Share Your World – 2014 Week 37
List three pet peeves.
Slow drivers.
Voice mail with so many selections I can’t remember the beginning of the list by the time I get to the middle.
Customer service voice mail robots designed to prevent you from ever speaking with a live human being.
Live customer service representatives who know less than I do about their product.
Junk mail faxes and texts.
People who make pronouncements when they know nothing about the subject under discussion.
Have I listed too many? Oops.
What makes you unique?
We are all unique. I’m no more unique than anyone else. Except, of course, those of you who are one of a pair (or more) of identical siblings. I suppose that would reduce your uniqueness. Otherwise? To be human is (usually) to be unique.
Would be your ideal birthday present, and why?
A surprise vacation to someplace I’ve always wanted to go. Prepaid with all the arrangements taken care of. I mean all arrangements. Nothing left for me to do but enjoy! Okay, I’ll settle for dinner out at a really great restaurant. Maybe with some good friends. I’m easy. I just want to do something fun in which I get to be the guest — not the organizer, cleanup crew, schedule manager, or any role beyond that of pampered guest.
Which way does the toilet paper roll go? Over or under?
Over. Absolutely over. And out.
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Categories: Cartoons, Challenges, Customer Service, Humor
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Oh customer service lines. I recently updated my phone and can’t quite figure out to use it. That is, when I call customer service and need to use the keypad, I can’t get it to stay up on the screen. And they do absolutely everything to keep you from reaching a live person….seriously, agreed. I think the reason for that is they have honed their customer service division down to three half-competent persons, and a group of chickens. All quite dumb. Ok, so this conversation I am having with myself is making me mad and I’ll just shut up about it. Such a deep seated hatred of the customer service industry right now.
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I always get one of the chickens. I’m sure of it because they definitely cluck.
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As an identical twin, I can say with complete assurance that we are very unique individuals. We may be clones, but yep… we’re as different as they come. Do you have cable or Amazon Prime? The series Orphan Black http://www.bbcamerica.com/orphan-black/ addresses this really well.
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I always thought it would be very cool to have a twin, someone genetically identical yet not identical except in appearance. Ah, the games you could play. I’ll check out Orphan Black. I’ve heard of it, but never seen it.
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People often ask me what it’s like to have a twin and my response (honestly not sarcastically) I don’t know, I’ve never not been one.
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I guess that’s what you would have to say. I have siblings, so I figure it’s similar, but closer. I wouldn’t have minded being closer to my brother and sister.
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Thanks for the smile Marilyn. I enjoyed your post this week. 🙂
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Thank you for being a great hostess 🙂
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Send death after the slow drivers.
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I want the gun Helen Mirren had in Reds2. Pow, boom, GONE.
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When I first got cats, and I first found that they loved to unfurl the TP, I was advised by someone to put it on the roll so it went under since that would keep them from unraveling it. This person (1) underestimated my cats’ problem solving skills, and (2) didn’t count on my ever-practical solution of just keeping the door closed when I wasn’t in there…
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Cats and toilet paper rolls. The whole closing the door thing … you know, that’s cheating. You have to give your cats a fighting chance to attack the paper. What chance do your poor, mistreated kitties have if you won’t let them have a go at it? Gee. You’re no sport!
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LOL! They are more than welcome to submit their complaints to the ASPCA…
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I must have strange cats… not one of mine ever went after the toilet paper. Like… ever.
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I think it’s a kitten thing. But I’ve had full grown dogs go after it. Fortunately, not recently. It can be very messy.
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#1 thing you don’t want to hear from the IT help desk: “Well, that’s not good.” (True story.)
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I take hope from it because generally, I already knew it isn’t good. That’s why I’m on the phone. And they are as often as not, wrong, so it may be fine, really. They are like bad physicians. They do not listen to the whole story before rendering judgment.
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I would never have guessed you’d have a peeve about customer service 🙂
I’m curious to see if there’s anyone who thinks toilet roll should go “under”!
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My husband used to but I berated him until he caved.
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What makes you unique? I know I’m unique because God never makes the same mistake twice!
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You mean … God makes mistakes? I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
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Was Satan a mistake?Were the initial men so evil Sodom & Gomorrah had to take place to wipe out the evil. What of the great flood? Wasn’t that a “do over”?
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I always thought so. I frequently think mankind is a do-over. Or ought to be.
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My pet peeve is when I call customer service (or tech support) and they tell me to try exactly what I’ve already done. (Awesome post!)
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Thank you. AND even when you tell them you’ve already done that, they still treat you like you’re stupid and tell you to do it again.
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haha Exactly! I should write a short story around that. Goodness knows I’ve experienced it enough times.
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😀
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My pet peeve is when I call a customer service number and get a recording that says something like “your call is important to us. Please hold on until the next customer service rep is available to serve you.” Oh yeah? If my call is so flocking important to you, then why aren’t you staffed sufficiently so that I don’t have to listen to how important my call is to you over and over and over again?
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I always sit there with the phone in my hand yelling at it in exactly the same words. Which is stupid since no one is listening, but it makes ME feel better 🙂 I always keep track of how long I’m on hold so I can bitch about it when I finally DO get a live person. Who may or may not know anything.
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Because it’s difficult to keep people on staff? They don’t pay ’em enough — minimum wage usually — to take the abuse of people cussing them out, calling them stupid, and generally treating them like servants (or worse) instead of someone who’s doing their best to help with finite resources. But that’s just a guess based on my experience working with the public. ^_^ I refer you to this website http://notalwaysright.com/ for some stories I totally relate to.
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Fairly early in my storied career, I was a manager of a call center for an insurance company, so I’m well aware of the challenges of hiring and retaining and training competent staff. But back then we didn’t have all of the tools and technology that is available today. Today there are automated traffic scheduling applications, online knowledgebases, call tracking and metrics systems. That kind of technology should make it easier to be able to bring on staff to cover peak volumes and to manage call traffic more effectively. Of course, if cost is more of a driver than customer service, no amount of technology will help.
And yes, I understand the frustration of abusive callers and how challenging that is for the representative to deal with, but that is often triggered by long waiting times and the constant repetition of “your call is important to us.”
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My son did top tier customer service before the company he worked for went under after 9/11. He used to laugh about some of the questions they were asked. But mostly, he was dealing with downed DNS servers for corporations and you couldn’t diddle with them. They weren’t in a patient mood when their servers weren’t up and running. After 9/11, the company went bankrupt and the whole customer service biz was “outsourced.” Owen’s been looking for a decent job ever since. At this point, he’s more or less given up. It is what it is.
Customer service is gradually improving a little bit in some places … but not in enough places and not fast enough for me. Every time I get that damned recorded “Your call is important to us” message, I want to strangle someone.
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