Thursday, March 30, 2006

Why did you ask?

Picture if you will, a lowly stockroom boy. Strikingly handsome, clever, funny and with minimal HTML experience. The time, 5:10 pm. This dashing Inventory Specialist (sounds better than stockroom boy, no?) is finishing up his work and preparing to go home for the day. A phone rings...:
Me: Local Computer Store, this is Phollower, can I help you?
Voice: Yeah, hi, what time do you close?
Me: We closed at 5:00 sir. We'll reopen at 8:00 am.
Voice: My computer isn't starting up, can you help me for a few minutes?
Me: Ummm...

This same sort of thing used to happen all the time at the seafood department I worked in. Substitute "Can I still get some shrimp?" for the request for phone support and you get the idea. What bugs me most about it is the feigning of concern for whether I'm actually open or not. Clearly the answer to this question has no bearing on whether the asking for service will occur or not. Just fess up and be rude already.

4 comments:

Elle said...

People like to ignore others needs and carry on with their own. It's more gratifying for them that way, and so ever more annoying for you.

MrsOz said...

you answered the phone. That was your first mistake. The second was working in the service industry. Or, would that be the first?

Fuckkit said...

Did you help him? Mrsoz is so right, you shouldnt have picked up. I used to work in a shop, we always locked up on the dot and if people asked to be let in coz they "only wanted a pack of rizlas" we'd just shrug at them and point at the clock.
Power!

Phollower said...

Yeah, yeah, I know. But I had a couple things to do and the friggin phone kept ringing and it was driving me up the wall and I had to make it stop before I killed someone. After answering the phone I had someone placed firmly at the top of the list.