Many of us work in jobs in which we are forced to interact and deal with other human beings. Often these other human beings are the recipients of goods and/or services that we cheerfully provide. Often these recipients are jerks/idiots. What do your customers do that really annoys you?
I am a bartender, and although I really like most of my customers and have a lot of fun I always hate the young, wanna be gangsta punks who come up to me and order a shot of Hennessy or Courvoisier and ask for it in a snifter, as if they are some real sophisticate who appreciates the finer things in life, AND THEN DOWNS IT LIKE A SHOT! God damn! Almost every time I have been asked to serve something in a snifter (by someone under thirty) it has been chugged like a shot! What the hell is wrong with you?! You guys just look like idiots! A snifter is for, get this, SNIFFING! It is designed to hold the aroma of the drink so that you can better appreciate it as you slowly sip and savor. If all you want is a shot then take it in a shot glass, you will look like much less of a putz.
The biggest problem I’ve got with my customers is that there’s not enough of them.
It seems like advertising isn’t very effective these days.
The most effective advertising I’ve managed to come up with was to do offer free PC security checks for a week and then print a summary of the virus, firewall, and update checks in the next week’s paper. The free test gets some calls, and while I’m there I usually get asked if I could take a look at (something or other that has been bugging them for ages on some PC.) The stuff beyond the freebie gets charged to the customer (with permission, of course.) The summary the next week then gets a few more to call in an absolute panic that their system is crawling with bad stuff - since the free offer has expired they get to pay for the security check (at a VERY cut rate) and then I hope for more stuff to fall out.
Get a clue, guys. Its a dangerous computer world out there. Call me to help prevent the shit instead of calling me when you’ve got (honest to God) 263 copies of various worms and viruses on your PC and you can’t work because the buggers all get active when you go to open the report you were supposed to give the boss two hours ago.
My friend, i’ve been a bartender and let me tell you, if people chugging out of snifters is the biggest problem your customers give you, then you really don’t have much to complain about.
Why do you give a fuck how they drink it? All you have to do is put it in front of them in a timely and professional manner. If they’re tipping you–and i suspect they are–then surely it’s in your best interests for them to chug those cognacs as quickly as possible.
263? :eek: :eek: :eek: I’ve had ONE virus infection since I’ve been online. I’m damn careful about the sites I visit and the stuff I download. I made ActiveX ask me politely if it can run on my computer (most of the time I say no, because I don’t think that I really NEED the advertising to have the special effects). And I run virus and spyware and malware scans at least twice a week. I can understand that people who aren’t really interested in computers have to use them anyway for work purposes…but I can’t imagine people neglecting basic “computer hygiene”, which is how I prefer to think of it.
I’ve told my share of customer stories. I think that basically they boil down to: People are clueless, and don’t think about other people or the world around them.
Oh, Jesus. I guess the worst ones are the ones who have to argue with every single rule we’ve ever set. “What do you mean, you don’t take consignments on Monday?” “Why aren’t you taking heavy winter coats in July?” “You have to take these three hundred and fifty pairs of jeans - I’ve loaded them all in my car!” “But those were my favorite underwear!” My absolute favorite, however, is - “But they take stained clothing at Consignment Store X!” Well take them to Consignment Store X, then, and leave me out of it!
If it’s someone’s first time coming in, and they don’t really know the rules, I’ll try to be nice about it. But it kills me when people who’ve been consigning with me for years accuse me of making rules up just so i don’t have to take their things. The rules haven’t changed for three years. Learn to live with them, or go somewhere else.
And for the love of God, don’t ask me if I can “do any better” with the prices. You’re getting a hundred dollar dress for twenty bucks. Don’t bitch.
I am a service guy, I get calls and have to decide if I can help the person on the phone or if a visit needs to be made. What irritates me the most is when the customer proceeds to tell me what is wrong. If you know so much, why the fuck are you calling me?
Me: “[Offers something to try.]”
Them: “I don’t think that will fix it.”
Me (in my head): “I’ll bet you five bucks.”
I mean WTF. If you want my help, STFU. If you don’t, then don’t call. The fucking end.
I hate seeing that. The person at the sandwich shop or espresso stand is a HUMAN not a robot. Treat them as such.
I see people in line all the time gabbing on their cell phones and only placing orders for their items when there is a break in their conversation. GRRRRRR. Come on man, tell the person on the other end to hold for a sec because you’re in line at (insert name of place here) and it’s your turn to order.
I always hated people who treated me like shit because THEY fucked up their computer. Like it was really MY fault they downloaded a virus or deleted some directory that housed all the files for Word.
A few years back I built a computer for a woman who was into on-line trading. I put together a nice system and wrote a small program to copy all her important files onto a 250mb zip disk. Nice and easy back up.
Insert zip disk.
double click icon on desktop that says “backup files”.
Remove zip disk in a couple of minutes and place in secure area.
Done.
I mean, how easy is that?
About 8 months later something happened to the computer. It was a power surge in her house or something. In any case the hard drive and motherboard were toast. I said I would change it out under warrenty no problem. I asked her to bring in the back up zip disk and the computer so I can restore everything for her. The last back up she had was the one I did when I showed her how to run the little program in the shop. In 8 months she didn’t run the back up software.
She decided that having the motherboard and hard drive replaced, having her software restored, and all the labour done for free wasn’t quite good enough. She decided we needed to pay for data recovery on her hard drive. She was blaming the power spike in her house on our “faulty” computer. Like the entire problem had to do with us. Of course I wouldn’t pay for data recovery.
She had internet access through my shop and about two months later she came in with a new Compaq for us to set up the internet account on. She acted like Compaq was the best company in the world and they knew how to built a computer that won’t die after 8 months. heh heh. Of course, she never addressed the power problem at her house and scoffed at the idea of a UPS. Something tells me her Compaq ended up in the same boat.
I work in the cash office for a grocery store but I am oncall for the cashiers if they need help. I looooooooathe when customers call me by my name if they don’t know me. It makes me take a second look to see if I really know them or they are just reading my nametag. It just feels a little too intimate for me.
When people ask me if I speak English when I’m speaking English. Come on, people, my accent isn’t *that *thick! Come to think of it, it kinda annoys me that people ask me if I speak English at all - I’m in the travel industry; I speak six languages (although my German needs some work). Not that I should need to; if you are going to travel the world, learn a common language, fer chrissakes.
Other than that, I love my customers and I even frequently exchange e-mails with them after they’ve gone back home (you Americans are such friendly people…). I have the best job in the world.
I fucking hate it when people rattle off numbers to me as fast as possible, in groupings of multi-digit numbers. That didn’t sound right. Example:
…fortytwosixtyseveneighteenthreehundredeightyfour…
Those numbers are made up of individual digits, and since you’re reading them off at light speed it’s a bit difficult to type up to speed with that shit. Did you mean 30084 or 384? Would it kill you to say it at a normal human pace? I know that your feeble mind can only remember your SSN# when repeated verbally in two digit numbers at breakneck speed, but the beginning of fourteen is not a four but rather a one, and I’m trying to type along with you jackass!
I also love it when people are looking for answers and they won’t shut the fuck up! I had your one word answer ten seconds into your five minute tirade. :rolleyes:
Petty as these gripes may be, it makes me lose faith in the intelligence of the general populace.
I get this in voicemails all. The. Time. The whole message will be clear, concise, and well-spoken… right up until the time comes to give a phone number. Then it is ripped off at light speed and I have to listen to the whole friggin’ message again just to get the phone number. Classic.
I work for an engineering services firm (which is a glorified version of “inventory databasing”), and as such our customers submit the information their engineers need. But of course, they can’t let the engineers talk to us, oh no. They have to be kept in that locked broom closet. So what we get is some fuckwit MBA (I know, redundant) who comes in with the “Please don’t notice I’m incompetent” smile. And he proceeds to bullshit us for hours on end about what they need, at the end of which we have a list primarily composed of services they don’t want and won’t pay for (but have told us they do and will), and things they do want and will pay for (but have told us they don’t and won’t).
It’s worth noting that the only thing they actually need to give us is a properly formatted Excel spreadsheet, and we email them the format ahead of time. Luckily, we hit on the idea of telling them they should include the name of the person who ported out the spreadsheet (invariably an engineer who actually knows what they need and want) in case we have any technical questions.
The whole point of mixing a spirit with a, well, mixer, is to make it taste more like the mixer and less like the spirit. This allows you to enjoy icky-tasting booze by masking the taste.
If the booze isn’t icky tasting (and Hennesy certainly isn’t icky tasting), then you’ve paid a premium for that, and you should savour the complex, unadulterated taste. If you don’t like the unadulterated taste and would prefer a mixer, then get whatever’s in the well. You’ll save money, and you won’t look like a rube.
Out of curiousity, does a drink made from scotch and jolly ranchers sound appealing to you?
Would it kill you to have the driver order the food? Most times I can’t hear the passenger, due to the fact that they are talking through someone.
You Do Not need to Scream into the microphone. If I tell you I didn’t understand you, it was because you weren’t speaking clearly. I heard you just fine.
Please roll your window all the way down. It makes it much easier for both of us.
You need to pull within three feet of the building, or make the effort to extend your arm more than a few inches out of the window. I really hate to hang out of the window.
I also hate people on the phone.
Try to have some idea what you want, I had a customer today spend four minutes just placing their order. It wasn’t a huge order, they just didn’t know what they wanted.
Do not try to bully anyone in my store into giving you something for free. If you get loud and obnoxious, I will call the police and have you removed.
I am not information, I don’t have the phone number for Every McDonald’s in the area. Do what I do, look it up in the white pages.
I,ve got many more, but I won’t spew anymore bile at this time.
