Let me bow before your feet, Mr Center-of-the-Universe!

The BBQ Pit
1

Woooow… I never thought I could meet someone with such a sense of entitlement. I work as a receptionist in an office that is opened on weekends. One of our busiest days is actually on Saturday with Sundays that are a bit quieter. So, we have quite a few people in on Saturdays while Sundays, we have about half the people.

Mr. Center-of-the-Universe was supposed to come in yesterday to pick up some information from one of our guys, but he didn’t show up. Or rather, he said he showed up, but by the time he got here, we were already closed. So he shows up today for the information. Unfortunately, the guy he’s picking the information up from isn’t around today, and he didn’t leave anything with me to give to anyone. Fortunately, I was able to go into his office and look for it. (Not a big deal, people aren’t uptight about “privacy” here)

So, I give Mr. Center-of-the-Universe his information, and was hoping to send him on his merry way. But noooooo, he stands there looking at the papers for a bit, and then starts harrassing me for my co-worker’s cell phone number. Apparently, he had some questions about the information on the papers, and wanted clarification. I don’t have my co-worker’s cell phone number. I’m sure there is a file somewhere that has it listed, but I am NOT going to give this guy because it is my co-worker’s day off.

As much as this co-worker annoys me, I think it’s just common decency not to give his PRIVATE cell phone number out so clients can annoy the fuck out of him even when he’s at home, spending time with his wife and kids. This is not a profession where he’s on call 24/7. I am very sure that whatever question that Mr Center-of-the-Universe has can wait until Tuesday! Of course, Mr. Center-of-the-Universe doesn’t think so, and said to me, before he stormed out “What kind of system do you have here where you can’t reach your guys whenever a client needs to ask a question???”

WTF?? :confused: :eek: :confused: :eek: :confused: :smack:

2

I guess it comes down to whether you want that client’s business, or not. If I’m a client and have to take time out of my day to go to the office of the people I’m employing, and still can’t get a straight answer, I would probably start considering alternatives to doing business with your firm. If the person I’m dealing with at that office gives me a vibe that she’s only providing some critical information as a great favor to me, and afterward she wishes I’d just get out of her sight (since she’s “sure it could wait”), then I would come away convinced that I should find some other firm to work with.

Sorry, but I think your rant is extremely juvenile. If it reflects your individual attitude, you might soon find yourself hitting the bricks. If it reflects the attitude of your firm, everyone there will probably soon find themselves pounding the pavement after you go out of business, and deservedly so.

3

I think the correct thing to have done would have been to call the coworker at home, and say “got a tricky situation here - do you mind helping out?” Allow the coworker to make the decision whether or not to have their day ruined. Or take the customer’s cellphone number and pass it on to your coworker for the same choice. Of course, the customer may have been a thundering asshole in his manner with you, but still, if I were the customer I’d be very pissed off to run up against a brick wall the way he did.

4

I can understand wanting information from my co-worker… but what I don’t understand was his “give it to me NOW” attitude. It was like he’s never heard of or experienced delayed gratification in his whole life.

We are opened seven days a week. We’re not a big firm, but we’re larger than most. That means not everyone is going to be around all seven days of the week, as people do have to take time off to relax and have a private life. I think we are actually one of the most accomodating firms I know of, because we are opened on weekends. Big Boss at the Top isn’t so detached from the clients that he thinks everyone can take time off to come in to see our guys. He understands that, which is why we are opened on the weekends, when many other firms aren’t. That is our way of accomodating our clients.

I’m all for good “customer service”, but I don’t think bending over backwards and passing along private information such as my co-worker’s cell phone number is appropriate, and neither is Mr. Center-of-the-Universe hassling me about our “policy” of not being able to reach whoever he wants, whenever he wants.

5

I’m in real estate and although I’m in the commercial end the residential hours are definitely busiest on weekends.

So if I’ve got this straight a client is supposed to drop by and pick up some information. The agent/salesman/contact person didn’t leave the info at the front desk for the client (as he should have), and the receptionist won’t give him the agent/salesman/contact person’s cell number to confirm some details.

With all due respect that’s (IMO) somewhat unprofessional behavior by the receptionist (or poor corporate attitude if that’s a point of company policy). I want all my clients to have the oppy to contact me where ever I am. If I’m not interested I won’t answer my cell or I’ll turn it off.

Seriously, that’s a valid question. What kind of system do you have?

6

I can agree with not handing the guy’s mobile telephone number out, but could you have called the guy and given him the client’s number? That way the agent/salesman whatever he is could call the customer.

7

Close, but not quite. He was supposed to drop by and pick up some information THE DAY BEFORE, when the person he wanted to contact was in the office. He did not do so, and then dropped by the next day, when his contact person wasn’t there.

8

I’m with Sad and Deranged. Don’t give my phone number out to people. If I wanted them to have it, they would have it. Nobody asked this customer to come on Sunday.

Of course, thank the gods, I have a job where I don’t have to deal with the public. This is something I’m thankful for every single day.

9

All well and good, but if someone’s “dropping by”, and I can’t be sure our schedules will coincide and I’ll always leave the data package up front if I’m leaving the office. Possibly this is a business where the salespeople are in house all the time, but if someone’s just dropping by all good agents should leave the package up front for pickup.

10

The client does not own the personal time of the employees of the firm. If he’s not getting answers from the employee with whom he’s dealing, that’s one thing. It’s perfectly reasonable to walk away if they neglect to do their job.

If client has a problem they should discuss it during working hours unless it was made clear that they could call the employee at any time. It sounds like the client in this case expects service outside the time the business was open (showing up after they were closed) and expected the employee to be available at any time to addess his concerns. I don’t think he has any right to that.

I, too, have been in the situation in which customers demanded to speak to the manager at odd hours and I refused. I don’t believe it’s reasonable to expect employees to give up their personal time in the name of “good service.”

11

In looking at the answers I suppose I should make the the distinction of whether the employee is an independent contractor/agent vs being a paid hourly employee. If they are an hourly employee then their time is their own and should be sacrosanct, if they are an agent or commissioned salesperson I think asking for the cell # is perfectly valid request.

12

A system where a guy’s day off is really his day off. No calls from his boss, his co-workers, or his clients. Just a relaxing day at home where he’s not bombarded with work.

Yes, I could have. But like I mentioned before, the list of the staff’s home and cell phone numbers, but it’s filed away somewhere obscure. It would have been a great big hassle to try to locate it, find my co-worker’s number, interrupt him at home, just so his client can get an answer today.

It’s not like I wasn’t accomodating to Mr. Center-of-the-Universe from the start. There’s only so much I can do for a person. When he came in and asked for the information, I could have sent him away by simply saying “He didn’t leave anything with me.” I, however, decided to be nice and go into my co-worker’s office to locate said information. I extended a helping hand, and he tried to take my whole arm. :rolleyes:

You are correct, my friend. Normally, if we have anything that a client is hoping to pick up, but can’t make it in when the person they are working with is working, said person will leave the information/file/whatever with me. If they don’t mention anything, or leave me anything, I don’t know anything. It’s especially frustrating for us when they were supposed to come in the day before, but didn’t, and then making a big ruckus because the person he was working with isn’t available anymore.

The problem wasn’t that the client didn’t receive his information. It was that he got the information, had questions about it, but didn’t want to wait until Tuesday to have his questions answered. Had he come in yesterday, like he told my co-worker he would, he could have gotten them answered. He didn’t, so tough luck for him.

I will reiterate that our staff is NOT on call 24/7. They are not doctors, they are not the police, and they aren’t staff at an emergency call center. They work in a profession where there aren’t such things as emergencies. Of course, there are situations where it should be looked at as soon as possible, but nothing that is life or death. For such situations, they can wait until Tuesday!!

13

I am amazed that you don’t have a company or departmental policy about this. Frankly, you as a receptionist shoulldn’t be in a position of making up an answer on the spot.

Our policy is that we do not give out home phone numbers to the public. Period. To other employees, yes. To an outside customer, we put it this way, "If you feel this is urgent enough to interrupt his day off, I will call him. Otherwise I will be happy to take a message, I expect him back in the office on XXXday. "

14

I think a client has the right to set his own expectations. A client also has the right to shop around for a vendor who meets his expectations. My business is in the habit of trying to exceed customer expectations instead of telling them that they’re expecting too much.

For those who think that the client is being unreasonable in this case, would you also begrudge his choice to patronize a competitor who is available at all hours?

Why have a skeleton crew available during weekends if the business is restricted in ability to service their client’s needs?

15

Maybe it’s because I’m just a receptionist, and I still get paid whether there are clients are not, but working here, plus all my years being a retail monkey, I’m of the mindset that if they don’t like the way WE do things, they are free to go elsewhere. Maybe they will tell their friends and family what terrible service we have, maybe they won’t. Either way, if we can’t meet their expectations, we can’t meet them. Instead of making everyone miserable trying to accomodate a demanding client, the client can find somewhere else that offers the service he wants.

Quite honestly, I think it’s a bad way to live life if you can’t wait two days for some answers. There has to be some point in life where you’re going to have to accept “No” as an aswer and leave it at that. You may not be happy about it, but you can’t always get what you want, when you want.

16

It depends on the nature of the business. Some businesses require 24 hour attention and some do not. It’s perfectly reasonable for a customer to choose to go to a business which offers round-the-clock service, but I don’t think it’s reasonable for them to demand it from a business which does not. This includes demanding personal phone numbers. If it was not offered when the business relationship was established, it should be obvious that there is no expectation of being able to reach the employee at any time.

My husband, as an example, is the deputy warden of a prison. It’s expected part of the job that he’ll be available at a moment’s notice to work if need be.

I work in a museum. When visitors show up at closing time, I tell them that I’m sorry, but they’ll have to come back another time. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect that any of the employees would stay just because that happens to be when someone wanted to visit. (We do make special arrangements with groups to be open after/before normal business hours but that’s a specific arrangement agreed upon ahead of time.)

While I know you *can *do it and sometimes circumstances make it necessary, I would never choose to go to a resturant right at closing time and ask to be served for a leisurely meal. I wouldn’t feel like it was fair to the employees who want to get home to their families.

17

It sounds like being open on the weekend is already more than most competitors. How much more accommodating are they supposed to be?

It sounds like clients work with individual reps, rather than any one of an interchangable group of staff. By your standard, everyone would thus have to work or be on call for ever single hour that the business was open. That’s insane. People do have a right to time off.

18
  • if a client blows off a meeting or mismanages his time to the point where he shows up late, it seems to me that the onus is on him. “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine” is a cliche because it’s true.

Sure. And the business has the right to set its own policies. One of which appears to be to give its agents time off, which frankly seems absolutely proper to me. If anyone in my organization handed a private contact number to anyone outside the group, there’d be hell to pay. I am a senior technical resource and as such have to be available round-the-clock on a regular basis, but whether to call me up at midnight is not the client’s call to make, thanks be to Og.

Heavens to Betsy, no. Why ? If the client needs 24/7 service, he can shop for that. From the OP, it sounds like he’ll have a tough time of finding it, though.

Isn’t “restricted in ability” pretty much part of the definition of skeleton crew ?

19

I had a long reply written out to this, but my computer has decided to be evil (for once, it ain’t the boards, yay!).

Anywho, long story short (as I’m now too lazy to type it all again), I work with my dad at his tax business. He doesn’t work on Fridays- a fact all the clients are made aware. I am in the office for 9 hours on Fridays and can happily get any message of actual importance (and even the unimportant ones) to my dad at a moment’s notice. Unfortunately, this isn’t good enough for most of our clients.

Apparently, you see, because I’m 20 and female I simply cannot grasp the complicated workings of their tax problems (their words). Just the other day I had some client call up, claiming to have an emergency, but he wouldn’t even tell me one word about it. Why? “It’s over your head, toots. Now give me [Dad’s Name]'s phone number at home.” No, seriously, he called me toots. Yeah, I know, right?
Anyway, all of our clients have my dad’s cell phone number, but for many this simply isn’t good enough. They are so entitled that they must have his home phone number. Hell, I’ve had a few ask for his home address so they could stop by to discuss their “urgent” problem (they got a bill from the IRS. The same bill they’ve gotten once a month for 5 years).

I can’t imagine any business where I would have the balls to ask for the person’s home phone number, let alone address. Sheesh.

20

If anyone that I worked with - ANYONE - gave someone my personal phone number on my day off, I would report them to HR.

Time off means exactly that - time off. If I’m working, I’d better be getting paid. And since my company won’t oblige, if someone contacts me on my day off about work (a simple question like "Was the spelling for that obit “Reynolds” or “Raynolds?” is alright, but I mean actually having to work) and they aren’t my company, I will send them a bill for my personal time which has been sucked up by their ego.

Presumably this guy made prior arrangements with Center of the Universe which Center of the Universe then BLEW OFF. If it was so effing important, he should have kept to the schedule then, shouldn’t he? This guy got all irritated over the fact that, gasp, he isn’t the center of everyone’s universe. Just his.

~Tasha