#notreallyteaching

[justmetalkingaboutstuff]

My Own Private Asshole of the Internet! (Assholes of the Internet vol. 5)

I guess it was inevitable that at some point in time I'd have my own personal encounter with an asshole of the internet in the wild and today was my lucky day! YAY!

Just kidding. Totally not a yay. More like a WHATTHEFUCKAAAAYYY?

I'll give a screen shot to show you that this did indeed occur but I'm not going to screen shot the whole thing because it got too long. If you haven't figured it out by now, brevity is NOT my strong suit. I'm the only person I've ever known who has had a teacher (college professor actually) tell me to take my paper back home and make it SHORTER. So, you know, you've been warned.

A couple of days ago I had a great interaction with the customer service team at a small business that I buy a good deal of merchandise from because their stuff is so cute. When I have a really positive experience I often like to share that with others so they know what businesses I support and why. I do this because most of the time if people have a bad experience with a company they'll share online so everyone can see but if they had a good experience they may only tell a couple of people or maybe nobody at all. I think that businesses who go above and beyond should be celebrated for that. So in my attempts to try to spread positivity in the world, I try to share the good stuff because there's so much negativity out in the world.

** Obligatory shout out to Hubman and Chubgirl stationary out of Vancouver, Canada. If you're still using a paper planner and want to decorate it with really cute planner stickers or you just enjoy really cute vinyl stickers that are very high quality and will stand up to even the dishwasher's abuse (I like to put them on my water bottles) then you should definitely check them out! **

My original post goes as follows:

Just gotta give a shout-out to the INCREDIBLE customer support at Hubman and Chubgirl! I placed an order in mid-to-late November but knew that it would take a while to get here due to the Canada Post strike, holiday orders, lots of new orders, and it being an international order (to the US).

By the time Christmas came I did start to wonder what the status was on my order so I logged in to the website, only to see the status as “delivered.” Only I didn’t receive it and my awesome neighbors who will always bring anything of ours that they receive by accident. But since it was the holidays I wanted to double check with them just in case they’d forgotten. Still, no luck.

I emailed customer support and let them know what had happened and they are replacing everything and sending me another package. So many other companies will make you jump through hoops before they will replace lost orders but H&C makes the process so much easier.

My best guess as to what happened is that our new postman delivered my package to a house that’s not in my small neighborhood and when the recipient saw the cute Happy Mail box they decided that instead of doing the right thing and returning it to the post office to instead open it and keep the stuff for themselves. It’s disappointing that people in my town don’t choose to do the right thing. But at least H&C does!

All of the comments were really nice as well. People sharing their own experiences or commenting that it's nice to see a company's customer service be so friendly and nice. All pretty typical for this group. Actually, come to think of it, I've never actually seen a negative thing on there until...

ANONYMOUS 366 enters the chat.

For those of you who are not aware, some groups allow members to comment under posts anonymously. So instead of seeing the name of the member who posted, you'll only see ANONYMOUS and a number following it. I moderate a Facebook alumni group and noticed that any time someone posted something political or religious they'd do it using the anonymous feature. I guess they don't realize that moderators can ALWAYS see the poster's name, even if they choose to post in the group anonymously. So I knew who was doing it. But also, they were people I was friends with and I really didn't want to get into it with them over stupid shit on Facebook. I'll be honest, I expected better of these people and they let me down by posting things that are clearly stated to be a violation of the group's rules but it's also really hard to ban someone who's been really nice to you in real life for like 30 years. So I made the choice to suspend members' ability to post anonymously. And also, we're all supposed to be adults here (at least in a group of high school alumni for a high school that's been closed for over a decade) and if it's important enough for you to share so that everyone can see your message then you need to have your name attached to it. Own your words. It's one thing to post anonymously if you're asking some questions. For example: a woman posts on a Facebook group about resources for a women's shelter because she is seeking to leave an abusive partner. Obviously, she would be scared that her partner or someone who knows him would tip him off that the woman was trying to leave him so she might post anonymously to get that information. Or (as I've actually seen) a parent is dissatisfied with their child's school because nobody is stopping their child from being bullied and they're seeking resources for homeschooling. They're posting anonymously because they don't want their child's bully or any of the bully's friends to see it and give that bully yet another reason to torment the child. But when you're saying something that you KNOW you shouldn't be saying online and you're using the anonymous feature to do so it's not cool.

The comments go as follows:

ANONYMOUS 366: Don’t fault other companies for doing what is necessary to recoup costs to ship out a replacement order! Me: @ Anonymous366 I don’t understand what you’re saying. Mistakes happen. Some postman somewhere delivered my package by accident to someone who wasn’t me. I did speculate as to what COULD have happened but all it was was conjecture of the most likely scenario and certainly not an indictment of anyone. And no other companies were mentioned. The USPS is a part of the U.S. government but, again, I recognize that mistakes happen. Trust me, I make them all the time! Honestly, what I HOPE happened was that the mistaken delivery at least provided some happiness to the person who got it. Maybe fate stepped in and said, “Evan doesn’t need those stickers right now but this person does.” Or, you know, maybe a dog passed by my house and decided to run off with my order. Maybe $90 worth of cute stationery is just out in the woods somewhere. The main point of my post was to complement Hubman and Chubgirl for their good customer service and let others know that if they have a problem with their order to reach out and contact them as well.

Because, you know, I'm trying to keep things positive here...

ANONYMOUS366: “So many other companies will make you jump through hoops before they will replace lost orders” Just because H&C goes above and beyond doesn’t mean other companies should be faulted for doing things properly! Especially if your order was misdelivered. It is USPS’s job to help you look for it.

Kathi: Anonymous member 366 this isn’t making any sense

They're not making sense to me either, Kathi. And I'm not in the mood for bullshit today because I've been stuck in a classroom with 28 4th graders who had to sit quietly at their desks almost all day long due to mandated testing. On top of that, we're experiencing a severe cold snap and I'm not even able to take the kids outside to play on the playground and burn off some energy due to some distict rule which prohibits taking kids outside if it's below freezing - even if both the teacher and kids want to go outside to the playground. I hate it for the kids. I know they're miserable. I'd be miserable too if i was them. They're making the best of it and I'm proud of them but I'd really like it if we could all just go back to our regular schedule. So I'm cranky and I've decided to go all out.

Me: @Anonymous366 I’m sorry that’s the one thing you decided to pick out of that post and deride me about. And that you chose to do so anonymously to boot. We’re adults here. If you want to call someone out that’s fine but at least attach your name to it and own it. I’ve made purchases before where the package was lost in the mail and the seller did nothing to help resolve the issue. In what world is it right to take a person’s money, ask them to contact the post office (I did), ask them to contribute to wait (I did) and that person still never get what they paid for? I jumped through hoops per their request and my issue wasn’t even resolved. Had it not been for the credit card company I would not have gotten my money back. And I didn’t even call out that business by name on here. Just said “some businesses.” And, yes, it IS the USPS’s job to help find it. They said it had been delivered, and it was, just not to me. The USPS isn’t terribly helpful once the parcel is no longer in their system. And you can’t expect a postman (or anyone else) to remember which, out of hundreds of houses, he mis-delivered a package to. If you think that the FIRST step I took was to contact the company and ask for more stuff then you’re mistaken. I did contact the USPS. They said, “Our system says it was delivered.” So it’s my word against theirs. What am I supposed to do? And, finally, I DID tick the box for postal insurance when I made my purchase so I’m not “taking” anything from H&C. They are able to file a claim with the place that issued that insurance to make them whole as well. The company just made the process very simple and I was grateful for that and chose to share with the group my positive experience. You chose to blow that complement up. For what? You anonymously implied that I’ve done something wrong because I’m “supposed to contact the USPS.” I’d already done that. That was the next step after I’d checked with the neighbors. I’m sorry that I had to come back and say all of this to you but this page is a very positive place and you’re bringing negativity for no reason. So I’m going to wish you a nice day (and I mean that sincerely) and I’m going to not respond to you anymore. I hope in the future you will decide to choose to spread that H&C positivity instead of negativity directed at people for no reason.

So take that, ya jerk. And, I dunno, maybe go outside and touch some grass even though it's dreadfully cold. Get some sunshine. Maybe buy a really sugary latte drink from Starbucks if that's what you need to give you some joy in your life because you are clearly a miserable person to have picked that ONE thing out of a postive post and then decide to just be an asshole to a random stranger on the internet for no reason at all other than because you could.

I mean, I've never had any negative interactions with ANYONE in that group before so it's not like they are doing this as some sort of retaliation for something shitty I might have said in the past. But, you know, some people just love to be miserable pricks and clearly ANONYMOUS366 is one of them.