Ha, just wait until there is a crazy lawsuit involving gospel music. Then you might get even more crazy people calling.
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I'll have to get an unlisted number! -rc
When I read your blog about the woman not comprehending she had the wrong site and yet pursuing the matter to such an extent, I was reminded of my days as a 9-1-1 dispatcher in the suburbs of Chicago. I was working the dayshift when the 9-1-1 line rang. When I answered, "9-1-1, what is your emergency?" a woman on the other end asked for the phone number to a library in another suburb.
I calmly explained that she needed to dial 4-1-1 for that information to which she proceeded to argue with me and tried to tell me that 4-1-1 is for emergencies!! After going back and forth for several minutes (thankfully, no other emergency calls were going on at the time) I finally asked her if she would like me to have a police officer come to her house to demonstrate the difference between 4-1-1 and 9-1-1. She paused, letting what I said sink in, presumably, before replying politely "no thank you" and hung up.
It could be worse -- certain British accents add an 'r' at the end of certain words. Ask 'em about the children's book Angelina Ballerina and they might reply, "Angelinar Ballerinar? The kids love 'er!"
I can picture such a conversation. "Did you mean the Stella Awards?" "Right, then, isn't that what I said -- the Stellar Awards?"
Apropos of the pronunciation comment, we here in RI go both ways. People here get idee-ers all the time.
On the other hand, I had a friend whose last name I did not know ended "er" rather than the "ah" I had known him by until I read his name on a placard at his funeral!
The possible conversations boggle the mind:
Stella?
Stellar?
Who would know????
Not a Retail Clerk, but have similar issues.
I work in ISP Tech Support, we get lots of really dumb people thru on a daily basis, I'm not talking about the people who have no idea about computers here, I'm talking about the people who should know better.
My favourites are always the people who call in with a connection issue and claim something like this "I am a router engineer, and there is nothing wrong with my router, my issue is caused by you/your ISP, so just check and confirm for me there is an issue from your end!! NOW!!". Of course I check, most times it's not an issue from our end. "Explain we don't do router support, ask nicely if they can plug modem directly to computer" after 2 - 3 minutes of arguing, get my way and look, Internet works fine. It's a router issue.
9 times out of 10, the person doesn't thank us for showing them what's wrong, or getting them back online, mostly they either hang up on us or start another argument. Seriously it might be harder to direct an 80 year old grandmother thru setting up her email, but it's so much more satisfying because they are grateful and you have done something to help someone who really needs it.
Yeah it can be frustrating, some calls just make you forget the morons.
A Failure to Grasp Reality - Comments
Ha, just wait until there is a crazy lawsuit involving gospel music. Then you might get even more crazy people calling.
---
I'll have to get an unlisted number! -rc
Posted by: Fred Australia | April 26, 2008 4:32 AM
When I read your blog about the woman not comprehending she had the wrong site and yet pursuing the matter to such an extent, I was reminded of my days as a 9-1-1 dispatcher in the suburbs of Chicago. I was working the dayshift when the 9-1-1 line rang. When I answered, "9-1-1, what is your emergency?" a woman on the other end asked for the phone number to a library in another suburb.
I calmly explained that she needed to dial 4-1-1 for that information to which she proceeded to argue with me and tried to tell me that 4-1-1 is for emergencies!! After going back and forth for several minutes (thankfully, no other emergency calls were going on at the time) I finally asked her if she would like me to have a police officer come to her house to demonstrate the difference between 4-1-1 and 9-1-1. She paused, letting what I said sink in, presumably, before replying politely "no thank you" and hung up.
Posted by: Doug Orlando, FL | April 26, 2008 10:33 AM
It could be worse -- certain British accents add an 'r' at the end of certain words. Ask 'em about the children's book Angelina Ballerina and they might reply, "Angelinar Ballerinar? The kids love 'er!"
I can picture such a conversation. "Did you mean the Stella Awards?" "Right, then, isn't that what I said -- the Stellar Awards?"
Posted by: Paul in NJ | April 29, 2008 11:56 AM
Apropos of the pronunciation comment, we here in RI go both ways. People here get idee-ers all the time.
On the other hand, I had a friend whose last name I did not know ended "er" rather than the "ah" I had known him by until I read his name on a placard at his funeral!
The possible conversations boggle the mind:
Stella?
Stellar?
Who would know????
Posted by: Theresa in Rhode Island | May 2, 2008 11:46 PM
Not a Retail Clerk, but have similar issues.
I work in ISP Tech Support, we get lots of really dumb people thru on a daily basis, I'm not talking about the people who have no idea about computers here, I'm talking about the people who should know better.
My favourites are always the people who call in with a connection issue and claim something like this "I am a router engineer, and there is nothing wrong with my router, my issue is caused by you/your ISP, so just check and confirm for me there is an issue from your end!! NOW!!". Of course I check, most times it's not an issue from our end. "Explain we don't do router support, ask nicely if they can plug modem directly to computer" after 2 - 3 minutes of arguing, get my way and look, Internet works fine. It's a router issue.
9 times out of 10, the person doesn't thank us for showing them what's wrong, or getting them back online, mostly they either hang up on us or start another argument. Seriously it might be harder to direct an 80 year old grandmother thru setting up her email, but it's so much more satisfying because they are grateful and you have done something to help someone who really needs it.
Yeah it can be frustrating, some calls just make you forget the morons.
Posted by: John in Melbourne AU | May 4, 2008 8:06 AM
Read the article that everyone's commenting on, or post a comment about it.