Customer service: You are doing it so, so very wrong.
Meet The Extra Reading Company, a "library of unique and amazing educational documents to which users can subscribe for access." Unique would indeed be the word, as Bridget Scanlon recently discovered (note: contains ableist slurs). Her price offer for a subscription to their website was met with ruder and more bizarre responses that probably took far more effort to write than a simple 'no. thank you' would have.

Bridget doesn't take this unprofessional behavior well, and word spreads. A post about the issue is made on Reddit, where it is discovered that the company has also been taking artwork from DeviantArt to use in their content. Joshua Mason, head of the company and increasingly suspected to also be the entirety of its staff, makes a post to the thread in an attempt to justify himself. It...does not so much justify as explain a few things about this company's PR policies.


This is the founder of The Extra Reading Company, Joshua S. Mason.

I'll tell you guys and gals like it is. Bridget lied to us--saying she couldn't afford to pay a measly $15 more for her YEAR'S subscription to our website and then, when we gave her some straightforward financial advice based on her lie, she reacted in an overly-emotional fashion. In response to that, we mocked her. She deserved it, on account of her bitchiness. End of story.

When we have customers who react STUPIDLY by making INCORRECT ASSUMPTIONS to our attempts to help them, and then REFUSE TO LISTEN to us telling them that they inferred the "tone" of the message incorrectly, they no longer deserve respect. We reserve that for customers, and prospective customers, who are capable of discussing an issue with logic and reason, as opposed to "menstruating all over the place" emotion (my wife especially loves this comment :)Authors of messages are in the VERY BEST position to tell you if you are wrong about the tone of written communication. BRIDGET stubbornly refused to heed this little nugget of truth. Why? She let her emotions control her response like a less-evolved person. Truth be told, I pity this sort of response.

I mean, can you believe the baseball bat that must have been stuck up her ass to make her demand we refer to her by her formal title of "Mrs. Henne." What a pissed-off little fruitcake! BRIDGET, lighten-up, sister, will you?

Now, I'm VERY surprised that BRIDGET decided to come to some craptastic online forum and bitch further about this issue. I mean, she claimed we were "harassing" her by not providing her with a name of a supervisor in our company. So, what does she do? She turns around and tries to get others to harass our staff. WTF? Is this chick out-of-her-mind with hypocrisy, or what?

What she failed to consider, in her revenge-seeking mode, is that I, and my staff, never type any words we fear will be regurgitated elsewhere. So, you can post my thoughts in 100-foot-tall letters on a billboard in Times Square for all I care. If we lose customers because of it, so be it. I'd trade a BILLION dollars to retain the ability to tell a patently WRONG customer that she needs to take a hike. However, in this case, the increased traffic to our website makes us A LOT of income. We have a deal with a major publishing company that gives us revenue based on how many hits the site receives. We feature some of their work in the members' area of the site, and they, in turn compensate us for the added exposure. So, is BRIDGET'S attempts here at teaching us a lesson an ABSOLUTE FAILURE? Answer: definitely.

Now, as I read your comments, I'm surprised to see "Deborah Markus" among them. This is a batshit crazy homeschool parent we dealt with years ago. She got overly pissy one day because we posted a message on her shitty homeschool Yahoo! group that informed them about our new business (this was years ago). This is one terribly jaded old woman. I was really hoping she'd be dead by now. Damn. Maybe someday soon, eh? We all have dreams.

Also, I LOVE the "memes" that people are creating with my picture. That is just pure awesomeness. Love it. Keep it up. E-mail them to me so that I can get a good laugh. Easier to get through the day at work when I'm laughing, that's for sure.

If you want to E-mail me accolades, or present me with an award for handing a nonsensically cranky customer her ass, here's my personal address: jmason@extrareading.com. But, please only do so if you agree with me. All of you reactionary morons that support this wayward non-customer with her misplaced outrage and ignorant sense of entitlement, please don't. I honestly couldn't care less about your support for her sheer stupidity in this matter.

BRIDGET would have rather we spoon-fed her falsely sugary-sweet customer service mumbo jumbo, than deal with her MISTAKE in an honest, straightforward fashion, as we did.

What would you rather have, dear reader, brutal honesty or a lie to PLACATE your insecurity?

That's what Bridget was after. She should really be ashamed of herself.

Other responses to comments posted on this thread:

"This conversation, is over." Totally Fight Club. Right on. Way to spot the subtle reference.

"You're mad as a hatter." I take this from an episode of Boston Legal. James Spader speaks it. Absolutely brilliant television.

I was NOT the author of the initial customer service messages to Mrs. Henne. But, I stood behind our rep and motivated her to start mocking BRIDGET for the latter messages. So, in a way, I am certainly responsible for some of it. *pats himself on the back. What can I say? I thoroughly enjoy antagonizing people who deserve it.

Although I am not autistic, nor do I have ASS BURGERS, I am most definitely narcissistic. Spot on!

Finally, as for the concerns of some of you that we are pilfering artwork for use in our materials, DON'T BE RETARDED. We take our work from many different sources and commission exactly ZERO of it. What does this mean? Well, for the most part, it means that we secure the rights to use images from artists by either asking to use them for free, or through purchase agreements, and THEN write materials to accompany said image. It's FAR CHEAPER to do this than to commission original work. We do not, and never have, credit individual artists, or writers. That said, the site is offline, and will be for a bit, as we make absolutely sure that we have the rights to all artwork being used. As the stellar executive that I am, I have directed our staff to take this very seriously. So, all of you who think you spot images we use on other websites, of course you do! We don't ask that the artists not show their work as part of their portfolios, even after we're using them. Don't be ridiculous!

Sincerely, Joshua S. Mason Founder / CEO The Extra Reading Company


It's very, very hastily deleted. But who is this fearsome hag they call Deborah Markus? She's the editor of the magazine Secular Homestchooling who's been the target of both insults and bizarre paranoia by ERC, to the point that they vandalized her magazine's Wiki page (note bottom paragraph). That saga could be a FW post in itself, but she's summarized the matter nicely. It seems they've got a habit of posing on message boards as enthusiastic teachers who talk up the company.

An anti-ERC facebook page is formed. Further plucky girl detective work turns up at least two more blatant self-promotions by alleged teachers who are most likely Joshua Mason in a flowered dress and sunhat.

The company website itself is down for about 48 hours after the story breaks, but when it returns it reveals even more problems with their idea of customer service. The only content is image files (even of their text, no idea why), but I've helpfully transcribed some of their Q&A section to demonstrate their dedication to customer service.


What is your refund policy?

All sales are final. Absolutely no exceptions. Since we offer a free document from each category of materials we publish, there isn't a conceivable reason why you would be unhappy in the slightest with your ExtraReading.com subscription after your purchase. [...] This is why we never process refunds. There's simply no need if you do your due diligence in terms of thoroughly previewing what we offer before subscribing.

"We don't offer refunds because you're stupid if you want one."

Can you re-send me a digital purchase I ordered previously?

So, if you lose your file, delete it, or your computer has a meltdown, your only option is to purchase the file again if you'd still like to use it with your students. To some, this may seem harsh. But our company is not in the business of protecting your possessions. Would you expect a publishing company to refurnish you with a copy of a hardback book when your house burns down? Of course not!

Do you align your documents with my state's learning standards?

Even with the ever-increasing adoption of the Common Core Standards, this isn't really necessary for our website. Primarily, what we offer are primary source documents. As such they can be used to toward [sic] achievement in virtually any of the standards directly related to literature. In other words, is it really necessary that we list the Common Core Standards for Literature that correspond to each document we offer? Almost all of them apply in one way or another. With this in mind, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to glance at your standards manual and quickly decide which of them are satisfied by using our documents in a particular way with your students. After all, it is our view that, as the professional teacher, you should already have a firm grasp of the learning standards under which you teach. Thus, it should not be any great hindrance for our materials to not be identifiably labeled with the multiple Common Core Standards any one document could be used to satisfy.

And the question which seems to support the one-man-company theory, How can I contact the Extra Reading Company by telephone?

You can't. There isn't a conceivable situation with regards to our website or materials that could require the immediacy of voice communication. As such, we avoid the expense of providing customer service by telephone altogether. Instead, our dedicated staff handles all inquiries exclusively by E-mail.


And they'd really like to help you nurture your beautiful young children's developing minds. Charming little business.