Isn't it amazing how the public can be so rude sometimes!?!?

I mean, you can bend over backwards , be super nice, totally honest, and still occasionally run into some grumpy, unhappy f*ckers.... Jeeesh!

Had to vent.

Yep, sometimes you just can't win. In person, online, wherever.

Speaking of rude people, saw a mountain of it on FB with one little "math test".

40+40*0+1
Answer 1 or 41?

The amount of stupid flowing from this "math test" floating around since like 2011 is quite unreal. Makes one realize you're gonna encounter crazy/rude/stupid from time to time, better have a good outlet. Enjoy.

Yeah well we do massive speaker repairs here. Take in 10 or 12 a day... this guy brings in a B&W woofer with a buzzing voice coil (he bought the B&W's elsewhere we are not a dealer 20 or 25 years ago).

My speaker rebuilder said we cannot get parts for it (it's 25 years old). The customer got all pissed at me on the phone... (I didnt sell him the speaker, and I did not blow up the speaker!) OK, so I even walked next door to the local B&W dealer... My friend there, called the factory AND the rep---they don't support that speaker any longer. I call the guy (after jumping through a few hoops), now he is even more pissed!!! I am usually pretty mellow, but I wanted to tell this guy to come and get his f**king woofer ASAP before I through it in the g*d-damn dumpster! His whole tone of voice and anger he directed at me was unreal, and I was being super nice & helpful... Damn!

Now get this... after he yelled at me, he called back an hour later and spoke to another person trying to get another opinion... The other guy (my co-worker) said, now haven't you been working with another person here? Customer said no! Why? So my coworker says... well earlier today Bruce was online, making several phone calls, because we cannot locate the part for you - and even took your woofer to a B&W dealer to try and resolve your problem, but B&W doesnt repair or have a replacement part for that speaker!!! The customer was pretty quiet.

Personally when he comes in to pick up the old part, I'm going to ask him why the attitude?!?!?! A**hole!!!

This is why I self medicate once in a while!

Quit worrying about that asshat and worry about making your big sale proper.

Learn the power of the word "next".

Its right up there with "No".

Non illegitimi carborundum. Fake Latin for "Don't let the bastards wear you down."

One thing you might have learned from a previous girlfriend is not to let their problems become your problem. You care A LOT about your clients and the equipment, but don't let that care suck you down their crazy hole.

Now for this:

It is 41. Why? Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
What?
That sentence is a mnemonic to remember which kinds of mathematical operations to do first, then next, then after that. It means Parentheses, Exponents, Multiply or Divide, Add or Subtract. It doesn't matter whether you multiply or divide first, but Please Excuse Dear My Aunt Sally makes even less sense than the original phrase!

Since 40+ 40*0+1 has no parentheses, there's none of that to do. Similarly, there are no exponents to deal with.

This leaves us to do multiplying and dividing before we do any adding or subtracting.

Doing the multiplying, 40*0 = 0, so we now have 40 + 0 + 1. There's no multiplying or dividing to do any more, so we can add, and we get 41.

See [Link: mathsisfun.com] (By the way, they MEAN maths, not math, because that's the British way to say it. Over here it sounds like interweb sarcasm, but it's not.)

It's not surprising that there are arguments online about the answer to this problem. A LOT of people don't get it.

Well life is too short and Im too old to lay down and kiss these jerks asses.
Treat me likecshit and I will reciprocate.

Find away to trigger your "next" mechanism. My trigger was when I was when it clicked that I was wasting my time and there was no probable good outcome. That trigger for me started at the first sign of attitude/talking down or any other form of superiority. Bruce you know what I do so you know its a daily battle.

Once the trigger is tripped I end the project/conversations in 3 to 5 minutes and "Next"

In every situation where someone took over my client base I have gotten a call saying, "Your customers are so nice and easy to get along with".

Learn to identify who is worth spending time on and who is not.

I learned you are not going to sell something to everybody and politely "Next" and move on.

It takes a couple years to build that base but worth it.

I would tell the client that perhaps you and I are not a good fit and there is 13 other choices here maybe you will find some one else to help you, would you like me to introduce you to them.

The "Next" mechanism has increased my happiness immensely, and help me quit wasting time on shit that I cannot change.

Identifying time wasters quick is a great feeling to know its now history and you can prospect something more positive.

Bruce I know you well enough to know you were doing what is in your heart and your passion, so absolutely no disrespect there. Especially with your speaker design background.

I have am just trying to help you develop a quick turn around to asshole clients that are a no-win situation.

The good news is it looks like your fellow employees got your back, that's good!

Ask the customer if he owns a shotgun? If so, would he like to take the sub somewhere and put it out of his (and your) misery. Afterwards, he can come back in and you would be happy to show him some very nice subs to replace it with.

Yeah, well I've been doing this 35 plus years so I've seen and heard it all, I can size up a customer in the first 10 seconds or so, I treat EVERY customer the way I would like to be treated, but it still boggles the mund when people come off as dicks from the get - go! I ususally develop great long term relationships, because I am honest and sincere and empathetic---but some people are just miserable human beings.

I know you probably learned the same thing being the bearer of mostly bad news as a car service adviser!!!

Exactly, simple order of operations. What was terrifying, was that on FB, 3-times more people thought that the answer was 1. To make it worse, many of the people answering 1 were absolutely, 100% positive that the people who answered 41 needed to return to school and had their heads up their, well, you know.

No google search, no double checking their answer, just "I'm right, you're wrong, piss off". Creepy.