Couple of random SC stories

[AngryFaery]

I really haven't much lately since I haven't really had much direct contact with customers. I've been working on answering emails and surveys(the dreaded corporate surveys) about people's grocery store experiences. So my time right now is filled with hoping the new email I pulled has sentence structure, punctuation, spelling and isn't one big run on mess of a sentence. Oh yeah, and isn't all in capital letters. I also have to come up with personalized responses to such descriptive complaints like: "The cashier was rude to me." or "The store was out of stock of the items I wanted."

Since I haven't had to deal with sucky customers directly lately, I figured I would share some of the calls I had previously that I found interesting. For background I work in a call center doing customer service for a national grocery store chain.



Bacon Lover

Bacon Lover was an elderly man on a fixed income who really liked bacon.

He called us to complain that the store he shopped would no longer allow him to buy bacon that was at the sell by date at a discount. He insisted that he was doing the store a favor by arranging the bacon properly in the case. In his mind I'm certain he believed that. He said he wasn't hiding the packages of bacon like the store said he was doing. He wasn't doing anything wrong. He said he needed the discounted bacon because he was on a fixed income. Mind you this is a summary of he said, I had to spend quite a bit of time trying to deciper his panicked ramblings.

In order to verify the complaint and find out what was happening, I called the store. They were very aware of him and this was an ongoing issue with him. They had proof of him, from security footage, taking packages of bacon and hiding them so he could come in later and get the bacon he wanted discounted. He had been warned not to continue. They finally put their foot down with his actions.

I had a time explaining to him that, no I could not make the store give him discounted bacon and yes he did have to stop as the store told him to do. He didn't take it very well and I got to listen to more panicked ramblings about how he needed the discounted bacon.




Shady Dude

This next story was an odd one. Shady Dude called and after spending some time decipering what he wanted, I figured out he was asking me if there were any security cameras at the back of the local store.

I have no clue if there is or not. Every store is different.

Shady Dude said he wanted to know because he was behind the store and claimed someone attacked him with a dog. He didn't sound very upset about this.

My response - File a police report.

He didn't want to file a police report unless he knew there were cameras that could have caught the attack. He seemed to dismiss the idea speaking to the police.

My next response - Ask the store manager.

He didn't want to speak to the manager because they weren't on amicable terms with them.

I checked his call history and see that he had called in about a month ago to complain about the manager and it described the altercation they had. He wanted me to call the store on his behalf and ask the manager about the security cameras.

I flat out refused this and told him all he could do is file a police report. If there is security footage they can subpeona it. He got frustrated with me and hung up.

Sorry Shady Dude but there too many elements to this story that I'm just uncomfortable with to want to research that for you. I'm not going to help your criminal activities.

[EricKei]

Ditto on shady dude -- He's just too lazy to case the joint himself.

I hear you on the fun with trying to decipher other people's letters. I used to work at a small paper, and I got the wonderful job of typing up letters to the editor; many of which came from inmates who ... er ... needed help with their grammar. Hand-written letters, no less.

Still better than some of the press releases the Mayor's office loved to send us that I had to retype. They were typed up (presumably in word), printed out on official letterhead, scanned in, and emailed to us as an image file. This, as opposed to, say, just sending us a Word or text file. Their excuse was that they don't have a word processor program such as Word. Note that this was within the past few years, not the early 90's, where this would have been more likely.

[dalesys]

... typed up (presumably in word)...

Nah. Scripsit.

[eltf177]

Bacon Lover needs a permaban...

Shady Dude either wants to rob the place (my bet) or is afraid there might be proof of some less than upright dealings involving him going on behind the store. I'd like to know more about this altercation with the manager myself...

[wordgirl]

Ditto on shady dude -- He's just too lazy to case the joint himself.

I hear you on the fun with trying to decipher other people's letters. I used to work at a small paper, and I got the wonderful job of typing up letters to the editor; many of which came from inmates who ... er ... needed help with their grammar. Hand-written letters, no less.

Still better than some of the press releases the Mayor's office loved to send us that I had to retype. They were typed up (presumably in word), printed out on official letterhead, scanned in, and emailed to us as an image file. This, as opposed to, say, just sending us a Word or text file. Their excuse was that they don't have a word processor program such as Word. Note that this was within the past few years, not the early 90's, where this would have been more likely.

Oh Lord, this is my life.

For some reason, lawyers in particular want to send their letters to the editor in as non-editable PDFs. Or screenshot .jpgs. OR FAX. Some day I'm going to typing one of those in and forget a little-bitty word like "not." And then it will TRULY hit the fan. (Thank goodness we don't run inmate letters - though, to be fair, their handwriting is usually pretty dang legible.)

[Brojekk]

So bacon lover was "reverse rotating" the bacon in order to make it as close to expiring as possible?

[taxguykarl]

Shady Dude either wants to rob the place (my bet) or is afraid there might be proof of some less than upright dealings involving him going on behind the store.

Agreed, shady needs a ban as well.

[wolfie]

Still better than some of the press releases the Mayor's office loved to send us that I had to retype. They were typed up (presumably in word), printed out on official letterhead, scanned in, and emailed to us as an image file. This, as opposed to, say, just sending us a Word or text file. Their excuse was that they don't have a word processor program such as Word.

Sounds like they just wanted to wave it in your face that this was an official communication from the mayor's office (emphasized by using the letterhead).

For some reason, lawyers in particular want to send their letters to the editor in as non-editable PDFs. Or screenshot .jpgs. OR FAX. Some day I'm going to typing one of those in and forget a little-bitty word like "not." And then it will TRULY hit the fan.

Already been done - and the excrement did hit the fan.

[AngryFaery]

So bacon lover was "reverse rotating" the bacon in order to make it as close to expiring as possible?

I'm guessing that is what BL was doing. The store told me was hiding packages. They didn't provide details. I really didn't need them. I just had to report the store knew and how the handled it. Which was a warning and no more discount bacon.


Shady Dude was already not welcome due to his altercation with the manager. His call got reported to the store. So they were made aware of it.

[EricKei]

wolfie - Could be. It would not surprise me if these guys don't realize you can just add a letterhead to a word document...

wordgirl - Most of ours were pretty damn hard to read. Also, because they were LttE, that meant no editing whatsoever aside from deletions and masking curse words. Aside from that, they had to be verbatim. As an English degree-type-person, that part of my job was basically Purgatory.

[wordgirl]

wordgirl - Most of ours were pretty damn hard to read. Also, because they were LttE, that meant no editing whatsoever aside from deletions and masking curse words. Aside from that, they had to be verbatim. As an English degree-type-person, that part of my job was basically Purgatory.

AWK. We do edit our LTTE. They are fact-checked and edited for grammar, spelling, AP style and of course length (and fake Mark Twain/Albert Einstein/Thomas Jefferson quotes, which should be its own category).

I am not sure how long we are going to have the resources to do that kind of work, though

And wolfie, thank you for that link! I had not heard of the Wicked Bible before now.