hey, at least this girl was trying to engage her brain! Failed, but there is hope…
Happened to me when I gave a guy 1004 dolalrs for two green taip’s in seven and he got confused and returned me 1906 dollars
I felt so bad I had to go back and return the 1000 and then explain math, he didnt accept it at first and started to argue that he was right…
I think you may be right. 
In fact I remember reading a post that explained the method behind the madness a few months ago.
almas john: Nice try. There was only one counter open and that woman was working it. She didn’t have to wait for any more medicine to arrive from the chute. It was all in the same box.
Besides which, remember that her initial point was that I wasn’t there in time, so that’s why she skipped my number. She then changed her story. If she’d said (to my girlfriend) that the numbers skip around, fair enough, but she didn’t.
So no, it was a case of her being a fucking idiot. It had nothing to do with me, and no, I didn’t even get mad. I don’t have a sense of self-loathing over being an ESL teacher in Taiwan. I get paid more than these fuckwits and I work fewer hours for it. There is my sense of superiority. I’m just trying to work out how I can fleece these kinds of fools when they come to me.
I’m not quite sure where the bit about being a convict comes in. I’ve never been convicted of a crime. If it’s some reference to my nationality, then you’d be wrong again. Many of my relatives migrated post-colonial times. The others were non-British and/or from South Australia (the only state that didn’t have convict settlements). So, you’re wrong yet again.
Panilio…from my perspective this originally is the clerk’s mistake for not informing you of the bank charge. Such bank charges are such common practice (especially for wire transfers) that she should know (or be trained) to always consider the service charge and inform the customer.
On most forms I have used there is always a box to tick showing who is paying (e.g. pay up front or charge to receiver)…perhaps their forms are not clear enough for this special case.
As for how to “punish” employees, I don’t know the proper way. Perhaps clerical “errors” by people handling money needs to come out of their pocket(to prevent stealing)…while maybe administrative errors (no possible benefit to employee) need to be recorded for person’s KPI (like perhaps 3 errors resulting in a specific amount of money lost will require sacking).
I’ve waited for medicine in quite a few hospitals over the years and they always skip around. In fact, they are usually as efficient as you mention that your meds are usually there before you get to the counter. Word to you: They generally don’t mind if you go up and ask if your number has already been called and will give you the meds if it has. This all sounds like you just not knowing how things work and something being lost in translation between you and your girlfriend to me…apologies if I’m wrong.
citizen k: I’ve never seen them go backwards in the numbers. Fair enough if they go past when you’re not there. I clearly was there though, as I’ve stated. I think it’s extremely unlikely that she had already called my number and then backtracked and then fast forwarded and then claimed that I wasn’t there when she called my number. As I’ve already stated, I would have been fine (well, actually, I didn’t get upset anyway) if she’d accidentally gone past my number or there had been some other excuse such as the medicine not being there or there being two counters open, etc. Isn’t it abundantly obvious that she was just trying to save face instead of admitting her mistake?
I’m willing to give GiT the benefit of the doubt, because I’ve had these things done to me. I think he screwed up standing in line and giving her an idea of what number he had. I’ve had enough “work slow downs” done to me to know to stand back and have also been told that they won’t sell to me as well as the straight up ignore.
They do go out of order though for pharmacy orders at the hospital though.
What I mean is I have seen them bounce through numbers as they arrive at the counter: 743 is there, then 744, then oops 727 because it may have taken the pharmacist longer to fill that one or the meds were more unusual and harder to find, then back up to 745, then pop up to 756, because that guy is just getting what is essentially aspirin, which is kept closest to where the meds are dispensed because it is most common.
My point is that, in big hospitals at least, you consult with a doctor, he writes you a prescription and prints a slip for you with a number on it. From there it is sent to the pharmacy and depending on quite a few different factors, will take more or less time to fill. Now consider that, in a really big hospital, there could be a hundred or so doctors writing prescriptions into the system at any one time. The reason why some prescriptions get filled faster than others becomes obvious then, no?
It’s very possible the girl made a mistake and tried to cover for it; we’ve all had that happen at some time or other and I’m not saying that couldn’t have been the case with you. Personally, I’m always impressed that in such big hospitals that the system works as well as it does, lol. As for feeling that you “make more than these fuckwits” and have to “fleece these fools when they come to you”, well, that’s one way to make your stay here a long and painful one in my opinion, lol. 
You’re always going to ‘make more than these fuckwits’ wherever you are, if you’re a teacher. Why be a dick about low level service workers being as you perceive it, less smart than you? Very likely they are, otherwise, they’d be off earning more cash in a less annoying job where they don’t have to tolerate you. Certainly, if I had more upstairs, I’d be working as a surgeon, or pilot or captain of industry, not sitting here writing shite that noone reads (my job, not forumosa posts). I don’t like it, or feel more inclined to do my job better, when people with more money than me are rude or dismissive (doesn’t apply in my current work, but I’ve certainly been treated as a servant when I taught EFL in Asia.), and it certainly won’t make me work harder.
I always wonder about these kind of threads, such as the ‘Why are Subway servers such dicks?’, ‘Why don’t they UNDERSTAND?’ etc’. Young women who give out little bags and click a think to make the numbers change are either young and not qualified, or experienced enough to get a better job, not very bright (NOTHING wrong with that; if you don’t know anyone smarter than yourself, you’re either lying or have emotional problems), or students trying to make a little cash. It’s much easier to make mistakes when your job is easy and repetitive because your brain is not engaged on any level; you go into a sort of trance and it’s incredibly difficult to concentrate.
I had a similar situation in Thailand once. I bought a ticket to Singapore and the girl typed in ‘11’ instead of ‘1’. She got fired and they withheld her final salary to ‘pay for’ the extra ten tickets. Sure, a dumb mistake, and there was no way I could afford to bail her out, although she made sure I knew, so if I could pay, maybe she’d have kept her job. I felt really shitty about it at the time, because it was a friend of a friend, but there wasn’t much I could do.
[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]almas john: Nice try… I don’t have a sense of self-loathing over being an ESL teacher in Taiwan. I get paid more than these fuckwits and I work fewer hours for it. There is my sense of superiority. I’m just trying to work out how I can fleece these kinds of fools when they come to me.
I’m not quite sure where the bit about being a convict comes in.[/quote]
Well, have a look at the sentence before your denial. You want to “fleece” people, classic convict behaviour, and a statement in keeping with your general obssession with money. Why the connection between what you earn and self-loathing? Answer; being from a country with no class divisions means that money takes on extra importance as a means of compensation. Although your ancestors might not have been convicts, you are still the product of the festering underarm-bowling marsupial Australian convict culture. I know what I’m talking about - this stuff is part of the New Zealand school curriculum from primary right through to high school so it is standard knowledge, plus one of the papers I did for my BA in New Zealand Studies was “Australian Self-Identity - the Inferiority Complex.”
Put it in perspective with this short spiel from a few years back. (I forget the names, but the incident did happen.) A trader at a large US brokerage was supposed to enter an order to sell ~10 S&P futures contracts. They had a ‘fat finger’ for some reason and accidentally held the ‘0’ down too long. Maybe the keyboard was malfunction?? Anyway, the order went out to instantly sell ~1,000,000 contracts, or something like that. As you can imagine, that order caused the market price to spike dramatically … and there were hundreds, if not thousands of buyers - institutions and individuals - on the other side of the trades. Looking at the price chart, you would have thought a nuclear bomb went off somewhere. Had the trades stood, the brokerage would have lost a gazillion dollars.
So what happened? The exchange (Chicago Mercantile Exchange?) nullified all orders that were X number of points away from the market. Second, with the remaining error trades, the brokerage called around to other large counterparties, explained what happened, and politely asked to nullify the trades. Long story short, something like ~90% of the trade was cancelled and the brokerage ate the remaining loss.
I pretty much guarantee you the employee was not fired, or otherwise penalized for the error, if they reported the error and took remedial action immediately after realizing what happened. Contrast that with the pettiness of a Taiwanese bank.
Endnote: that trader surely left that employer soon after, out of sheer embarrassment, and shed the stigma of what they’d done.
citizen k: As I’ve already stated, in the time I was there (before my number was due to be called), no new medicine arrived. She didn’t check to see if my number was there before going right past it. Like I’ve said several times now, that would have been fine if she’d admitted it, but she tried to bullshit her way out of it.
Buttercup: Note that I’ve written at least once now that I didn’t get upset or given anyone a hard time about what happened. I didn’t even say anything to her. I just did a double take. Maybe in your world view people shouldn’t be called on their mistakes, regardless of how trivial. In mine they should. I think we both know by now that my world view is far more social-Darwinian/Nietzschean.
almas john: If you want to know why I want to fleece people it’s because I’ve had my eyes opened to how things work in this country. It’s prey or be preyed upon in most cases. Like many people who have come here, I started out quite idealistic about the whole thing and gradually realised I was being taken for a sucker, and that those buxibans that lie and manipulate have the most successful business models because the average Taiwanese parent/consumer wants to be lied to. Give the customer what he or she wants.
Anyway, I just wrote out a long list of Kiwi jokes, but in an odd moment for me, I’ve actually backed off upping the stakes in who can be a bigger keyboard hero.
It’s ironic how despite claiming to be so superior to Australians, some New Zealanders can’t stop whining about Australia. Surely that’s the very definition of an inferiority complex on your part.
Most people in Australia really couldn’t give a toss about Australia versus New Zealand. If anything, we lean more towards seeing you guys in a warm light than having some deeply-ingrained grudge against you. I’m really not sure where that comes from with you guys. Is it really over that cricket match (which I’ve seen the footage for once I think) or is it something else? Really, I’m not having a laugh here, I actually really want to know what the issue is.
I’m happy enough to talk to the average Kiwi and not crack out the sheep-shagging jokes, yet with virtually every Kiwi I’ve ever met in Taiwan and elsewhere, they’ve had to have a go about Australia/Australians within two minutes, despite my repeated protestations that I’m actually not a particularly patriotic person (I really couldn’t tell you anything about what’s going on in Australian sport, pop culture or politics, Australia’s history is very flawed – as is the history of most places – but it largely doesn’t interest or affect me now, and I don’t have much real desire to move back there), and from all I’ve seen and read, New Zealand looks like a really beautiful place, and dare I say it, perhaps even more beautiful (at least to my aesthetic sense) than Australia, but I really don’t think I could bear to visit it based upon the kind of flak I’ve received from most Kiwis. Despite our cultures being incredibly similar in many ways, and despite us both being out-numbered in droves by North-Americans who largely don’t know anything about us – either the similarities or the differences – so many Kiwis go out of their way to instantly make enemies out of the very people in Taiwan (and elsewhere abroad) who should be best able to relate to them.
The other Australians on this board I know of seem like they’re pretty okay. If you think I’m a cunt, it’s probably because I am. That’s just me. I’d like to take credit for actively cultivating that in myself, not simply passively receiving it as a cultural trait.
FWIW, and I really am of both possible minds on this issue, GIT making an excellent case, and he’s spot on with the old Spell Checker, which earns him a warm place in our hearts, AND most everyone else delivering equally valid points, including my old Navy mate almas (remember the Maine!!), but, FWIW, ain’t them girlies hitting the boop boop boop BEEEEE number-changing button degreed pharmacists??
Oh, and the Kiwi vs.Oz aggro?
Fuckin hilarious, 'cause, you know, really, we can’t tell you fuckers apart… :roflmao:
The Chief: I never use a spell checker (though I do look up words sometimes), so this is my English in its true form. Expect mistakes sooner or later. I try to write as well as I can, though sometimes I screw it up when I re-write a sentence or two.
As for the Australian versus New Zealander thing, like I said, most Australians aren’t the ones with the issue, despite the fact that we have a list of jokes as long as our arms about sheep shagging or welfare cheating immigrants. You’re right about there being little noticeable difference. Then again, to us, Canadians all just secretly wish they were American. 
Even better then, write on, MacDuff!
Only until we turn 25 or travel abroad, whichever comes first.
Lies! Deep inside you all want to be American. I’ve seen Full Metal Jacket.
Lies! Deep inside you all want to be American. I’ve seen Full Metal Jacket.[/quote]
Not so. Have you seen the way those people play hockey???
[quote=“Paniolo”]Is this right? Am I missing something?
The other day I sent a wire from my bank. The girl at the counter filled the form out incorrectly - said she would send it exactly like the one we sent last month. But she didn’t send it exactly the same - she left out important information. I even handed her a sheet with complete instructions, but I don’t think she scrutinized it well, because it was in English, and she was filled with misplaced confidence. So a week later we had to send ‘ammending information’ in order that the funds were properly credited.
So after we sent the amendment, the teller calls me 1 day later with the following: ‘The receiving bank is charging us AUD40 for processing the amendment. Please accept this charge, because otherwise my employer (one of Taiwan’s largest banks) will debit my wages for the amount.’ I’ve gotten this line on a couple of other occasions, and my response has always been that I’m not going to bear the responsibility because XYZ employer treats its employees like dogs.
I just think it is beyond comment that an employer would direct its employees, on a personal basis, to go begging from customers. Is this real policy in Taiwan? Do employers really treat their employees so poorly? Not to mention customers. Or is it a racket?[/quote]
Just to wrap this up: I went back to the bank to give the girl NT$1k to offset her personal loss. I offered it 3x and each time she said ‘Meiguanxi.’ Told me as plain as day that the bank ate the loss, as it should have done from the beginning. I still shake my head at a policy that would prompt front-line customer service employees to plead for fees from customers by lying to create a false sense of guilt. So Chinese …
Good on ye for doing the right thing.
But I think she should be fined or something for doing such a crap job.
What if the error were in HER favor?
I’m tired of lousy bank service here.
So many banks, so few services…
[quote=“yaoshema”]Good on ye for doing the right thing.
But I think she should be fined or something for doing such a crap job.
What if the error were in HER favor?
I’m tired of lousy bank service here.
So many banks, so few services…[/quote]
More like a small oversight, and an unconscionably expensive fee by the receiving correspondent bank. Besides, when you pay someone NT$20k per month, there is simply no basis to be fining them for small oversights that are an inevitable part of the work.