[QUOTE=Broomstick]
Actually, when I was unemployed I was out looking for a job most days 9-5, or even 8-6.
The problem I get now is when people want my work number. I give them my cell. Then, when they realize it’s the same as my cell, they say “NO, I want your WORK number.” I’m working in construction now, at jobsites that change weekly, or even day to day. Most of these places do even have a phone connection. If you want to call me at work you have to call my cell - that’s why I gave it as my “work” number. That’s also why I can’t give you the address of my current work location - it changes pretty damn frequently, so just freakin’ call me on the cell, m’kay?
[/QUOTE]
Same here.
Clerk: “And your phone number?”
Me gives number
Clerk: “Isn’t that a cell phone?”
Me: “Yes.”
Clerk: “I’ll need your home phone number.”
Me: “I don’t have one, I just use a cell phone.”
Clerk: Looks at me with resigned disgust and confusion
Me, thinking: Look lady, when that phone rings, if I don’t answer it, I lose my fucking job. So don’t worry. If I’m two days late on returning Shrek 2 you’ll be able to let me know.
I give my cell phone number only to people I will be happy to or need to hear from. The rest can call my home number, which has been in my home, formerly my parents’ home, since 1957. Filling out a form for the video store? Home number. Boarding the dogs when I go on vacation? Cell.
When I’m ordering something with a credit card over the phone, I give the home number because that’s the phone I used ooooh so many years ago when I filled out the credit card application. I don’t want my credit card to be rejected because the information doesn’t match, and I don’t want them calling me on my cell with “special offers.” They can call home and leave a message, which I will delete unheard.
[QUOTE=Frylock]
Can you make any sense out of this reaction?
[/QUOTE]
It didn’t take me too long with my thinking cap on to figure it out.
From the conversation Shamozzle had, it looks like the person who would have preferred a home phone number (aka landline) was a clerk at a video rental store. A place that rents you items would prefer a landline because that can be tied to a physical address. This will be useful when a collection agency tries to track you down after you refuse to pay the penalties because you lost the DVD of Shrek 2. In the same way I am sure they would prefer a physical address rather than a P.O. Box address.
[QUOTE=LurkMeister]
I retired two years ago, and one company I do business with still has my old office number on my profile as my “business number” because there is no way for me to delete it. Entering all zeros or just clearing the fields and leaving them blank causes a “invalid number” rejection. I also once had to explain to someone why my “daytime number” and my “evening number” were the same.
[/QUOTE]
My main office number is XXX-XXX-0001. Often when putting it on an Internet site, I get the “invalid phone number” page. Apparently some computers are programs think it is a fake number.
It is a very old phone number. Our company founder took it over from an organization he was a member of, so that it wouldn’t die.
[QUOTE=Otto]
Constantly. And then there’s the people who after I say “how may I help you?” say “Yeah, this is Firstname Lastname.” And stop talking. Or they say “Yeah, I have a question.” And stop talking. Or say “Yeah I have a (name of card program) card.” And stop talking. I do not understand how these people think, or if these people think.
What is so hard to understand that “home phone number” means “the phone number where I can reach you at home”?
There’s nothing hard about it, but that’s not what I’m required to ask.
Not even close to a reasonable analogy. Passports and drivers licenses are not equivalent and do not serve the same purpose. A home phone and a cell phone used in the home in the absence of a land line are the same thing.
[/QUOTE]
They stop talking there as it is useless to go on with the question until the CSR asks his zillion routine questions before he can even tell me what time it is. No use to tell the problem just to have the CSR go through his routine then ask you again what the problem is.
Home telephone number is the land line, and that’s the way everyone but you thinks of it.
Thus, it’s not the dudes who are answering your question correctly that are to blame, it’s your bosses who are requireing you to ask the (now outdated) wrong question. **Lord Ashtar ** is correct. You should not be in CS.
They are not the same thing. I have a friend who has no land line and if she give her cell she also gets grief about that. I have little doubt that if your customers just gave you their cell number, you’d be here in the PIT with a rant about your customer doing that “stupid fucking thing that annoys you” as just about anything and everything your customers do annoys you.
[QUOTE=DrDeth]
They stop talking there as it is useless to go on with the question until the CSR asks his zillion routine questions before he can even tell me what time it is. No use to tell the problem just to have the CSR go through his routine then ask you again what the problem is.
[/quote]
Well, that’s just more proof that they’re idiots making false assumptions and deciding that they know how to do my job better than I do.
Did you even bother to read the rest of this thread? Because there are a number of posts in it in which people other than me disagree with this assertion.
But they are not answering the question correctly. They have a phone that they use at home. That is their home phone number. That it also happens to be a cell phone number does not change the fact that it is their home phone number.
I find that hard to believe.
Actually, if they would just give me their cell number, which is also their home number, then I’d just type the fucking thing in and be on my merry way. Does it ever bother you to be so wrong about so many things in a single post, or are you one of those “ignorance is bliss” types?
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]
My main office number is XXX-XXX-0001. Often when putting it on an Internet site, I get the “invalid phone number” page. Apparently some computers are programs think it is a fake number.
[/QUOTE]
Well it is a fake number , isn’t it? There usually aren’t letters in a phone number. Or do you mean that the X stands for 9?
[QUOTE=Otto]
Well, that’s just more proof that they’re idiots making false assumptions and deciding that they know how to do my job better than I do.
[/quote]
No, they’re applying their experience from previous customer service encounters, which is more than you’re doing.
What people in this thread say they think “home phone” means is completely irrelevant. It’s obviously not what the word means to these people.
Home phone means exactly that,the phone that you can be reached on at home.
NOT the phone that you can be reached on at any place or location.
People tend not phone you on your home phone if they know that you are usually at work or out of the house at certain times of day but they WILL try to get hold of you on your mobile.
This is an accepted convention just about everywhere I know.
[QUOTE=Otto]
Well, that’s just more proof that they’re idiots making false assumptions and deciding that they know how to do my job better than I do…
Actually, if they would just give me their cell number, which is also their home number, then I’d just type the fucking thing in and be on my merry way. Does it ever bother you to be so wrong about so many things in a single post, or are you one of those “ignorance is bliss” types?
[/QUOTE]
When, exactly, did you realize that Customer Service was the career best suited to your talents?
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried]
Well it is a fake number , isn’t it? There usually aren’t letters in a phone number. Or do you mean that the X stands for 9?
[/QUOTE]
X means ten - don’t you know your roman numerals? To dial his number you dial 1010101010100001.
[QUOTE=Otto]
But they are not answering the question correctly. They have a phone that they use at home. That is their home phone number. That it also happens to be a cell phone number does not change the fact that it is their home phone number.
Actually, if they would just give me their cell number, which is also their home number, then I’d just type the fucking thing in and be on my merry way.
[/QUOTE]
What happens if they both have a land line and a cell phone- they are not allowed to answer the cell phone when they are at home? So then they’d have two “home numbers”, which I am sure would also infuriate you.
You haven’t been “merry” since Day One of this job. Face it, you are as fit for this job as Chris Farley was for Chippendales dancer- except he at least had a good attitude.
[QUOTE=Arnold Winkelried]
Well it is a fake number , isn’t it? There usually aren’t letters in a phone number. Or do you mean that the X stands for 9?
[/QUOTE]
