Customer Service

I am not sure how many people have worked with customer service or dealing with people’s complains, but sometimes it just doesn’t go the way you want. Whether your working in a retail store, at a bank, restaurant, or just anywhere, your always going to have someone ruin your day. I’ve had that happen to me plenty of times, not only because I work at a restaurant, but because I have two jobs. I just simply see it every were, every direction I turn. I guess people are not use to change that when a policy does change, they just can not accept the fact that now they need to go an extra step to accomplish something. This really bothers me because whether your the one behind the counter, or the consumer we’ve all been through it before.

Recently, one of my friends got fired from his job because of supposedly doing something he wasn’t suppose to do when all his managers were doing the same thing. What kind of example is that, watching your manager do something, obviously the employee is going to do the same thing, assuming the manager is doing the right thing. After all in times like these everyone is trying to keep their job and will do what ever management asks of them. That’s another thing, when management asks you to do something and they can’t be consistent with what they tell you. How does that possibly work? I can’t see a way to that. And because of this people like my friend who has bills to pay lost his job.

Looking, at my only two current job I have, I have seen an inconsistency and poor management. I don’t want to sound rude or anything, but its true. When a new rule is put into action it is understandable to be considerate for the first week or two, but after that people should be aware of the new policies and therefore there should be no exceptions made. This is why the customers get upset, because once you let them by once, they are going to expect the same when they come in next time, and that’s not how the system works, that’s why it is an EXCEPTION. A one time thing, not constantly. The point of having a new policy is for the better of things or simply to make things easier and consumers just need to accept it, after all we are in a recession and there are many store who are changing the way they do things.

Another thing that really bothers me is when the employee is trying to follow the proper procedures and the customer is out of hand, so you call your manager and they make you look like a total idiot by simply letting you be humiliated in front of their face. There is usually a respect rule for other employees that should include management not letting you be humiliated in front of anyone. That’s when the customer thinks your the jerk who just didn’t let them get away with what they wanted to do, when in reality you were just following procedure. Little things like this is what get consumers hyped up and angry at someone. Not only do they get upset, but is also when they call customer service to make a complain of the service you provided to them.

This is an on going thing and is probably that many people aren’t aware, but should know of what is going on around them. They should instead pay attention of the things they are doing wrong and better them for next time, instead of trying to blame others for their problems.

Chris brown case

I just finished watching an interview with Chris Brown on 20/20. This caught my attention and even though I had no original intentions on watching it, I did. I was first surprsied at the fact that they were promoting the interview with Chris, and I was pretty sure that they weren’t going to show it until the last fifteen minutes, but I was wrong. Chris Brown’s interview was the second thing they showed. During the interview, they asked Chris many questions about domestic violence, his relationship with Rihanna, and how he felt this trial has affected his life.

Twenty-twenty had already interviewed Rihanna a few weeks back on the same matter, only that this time it was Chris Brown’s turn. Some of Rihanna’s responses were played back to Chris Brown to get his reaction, but fankly he did seem a little dissapointed. By this point mostly everyone knows what Chris Brown did and is aware that he pleated guilty. Throughout the interview, Chris seemed calm and a little more aware of the situation he committed and takes full responsibility. Chris is smart, but having fame at a young age was probably something that he got excited about a little too early, because right when he was growing stronger, his ratings just went down the drain. There are a few people who dislike him what he did and i agree.

What Chris did was wrong, but whats even worst it that a few days later Rihanna took him back. Luckly now they are officially split up. They  are both grown adults and celebrities that got both of them thinking of the situation. Chris did seem a bit sorry and disapointed,but seems as though he has learned from his mistakes. Honestly, after committing this type of abuse, it is more likely that he do it again with another girl. Even though in the past, Chris has never done anything this bad, it only takes one time to repeat the action.

Restaurant Mess

Going to restaurants can be a mess, especially if you go during a holiday. Most restaurants tend to be over booked and packed with people all over the place. I work in a restaurant and when people try calling the day of the a holiday to make reservations, it’s always booked. I work in a restaurant in Malibu for about three years now. I would think that people would be a lot more nicer and with a better attitude, but this job helped me change my perspective on restaurants. The people I work with are great, but its just the customers that come in who make me want to quit my job. Luckly  I’ve been working there for three years and have gotten use to all the rude people that come in all the time. I figured that because I work in Malibu people wouldn’t be as rude, but i guess even i stereotyped the city.

I just don’t understand how people could possibly be so irritating and think that just because they are the guest they are familiar with the phrase, ” the customer is always right.” The restaurant is right on the ocean and when people don’t get a “window” table they normally start acting rude, especially when customers bring people from out of town and they just have to have that seat by the window. If someone is coming to visit from a foreign country, why not just take them to the actually ocean so that they can see, touch, and smell both the sand and water. I try to be nice with people, but sometimes I just can’t help it. People are always trying to get what they want and assume they’re the only ones dining at a restaurant, therefore they can have whatever table they chose, but unfortunately they have to learn that it doesn’t work that way. People are going to dine and eat at a nice restaurant, not to do sit wherever they choose to.

After working with other people for a while now, things aren’t always bad actually turn out great. Before I worked at a restaurant, I really didn’t know how to tip people or whether a server is “taking care” of you or not. Were in a recession and money is tight, but it’s always nice to tip your server the adequate 15% rather than 10% or less. While many people aren’t aware, but servers literally live off the tips customers leave them because they are only getting paid minimum wage. Even though I’m not a server, being able to work in such environment has opened my eyes to a whole different perspective.

Lack Of Police

Despite of all the protest and the angry students peacefully protesting in front of UCLA, the police continue to somehow not do their job. This doesn’t happen with regular police officers, but with school police as well. Lately I’ve been noticing that all the Santa Monica School Police worry about is giving tickets and making money off students. That’s basically what they’re doing because in reality there not there to “protect and serve” . There have been a few events that have occurred at Santa Monica College, such as rape and robbery in which the appropriate discipline actions don’t take place.

For example, about two weeks ago I went to study with two other friends at the library after work. We studied for about three hours in the library and left around 8:45 pm. Both my friends walked together towards Pico, while I had to walk towards Ocean Park Blvd., alone. As I made myself outside the library, I immediately called my sister because I had a missed call from her. As I called her, I hear a voice yelling, “Hey girl!” At the moment I didn’t think they were talking to me because there was another girl walking in front of me, so I didn’t take interest. Then he yelled, “Hey girl on the phone,” but when I heard this I was stunned and felt my heart drop since I was the only person on their phone. I didn’t know what to do other than to tell my sister and run immediately to my car. Since it was dark at the time, I couldn’t see anything and didn’t even know if this person was following me or not, but i kept checking and nothing. Lucky enough, no one was behind me as I walked to my car.

After this incident I just became disappointed with the school police because if I experienced this, I can only imagine the other horrific things that other students go through, especially with classes that end later in the night. The school Police is there to enforce the regulations instead of paying more attention on other things such as giving parking tickets to students. It seems to me that if the school police has so much time on their hands to check the meters and residential areas to make sure every car has there permit, every hour of the day, then they should also have officers throughout the campus. Not only inside the campus, but all throughout, everywhere they check the meters or wherever it is they go. This shouldn’t only happen during the night when it’s dark, because it’s not even happening then, but also during the bright day light when most incidents occur.

It doesn’t only happen to me, but  my friends car recently got stole, literally, in front of school and when he tried to make a report with the school police they were asking questions like, ” are you sure you parked it there” and “you probably forgot were you parked it”. This is just ridiculous and it’s questions they shouldn’t even have asked. I’m pretty sure students wouldn’t go into the office to lie about something like that. My friend had to go all the way to downtown police to make a report on his stolen car because the school police wouldn’t take one, when it was their responsibility to do so.

While the school police and regular police shouldn’t be compared, in this case they are similar because sometimes the police fails to make reason with what people tell them. If people shouldn’t base one person experience to all school police or just regular police officers then maybe all these negative events need to stop happening and instead spend there money on somethings we could all benefit from so we could actually feel “protected and served”.

Taylor Wins the CMAs

While some artist may have won one or two awards during the CMAs, Taylor Swift took home with her four! It’s impressive to see a 17-year-old with such great talent. While Taylor was winning all these awards, there were also other artists that were forgotten about such as Carrie Underwood who also has talent, but not enough to have made it to an award. While Taylor was enjoying her awards and everything, I’m pretty sure that it didn’t pass her mind that Kayne West might run up the stage, take the microphone from her, and ruin her acceptance speech one more time.

Taylor Swift has talent, but after the MTV Music Video Awards it seems that she has gotten a lot more attention than normal. Many people probably didn’t know who Taylor Swift was until Kayne West took a microphone from here and stated nation wide that she didn’t deserve the award she just worked for. I’m not trying to be mean, but realistic. Many if that incident hadn’t occurred to Taylor, she would have taken home at the most two CMAs compared to four. After the incident with Kayne West, many people looked up Taylor Swift to listen to more of her music. While the event must have been devastating for her, in the end it helped Taylor in the long run.

Thanks to Kayne Wests’ stupidity, Taylor was able to win more awards than she probably expected. Taylor worked hard for everything she has right now and deserves all the awards she earned, but all i’m saying is that Kayne did help her. People who don’t listen to country music might of never even heard of her.  Even though this 17-years old country singer does have talent, she was able to portray more attention and  more fans with a dumb act from Kayne West.

Suprising attack by American soldier

Prior to electing our President of the United States, most citizen voted for President Obama hoping that he would keep his promise on bringing the soldiers back home. For most soldiers hearing such wonderful news was great for them because that meant going home and spending time with the family. Unfortunately, even after being elected President of the United States, Obama  hasn’t kept his promise he once told the nation. The reason i bring this up is because an American soldier who was going to get deployed in the next few weeks opened fire in Fort Hood, located in Texas.

Although the shooting is unexplained, it’s thought to be believe that he didn’t want to get deployed, seeing how he previous got a lawyer to try and get him out of the military. In total, so far, there have only been 12 killed and 30 injured. The suspect is known at Major Nidal Malik Hasan. His cousin, Nader Hasan,  stated that, ” she believed it was his upcoming deployment combined with the wartime horror stories he heard from his patients that set him off”. She also mentioned that after 9/11, Nidal would be harassed because of his ethnicity. Apparently Nidal came from an American family who loved America and was proud of the country as a whole.

This is a tragic and unexpected story that we don’t normally hear of on a daily basis. While the soldier opened fire to innocent soldiers and caused them their life, he remains alive and in custody. An officer shot fire to Nidal and both were injured, but are now out of risk. They will survive. While there are many issues affecting the United States, we should try to focus on the smaller things that we don’t pay much attention to, such as the  feelings of a soldier. Being a soldier is tough especially after hearing your next president promising you that he will get you out of Iraq. Less promises should be made if there not going to be kept and more actions should be taken. After all actions do speak louder than words.

 

Shooting in Compton Haunts Mother

During an evening, in Compton, Hamm was sitting at home when out of no were she heard gun shots outside her window. Knowing that her son was outside as the gun shots came to an end, she looked out the window only to see a body slowly fall onto the ground. Hamm rushed outside only to find her 13-year old son, Marvin Nicholson, laying on the floor with gun wounds to his head. Marvin was rushed to the hospital right away, but unfortunately the doctors couldn’t do much and pronounced him dead. Hamm was devastated to find out her son dead because according to what she told LA Times, ” ..didn’t want to gang-bang; he wanted to go to school” and “Every boy over there is targeted,” she said. ‘That’s the reason I had to take him to and from school. People were harassing him. “

While Hamm claims that she felt pressured to move her son out of that school district in order to move him into a school were he wasn’t harassed. It’s depressing when news about this comes to us and even though people are aware of the problems and trouble some cities have compared to others, there is still nothing that is being done. Change is good, but yet for certain areas of California some seem to have to stay the same for the years to come. Even though I might be able to relate to this story it really bugs me how media sort of hides this type of news and you have to dig for it in order to read about it. Because this happened in the Compton, it’s already a well-known area to many, therefore it’s “normal” for accidents like these to occur. Media, nor the news broadcast should discriminate against certain cities within Los Angeles.

While we strive for peace and change amongst everyone, it all starts with adults. If adults learn not to be biased against other cultures, then it will teach a child to become a better person when they grow up.   While the numbers are at its high for the Compton area, that should already be a red flag for LAPD to be aware of. Instead of riding in their black and whites giving out tickets for no reason, they should be in areas like Compton trying to prevent “accidents” like these to happen. People die everyday, but a child should never be the victim in a situation, no matter what. LAPD should try and prevent those numbers from rising and actually make those changes that they are said to be done. They should probably do as their motto say “Protect and Serve” instead of Driving and ticketing for no reason.

It’s hard to loose a child. I’ve lost a family member in my family and it’s not a pretty picture. It is always important to cherish someone because you never know when something might happen. While Marvin could have stayed home instead of going to the Compton airport store, it probably still would have ended in a tragic story, but with another child. Children are the future to our world and are the last ones who should be targeted. Instead of going and killing innocent people, or children, the killer should reflect on why their life is so messed up and not blame problems on others.  One of the reasons why media doesn’t portray it as much is because nothing is going to be done to make the change cities need and until that happens there will remain to be stories just like this one that we don’t hear about. After all, someone shouldn’t die for people to realize changes that need to be done.

Vietnam Veterans Finally Honored

Oct. 20: President Obama shakes hands with Capt. John Poindexter in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington

After nearly 40 years of fighting for our country, a few veterans are finally getting recognized for all the hard work they put in fighting in the war. Poindexter stated to Fox News, “ The general feeling is a pretty intense level of excitement.” It must feel great to be recognized in the White House, by the president of the United States, after fighting for your country and nearly loosing your life in battle. I can just imagine all the trouble the troops might have gone through during the Vietnam War. These 86 veterans were honored at the White House Rose Garden for their “bravery and heroism”.

Honestly I don’t know why the country had to wait 40 years until honoring these veterans that almost lost their lives in combat. They gave everything they had; their family, friends, jobs, and children to fight for their country whether they chose to or not. Some of these veterans were probably drafted into war and so they didn’t have that option. While the thought of being able to honor their veterans is great, the time period that they had to wait was ridiculous and these veterans shouldn’t have to wait such a long time for an honor after fighting in Vietnam. Capt. John Poindexter also said, ““It will mean to me that I’ve filled an important duty to the men who I literally owe my life to, men who supported me in a desperate battle 40 years ago in the jungles along the Cambodian border.” If waiting so long to feel that you’ve achieved something then why wait so long to get recognized.
This makes me mad because it’s not easy being able from your daily life for such a long time. Not only did these veterans had to wait long to be recognized after their hard work, but i was also watching the news a few days ago with a similar situation. A soldier who died while in combat in Iraq, got honored the highest honor you can get after his death. The point of getting an honor is so that people can realize what a great job you did in combat. It shouldn’t even get to the point were you have to receive an award for risking your life for millions of people, but instead it should be something normal and automatic for people. Besides this soldier who died for us Americans doesn’t have the lesiure that at least Poindexter has by accepting the award. While the intentions are great for honoring the soldier a gold honor, but it’s a little to late for that.

The military should just have more focus on the soldiers of bringing them back, instead of the president sending more troops over. While this topic is very controversial, people should be aware of what is going on around them. Soldiers need the attention and love they can get because being away from the people you love most for a few years is tough, especially fearing that you  might never get to see them again.

Boy Missing Inside Balloon

Having parents that are amateur scientists and storm chasers must be difficult and risky at the same time. It would be interesting at the same time,even though others would look at one differently because the parents would be after flying saucers and especially tornadoes. Early this afternoon some of the news channels on television reported that a child was gone missing. The good thing was that be didn’t get kidnapped or anything, but the bad thing was that he was probably inside a weather balloon his parent’s had build for an experiment. The balloon wasn’t suppose to fly, but when reporters in northern Colorado caught it flying, is when all the other news broadcasting stations noticed and followed the balloon.  The balloon was up in the air and flying for about two hours until sheriffs came to the scene and were fortunate enough to get the balloon off.

The boy that was thought to be inside this balloon was only six years old. His parents, Richard and Mayumi Heene were not present when the incident happened, but later found out when the boy and the balloon had gone missing. After the balloon had safely landed on the ground and the six-year old boy wasn’t inside, sheriffs though the boy might had fallen while it was in the air. It was a devastating news for the both parents since they had build a trap door inside the balloon. The worst case senerio was going through everyone’s mind.  After hours of the sheriff’s, neighbors and parents searching for the boy, Sheriff Aldreden “looked at his pager, flashed a thumb’s up, and said, ‘He’s at the house!’”.Apparently the boy had been hiding away after his father told him not to go anywhere near the balloon. Apparently one of the brothers said his younger brother crawl into the balloon in the backyard of their house. This was a very devastation situation for all the people watching the news and especially the parents.

If i were that crazy about science and had a passion for chasing after rigorous weather, I would be extra protective with my tools. Being a parent and going after tornadoes and such things makes a child’s life difficult because your constantly moving from place to place, in order to follow a simple storm. While it’s only a storm and it may mean nothing to me, but to stay away from it, scientist such as the Heene parent are just one unique couple who do that for a living. Having children around huge objects will attract a child’s curiosity to want to touch it and play with is, just like this six-year old boy did. It’s not safe to be building something in your backyard knowing you have younger children who are going to want to play with such things.

It’s very difficult to explain certain things to children and they are not always going to understand it the first time. That is why scientist like the Heene couple should have a special location as to were they are building their next project, away from the child. Letting a child see something they’ve never seen before is going to attract their attention. A six-year old boy isn’t going to be able to distinguish that that certain balloon is something that shouldn’t be played with, because they aren’t old enough to understand that. It is up to the parent to either teach them not to touch things without knowing what it is, or simply just having a separate area were they build these types of experiments.

It is dangerous to have huge objects like this balloon in front of younger children. An adult is old enough to know what to have near them and what not to leave unattended. The parents’ of this six-year old boy should have been watching their child to begin with and shouldn’t have left him unattended. While the intention of the balloon wasn’t even to fly, we can still see that anything can happen, things that we don’t expect to happen. It just goes to show that parent should be more responsible of their children and not to leave them unattended just like the Heene family. You never know when an incident is going to occur, especially after putting your child down for doing something wrong.

Sliced Throat

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/ucla-lab-students-watched-in-horror-as-classmate-slashed-throat-of-fellow-student.html

Knowing you attend a high privileged college in a well-known area, one would be surprise to hear anything go wrong. Unfortunately this was the case for UCLA students on Thursday afternoon. According to the LA Times, there were a few students who witness a ” male classmate slashed the throat of a female student, who was critically injured”. While police are still trying to figure out what it is that triggered the male student in committing this type of act, they say it might have been a verbal argument.

I would not feel safe attending a college, in which I know that there was a huge crime committed. Even though many student saw this horror take place, those students are going to be horrified for the rest of their lives. As a student myself, I know the fear these student might feel right now. There should be more security in buildings such as the Young Hall, were the incident took place, because it’s in places like these that most accident happen. For example, I attend Santa Monica College, and even though the school is populated with students and school police every day of the week, I feel uncomfortable going to the library and knowing I might get raped because of previous incidents.  Even though school police are at every campus, it’s always going to be difficult to distinguish the students from regular civilians.

Larger campuses such as UCLA,  USC, and Santa Monica College should all have security visible in each building. Probably not each building, but at least building like bigger Labs, Libraries, or Halls were more students go daily. By doing so, it would risk incidents such as the one that happened Thursday at UCLA. The security of the school and students is the most important thing because a school is the place were one goes to study, get away from personal problems, and get homework done. No student should be afraid going to school because of past rapes, murders, and kidnaps that have happened due to the lack of security. While most Colleges and Universities are not exempt from tragedies happening because they are all open campuses, it should be the last.

Anyone can easily come inside a school campus and identify themselves as a student, but it’s up to the authority to identify these students before entering a mass hall room, like the one of UCLA. The reason why security should be paid more attention to is because accidents like these can harm others for life. It is not easily watching something tragic happen to someone you attend school with and having to live with that for the rest of your life. Evey person has a different level of tolerance and not everyone can take it in all the same.