My latest experience isn't the best advertisement for tfsource.com

[bowspearer]

Since apparently everyone is so emotionally invested, here's what happened. Turns out TF Source hadn't sent out Carzap, he was apparently "sold out and put on backorder" (which I took with more than a grain of salt given that TFCC figures are limited runs), yet there was no email notification to let me know this. He did ultimately arrive, but I can't help but wonder if he'd ever have materialised if I hadn't have kicked up a stink or if it would've fallen through the cracks.

I'll admit, the fact that I had a customer show of at work by presenting a taser at me, complete with turning it on, while I was trying to just "suck it up" like work made it clear they expected me to, probably didn't help my mood when dealing with this situation.

Conversely, this issue has shown that among other things, several people in the fan community seem to:

1. believe that a company not supplying you with goods while claiming they did (and yes, that's exactly what marking items as sent and not actually sending them amounts to) and making items disappear from someone's sales history while failing to inform customers that there is a stock issue and the items are being replenished, somehow equates to a child not getting the toy they wanted at Christmas;
2. be so illiterate that then cannot differentiate between a term that has it's etymological roots carnival culture and one that has its etymological roots in Social Darwinism and;
3. be more concerned with their own personal biases the facts of this case.

Furthermore as another recent transaction has shown only tonight, the types of individuals who are so quick to claim I'm a headache, include the types of people who:

1. after one transaction, expect you to at best, burn employment bridges and at worst, throw away a new job or at best, burn bridges badly with a job you're leaving, by abusing your staff discount to get them a laptop at prices far below what you could even get it on staff discount for.
2. Then when you say that after what happened you politely tell said individuals that you don't feel comfortable dealing with them any more, they claim they wont contact you again - which to any reasonable person, means any future or pending deals are off the table.
3. Then 2 weeks later, they ask when you are going ahead with the deal you said you weren't comfortable proceeding with and they weren't contacting you again to complete.
4. Then when you say that you're aren't comfortable going ahead with the deal which was supposed to be off the table anyway, they then demand the figures back which you bought off them from ebay a month prior, or an additional $150 to keep them.

(Of course I can't wait to hear from people here [not] how I "had it coming to me" - be it in terms of the taser incident at work I was meant to "suck up", the ridiculous employment suicide favour so someone could get a cheap laptop or the extortion. If past experience is anything to go by, and it's certainly been consistent, I know there'll be at least one person who wont be able to help themselves.)

Regardless of how much merit parts of the "he's a hassle" might actually have, when people use it as a cop out when extortion and exploiting people fails, to say it waters down whatever credibility such comments might have, is an understatement.

Oh and in the interests of people's voyeuristic emotional investment, the reason the thread was most likely removed from TCCA was because I left the group when I realised that my ability to suffer fools was exceeded by the nature of the group - including at least one of the admins.

A friend in the UK whom I greatly respect told me that he was done with fan group because of words to the effect of "there's too many idiots".

I'm starting to think he's onto something.

[reillyd]

It sounds like you're experiencing some emotional distress Bowspearer, and that your negative experiences with Tfsource are a source of frustration. I don't want to trivialise what to you feels really, really bad right now.

But it would be remiss of me if I didn't make you aware that there are services available that can offer support, and a sympathetic ear, at times of crisis. Not saying you need to talk to them, or that it's as serious as a mental health issue. But traumatic experiences like the incident you mentioned at work can creep up on you, and it's important to be aware that you're not alone, and support is out there. I'm also ethically obliged by my professions canon of ethics to make this referral - you may not need such a service.

Lifeline is available 24/7, day and night on 13 11 44, and if you're uncomfortable speaking on a phone or hearing impaired they have alternate options avail https://m.lifeline.org.au/I-Need-Help-Now

I would also urge EVERYONE to handle this situation delicately and not add to his/her distress with rash words publically or via personal message

[Bartrim]

I'm half asleep at the moment so I'm not sure I read that right... Did you say a customer presented a taser at you, complete with turning it on? Can I ask what the hell you do for a living if that happened? I believe a taser is a prohibited weapon and should only be pointed in a safe direction unless intending to be discharged.

So either I didn't read that right or your work is committing some major violations.

[bowspearer]

Thanks for the kind words Reilly, I'll definitely keep it in mind.

No Bartrim, you're not misreading anything. I work in retail and up until recently, I was working for Jaycar; it's because of how this incident was handled and other issues I have had with how Jaycar treats its staff, that I recently left the company.

On July 1st, I was working an afternoon shift at a store other than my normal store, when the assistant manager was heading off and asked me to take over for him ith helping customers who were looking to build an EMP device. I was immediately concerned given the potnetial implications with anti-terror laws, not to mention that given that emps are a biproduct of nuclear explosions that emp devices themselves might be classed as nuclear devices, so I politely warned the customers of the potential legal issues, multiple times while taking them to the components they were looking for. I think it was the third time I was warning them when I was behind the counter and they were on the other side of it, when one of the pair responded by unzipping his bumb-bag, pulling out what looked like a flashlight, hlding it sideways to me, saying words to the effect of "don't worry mate, it isn't one of these" and turning it on, at which point, between the arc and the loud bang, it immediately became clear he was presenting a taser at me. I kept my cool, not wanting to enrage or provoke someone who had just brandished a potentially lethal weapon at me, and completed the sale.

Afterwards, I mentionedit to the manager who told me that he heard the loud bang and wondered what it was and they often get idiots coming in there with home-made tasers.

A short while later, I asked about adding them to the "wall of shame" a cork board with photos of shoplifters and other troublesome individuals who have entered the store. The response I got back was "You didn't feel threatened did you?. He was just showing off." This same store manager had had an ugly encounter with a shoplifter who verbally threatened him with being stabbed with a dirty needle the previous year; the Operations Manager had offered him counselling. Given that he had received an offer of counselling for a mere verbal threat and I had had a weapon brandished at me and it was being completely played down, I was left feeling like I was making a fuss and blowing things out of proportion if I didn't just suck it up and try and "just get over it" myself.

So that's what I did for about 5 weeks until it simply wasn't working. When I then attempted to report it to police, they asked why it took so long for me to report it. When I then attempted to get video footage to report it to police, I was told that the PVRs in the store tape over themselves every 6 days meaning that the footage was lost, so there's not even visual proof that the incident took place any longer.

[1AZRAEL1]

Why would you wait so long to go to the police? If you felt so threatened and your work was saying "suck it up", why wouldn't report it straight away?

But back to the issue at hand, I'm sure a polite email instead of kicking up a stink would have sufficed to remind them that you are still owed items

[Bartrim]

So they discharged the taser? The loud bang heard with a taser is when the probes break open the blast doors of a cartridge. I also find it hard to believe the police weren't that helpful too.

[bowspearer]

I waited so long because I was made to feel like it wasn't that big a deal and I was blowing thing out of proportion if I did say I felt threatened, much less go to the police over it.

It was a homemade taser built into the casing of a flashlight amd according to the manager, he did hear the bang at the time, but he didn't investigate further- to be clear here I was using taser loosely as this was the kind that doesn't shoot out prongs and just generates a large arc. I thought they were also called tasers.


As for the police response, they said that they really needed cctv footage to be able to do something and initially questioned why so much tine had passed. They also said they'd pass on my details to Supportlink, but I never heard from them. When I tjen asked the manager about footage to make a report after I tracked down the date, when ai was told the footage gets wiped every 6 days and that there was no point going to the police, because apparently nothing was done when he was threatened with a dirty needle, when there was still cctv footage of it.

Honestly, the only reason I went into details Bartrim was because your response , mplied a eequest for them- honestly starting to regret fulfilling that request.

[Bartrim]

I only asked for details because it there was some severe violations mentioned in your post and I was surprised at the lack of recourse.