Idiots and End of Month

It is becoming increasingly difficult to believe that people can be so bloody stupid.
Actually, let's just tell it like it is. Why are there so many fuckwits in the world, and why do they seem to be employed in the workplace where I am at?!

I spent a fair chunk of my Monday afternoon last week writing emails to our counter staff, pointing out where errors were being made in regards to goods receipting products from various different suppliers into our yards and stores, and trying in the simplest terms to show them the correct way to do them. Well, that seems to have been time wasted, because on no less than eight different delivery dockets from the end of last week, the same errors were still being done. So, I asked myself, was it my fault? Was I not clear enough. Well, on this occasion, no that wasn't the problem. It was in fact all too clear that the emails had been all but ignored by most people, and they had just kept doing what they decided was correct.
Was I a little angry at this? Yes. But better was to come.

I was asked late last week to order in a face plate for a mail box as a special order, by one of our gentlemen at one of our northern yards. After I had researched said product and found it unavailable in the style and colour that was required, it was decided that the customer would purchase the entire mailbox. I then went through the process of explaining that

1. as this was a special order, it was not returnable if it was incorrect or not what they were after, and

2. that as a special order, it needed to be paid for up front, and that

3. there was also a freight charge that we would be slugged for by the company, and that it would be passed on in full to the customer.

All clear as crystal, correct? Impossible not to understand, right? Especially as our counter staff read all that back to me, and apparently had the customer in front of him as I explained it.

Error.

Within 15 minutes of my arrival I had discovered the following:

1. The customer had come to pick up the letterbox, and freaked at the price, claiming he'd never been told he had to pay a freight charge.

2. Having carried on like a goose for 10 minutes in front of other customers, our front counter personnel (not the one who took the order) allowed him to leave with the item and not pay the freight charge.

3. By doing this, we actually made a loss on the sale.

4. An hour later the guys called up, said it wasn't right, and was returning it. Again, front counter personnel allowed this to happen.

5. I then blew my top, used every word under the sun to our northern personnel, and hung up.

To top off the day, it's the last day of the month, and I'm staying back to do end of month, meaning I won't be out of work until about 7pm.

Awesome stuff. Awesome stuff.