Me “Excuse me ma’am your child chewed this candy and dropped it here by the register.”
Mom “I suppose you want me to pay for it.”
Me “What do you think?”
Mom “Give it to me!”
Lady if you watch your kid teeth on a package of candy the whole time you check out, I shouldn’t have to tell you pay for it and leave.
I shouldn’t have to tell the bicycle guy the billy club stays at the service desk or he leaves either.
I or my staff have called ERs to ask this. I want to know if they’re closed to incoming patients, and diverting them to other locations.
hehe I like this thread.
I’m glad it grew to bitching sessions about stupid people, not totally my intention, but definitely a welcome one.
Some, but not all. Where I live, I’ve never been able to do that; transferring money from bank to credit union (or vice versa) means writing a check or withdrawing cash from one and physically taking it to the other. It may be possible for you to do that where you live due to whatever agreements your local financial institutions have in place, but it’s by no means universal. So, yeah, that can be a stupid question.
As for the ATM issue, I’ve encountered banks that were not connected to any network, so their ATMs were for their own customers, and their customers could not use ATMs at any other bank. Fortunately, this seems to be the exception rather than the rule.
I never minded the people who would listen to my answering spiel and then ask me if this was the Thus and Such Animal Hospital. No, the ones I minded were the ones who would listen to that and then ask me if this was the Dairy Queen. The ones I really minded were the ones who would then proceed to argue with me about whether or not this was the Dairy Queen and why I wouldn’t take their order for an ice cream cake. It was just that one clinic, and they never confused it with any other business. It was always the &%%&*%^% Dairy Queen.
The phone conversations I always really minded though, were these:
Me: Animal Emergency Room, this is CCL. How may I help you?
Nimrod on phone: I have this dog.
(long pause)
Me: And what’s going on with your dog this evening, sir?
Nimrod: Well, he’s a chihuahua, and he’s black, and he’s just the sweetest little thing, we got him from my cousin’s boyfriend’s sister’s roommate five years ago when he was just tiniest little baby and you could hold him in the palm of your hand–and you know, I think it was actually 6, almost 7 years ago because it was right when my daughter Janie started kindergarten, and she’s just graduated from 6th grade last week, and…
Me: And is your chihuahua sick, sir?
Nimrod: Weeeellllll, you see…(long, rambling account of something that had been going on for over a week.)
It wouldn’t have been so bad if these people didn’t call right after the receptionist left on Saturday nights, when I was trying to monitor the 20 or so critically ill patients in ICU and pull blood for a potload of emergency patients and answer the phones at the same time.
Of course, nothing beats some of the winners I saw when I was waiting tables at Cracker Barrel. Where they have the restaurant and also the gift shop, the bills print out with your itemized restaurant order, and where that’s totaled up it says “Food total,” then if you have any merchandise you get that itemized and it says “Gift total,” then your taxes, and a line labeled “Amount due.” I had a lady come in and order a cobbler and a glass of water, so her bill looked like this:
Chocolate cobbler $1.99
Water $0.00
Food Total $1.99
Amount Due $1.99
She hit the roof, insisting that I had double-charged her and demanding that the “Food total” be taken off her bill. No matter how many times I explained to her that the food total was just the subtotal from what she’d gotten in the restaurant and that her total bill was only the price of her cobbler, she was adamant that I’d fucked it up. I got her a manager and lit out to hide in the kitchen, but as I went Iheard her yelling at him that she didn’t have any food, all she had was a cobbler.
Another shift I had a guy scream and cuss at me for I don’t know how long, because I brought his teenage daughter exactly what she ordered.
All the more reason to ask, “Are you open?” but then the person answering the phone would think, “Well, I answered the phone, didn’t I, you moron?”
You just can’t win.
True, which makes your “what are your hours today?” answer a good compromise.
Of course, if someone did say that to me, I would point out to them the same thing, then tell them “not that it matters, since I’m going to your competitor now. By the way, may I speak to your manager?”
I work in a call center for a satellite TV service.
Me (To customer): Press the numbers 6, 1, and 8 please.
Customer: BEEP. BOOP. BEEP.
Me:…Please press the number 618 on your remote, not on your phone.
I had another customer who was having signal loss check his dish for any obstructions. He tells me he sees a wasp nest on the dish anntenna. He tells me to hold on a second, then I hear him yell in pain. Because he had gotten a stick and whacked the nest. And seemed surprised that a wasp stung him.
Just to confirm what you’ve heard from others, I’ve talked to MANY small hotels and motels that have told me I had to check in by 11pm (or whenever) because the lobby closed for the night then.
That’s always how I do it.
Sometimes, people drive me nuts with the “are you open” question. A good example is when we were having the carpets cleaned. All of the bookshelves and other furniture from the front half of the store were moved to the back half. All of the lights were turned off. There was a big hose coming from a truck parked in front through the front door and into the store. A chair and a BIG fan were blocking the door. Somebody moved the chair, squeezed past the fan, and asked if we were open (yelling to be heard over the carpet cleaning equipment)!
On the flip side, I forgot to flip around the open sign one morning. I had all the lights on and I was at the front desk and somebody came in and asked if we were open. I was (luckily) polite, and he suggested I change the sign from closed to open. whew
Many years ago, I worked at an Arby’s.
We were being remodeled, new counters mainly. Old counters torn out, soda machine, registers, slicer, the works piled in one corner, old ripped up counters in the parking lot, new counters stacked near the other door, workman and power tools everywhere, employees not in uniform.
More than one fool came in to order, didn’t even ask if we were open, just walked up to the nearest employee to order lunch. One even tried to order from on of the workmen.
Closed signs everywhere.:smack:
Idiots.
Speaking of being closed…
At the same job where I got the “is this electric?” question when closing time rolled around we would lock all of the doors (we had three different entrances, one near each end of the front of the building and one opening into the mall we were attached to) except for one (to allow the last few customers to exit after completing their purchases).
The entrances were arranged like many large stores: a set of glass double doors opening to the outside (with the store hours placed conveniently at eye-level) and a small entryway with another set of glass double doors straight ahead for people entering the store, and a third set to one side for people to exit through after passing through the checkstands.
Over and over, I watched people pull in 5-10 minutes after closing time, walk up to the locked North entrance, shake it and discover it locked, and then walk to the South entrance, apparently without it occurring to them that perhaps the store was closed. Finding the South entrance door unlocked, they would proceed straight ahead to the second set of doors and discover that those were locked. Still not getting the message, they would then turn to the side exit doors, discover those were unlocked, and come on through, whereupon they would have to walk the wrong direction through the checkstands to actually get into the store proper.
Then they would be astonished when somebody said, “I’m sorry Sir/Ma’am, we’re closed.”
And then there’s the customer who knows damn well that you close at six, and she rushes up to the store at five fifty five. Once she’s in the store, she wants to take her sweet time in choosing her new wardrobe.
After spending eight hours on my feet, yes, I do want to close up shop, get to the babysitter’s, pick up my daughter, and start my second shift at home.
And the ones who don’t know what “sold out” means. Yes, I am telling you we have no rooms. None at all. And no, I have no room I can magically pull out of my ass and give you. You really think I’d be saying that if I didn’t mean it? You think my boss would like it if I deliberately didn’t sell rooms we had available?
I know it’s disappointing; yes, our accomodations are lovely and I’m glad you like to come here. Really. Here’s some numbers, call around and see if anybody else in the area can accomodate you. No, I still don’t have any rooms.
sigh
For all my pettiness in this thread, the majority of the people I deal with range from fine to (somewhat rarely) totally awesome. But a few make me want to scream.
As I said in my post, I told her we’re not affiliated with the other bank… your CU clearly has a Shared Branches system where they may be affiliated. Some smaller CUs tend to do that. She was looking for another major bank, which I’m sure is plenty large enough that it does not need to rely on shared branches. Also, it was, like, two blocks away! If she had accounts with any of the branches of my bank (there’s over a dozen in my city), we could do that for her. We’re all affiliated within the company.
An ATM is different. It’s done electronically. There’s no loose cash just floating around. Plus, both her bank and my bank would charge her fees to do such a thing. She said nothing about wiring or paying fees or anything. When she uses my bank’s ATM to access her account, she accepts fees, etc. She just wanted to hand me $20 and give it to her bank.
Bank security being what it is, I can’t just access her bank’s database and credit her account $20. And without direct access to her account (which an ATM has), she would need to originate a wire transfer. My bank, along with all the major banks in my market (not sure about smaller CUs) require an originating account to prevent fraud. We require a recourse account, proper identification, etc., in case of bank/wire fraud. The banking industry is trying to cover its collective butts and we’re not about to be taken in by some hooligan trying to scam us. Not that this lady was a hooligan, per se, but you catch my drift. I had no identification… nothing. Plus, she was in the DRIVE THROUGH! It’s an express lane of sorts. Anyone in their right mind intending to do something like a wire transfer would know well enough to come inside. But why would she want to take that hassle? Her bank could be seen from my bank!
You know, with all the dumb things this lady did, we’re really getting hung up on one little thing. She drove backwards through a drive in (tried to access the tube from the back of the machine), almost caused a car accident, can’t comprehend the differences between a bank drive through and a bank lobby, didn’t understand that money can be deposited at banks, couldn’t find her bank (which can be seen from my bank’s drive through), and informed me she’d be back next week… when clearly I couldn’t help her.
Sorry that this may not be the most cohesive post… it’s been a long day.
I love the people who pull into the drive through after we’ve closed and ring the call button asking where the tube is… the shades are down, the hours on the window say we closed at 6, we’re walking out, and you want us to re open? Hit the ATM. It hasn’t been on its feet all day…
It’s like a bizarre war - customers all think store clerks and call center staff are idiots, and store cleraks and call center staff all think customers are idiots.
This is mainly because both parties tend to act like an idiot. And then, of course, blame the other party.
I mean, let’s face it - most “customer service” staff haven’t the faintest concept of customer service; and most customers have an inflated sense of self-entitlement. It’s essentially a situation where two sides habitually act like a jerk towards the other side. Having been in both positions in my life, I can freely admit to being guilty of both.
There was one woman we all really wanted to punch in the face. In response to the chorus of “We’re closed!” from several employees, she waved us off and continued on her way into the store, saying, “I just need one thing!” A moment later she returned to the checkstands with a … tube of Chap-Stik. (Hey lady, what do you think 7-11 is there for?)
The checker rang her up (pretty much had to or get written up), and then as politely as possible, reminded her of the store’s hours. The woman’s response? A flippant, “Well, at least you’ll get overtime this way!”
Lady, I don’t know how it is where you work, but retail stores like this one schedule everybody for 30-35 hours/week max, specifically so that we don’t run into overtime. You haven’t gotten us overtime pay, you’ve just kept us on our feet longer than necessary. :mad:
The front desk people at my hotel will actually phone the second-best hotel in town (we’re the biggest/best) on the customer’s behalf to find out if they have anything available.
Perchance they were looking for a sign that said “CLOSED”?
But how did she know your bank wasn’t affiliated with her bank until she asked (and then you told her)? It was not a stupid question.
True, that customer was not having a good day. I hope you got a chuckle over it later, at least.
Yes, any good hotel will do this. And, when I worked as Security in a Bev Hills hotel, we usually had at least one room in reserve, used by the hotel employees, etc that could be rented if there was an accidental doublebooking or a guest wanted to stay another day.