Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

What we have here is a failure to communicate

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Yesterday I had a guy call my store asking for a product that is apparently quite well known... by using the name it hasn't been called by for at least a decade. I've been working here for two months. I asked him to spell it for me, unable to find it in my system after my first guess. He accused me of being a smart ass.
    Now, I'd like to digress from my prepared remarks to discuss how I invented the terlet...

    Comment


    • #17
      Guess he hasn't BOUGHT it in at least a decade...

      Comment


      • #18
        Quoth SpyOne View Post
        While I grant some regional variation, this seems to be a very local phenomenon: I didn't have people saying that when I worked on the other side of town. Or rather, it was rare, now it is common.

        I grew up in the northeast, and there were "package stores" that were sometimes called liquor stores. While they also sold wine and beer, the distinction was they also sold hard liquor and spirits, which for example grocery stores do not.
        "Liquor" is stuff like Jack Daniels. Bourbon, whiskey, scotch. I have never heard someone refer to a "liquor department" because where I grew up those products were only available in stores that sold nothing else (except the aforementioned beer and wine).

        Here in Virginia, liquor is only sold in stores that are owned by the State and sell nothing else. Bars have to buy from such stores. They are run by the bureau of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and are called ABC Stores.

        I am reasonably sure the problem with misusing the term is a large concentration of people whose only experience with "liquor" is malt liquor, which as I said the law calls "beer".
        And I'm in NJ where ANY kind of alcohol is only sold in "liquor stores" its all or nothing. so to me, liquor = alcohol. any kind. beer, wine, the hard stuff. So def. a regional thing.

        Comment


        • #19
          Quoth telecom_goddess View Post
          Try deciphering someone with a hard accent to understand coupled with a really crappy cell phone connection. IT's all gibberish at that point.

          But yes the people who insist on calling things by the wrong name, or won't say things clearly, annoy me to NO end. My mother did that constantly, just made up stupid names for every day items. That no one else used. That was embarrassing, and I grew to have zero tolerance for it.

          To be honest I"m getting really sick and tired of two things: the constant shortening of words:
          merch (merchandise dammit)
          usz (usual, just the first part is said)
          and others I can't think of right now but you get the idea.
          HATE this. Sammie for sandwich, sunnies for sunglasses, EVOO for olive oil. just a few of my peeves.

          Comment


          • #20
            My biggest pet peeve of this variety relates to taxes. People who say “I got my tax return back” NO you FILED your tax return and got your REFUND back. They are not the same thing, and that drives me batty.

            The other tax thing I hate relates to my online selling. I sell PT online. So any income has to be included when I do my taxes every year. No matter how much or how little. I’m in a bunch of FB groups, and the question keeps popping up like a whack a mole game “do I owe taxes?” or “do I have to pay taxes?” Um I don’t know, do you? I do know you have to REPORT your income from reselling but whether you owe or not, depends on your own financial situation. And I am always amazed at how many people will respond and say nope, you don’t.

            Comment


            • #21
              Quoth Catwoman2965 View Post
              I am always amazed at how many people will respond and say nope, you don’t.
              Rules and laws are more like guidelines for some people.

              I volunteered at this film festival and there was a special feature involving a 360 film. Adult content. We were explicitly told that no one under 18 was allowed to watch it and this one kid insisted it was okay because she was "European and she could handle it."

              I insisted I liked my two free movie tickets and sent her on her way.
              Last edited by TheWolfEmperor; 08-01-2019, 11:24 AM.
              Don't waste time trying to convince someone that the sky is blue.

              Comment


              • #22
                Quoth Catwoman2965 View Post
                EVOO for olive oil.
                When referring to "real" olive oil (like what my store sells), terms like extra-virgin, first cold press (all good oil is cold-extracted as heat destroys the aromatic compounds), etc are meaningless. Just marketing fluff. Some of our producers do put "extravirgin" on the English-language labeling, but that's a specific quirk of the American market and it seems to placate the customers who are wedded to that "70% of olive oil is fake" report.

                We use the term "EVOO" only among ourselves when communicating stock levels (I know all our brands by name but some CWs don't and it can get irritating having to say "olive oil" 5239 times) but generally this word-shortening trend drives me absolutely nuts. It doesn't work as well over a crappy radio as people seem to think--we waste more time saying "Come again?" than if the speaker had just said the whole word to begin with. Even if it's not completely clear, whole words can be gotten from context. Abbreviations not so much--especially if they sound like a different word themselves.
                Last edited by Dreamstalker; 08-01-2019, 12:56 PM.
                "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

                Comment


                • #23
                  I must admit to a lot of confusion when I went to a restaurant and read something on their menu about "salad with blah blah blah and evoo". No capitalization, no indication that it was an acronym. I was just stuck wondering what "evoo" (eee-vooo, I suppose?) was. I did figure it out, but it was a disconcerting minute there.
                  “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
                  One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
                  The other, of course, involves orcs." -- John Rogers

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Quoth Catwoman2965 View Post
                    HATE this. Sammie for sandwich, sunnies for sunglasses, EVOO for olive oil. just a few of my peeves.
                    "Ports" for Newports, which is at least better than the people who just say "Cigarettes" or "Shorts" and assume you know they mean Newports.

                    Black & Mild, a type of cigar, is often shortened to just "Black". Which is okay by itself, but "A pack of black sweets" could mean a pack of Sweet Black & Milds, or a pack of Black Sweet flavor Game cigars.

                    Years ago the local TV news anchor did a little editorial on the new terms he had learned over his decades of life. (He mentioned having a bit of hearing loss from standing too close to an antiaircraft gun while a young reporter in London.

                    "For example, 'hertigo' means 'will you be dining in out dining room, or taking your purchase to an alfresco dining location of your own selection."

                    Yes, he pronounced it like it rhymed with "vertigo".

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      This one was actually fun and not sucky at all, and I had been waiting for just such an opportunity.

                      Young man stops at my store in the middle of the night, "I was hoping I could get some directions?"
                      "Sure, where are you going?"
                      "I want to get back to the base."
                      "Okay, which base."
                      "Um, the Navy base?"
                      "Which Navy base?"
                      "There's more than one?"
                      "Oh, yeah, there's Norfolk, and NAS Norfolk, and Dam Neck, and Little Creek, and Oceana, ..."
                      "Oceana. That's the one."
                      "Oh, good. That's the easy one."

                      Yes, young man, you chose to go out drinking in an area that has at least Five Navy bases, including the largest naval base in the world, one Naval Shipyard, three Army bases, one Airforce Base, and a major NASA facility. Learn the name of the base where you live before you leave it.
                      (One of those Army bases has since been given to the Navy.)

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Quoth SpyOne View Post
                        ..."I want to get back to the base."...
                        All your base are belong to us...
                        I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                        Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                        Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Sammies and sunnies sounds like those Britishisms that annoy me no end. Let’s have chokkie bikkies for brekkie while we open our Chrissie pressies.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Oh, yes. "Computer" means anything from the monitor to the actual box. "Won't turn on" means everything from "the machine has turned itself into a brick," to "I don't know how to find the power button!" "It doesn't work" is everything from a virus to "I refuse to learn how to use this very expensive status symbol I bought and expect to be magic and read my mind."

                            I did have a very entertaining customer back in my days of phone support. He refused to use anything but his own names, and was put out that I could not repeat them. "Inters**t Exploder," "N*tScrape,* and "Macroshaft."

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Quoth Dragon_Dreamer View Post
                              Oh, yes. "Computer" means anything from the monitor to the actual box. "Won't turn on" means everything from "the machine has turned itself into a brick," to "I don't know how to find the power button!" "It doesn't work" is everything from a virus to "I refuse to learn how to use this very expensive status symbol I bought and expect to be magic and read my mind."
                              This is 90% of some IT calls. Deciphering what the luser means when they say the garbledegunk that comes out of their mouths. Lost count of the number of times I said (more or less), "Now when you say 'it's not working,' what exactly are you seeing it do?"
                              PWNADE(TM) - Serve up a glass today! | PWNZER - An act of pwnage so awesome, it's like the victim got hit by a tank.

                              There are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I choose to walk!

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Quoth Jay 2K Winger View Post
                                "Now when you say 'it's not working,' what exactly are you seeing it do?"
                                Back in the 80s, I had a TV for which I could have maybe justified a report of "It's not working." The actual description I gave the repair shop was "It acts like it's not plugged in. And I did try other outlets." The problem turned out to be a broken 110V wire.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X