Ahh, dealing with the trash…
I’ve been debating posting about this topic for some time because it gets a little more personal about my feelings than I’m comfortable with. At the least, it will help me relieve some frustration and help reinforce the idea that my tendency to stereotype is wrong.
I’ve pretty much grown to hate more types of people than I care to admit and it seems to be stemming from my job. I hate the idea of helping perpetuate common stereotypes, but a majority (read: 90%+) of my customers fit many negative stereotypes that are portrayed in the media.
I’m going to use bad checks as an example. I would say about 20% of my work week is now spent identifying, tracking, and trying to eliminate bad check offenders. It has become my mission to catch bad check writers. These aren’t people that bounced a bad check one time in their life on accident either. These are accounts that have been closed for a month or more, stolen checks, and/or fake checks.
I’ve gotten in numerous arguments with people at the counter after they hand me a check written in crayon that has my company name misspelled. Even after giving them the benefit of the doubt and calling the bank or the collection agency, the check is still declined. The smart ones leave as quickly as possible. The morons will scream and yell until I call the police and then they take off.
Delivery is ten times worse. No matter how much I educate the drivers, bad checks still sneak there way in to the store. Imagine this, you’re a skinny white kid delivering a pizza to a run down house with people living in their own filth. Five or six thugs hanging around outside, and 15+ little kids running around inside and out completely unsupervised. Somebody answers the door and inside you see a few more guys hanging around smoking weed/crack/whatever. The first thought in the driver’s mind is I’m getting the F out of here as fast as possible. The person at the door could hand them a check, cash, or a wad of rolling papers, the driver pays little attention and sprints off. I don’t blame them either, hell I’d probably leave the delivery bag too if it meant I could run faster. When the check gets declined, I flag the address as no delivery, but they simply hand the check book to their neighbors and have them order, or they just go over to a buddy’s house and order. This is amplified multiple times in crappy apartment complexes where neighbors are simply across the hall.
Check offenders usually order as much food/drinks/sides that they think they can get away with. The order usually has multiple pizzas, wings, breadsticks, and a bunch of two liters of soda. Pizza shop two liters are not something you order a lot of either because they are extremely overpriced ($2.50+ for one bottle). The whole order usually totals $50 or more. On delivery, the check is usually written for more than the total and the customer will try to talk the driver into giving them back cash. If the driver refuses, then the customer says “oh well its your tip then.” This also contributes to the drivers not refusing the check.
I received an order last Saturday night for carryout that fit the characteristics of a bad check order. All I could think of was great, now I have to spend 15 minutes arguing with some idiot at the counter. It doesn’t really ruin my whole night, but it gets me all fired up for a while (the crew loves this btw).
When the person actually showed up to get the order, I was surprised. It was a tall white guy with his two daughters picking up the food for a birthday party, and they paid with…surprise cash. I felt relieved and kind of bad at the same time. I started to realize how this job has gotten to me.
