Mean Guy Story II

Now this one really saddens me....

We had a big rush job last week and we sent a number of our course books to be printed at the location where the training was being held (and delivered by another instructor). Unfortunately, we hit a little snag when we learned that the instructor would need to pay for the printing when he picked up the books. I gave Staples my Reward # because we get 10% rebate on printing and for a $600 job, that's a $60 check. We like that. And given that we ultimately were paying for the printing (it was being deducted from the total purchase price), it was our $60.

The middle-man firm contacted me today and gave me the total that they needed to reimburse the instructor: $650. I told them that wasn't correct, I had the total from Staples including tax. They emailed me over the receipt and come to find out the instructor added on another large copy purchase and tried to bill it back to me. To make matters worse, he told them to take off my Rewards number and use his!!!! So over all, he took us for over $100.

But that's not the worse part. When I confronted him about it, he lied. I really don't like liars. I talked to the girl at Staples who rang up the order and she cracked me up. She said that she's a real happy, bubbly person, but he burst her bubble when he came in. Said he was rude and demanding. I guess her manager wanted to schmooze the person responsible for this big order, so she came over to meet him and he was just downright rude to her. Which really bothers me because what if he's like this all the time? And he was using our materials??? Where's the passion, brother?

I want to be able to trust people.... I want to believe they are all good inside. This kind of stuff just makes me sad.

The ironic thing about these two mean guy stories - they both are members of PMI, which means they are required to uphold the ethical and professional standards of PMI, yet both seem somewhat.... what's the word? Snake-y? Slimy? And these are instructors!!! That's what saddens me the most!!!