Cycle Couriers. (the full stop means its a rant)

[TheAnimus]

So you find yourself not burdened with an abundance of intelligence, and somehow decide to become a cycle courier, that’s fine, you’re a constructive member of society, performing a useful environmentally friendly service.... Good for you.

Why is it that it is a prerequisite to be an incomprehensibly self righteous and full of a poisonous zeal?
I’ve always found them funny, a friend of mine is an engineering reject, by this I mean he is a member of the London Single Speed / Fixed Gear [moronic luddite] Forum (I’m probably going to get somewhat slated for this). For those not familiar with the concept, it’s kind of a puritanical view on cycling, for a start of gears are evil, apparently they break. So rather than saying it’s because you’re not taking care of your bike, or that you bought some crap from Halfords, what do you expect, they simply do away with them. Now just in case that wasn’t backwards enough, they have the idea of a fixed gear, ergo no freewheeling. That is fine and dandy, but suffering small man syndrome, they proliferate their belief that they are superior to the engineered proficient solution with such a blind terminal intensity.

So, you have one of them saying how it’s OK to piss on the handle of a Bentley because how could someone spend so much money when the world has got so little (aww, he is a commie) and half the bloody forum agreeing with him. Only for our him less than 48 hours later to be posting about a problem with his gen1 iPhone, aka the £1,500 over the course of the contract. Now i’d wager that someone who has a Bentley in London, will probably have spent less than 5% of their net income on it, whilst if only to be accepted in the upper echelons of society, spent 5% of their income on charity bashes. Yet a cycle courier probably spent considerably more than 5% on their conspicuous consumption of fruity toys, whilst giving nothing to charity. So all to often I think little of them.

Which brings us nicely to the rant: (skip the above if you think tl;dr)

Coffee for 2 in hand, I’m crossing the road, on a pedestrian crossing, and a cycle courier comes by, I see he is going too fast to comfortably slow down, so pause in the middle giving him plenty of space. Do I get thanks? “F**king C**t”. Nice.

Well guess what mate, you should have recognised my face, you see you often deliver documents from a resourcing firm we do business with. I recognised yours. I know the company you work for is only about 5 people, and I’m having beers tonight with one of your major clients. Already had a phone call with the owner of that firm, their dropping you.

So no sir, it is in fact you who have been f**ked.

The city is a small place, always be kind, there is a lot of karma.

[0iD]

So... bad morning?

[Russ]

you got somebody the sack because they swore at you? congratulations

and you talk of Karma

[DeludedGuy]

you got somebody the sack because they swore at you? congratulations

and you talk of Karma

ditto.

However, I do agree about fixies, all that crap about how it improves your riding posture, its nonsense.

[Andeh13]

I say good on you for getting him the sack! I had similar experience with people blaming me for their wrong doing. 2 couples walking accross the road, 3 crates of Stella among them. They are in the middle of the road _strolling_ accross as i come round a semi-blind/awkward corner. I go for the brakes reasonably hard and use the horn, what do i get? 3 middle fingers and two of them swearing their heads off at me...i should have put my foot down and done society a favor.


Good on you TheAnimus!

[no_numb]

you got somebody the sack because they swore at you? congratulations

and you talk of Karma

To be fair if I were employing someone I'd want them not to call my business clients 'F**kING C**TS'

[CaptainCrash]

you got somebody the sack because they swore at you? congratulations

I may have misread the rant, but I think he said that he'd persuaded one of the courier firm's clients to drop the company, not that the courier firm were sacking the guy concerned (although that may have been a consequence of course, depending on the employment conditions).

For the rest of it, dear god, if you get so steamed up over such mind-bogglingly insignificant issues, how on earth do you make it through each day?

[darkghost]

you got somebody the sack because they swore at you? congratulations

and you talk of Karma

Er no, the guy lost business for his company because he was unnecessarily rude and childish while doing his job.

How is this any different from someone at an online computer store giving you really poor service and being really rude to you - and then you posting on these forums and telling your mates.

[GheeTsar]

The guy shouldn't have been sacked for it, just given a ticking off/warning. IMHO the fact that the guy got sacked isn't TheAnimus's fault though - he had a genuine complaint to make and it was up to the manager of the courier company how to deal with it.

[DeludedGuy]

I'm not calling anyone a liar, but there are two sides to every story, usually involving some bias. I am a driver, cyclist and a pedestrian, and I have come across awful drivers, cyclists and pedestrians while doing all three, and sometimes all three deserve an earful, this shouldn’t mean you lose your livelihood, no one knows what may have happened earlier in the day to cause him to be in such a mood.

[0iD]

I ride a singlespeed (for the challenge, not for any elitist or Luddite ideologies) and I was a cycle courier for a while ... albeit over 20 years ago

[TheAnimus]

you got somebody the sack because they swore at you? congratulations

and you talk of Karma

I have not gotten someone the sack.

Thou the courier firm might well be been told who it was. My point is, i'm a suited tied and cufflinked consultant, yet I take the time to ensure i know everyone I work with. Know whilst I don't know his last name i know his first.

He considers his clients to be some kind of scum, that are worthy of fowl language when a favour is been done.

That is not acceptable, and he might learn a valueable lesson.

[0iD]

I have to agree that even if he was having the nightmare day from hell, his actions were wholly unacceptable.

*edit* And from a courier pov, a singlespeed makes it less likely to get pinched, along with the rigid forks & cut down straight bars.

[GheeTsar]

He considers his clients to be some kind of scum, that are worthy of fowl language ....

*cluck* *cluck* *cluck*?

[mmh]

If this guy got the sack, its probably not just for this one time offence either... not knowing the whole story i can only speculate, but if he did get the sack tis probably not the first time he's got in trouble.

[DeludedGuy]

I have not gotten someone the sack.

Thou the courier firm might well be been told who it was. My point is, i'm a suited tied and cufflinked consultant, yet I take the time to ensure i know everyone I work with. Know whilst I don't know his last name i know his first.

He considers his clients to be some kind of scum, that are worthy of fowl language when a favour is been done.

That is not acceptable, and he might learn a valueable lesson.

Did he even recognise you? If not - you were just a pedestrian, had he recognised a client I am sure he would have treated you differently, and are you 100% sure it was the person you are thinking of, travelling at such high speeds like he was you may have not got a good look at him.