[TTrent]

can't believe i never saw this thread. all the stuff i'm gonna say is from personal experience or from my closest friends. . .

Pharmacy/med related stuff:

- counting the pills is the fastest part. the typical process goes: find/enter patient in the computer (DOB, address, phone #, common allergies, insurance etc), scanning a copy of the prescription, double checking the medication color/drug ID #s/size/shape, double checking dosage, entering doctors instruction (which is always in horrible handwriting), double checking those instructions, finding a quantity to dispense that your insurance will accept and then finally processing the order. this is all before the pill is even counted and the pharmacist rechecks everything,looks for drug interactions etc. what slows pharmacists down is when customers call in over the phone for refills/doctors call in prescriptions, forcing them to stop, or people coming to the counter to ask the pharmacist questions.

- if you have bad/perma allergies like me and none of the over the counter stuff works and you want something with pseudoephedrine in it, dont show up in your baggy torn clothes, with sunglasses on to hide your red eyes and act like you're out of the ghetto. there's a big problem with people buying these for meth labs and often times if a pharmacist sells to one person selling to a lab, it'll be followed by up to 20 in the next few hours. if you really want it, dress nice, act educated and it doesn't hurt to have your doctor write a recommendation on your next visit

- it does pay to have the pharmacy staff like you. they'll often go out of their way to talk to your doctor or anyone that they can to work something out where your insurance wont just reject you

- phamacy clerks and technicians know practically nothing about medicine. clerks = cashiers, tech classes = learning procedures. it's sad but even techs who have a certification requirement dont need basic algeba/pre-algebra or even the first class of general/basic chem (even the good techs). they probably dont know the difference between a proton pump inhibitor and a serotonin reuptake inhibitor

- major chains do have networked data bases, so if you're a druggy and asking for vicodine all the time they probably already know and in some cases have called their neighboring stores to tell them.

-call around for pricing on your medication, being specific with the name (exact name of the brand or generic), strength and quantity. major pharmacy stores will usually try to match competitor prices ( and they do call to confirm so dont make it up).

- if u dont have medical insurance but have AAA auto, ask the pharmacist to try. they often cover part of the prescription

- nurses do not require any basic/general chemistry. most of these people can barely pass intro to chemistry (which is before the general chem series). during my first quarter of college i had 8/20 fail my lab. no joke, every one was a nursing major.

- in high school i worked 300 hours in elderly care facilities, all the nurses were pretty bad (even with me, a stranger in front of them), and ironically all of them were Filipino. i didn't meet a single nurse that wasn't Filipino and not from the Philippines, so i can't really compare them to other nurses. here are two stories about it:

1. my first day i was put in a room where 3 of the patients were wheeled chaired to face a window. 4 nurses were sitting at a table at the other side of this small room playing cards. an old lady says she needs help to get to the bathroom a few feet away over and over and over again but she has these restraints. i tell the nurses at the table that the lady says she needs to go to the bathroom and ask if i can unbuckle the restraint ( i just assumed that without the restraint the woman could go on her own). the nurses i guess were not really listening to me and said "yes". i go over, unbuckle one of the several buckles and a nurse hurries over and says "no dont do that", and i said "but she needs to go to the bathroom" and the lady says "she has a diaper" and walks back to playing cards without saying a word or even glancing at the lady.

2. during my last week i spent some time with an old lady that i made friends with during my time there. i learned a lot about her life because that's all old people talk to high school volunteers about and really felt like i got to know her. during my last week i noticed she'd become weaker, more tired, slept a lot more, coughed a lot more etc. i talked to the staff about it and they said they noticed but didn't seem to do anything about it. at the end of one of my shifts i told the head nurse and pharmacist that i think they should really check on her because she's been asleep in the exact same position from about noon to 8pm when i left. they "found" her dead at 6am the next day when they tried to wake her and i heard one of the nurses a few days later say that the hospital thinks she died sometime the day before.

- don't make and pay for a doctor's appointment if it's just for a refill. call your doctor and ask them to fax or call in your refill for you, or you can even ask the pharmacy to fax in a refill request for you

- at the pharmacy i used to work at, sometimes pills would be dropped but we would never put them back in the bottle. i worked for a big chain and we rarely dropped pills ( that's why they're dispensed into a special tray from/to the bottle). even if it was a $30 pill, it's not the pharmacists money, and it doesn't happen enough to where corporate would come crashing down on them. if you work in a pharmacy where the pharmacist, a person working health care is forced to put the pill into a prescription or stock bottle because it happens so often that management will come down on them, then u need to work some where else.

-

Originally Posted by bobbylight

The research and development of these drugs cost millions though.

very true, and in many cases billions in investment before it's even out on the market.

-

- my friend is doing his clinicals and it does seem that nurses do have a superiority complex (he complains about it every day he goes to the hospital). i think it's because they spend the most time with the patients, have to see them on a regular basis, feed them, change them, bathe them, etc. they undoubtedly know the patient the best personally (not necessarily medically). they feel like they're the glue holding everything together. this may be true that their work is highly needed, but considering my best friend forked out over $120,000 for pharmacy school, 5 years of school including as a prereq 2 years calc, 2 years chem, 1-2 years bio, 1 year physics + gen ed before he could even apply for pharm school, for them to have the same starting pay is kinda messed up. so if you ever feel sorry for a nurse, yes u can feel bad that they gotta clean up the puke and urine but remember they make tons of money doing it

[TTrent]

Random stuff including close friends and family:

- burger king's angus burger: the patty is thawed on the counter in ice but then it's nuked so it doesn't really matter

- in & out shakes: they use lard as one of the ingredients.

- restaurants: it's true, the entire staff has probably had sex with one another

- movie theaters: the staff composed of high school and college students and drop outs have had sex in each of the theaters.

- if you go to a certain large sports retail chain that specializes in being the "authority" in sporting goods. if you can't find anyone to help or the person who said "i'll brb" hasn't come back in 10 min, they are probably hiding from you in the back and quite possibly with the manager.

- if you ever work at a sports store, ask the managers if there are special shop offers for their employees. often times companies will offer an employee purchase program where the employee can do a once a year purchase directly from the company for less than the store can get it for. that's how i got my last snowboard/boot/bindings set up. and $10-$15 all day lift passes

- guitar center sales people are allowed to give deals, even big ones. the thing is, their commission is based not just on how much they sell but the profit they make on each. they have a min sale price in the computer. if they dont know u, then they probably wont give you a break, but if you make friends with them/meet them at a party/play at a local show they were at you could easily get 10-30% off all your stuff or more. best deal i got was on a $800 snare drum that i got for $400 including tax.

- if you ever work for a store that gets big deliveries done by a 3rd party freight company, it's their job to take the stuff off the truck. if they say it's not their job and you have to do it, if you dont, then they have to take it back, get yelled at for not taking care of it when they were at your store and if you really want to complain you can probably get them fired. you also wanna document any smashed/worn out packaging on their form so if the stuff is broken it can be charged back to the shippers.

- a lot of the advice about dealing with security seems out dated. first of all, security can escalate only to a level that is reasonable and have a right to self defense as well. if they ask u several times to stop after you shop lifted, they can chase you (even in the parking lot), they can tackle you and hold you until the cops come. the thing about whether they can prove you stole something before u left is no longer an issue imo, if they're chasing you it's not because they noticed you stole after you left, it's because the loss prevention guys caught u on camera or the alarm went off. they are even allowed to go to the level of punching or choking you if you fight back in a manner that would be suitable for their own self defense. just the other day i saw a cop pull out a taser and warn a thief to stop biting and squirming, thank god the guy did so the cop didn't have to use it.

- even if you dont fear the authority of the security guard, remember they can call real cops

- my friend worked at safeway and said there was a policy where you could try a sample of anything in the store, even if they have to open a package. it's a customer service thing i guess and they dont want it to be widely known.

- when dealing with sales people in situations where you have to sign some type of paper for say a cell phone contract or a product warranty, don't assume that because they're telling you something verbally, it's the same as what you're signing. when i worked in a sports store, even the management wouldn't know what the exact details of the warranties were (if the customer had to ship it somewhere, if the customer had to bring it in to the store to be fixed, if it was an in home warranty etc). they are told the general idea and it's up to them to read the piece of paper they ask you to sign and often by the same employee i'd hear them tell different customers contradicting facts about the warranty.

- before buying a cell phone plan, if you're wondering about coverage that's outside of the area you're buying in (if you travel for business etc) look at their coverage map, dont just ask the sales person. they can tell you that they are 100% sure it covers the area you said and then you'll be hit with a big first time bill and the sales person will know that it's highly probable that the time u come over to complain, they wont be there or u wont remember exactly what they looked like.

- when u buy a phone look online to see what sites are offering. a trick i've seen used is when a store will get a phone in a bundle with a bunch of accessories and sell u just the phone and cut you a "deal" on the charger,cables, case, etc that came with the phone.

- if you like your phone but it doesn't hold the charge for as long as it use to, replace the battery not the phone. batteries are only made to last 1-2 years before replacement and by that time they'll be dirt cheap $3-$4. and dont buy the battery from the phone store, look online.

- my friend works at one of p-diddy's clubs and she tells me that in most bars, by the time the bartender gets through the neck the bottle is almost paid for. so bartenders can afford to give out free drinks in exchange for good tips.

- the previous post about getting out of a cell phone contract because they dont cover your area is untrue. there was a report a few weeks back on the news about people who didn't get service and when they called to complain and get out of their contract the companies said SOL. i'm sure that someone could probably pull strings and do it, but i'm guessing most of the customer service reps dont give a damn after being yelled at all day to do it.

- the thing about the premium gas being mixed i'm gonna say is probably untrue. in high school i had a car that was premium only and when i was gone on a trip my dad took it out and filled it with regular. a few minutes after i started the car up it started chugging and shaking. had to get the gas siphoned out.

- there is a difference in quality between the discount gas stations and the name band normal ones like shell and 76. it was a popular experiment that they've been doing forever at the chemistry department where i went to school.

- for those in california, just because someone works for a cannabis club, doesn't mean they are a genius when it comes to it. my college room mate was living proof of that. you dont need a degree to open or work in there.

- the tiger woods golf game used $1-$3 clubs for the general club animation and just covered the golf head animation with the sponsored golf heads. this was at least true for around 2000-2003ish.

- it pays to make friends (including managers) at electronic arts if you like video games

[CrazyCDN74]

Originally Posted by TTrent

Random stuff including close friends and family:

- if you ever work for a store that gets big deliveries done by a 3rd party freight company, it's their job to take the stuff off the truck. if they say it's not their job and you have to do it, if you dont, then they have to take it back, get yelled at for not taking care of it when they were at your store and if you really want to complain you can probably get them fired. you also wanna document any smashed/worn out packaging on their form so if the stuff is broken it can be charged back to the shippers.

I second that. I worked at a Staples in the receiving department and would sometimes get shipments where some of the boxes were damages. Depending on what was in the box we would refuse some or all of the shipment. For furniture orders we'd inspect almost every in the typical areas (corners of desk, etc) for damage and not sign off on the order until we were confident that everything was good.

The reason is the cost of the damage was covered by Staples if we accepted it but since we didn't do the damage we'd refuse the shipment. Some of the drivers got really pissed about this because they knew it was their fault and they'd get shit on because of it.

[Sam Samerson]

Hey guys here's a tip! Don't ever buy a digital camera.. or regular camera from a store like Ritz or Best Buy, Penn Wolf etc. The store's constantly lie about the camera's in fact we only sell camera's according to what kind of commission we get.

For instance, I used to sell camera's at a store and I would never sell a Cannon camera to anyone because Cannon didn't offer commission. The camera's that offered the highest commission got sold the most. You should see people bullshit the stats of what the camera's they sell do. None of them know what they're talking about anyway. So if you're going to buy one from the store know what you want ahead of time.

Oh yeah and any compact camera that says vibration reduction is BS. The camera just automatically ups the ISO as it gets darker.

[TΦΦL]

banks truly are out to fuck over consumers

[Stringer Bell]

Originally Posted by Tredogg

Hotels

- Getting your room, food, etc. for free during your stay is pretty easy if you're willing to complain enough

- If you're checking in during a time when you think the hotel is sold out get there early, all hotels oversell their rooms anticipating that some people won't show up

- Conversely, if you show up late after all of the rooms have been given out (and you have a reservation) they will comp your stay at another hotel

co-sign.

Sucks to work front desk when the hotel is overbooked and management has already left for the day.

[Stringer Bell]

Originally Posted by dylanransom

If this is the rule, there are exceptions. Back in my hotel days, we never overbooked- but lots of other places did.

This started when all the online travel sights got popular (expedia, orbitz, etc.)

The travel sights pay the hotels to hold a certain amount of rooms for them for a guaranteed, albeit reduced, rate. Since they are rarely all used, the hotels try to double-dip and reserve those rooms to other travelers. Hence, when there is a big event or convention and you work at the front-desk, your fucked.

I worked night shift and night audit, so I was almost always the only non-housekeeping personnel on duty at night when the people show up and all the rooms are occupied. The hotel has to cover all of the travel-site customers stay, since they have already paid and the site has an account with the hotel. But if you made a reservation yourself, you have not paid, and you will have to create a fuss if you want it covered.

There is usually a deal amongst the local hotels that they will cover each others overflow for a reduced rate, so don't feel bad for the hotels.


**FYI- make sure you get to the hotel early if you asked for any special accomodations like a King/double/roll-out bed or a room on a high-floor or at the end of the hall, etc. It truly is first come first serve.

[Steve Dougson]

Originally Posted by Sam Samerson

Hey guys here's a tip! Don't ever buy a digital camera.. or regular camera from a store like Ritz or Best Buy, Penn Wolf etc. The store's constantly lie about the camera's in fact we only sell camera's according to what kind of commission we get.

For instance, I used to sell camera's at a store and I would never sell a Cannon camera to anyone because Cannon didn't offer commission. The camera's that offered the highest commission got sold the most. You should see people bullshit the stats of what the camera's they sell do. None of them know what they're talking about anyway. So if you're going to buy one from the store know what you want ahead of time.

Oh yeah and any compact camera that says vibration reduction is BS. The camera just automatically ups the ISO as it gets darker.

Having worked at a sporting goods store with Commission I can agree with this. It really pays to know if you're shopping at a place that offers commission.

The bosses will breathe down your necks to sell sell sell and in turn the employees will begin lying and bullshitting in order to get sales. I'm a very honest person and it feels really unnatural to lie and so this job is often depressing since all the coworkers will offer up the advice to "just bullshit" when I ask them if they know anything about a certain product.

[Steve Dougson]

Also, that hotel stuff scares the shit out of me. Without getting to extreme it's hard to imagine something worse than arriving at a hotel miles and miles away from home and finding out they don't have a place for you to stay.

[icepick]

Originally Posted by Sam Samerson

Hey guys here's a tip! Don't ever buy a digital camera.. or regular camera from a store like Ritz or Best Buy, Penn Wolf etc. The store's constantly lie about the camera's in fact we only sell camera's according to what kind of commission we get.

For instance, I used to sell camera's at a store and I would never sell a Cannon camera to anyone because Cannon didn't offer commission. The camera's that offered the highest commission got sold the most. You should see people bullshit the stats of what the camera's they sell do. None of them know what they're talking about anyway. So if you're going to buy one from the store know what you want ahead of time.

Oh yeah and any compact camera that says vibration reduction is BS. The camera just automatically ups the ISO as it gets darker.

not at Office Depot. we simply get commission off of extended warranties b/c our contract with the manufacturers doesn't give us a bonus. they keep us honest about the product, but when it comes to the warranties, Office depot is crooked as shit. the warranty division gives us pamphlets that say we cover all kinds of shit, but it differs from the actual contracts given to the customers. but since the customers would rather take our word for it then go by the contract, they leave the store thinking the warranty will cover things it really won't. then, if the product does fail, the warranty company just denies you because it isn't in the real contract. by then, the customer won't remember what the associate who sold them the warranty said, and they're screwed.