Uh-oh. So the people down at the DMV probably aren’t amused when they ask me my birthdate and I give it to them and then add, “Or so they tell me. I don’t remember it, myself.”
So yeah, I’m at Target a little bit ago and the pants I’m buying don’t have a tag on them. First thing that comes into my head is “so I guess they’re free!” So I kinda suck a little too. But at least I didn’t actually say it.
Otto, I feel your frustration – it can be a mind-numbing experience when it feels like every customer out there is intentionally giving you a hard time.
Having said that, some words from the Other Side:
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The most common question customers are asked when purchasing electonic equipment at, say, Best Buy or CompUSA, is “What is your zip code?” I’m told the company uses that info to determine where customers reside to see if another store can be opened someplace else. (Conversely, my cynical-corporations-look-at-the-bottom-line-spidey-sense tells me that info can be used to justify closing a store if the majority of its customers are from another town.) As soon as I hear the word “code”, I’m more likely to recite my zip than my phone area code.
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What are the age demographics of your customers? Younger customers tend to switch phones as often as computer geeks switch video cards – every six months or so. Although regulations have made it easier to keep your number as you switch carriers, it wasn’t that long ago when people got a new cell phone number every year when their plans expired and they had to do The Switch to get a bargain. It was annoying to learn a new number just as the current one finally made it into my long term memory. Also, many people switch just to get the Cool Phone (I believe the Razr or however it’s spelled is the Flavor of the Season).
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Cell phones themselves are notorious for not providing identification information. I mean, I can’t even find out the model number of my own phone without yanking the battery out (grrrrrrrr – curse you, Ye Devils in Marketing!). Newer models now display the number if you power on the phone, but not many people know that pressing “Menu>Options>Settings>Advanced>Security>Show My Number>Are you sure?>Are you really sure?>Please press Confirm one more time” will display your number (Couldn’t help the exaggeration, but it feels like that some times.)
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People with know Cell Phone Culture™ just do things … differently (and make me feel old in the process). I offered to exchange numbers with someone and was told to just call her. She then saved my number into her cell phone member and used that number to call me back so I could store her number. Voila, no memorization necessary … ever. With that kind of ritual, it’s no wonder no one knows no one else’s number.
Anyway, as someone who also deals in customer service, I feel your pain. If you just wanted to vent, ignore my post. 
[Nitpick]
Snoppy
[/Nitpick]
[nitpick of your nitpick]I’m fairly certain you mean Snoopy.[/nitpick of your nitpick]
[nitpick of your nitpick of Will’s nitpick]But I’m pretty sure it was Linus that said it.[/nitpick-pick-pick]
[nitpick of {edit} nitpick]Both were fictional. Charles Schulz said it. [/nitpick of {edit} nitpick] 
Actually, at best he popularized it. The saying was in circulation in the 50s (at the latest) before Schulz embarked on his career of turning his daily strip into a major marketing ploy.
Just thought I’d pop in with this Shortpacked comic in response to the barcode jokes (which I have made myself).
On a related note, my mom was telling me that Wal Mart (or at least, the one in my small town in Arizona) is apparantly saving money by not putting price tags on things like DVDs, the assumption being that if someone wants to know how much it costs that badly, they can have an Associate scan it for them (or use one of the customer service scanners they have periodically stuck on pillars around the store).
This works in theory, but in practice, the customer UPC scanners at most Wal Marts are almost always broken, except for the ones at the Wal Mart in College Station, TX, and even then, the ones in the electronics section never work (Oh irony of ironies, an electronics section with nonfunctional electronics). BTW, if you’ve never tried this before, if you get your oil changed (or whatever random auto work) at a Wal Mart, the little barcode sticker they give you can be scanned on the UPC scanners and it will tell you if your car is finished yet or not. Most Wal Mart Associates I’ve met in the auto section were unaware of this, presumably because they’ve never had cause to try it (since they KNOW when your car is done). On an unrelated note, since starting work at a library, I LOVE barcode scanners. I want to get one for my computer and use it to catalogue my DVD and book collection.
Also, I too am guilty of making the “I never call myself” joke, but that’s usually to buy a few seconds while I flip open my phone and hit the two buttons needed to have it show my phone number (as upposed to my trademark “Uhhhhhhhhhhhh” which makes me sound so dignified and intelligent). I have gotten a LOT better at memorizing arbitrary numbers after going to school at Texas A&M, where I was required at various times to put my social security number on paperwork, tests, homework, etc. as a means of identifying myself, until someone told the A&M folks that using a SS number for identification outside of tax related stuff is actually illegal, and they had us memorize ANOTHER arbitrary number (our UIN number, which is helpfully listed both on our ID cards and in the online phone book with our names and phone number :smack: ). Also, this is when I got a cell phone and a job, requiring me to learn two new phone numbers.
Nowadays I’m fairly good at memorizing arbitrary numbers relatively quickly, only needing to put them on paperwork or whatever for a few days before they become cemented in my mind. Of course, I can also remember the first 6 digits of the phone number of a girl I tried to persue a relationship with during my sophomore year of high school, so it might just be a case of me giving a rat’s ass about the number in question). On top of all that, my current job (and the last office job I had) was made easier by me developing a skill for commiting strings of numbers to short term memory. I’ve actually accidentally memorized the inventory number for a multimedia cart that I often find myself pushing back and forth between classrooms at my current job.
Oh, and Otto, for the job you were persuing, you need to fax them a resume. Unfortunately, nobody at the office can remember their fax number, apparantly because they never fax themselves. :smack:
No doubt. You must post at least two customer service rants a month here about things that customers do (totally harmless things) that drive you insane. And wow, are you EVER easily driven insane. You might want to check into why that is.
I seriously doubt that the customer thinks they are being funny. I have said that before when I’d only had my land-line for a few months, and I was flat out serious. I only have the darned thing because my cable modem company requires us to have long distance with them in order to have cable modem service (the long distance is free up to a ridiculous amount, but the monthly phone service is about 26 bucks, and they’re the only game in town for cable…grrr).
Anyway, I said it specifically to mean exactly that. I never ever call my landline, and rarely use it, so at the time, that IS why I didn’t know the number right off the top of my head. For me, it isn’t intended to be amusing, but factual.
And even now, on the rare occasion someone asks me for it, I have to stop and think about it occasionally. And again, the fact that I never call my own phone would be the reason for that.
And having the number on my bill, or the phone itself, or whatever whiny-assed reasons you had for the customer NEVER being allowed to say anything not on your script, doesn’t help when I’m out in the field and calling said customer service from my cell phone well away from anything that has my number written on it.
So, occasionally, when I have to call my credit card company and they ask for my home phone “my phone number? hmmm I never call my own phone…Oh! it’s 555 blah de ummmm blah blah” will pop out as I think about it.
Sheesh! Is it REALLY that much skin off your nose when a customer says something outside your personal agenda of what it acceptable for a customer to say?
If I recall, you’re fairly young. You need to get a grip, or change jobs before you give yourself a stroke.
I’m in ranks of Camp Whattalotta Numbers, and only give out my cell # to a few, and have some trouble recalling it myself. But,to give Otto some credit, if you are calling to activate a gift card that you receive because of your new phone account, you really should have the cell number available/ written down. How else is the service rep supposed to activate your card? Same as with any other service call; have your pertinent account information to the transaction in order before you make the call to get best service. Seems pretty straightforward to me.
That said; Otto, with customer service, ya just have to take a deep breath and go on, and not let it steam you up.
Short drive. One way street.
I work at a call-centre for a bank. At the end of every call we have to say “Anything else I can help you with?”
I am sure you know the ‘joke’ that I hear 20 times every day…“Could you put a million dollars in my account” or variations like “If you have any spare money, could you put it in my account”.
I used to say “Are you asking me to commit fraud?”
Now I say “Powerball is on Thursday. Make sure you have a ticket.”
I admit I have a bad joke. At the Safeway checkout counter, they ask me “If you’d like any help out?”, and I sometimes say “well, if you’d pay this for me, that’d be a big help out”. Sorry.
Wow, I would be put off by that if I were a customer.
Oh I get this one too. I always say, “If I had a million dollars do you thinkI’d be talking to you?” They seem to enjoy it.
Ugh, I hate that question. I suppose they (the bosses) make you ask it. But it really bugs me.
I mean what do they think (the bosses who think it’s a good “customer friendly” idea to make their CSRs ask that), that the customer is going to say “oh, that’s right, I forgot I need to XYZ blah de blah”?
I know what I’m calling about, once the transaction is done, it’s done. Do people really need to be prompted to make sure they haven’t forgotten something? It’s a wee bit insulting if you think about it. Kind of a mommyish “are you Suure you got everything done”?
Maybe it’s just me. But as soon as they ask that I can’t get off the phone fast enough. (aha! maybe that’s why they do it? :D).
Umm, yes. As a matter of fact, I"ll use to wrap up a conversation with someone who can’t say goodbye.
Gosh there are a lot of people here who never seem to bitch about anything. How … um … admirable?
This, by the way, is false. Check my posting history and you’ll see that it’s false.