[BayAreaGuy]

Originally Posted by Timetravel_0

I now work for Intel in the cleanroom making CPU's and it amazes me at how much everything costs. The machine I'm responsible for maintaining and fixing costs $994,000 and there's about 40 of them at my fab alone. In the other machine I work on which puts a thin layer ultra pure gold on the back of the chips has these gold "targets," as we call them, that have to be changed out about once a month and each target costs about $200,000 each. But, each wafer (a 12 inch diameter disc with the cpu's on it before it's cut up into squares) we put out the door has the potential to earn over a million dollars and last week we shipped 10,000 wafers from our fab alone.

Small world...

Since you work in a cleaning room for Intel, chances are my dad made some of those trays used in the semi conductor.

Nothing bad to say except that my dad busted his ass making and designing those. He made good money too. The economies changed and the company he used to work for was bought, and recently shut down, but my dad left that buisness before that happened.

My dad also used to help build semi conducters by hand (welding, ect..) I was with him several times during the day or late at night checking on stuff and what not. I also gave some input on the trays.

And yeah, those things do cost a lot of money.

We have no financial problems if you were wondering, we're fine.

[Soma]

Originally Posted by BayAreaGuy

Small world...

Since you work in a cleaning room for Intel, chances are my dad made some of those trays used in the semi conductor.

Nothing bad to say except that my dad busted his ass making and designing those. He made good money too. The economies changed and the company he used to work for was bought, and recently shut down, but my dad left that buisness before that happened.

My dad also used to help build semi conducters by hand (welding, ect..) I was with him several times during the day or late at night checking on stuff and what not. I also gave some input on the trays.

And yeah, those things do cost a lot of money.

We have no financial problems if you were wondering, we're fine.

We weren't wondering.

hah

I keed I keed.

[BayAreaGuy]

Originally Posted by CsRyan

this shit is disturbing.

My two cents. big store like kmart hire people to follow around suspicious characters. these people will be in plainclothes, and they can use physical force to stop you leaving the premises.

I knew a guy who did that back in high school, did that for Sports Mart.


The thing is that he would let his friends come in and steal and he would look the other way.




People steal from game stores as well, the people who worked there. A dude asked me if I wanted to buy any new games from him for cheap (since he'd steal it)

[Zankou]

Originally Posted by satchmo

I have worked as a pharmacy technician/intern at CVS for the past 5 years or so. Here's what I've seen during my time:

- If you are rude or pushy, you are going to wait. Whatever time we tell you it is going to be, it is probably going to be 5-10 minutes less than what we said UNLESS you start bitching. Then, we will take our sweet ass time, skip people ahead of you, etc.

- It pays to get to know the pharmacy staff. If you are a regular and are friendly with the staff, we will often make exceptions and do favors. If you come in when it's busy, we'll bump you ahead of people. Come in when it's slow, we'll have your Rx done in a few minutes. We'll be aggressive getting ahold of your doctor to get refills for you. We are also more lenient with filling controlled substances early if you are a regular.

- If you are getting a refill and we aren't busy, it shouldn't take any longer than 5 minutes tops to fill and label. What takes so long is having the pharmacist verify the prescription. Most of the time it isn't their fault because they are stuck dealing with customers or on the phone with a doctor/nurse, but sometimes they are just screwing around, talking, eating, or taking a shit. So don't stare at us while you are waiting for your prescription, it's not our fault.

- We drop pills on the ground (accidentally) all the time and put them back in the bottle. When some of these meds are $10+ a pill, CVS would kill us if we threw them away.

- Some of the meds are dirt cheap, yet we charge $10.99 as our minimum price for any Rx that is not run through an insurance. You could be getting 1 tablet of generic Valium for a dental procedure that costs us pennies and you get charged the minimum price. There are quite a few common prescriptions/medications that this happens with (prednisone, amoxicillin/penicillin, hydrochlorothiazide, various pain meds). In general, the mark-up on drugs that we get from the CVS warehouse is quite high. We just tell the customers that the drug companies are the ones charging so much.

- The district/regional managers are so concerned with customer service scores that they will order store managers to give out gift cards to any complaining customer. So basically come into the store, find something petty to bitch about, and get a $25 gift card.

I still fail to understand why it takes so goddamn long. It's just baffling. And it's not just for the narcs that should be hard to clear. Even for the most mundane stuff, the pharmacists act like they are encased in amber.

Oh, a law tip from a lawyer: It's frickin' impossible to collect on debts. Our society has too many laws that protect against it. If somebody gets a court judgment, they will still have a hell of a time getting the money from you. For this reason, I always advise one simple thing in any civil dispute: Be the guy who has the money. Do not pay the money. Whoever has the money has *everything.*

[Soma]

Originally Posted by Zankou

I still fail to understand why it takes so goddamn long. It's just baffling. And it's not just for the narcs that should be hard to clear. Even for the most mundane stuff, the pharmacists act like they are encased in amber.

Oh, a law tip from a lawyer: It's frickin' impossible to collect on debts. Our society has too many laws that protect against it. If somebody gets a court judgment, they will still have a hell of a time getting the money from you. For this reason, I always advise one simple thing in any civil dispute: Be the guy who has the money. Do not pay the money. Whoever has the money has *everything.*

When I was 15 I ordered some shit that was C.O.D. and I didn't pay it. Got collection notices, didn't care. I was a minor and knew nothing would happen to me. So ordered all kinds of stuff, like those CD offers from Colombia house and never paid even though I'd get debt collection notices. It was great but the bad thing was those habits followed me after I turned 18. I didn't pay for shit! I'd get all kinds of collectors calling me and I was just like, "Yeah, whatever. Fuck off." I didn't care about the credit problems because I hated credit and would always pay with cash. Well, that's great in many ways but credit still comes in handy so I fucked myself real good when my credit went into the shitter. It's taken some time but I've finally rebuilt it and everything's cool. I don't avoid the bills now.

[Soma]

Speaking of repairing credit, here's something I learned while doing it.

If you've got a bunch of debt collection marks on your credit report, send each collection agency a Validation Letter via certified mail. Look up examples of Validation Letters to see what I mean. But basically it's a letter stating that the Collection Agency has to absolutely prove, in writing, that you owe this debt and they are allowed to collect on it. They must validate your debt or drop it. 7 out of 10 times they'll drop it which will remove the mark from your credit score thus improving it, plus you won't have to pay the money. And don't worry about them saying you have to respond within 30 days of the initial debt collection if you want to dispute. That's bullshit to scare you. By law you can dispute the debt at any point in time.

[satchmo]

Originally Posted by Zankou

I still fail to understand why it takes so goddamn long. It's just baffling. And it's not just for the narcs that should be hard to clear. Even for the most mundane stuff, the pharmacists act like they are encased in amber.

In a pharmacist's defense, there are a lot of steps and a lot that can go wrong when filling a prescription. First of all, there are often people that have dropped off ahead of you. Most of the time if there is a problem with their Rx, it is going to make your Rx take longer. Also keep in mind the pharmacist has to check every Rx. If they get tied up on the phone or with a customer, that means that no Rxs are being checked. Many times there are problems reading the handwriting on the Rx (I've seen some that doesn't even resemble English), problems with the dosing and/or directions (often NPs/PAs are retards and have no clue how to prescribe medications at all), which necessitates a call the the MD office, and we almost never get an answer right then. We are either told they will have to call us back or, most of the time, we don't even get to explain the situation to a live person; we get directed straight to voicemail. Once the Rx is entered, the claim is submitted to the insurance company for authorization; many problems can arise here. It could be too soon to refill the medication, it could be not covered, we could need new insurance information like a new ID number, etc. Sometimes this requires a call to the insurance company, taking even longer to fill the Rx. Assuming it makes it through the insurance process OK, the Rx is acually counted, filled, and labeled. This takes the least amount of time unless it is a medication that has to be compounded. Lastly, it is verified by the pharmacist. Your Rx is checked against your other Rxs for potential interactions as well as verification that the correct medication is in the bottle. This is not exactly something you want them to be rushing through. Medication errors hospitalize and kill thousands upon thousands each year, often because a pharmacist is rushed due to being busy. There is a question we like to ask pushy, impatient customers - do you want it fast, or do you want it right? Your choice.

[hitmanrva1]

HEY SOMA
u were asking for the free cable thing....here is a link:
http://www.news.com/2100-1023-930356.html

[Soma]

Originally Posted by satchmo

In a pharmacist's defense, there are a lot of steps and a lot that can go wrong when filling a prescription. First of all, there are often people that have dropped off ahead of you. Most of the time if there is a problem with their Rx, it is going to make your Rx take longer. Also keep in mind the pharmacist has to check every Rx. If they get tied up on the phone or with a customer, that means that no Rxs are being checked. Many times there are problems reading the handwriting on the Rx (I've seen some that doesn't even resemble English), problems with the dosing and/or directions (often NPs/PAs are retards and have no clue how to prescribe medications at all), which necessitates a call the the MD office, and we almost never get an answer right then. We are either told they will have to call us back or, most of the time, we don't even get to explain the situation to a live person; we get directed straight to voicemail. Once the Rx is entered, the claim is submitted to the insurance company for authorization; many problems can arise here. It could be too soon to refill the medication, it could be not covered, we could need new insurance information like a new ID number, etc. Sometimes this requires a call to the insurance company, taking even longer to fill the Rx. Assuming it makes it through the insurance process OK, the Rx is acually counted, filled, and labeled. This takes the least amount of time unless it is a medication that has to be compounded. Lastly, it is verified by the pharmacist. Your Rx is checked against your other Rxs for potential interactions as well as verification that the correct medication is in the bottle. This is not exactly something you want them to be rushing through. Medication errors hospitalize and kill thousands upon thousands each year, often because a pharmacist is rushed due to being busy. There is a question we like to ask pushy, impatient customers - do you want it fast, or do you want it right? Your choice.

I always wondered what took so long. That's a good explanation.

[Soma]

Originally Posted by hitmanrva1

HEY SOMA
u were asking for the free cable thing....here is a link:
http://www.news.com/2100-1023-930356.html

Thanks man. I might just have to quit my basic cable service since I can get it for free doing this.