Common Excuses

I noticed awhile back that when you go out to eat with a large group of people, and you all pay by credit card, the waiter never has enough pens for everyone. Occam's Razor would suggest that this is because the waiter normally isn't cashing out many people at once, and only carries a few pens with them at any one time. However, every waiter or waitress always says, "Sorry; people keep stealing my pens, you'll have to share." Maybe those of you who have been wait people can tell me. Is this true? Do people often steal your pens? Or is that just an excuse used in fear that I'm going to leave a smaller tip because you didn't have the forethought to carry 20 pens in your apron?

While we're on excuses. I've noticed when at a store, making a special purchase, or at the insurance office, bank, or anywhere that requires you to sit down with a sales person entering your info into a computer, they always start complaining about the computer. My guess is because people in that line of work are people people that hate technology. Some of them even tell you as much. But they always seem to say something along the lines of A) It's a new system, and they are still learning it, or the tech guys are still working out the bugs. B) It's been recently upgraded, and doesn't work as well as the old system. or C) Their computer is acting slow just on that day, or it is mad at them. None of them will own up to the fact that maybe it's just a slow process, and it just takes as long as it takes. They all assume you are irritated that they are having to type into a computer while talking to them, when in fact I'm irritated that i have to talk to them and that I can't enter my own info on their web site, avoiding them altogether.