Last night, my husband and I drove to Santa Fe to get tires on my car. Normally, I wouldn't write a whole post about buying tires, but something happened that just highlighted the attitude of entitlement some people have, and I wanted to vent. Ahem, to share, I mean.


We get to the store and are standing there, waiting to be helped. Of course, it's Sears, so they have only one salesman, and he's about 17 years old and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I kind of want to help him, because I feel sorry for him, but I think that I probably shouldn't. He needs to know why he should finish high school and go to college: So he can get a degree and then still work at Sears. Then he'll have that piece of paper to go home to at night.


Ha ha ha...I have a music degree, I'm allowed to make fun.


So we're watching, and this lady is standing at his counter, telling him she's not going to pay for the oil change on her ticket. When he asks why, she says, "Because. The manager who was here before you didn't offer me an oil change, and your sign says that if you don't offer one, it's free." The kid says, "Okay. Can you just tell me the whole story of what happened?"


Here we go, and it's stunning: She says, "I came in for a tire rotation, and then I asked for an oil change. The man working never offered me one, so it should be free."


What? Huh? We're just all standing there, watching, because it's insane. Why would the guy offer her an oil change if she'd already asked for one? She explains it again, and again, and finally the kid goes to get a manager.


The manager comes and hears her story, then asks to hear it again. Both times, it consists of her asking for an oil change before it was ever offered, so it should be free. He has this look on his face like he wants to laugh but he, of course, can't. Well, not in front of her, at least.


So he says, "I'm sorry, ma'am. Since I wasn't the manager on duty, I can't do anything about what a previous manager told you. I will give him your phone number and have him contact you when he gets in tomorrow." By this time, we've been waiting almost half an hour to be helped, and my husband is really restraining himself from going over and telling the lady off. I was pretty proud of him.


Oh, and then? The kid goes off to get some papers and the manager leaves, and we're left standing alone with the lady, and she cuts the cheese.


(That really happened, I didn't just throw it in there to add interest.)


I pretty much lose it and start laughing. She just stands there with this self-satisfied look. If I was a braver person, I would've asked her if she needed me to get her a fresh pair of pants, but I wimped out.


So, in the end, they made her pay for the oil change, but the man who promised her the free one since he hadn't offered it to her is supposed to call her today and credit her account.


Yeah, that's going to happen. He's going to call and say, "Ha. You paid. No freebie for you. Deal with that." and then laugh maniacally as she cries. Okay, maybe not, but that's what I want to happen.


WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE? Why would you try to take advantage of a system that is only in place to force the Sears salesmen to try to sell you a product you didn't want in the first place? Doesn't that lady know that every time they have to give out a free oil change, it makes them yell at their salesmen to try to sell us more crap?


Geeeeeeeezzzzz.