A 1%'er went off on my daughter today: "I am a medical field executive and I drive a Lexus.."

[rainbow4321]

She is an asst manager at our local movie theater and often takes calls from customers who wish to voice their complaints/concerns.
She took a call from a guy who wanted to tell her how upset he was about people's cell phones being used during movies..ok, fine, valid concern (though, he was not in the theater at the time, he called up to complain).

She listened to him and said, you know, please come out and tell us if you are in a theater and someone does that, we will tell them to stop or leave". He kept going on and on, telling her how bothersome it is to "leave the movie, miss parts of it, find someone to tell.."
She again said that they will try to quickly resolve any problems he has if he is at the theater and has problems.

He then went all 1 percent on her: "I am an executive in the medical field, I drive a Lexus, I shouldn't be having to put up with this...you all should have cell phone jammers in the theater so people can't use their cell phones, I want to talk to a manager!"


My daughter: "sir, I am a manager"

Guy: "Don't get arrogant with me...."


She wanted to reach thru the phone and slap him. Not because he didn't have a valid concern about cell phone disturbances but because of his whole "I drive a Lexus and shouldn't have to..." bullshit.


She's told me some pretty unusual customers stories ---like the lady today who lost her $100 theater gift card she was given for Xmas and was insisting the theater owed her a new, free one to make up for the lost one---um, NO...the theater can't cancel the old one like a credit or debit card and issue you a new one for free. She couldn't seem to get that thru to the lady. In the end, she ended up giving the woman 4 theater passes to use the next time she goes to the theater but NO 2nd $100 gift card for free-- but this Lexus driver guy tops them all.

[Bozita]

1. I drive a Rolls. It was me on the cellphone in the theater.

Mine is bigger than his.

So is my cellphone.

[Zalatix]

51. LOL!!! I arrived at the theater today in my helicopter. Beat that! :D

[roguevalley]

65. Tell me where this dipshit lives and I'll drive over in my honda and punch his face. hug your

daughter and tell her the fix is in.

[limpyhobbler]

2. what a superior jerk

You'll run into 'em from time to time.

[Hissyspit]

3. The man is an idiot.

[MichiganVote]

4. My son works in the hotel biz'. He gets this stuff all the time.

I'm in education. I get it all the time. Anyone who works with the "public" gets this stuff whether they are driving a Lexus or beater car. Same MO. Sometimes you get the good stuff too. Lot of poor excuses for human beings out there. Just can't personalize it. The whole world is General Discussion.

[Celebration]

13. +1000

Anyone who works with the public has these stories...............just ask the waitresses you know.

[pipi_k]

48. Yep...even in an office

At one time I was an Administrative Assistant in a small company that sold industrial machinery.

The customers were mostly great.

It was the other machinery dealers who could be total assholes to the office people. My boss worked in close relationship with an older man, likely an alcoholic who no longer drank, who was not just rude to people, but often vile and disgusting.

Many times I heard him on one of the office phones talking to some poor office lady on the other end, getting all pissy, and then finally exploding in a rant where he called her awful names. One time I heard him call some poor woman a "stupid fucking c**t" before slamming the phone down in her ear.

I had people say some awful things to me, as well. Although, I must say that most of them were strangers, because my boss, for all that he was a real dickhead at times, demanded that people who called show respect for any of the women answering the phone.

One funny thing, though...the company was small enough so that some people who called thought I was the boss's wife, and they would suck up to me like nobody's business....hahahahahaha

[Whisp]

53. my sister pisses me off sometime

she's certainly no lexus driving hi paid person but when she is not happy with customer service of any kind, man she goes nuts. Like they are her slaves or something. Like they aren't human and can't have days and should wait on her like she was Cleopatra. I get so disgusted with her teabaggery sometimes. Been avoiding her lately, it's that bad some of the shit she says.

[The Genealogist]

57. I worked one summer at a motel and had one guy that reminds me of the one in the OP

This guy came in on a Friday evening, full of bluster and BS. I guess he had a bad day, because he reduced to tears the clerk who was checking him in. He had a list of absurd demands to be presenting to a motel in a tourist trap of a town, and the manager had to come out and tell him, quite diplomatically and professionally, that he was not going to get his way. Of course, he pulled the "I was going to have this big conference and book it here, but now..." card. After the guy left, I asked the manager "Didn't you just lose a potentially big customer doing this?" (I was young and naive about such things at that time) and she said basically that, it was probably best that he DIDN'T have his event there.

[JoePhilly]

5. "Cell Phone jammers??" ... definitely a right wing facist.

Imagine if she said ... "if we had cell phone jammers, I would not have to listen to your nonsense".

[Pacafishmate]

22. How is using cell phone jammers fascist?

Now banning the private ownership of cell phone jammers, as our government does, that's fascist.

[Selatius]

26. Not fascist. That term is often abused. I believe authoritarian is, perhaps, appropriate.

Anybody who often displays a penchant for trying to control others and for trying to make others measure up to their standards regardless of what they are would be--I would say--somebody with a huge authoritarian streak. Rather than letting people decide on their own how to do things, they wish to take that power away and decide for them all, regardless if others like it or not. People like that should be kept away from power.

[TalkingDog]

47. So you are saying that the kids in my (college) classrooms should be allowed to disrupt the

Last edited Mon Dec 26, 2011, 05:28 PM - Edit history (1)

educations of all the other kids in the class? The kids who want to pay attention and learn should have to listen to various bits of videos, movies, songs, cell conversations because I, god's forbid, think that quiet and structure can help develop critical thinking skills?

How utterly unreconstructed I must be to think that random noise might affect learning (or the ability to pay attention to the subject at hand).

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/11/25/Dyslexics-may-have-trouble-blocking-noise/UPI-84481322276978/?spt=hs&or=hn

[JoePhilly]

59. Colleges are now using cell phones to communicate to students and

facility during emergency situations. Like when some one goes on a shooting spree on a college campus.

And can you explain the technology you plan to use in "your class rooms" such that it does not disable cell phones across campus ... or in the halls?

Did you invent a jamming system that will block all cell activity within a class room, but not beyond that class room?

Is it like a dog fence?

[TalkingDog]

60. You can build (very easily) a cell jammer that covers a 6 - 8 foot radius: via Lady Ada

http://www.ladyada.net/make/wavebubble/prep.html

She developed this little beauty, but she can't sell them. She will, however, tell you how to do it. Instructable at link

[JoePhilly]

63. Your class room has a radious of 6-8 feet?

[TalkingDog]

61. Oh, and I'm ignoring your snark because it is pointless and, as you can see from my previous post,

Ill-informed.

[JoePhilly]

64. And, you ignored the point in my post ...

Cell phones are now also used for emergency situations.

But who cares.

Gotcha.

[mucifer]

66. I'm a pediatric hospice nurse on call for a week at a time. Please don't jam my cell phone.

[REP]

6. Got people like that when I worked for the phone co ... almost always people with large, bad debts

It was rather fun not doing what they wanted me to do.

[Scuba]

42. That was always my strategy....

... never give in to their demands, but be so polite it drives them nuts .

[47of74]

7. I get so sick of dipshits like that

I'm glad I'm not working that side of the counter anymore.

[rainbow4321]

12. Another customer told her to remove a family from the Dragon Tattoo movie

Not because they were being disruptive but because the movie would be too graphic for the kids in the family...my daughter told the guy "I agree, it is a very graphic movie and if *I* had kids, I wouldn't taken them, but our policy is no kids under a certain age (5 or 6, I forget) in an R rated movie after 6 pm...and right now, it is the middle of the day and even if it was after 6pm, the kids are not under that age restriction..so, no, I cannot randomly approach parents and tell them that they cannot bring **their** kids to a movie nor can we tell them which movies that they can or cannot see because they have their own kids with them unless it is after 6pm, an R rated movie, and the kids are under 5 (or 6?) yrs old".

They complaining customer kept going on and on: they shouldn't be bringing their kids, go tell them they HAVE to leave, they shouldn't be bringing their kids in to see a movie like that. She kept telling him: Again, WE cannot decide for PARENTS what movies that they take their kids to...


Yeah, she has had her fill of irrational behavior. These kind of people tend to leave their common sense and manners at home.

[unkachuck]

8. typical 1% attitude....

"...I am an executive in the medical field, I drive a Lexus, I shouldn't be having to put up with this..."

....the man is evil, he should be punished....

[elleng]

9. A small, insecure jerk!

[Downwinder]

10. I am sure he can reserve the theater for a private showing.

[PETRUS]

11. Medical field executive, eh?

She should have asked him why the US per capita expense on healthcare administration alone is about 60% of TOTAL per person healthcare expenses in Canada. Maybe part of the problem is too many overpaid medical field executives?

Sorry your daughter had to listen to his crap.

[RB TexLa]

14. Lost me at the "cell jammer" part. If you are an important person or important to your job or

others a cell jammer would be a stupid idea. And is a stupid idea. I don't want people's cell phones going off at the movies but I want people to know if they are getting an important call or text. I want doctors to know they need to leave the movie and go somewhere or someone to know their child is hurt or sick and they need to leave. Pretty simple, it's called vibrate mode.

[hfojvt]

15. maybe instead of leaving the theater

He could just use his cell phone to call the front desk and report that obnoxious movie goer.

[Initech]

16. I work customer service where I work

Last edited Mon Dec 26, 2011, 01:55 AM - Edit history (1)

It really sucks when you have to deal with arrogant jackasses like that. As a result I really try not to do the same when I deal with customer service people.

[sylveste]

17. seems like an odd thing to say,

not sure what having a lexus has to do with it. "hey, i drive a slightly upscale toyota, placate me dammit!" people are strange.

[REP]

23. No kidding. Oooooh, a Toyota!

It's not the '90s, when having a Lexus might have impressed someone.

[MisterP]

27. "sir, please call back when you get a Bentley"

[REP]

32. Snarf!!

Good one!!

[whathehell]

38. That's great, LOL...n/t

[Wind Dancer]

56. LOL!

Love it!!!

[Ikonoklast]

18. I would have apologized to him, profusedly.

"Sir, I am very sorry that you drive a Toyota that you overpaid for, and work in a field mostly populated by leeches and other various sorts of parasites. I can see why you'd be upset at your lot in life."

[lpbk2713]

19. I wonder how many times that lady has used that lost gift card routine.

... and how many free tickets she has gotten out of it.

[DCKit]

31. She probably also goes to restaurants and complains about the food/service...

in hopes of getting her meals comped.

I've got my own stories from back in the day, but now there's a whole website devoted to "waiting hell".

[Snarkoleptic]

20. Another constipated, fascist douche with a tiny unit and an overblown sense of self-worth.

Life's messy, either alert management during the movie or pound sand.

[coalition_unwilling]

21. If your daughter truly is a 'manager,' she would have been well within her

rights to hang up on the prick, right around the time of the Lexus comment. Or to tell him that the theater no longer wishes to have his business.

[SheilaT]

28. Interesting point.

I work an information desk, and about three times in the past 18 months I've hung up on someone who has gotten completely out of line with me. They never call back.

[47of74]

67. Back when I worked at Wally World

The management there was clear. We did not have to take any abuse from anyone. The moment the first curse word was uttered we were told that we could call a manager up and as far as we were concerned the transaction was over.

[liskddksil]

24. He sounds like a prick, but I do agree with his point.

I don't know about the feasibility of call-blocking (there are some exceptions for emergencies), but theaters should do what the Alamo draft-house in Austin Texas publicly did this summer and start kick the mis-behavees out for talking, and even texting (the light form the phone is still a nuiscance.)

[Kalidurga]

25. Why is someone that drives a Lexus rubbing elbows with the masses at..

a public theater?

[REP]

33. A 20-year old Lexus is still a 20 year old POS...

Of course, I drive a Nissan that's far nicer than most new Lexii. But I don't insist people do my bidding because I drive a Z.

[SheilaT]

29. Anyone who deals with the public

learns quickly what ignorant a**holes most people are.

I was an airline ticket agent at Washington National Airport for ten years, and I learned to despise people, and really hate holidays. On the up side, I actually learned good people skills, and a lot of flexibility.

[high density]

30. FCC isn't so hot on cellphone jammers

Believe me, I love the idea, but it's not practical to implement.

The fact is though that if somebody is really annoying me in a theater, airplane, whatever... They will know it directly from me. Certainly somebody who has reached an "executive" level would also be capable of this sort of interaction. I don't need to go whine to a third party about the issue unless I genuinely need their assistance in resolving whatever the problem is. I definitely would not bother to call up after the fact when the only resolution would be to change history. If it's really that bad then wait for the Bluray and enjoy the movie at home.

[REP]

34. BluRay and AppleTV has eliminated my theater exposure

I think the last thing I saw in public was District 9 (and that was kind of worth it).

[sarcasmo]

50. I agree.

In no way am I rich but we turned the computer room into a two seated movie room. The room is only big enough for a Queen size bed but with a 32 inch TV, in the small room it still kicks ass. No cell phones or screaming kids allowed in my movie room.

[boppers]

35. Easy-ish to implement, technically.

http://www.espow.com/jammers/security-surveillance-jammer.html

The tricky part is the FCC:
http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=operations_2&id=cellular

According to the US government, it is potentially illegal to control radio waves on your own, private, property.

[Raine]

36. *IF* he's so wealthy why doesn't

he have a home theater where he can watch movies??? ECK I can't imagine how horrible it must be for him to have to sit in a sticky theater with the masses. This guy sounds like a poser to me.

[barbtries]

37. clearly

if one drives a lexus one should never be bothered by others in any way shape or fashion. what the fuck does that have to do with anything. i probably would have hung up on him. your complaint has been noted, thank you for calling.
people can be such assholes.
i went to the movies yesterday and used my phone during the commercials. turned it off for the movie.
he sounds like a very unhappy person. any person who brings up what car they drive during a conversation with anyone but his mechanic has issues imo.

[Bluenorthwest]

39. Doctor Lexus apparently is not 1% enough to have a private screening room....

In some circles, that is seen much like not having indoor plumbing. Lexus to the outhouse, and make it snappy!
'Medical profession' to me reeks of sales...not medicine....

[deutsey]

40. What an odd thing to say: "I drive a Lexus"

And that's relevant to anything how?

[Vinca]

41. A real 1 percenter doesn't mingle with the riffraff at a movie theater.

Probably a faux percenter with a rented Lexus.

[spinbaby]

43. He only wishes he were a one percenter

And deep down he knows he's not.

[GoCubsGo]

44. That was my thought, too.

Real 1-percenters have home movie theaters in each of their numerous 15 bedroom mansions. My mom used to be an administrator in the medical field. Most of them are NOT 1-percenters. Unless one is a higher-up in some big hospital chain (See: Bill Frist), they aren't in that category. They are likely doing better than the average schlub on the street, but they ain't the 1-percent.

[Cresent City Kid]

45. He could have gotten it as a Christmas gift

"Sir, is there a big red bow on top of the car? I can only help if you paid for it, just fax over a receipt, bill of lading, whatever you have."

[jimlup]

46. The 1% ers actually start to believe the shit about they being better than everyone else.

Such utter horse shit.

[whistler162]

49. Walmart can.. my mom found a $50 Walmart gift card and turned it in to

customer service at Walmart. They had just finished issuing the lady who had lost it a new one.

[itsrobert]

52. You have to becareful nowadays

People can sell their giftcards online or at a booth in the mall. Then they can say they lost it to the store showing them a recipt or number and pin as proof they had the gift card. The store can issue a new gift card and deactivate the old one. The booth in the mall or the new owner of the gift card gets the shaft.

[Liberal_in_LA]

54. Doesn't your daughter know? Owning a Lexus is a free pass to acting like a jerk.

It's the law.

[Sentath]

55. I'd love to see her stories added to

http://notalwaysright.com/

or

http://www.retailhellunderground.com/

[mainer]

58. Lexus? A 1-percenter would drive a Ferrari.

Lexus is the car of realtors and suburban moms.

[ThatsMyBarack]

62. "I am a medical field executive..."

Maybe he's in the medical INSURANCE industry--a bunch of wealthy crooks.

[Ruby the Liberal]

68. The 'executive in a medical field' could easily

mean a home-based self-employed transcriptionist gig (no boss = 'executive') and last I checked, used Lexii are a plenty, and some new models can be leased for 2 bills a month.

The more someone tries to impress/influence me in that way, the faster my mind navigates to alternate explanations for their labels...