meaning more than one person involved, but I've decided to play nice and edit it out, anyway.

Dukasaur wrote:

TA1LGUNN3R wrote:Was the receptionist an owner or manager? I worked in retail for a few years, and we weren't allowed to let customers use the phone. It might not be fair to call her a cunt if she's just following orders. My 2 cents.

-TG

I originally said "cunts" plural, meaning more than one person involved, but I've decided to play nice and edit it out, anyway.

How politely Canadian of you Duke.

I can't help but wonder that you missed your calling. Either that or you quit and took up trucking.

First of all they don't have telephones, just ask tdans. You're supposed to ask them to use their CB. So that's on you.



Now stop goldbrickin' here on ConquerClub and get back on the road.

This isn't the place to bitch about some singular experience you had with someone in the south. There's many nice people here but mostly racism and ignorance

xeno wrote:This isn't the place to bitch about some singular experience you had with someone in the south. There's many nice people here but mostly racism and ignorance

I thought Louisiana didn't think of itself as the south but like a quaint, French country village where 100,000 alligators escaped and everyone converted to Voodoo.

saxitoxin wrote:

xeno wrote:This isn't the place to bitch about some singular experience you had with someone in the south. There's many nice people here but mostly racism and ignorance

I thought Louisiana didn't think of itself as the south but like a quaint, French country village where 100,000 alligators escaped and everyone converted to Voodoo.

Us louisianians are a proud French settlement still. Not twenty minutes from my house you'll find older people speaking Cajun French passed down from their grandparents, we particularly have our own heritage separate from "the south" I would say we're classier

It is "ok" for "Northerners" to act this way, and they do, but heaven forbid a "southerner" act like this. Double Standard!!

I live in the south and enjoy the southern way of living. I think most of us in the "Bible belt" are fun, nice people who just want to enjoy life.

I live in a city in which the "Northerner" population is growing. The reasoning behind this is because the houses are more affordable, weather is nicer, and the women are hotter. And we have JOBS. That is another subject for you liberals!!!!!

I get so fed up hearing Northerners complain about "everything."

I work with them, and have to deal with them in the public sector. For this reason, most the time I want to tell them to go back North. So do a many people like me.

If they would grasp our culture, instead of complaining, maybe we would be more open to them.

HOW ABOUT BUYING A CELL PHONE! I wouldn't trust anyone to use my phone either!! How is that for "Southern Hospitality?"

Next time you pull up tell them, "I can't unload until I call base." they'll probably find you a phone if the other option is you getting back in the truck to drive off looking for one with their pipe.

PLAYER57832 wrote:Next time, invest in a cheap track fone. (sp intentional). Saves grief for a variety of emergencies.

If your phone is unlocked grab an AT&T sim card and put $50 on it.

If not grab a net10 phone from almost any K-mart or 7-11 they come with time and will be less than $50 with a phone! You can go online and get a local phone number in your Canadian city and the wife can phone you, it will not cost extra long distance over the charge for phoning her and it just rings like normal. It will come with minutes and more minutes can just be bought at many gas stations and convieniance stores. 10 cents a minute anywhere in the US if you're late or break down, you can pull over and call the customer or home base.

I'll be a lot nicer when you Canadians, New Yorkers, and various other yankee populations come down as long as you stop sending your old people down here to die. That's a fair trade, I think.

I think of Niagara as the 'Georgia of Canada'. I wonder how this plays out into the Southern Hospitality myth.

Are you an owner operator or an employee? If OO, then Dimey is right....if employee, get your damn employer to provide you with a cell phone; it's a necessity for a driver....need fuel / tires / breakdown / road issues / permits/ etc....come on!

I was controller for a long haul company for years....we kept our drivers happy ;o)

Amazing story BTW....what idiots ;o(

Dukasaur wrote:So, I delivered to this company in Alabama today. Afterwards, I need to call my dispatcher to confirm delivery. Do you think they would let me use a phone? The receiver who unloaded me claimed there was no phone in the back. Blatant lie. What would they call an ambulance with if someone got injured. No such thing as a warehouse with no phone. But anyway, I can't call a customer a liar to his face, so I accept it at face value and go to the front office.

The receptionist bluntly tells me, in a very snotty tone, "we do not provide a public phone." Okay, I know she's thinking "who is this filthy pig?" That's what happens when you unload steel pipe -- you tend to get dirty. Steel mills are not clean places, and I didn't have time to change after unloading because it's almost the end of the day. I have eight minutes left to call the office before they close, and my time is ticking away.

Nope, you can't use our phone. I brought these people $26,000 of steel pipe, and they begrudge me a phone call. A free phone call, what's more, because it's a 1-800 number that costs them nothing.

I hit the road and look for a gas station with a phone booth. Phone booths are vanishing in the U.S., so I just pull in to a gas station at random and beg the clerk to use his phone. He's nicer than the people at the steel warehouse, and lets me use it. Too late. It's now 4:01 in Alabaman, 5:01 in Ontario. The office has closed, so now whatever miles I could have covered tonight will have to wait until the morning. All because some snotty cunts thought their phone was the equivalent of a sacred relic, not to be touched by working-class hands.

This is the famous Southern Hospitality? f*ck you! I hope their steel rusts into worthless dust! Filthy fucking selfish, selfish pricks.

I'd like to congratulate you for not having a cellphone. Seriously, I wish I could do the same and very often I do but for the past months I've had to have one with me almost all day.

Dukasaur wrote:So, I delivered to this company in Alabama today. Afterwards, I need to call my dispatcher to confirm delivery. Do you think they would let me use a phone? The receiver who unloaded me claimed there was no phone in the back. Blatant lie. What would they call an ambulance with if someone got injured. No such thing as a warehouse with no phone. But anyway, I can't call a customer a liar to his face, so I accept it at face value and go to the front office.

The receptionist bluntly tells me, in a very snotty tone, "we do not provide a public phone." Okay, I know she's thinking "who is this filthy pig?" That's what happens when you unload steel pipe -- you tend to get dirty. Steel mills are not clean places, and I didn't have time to change after unloading because it's almost the end of the day. I have eight minutes left to call the office before they close, and my time is ticking away.

Nope, you can't use our phone. I brought these people $26,000 of steel pipe, and they begrudge me a phone call. A free phone call, what's more, because it's a 1-800 number that costs them nothing.

I hit the road and look for a gas station with a phone booth. Phone booths are vanishing in the U.S., so I just pull in to a gas station at random and beg the clerk to use his phone. He's nicer than the people at the steel warehouse, and lets me use it. Too late. It's now 4:01 in Alabaman, 5:01 in Ontario. The office has closed, so now whatever miles I could have covered tonight will have to wait until the morning. All because some snotty cunts thought their phone was the equivalent of a sacred relic, not to be touched by working-class hands.

This is the famous Southern Hospitality? f*ck you! I hope their steel rusts into worthless dust! Filthy fucking selfish, selfish pricks.

I'm curious about where in Alabama. I'm in the Huntsville area.

Ignore the other people. I'm a "Damn Yankee"* and southern hospitality is all bullshit. They're nice to your face and talk trash behind your back, and think that's ok.

-- Ace

*What's the difference between a Yankee and a Damn Yankee? A Yankee visits the south, a Damn Yankee moves there.

KoolBak wrote:Are you an owner operator or an employee? If OO, then Dimey is right....if employee, get your damn employer to provide you with a cell phone; it's a necessity for a driver....need fuel / tires / breakdown / road issues / permits/ etc....come on!

I know, it's ridiculous. They give us a Comdata long-distance card and tell you stop being lazy, pull over at a phone booth and use your Comdata card. They just don't understand how difficult it is getting to be to find a phone booth in the U.S.

In Canada the numbers of payphones is declining also, but not at the ridiculous pace that it is in the U.S., so of course the bosses who haven't left the office in 20 years really have no clue how difficult it is getting. In Canada it's still reasonable to say, "stop being lazy and pull over at a phone booth." Even though the quest for one will be tougher than it was 20 years ago, you should be able to find one. In the U.S. it just isn't true any more. I've now seen plazas, highway rest areas, and even major truck stops without a pay phone. I'm at one right now, the Love's in Richmond, Kentucky. No pay phone, not even one. Upon making inquiries, I find that as little as six months ago they still had three, now they have none. The rate of loss is accelerating.

Amazing story BTW....what idiots ;o(

Yeah, that's the bottom line. Regardless of the phone situation in general, when you have a land line, and someone asks you to use it to call a toll-free number, it's pure blatant offense to refuse. A random stranger, maybe, but someone who just brought you $26,000 in product? Words fail me; there is no term sufficient. None of this talk about how many phones I should or shouldn't have doesn't excuse the rudeness there.

isaiah40 wrote:I think it's because they consider you a Yankee!

I'm leased on with a Canadian company and a lot of their drivers who come down here have US phones. How, I don't know.

The process is not that difficult. Even though they're theoretically not supposed to sell you a phone without proof of U.S. residency, in actual fact you can count on most store clerks to be too apathetic to actually check your ID. So you just give them the first address that pops into your head, like 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, and later you go online and change it to your real address.

I know how to do it, I'm just not sure if I'm ready to spend more money.

2dimes wrote:If not grab a net10 phone from almost any K-mart or 7-11 they come with time and will be less than $50 with a phone! You can go online and get a local phone number in your Canadian city and the wife can phone you, it will not cost extra long distance over the charge for phoning her and it just rings like normal. It will come with minutes and more minutes can just be bought at many gas stations and convieniance stores. 10 cents a minute anywhere in the US if you're late or break down, you can pull over and call the customer or home base.

That part I'm sceptical about. Are you sure? I know you can change your billing address to your Canadian address, but change your phone number to a Canadian number?

Nonetheless, if it really is that cheap I might check it out.

Ace Rimmer wrote:I'm curious about where in Alabama. I'm in the Huntsville area.

The story in the OP happened in Birmingham. I'm happy to say, though, that today I picked up a load in Albertville, and the people there were very nice. So they've redeemed the place...

Overall, I don't want to leave the impression that I hated my time in Alabama, just because of one bunch of &^%$%s. Overall, I loved the place. And the fact that it's already spring there! I almost forgot that I was there on business.... wanted to just lay down on the grass and soak up the sun!