Thanks for you call

[Solumina]

Okay so I know I've been gone for a while, I was too stressed at my old job to even vent about it but now I'm having lots of fun adventures in the wacky world of temping. I'll probably also get around to posting some stuff from back at the jewelry store but for now temp stuff!

This was when I was with a local station for a much beloved tv broadcasting company known best for it's children's programming and British dramas. Super cool place to work, kinda strange people calling in. Just so you all don't think it was too bad these are over the course of a few weeks. Also I'm in Hawaii and certain Hawaiian phrases are commonly used in customer service setting such as mahalo which means thank you.

Call 1 not so much sucky as weird
Me: "Aloha [Station] how can I direct your call?"
Caller: "I like [show]"
Me: "Glad to hear it, we always appreciate positive feedback. Did you want to talk to someone about [show]?"
Caller: "[Show] is my favorite"
Me: "[Show] is pretty good, I'll be sure to pass along your feedback. Did you need any help with anything else?"
Caller: *silence*
Me: "Mahalo for calling, have a great day"

They called back three days in a row, calls went about the same and all were around the same time and not when [show] was playing.

Call 2 I don't think I can give you the help you need
Me: *greeting*
Caller: very long, very fast ramble, mostly incoherent, something about the prison system.
Me: "Sorry this is [station] we don't really have anything to do with government or the prison system."
Caller: "Oh, what's your name?"
Me: "[Name], did you need to speak with someone at [Station]?"
Caller: "What a nice biblical name. You know my calling to to *incomprehensible babbling about prison system* and speaking with someone with such a strong biblical name tells me everything is going to be okay. Thank you so much!"
Me: "Mahalo for calling [Station]"

Call 3 get some perspective lady (note this takes place December 5th)
Me: *greeting*
Angry Old Lady: "HOW DARE YOU CANCEL MY SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Me (having a feeling this isn't going to go well): "I'm sorry, I am not aware of any recent cancellations, what show are you referring to?"
AOL: "[British drama that airs on Saturday nights] IT WASN'T ON ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON (when we re-broadcast)!!!!!!"
Me: "I'm sorry that you were unable to watch [drama] but as this week we have many specials commemorating the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and some of our time slots have been changed, all prime time shows will still be at their normal time so the new episode of [drama] will still air on its normal Saturday time and next week the programming will return to its normal schedule.
AOL: "I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT HISTORY CRAP AND I WATCH [drama] ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!! DON'T CHANGE MY SHOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Me: "I am sorry that you missed the episode, we also have it available on our website so you can watch it anytime"
AOL: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!I WATCH IT SUNDAY AND IT SHOULD BE ON SUNDAY"
Me: (well as I can't go back in time what do you want?) "As I said the program schedule will return to normal next week so the rebroadcast will air on Sunday. Was there anything else that you needed help with"
AOL: "FIX THIS!!!!!!NOW!!!!!!!"
Me: "There is nothing more that we can do to help you, I will pass your concerns on to programming" *very happy I can hang up if the conversation isn't going anywhere*

Note: I also got a number of calls from people who were very happy about the Pearl Harbor programming, including the documentary that took her precious [drama] rebroadcast slot

[Pixelated]

Gotta love dealing with the television-watching public, don't you ...

I'm rather surprised at the old lady; she's probably one of those who's also always bitching about how today's young people (e.g. anybody under 45) know nothing about the past and care less.

I mean ... I behaved similarly when I couldn't watch my favourite show ... but that was when I was 15 and the favourite show in question was the original TV series Dark Shadows.

[lexamckenzie]

LOL

This type of customer makes me happy, you surely have a good rapport. Good thing you haven't transferred them to a new department.

[wolfie]

Me: "I'm sorry that you were unable to watch [drama] but as this week we have many specials commemorating the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor
Me: (well as I can't go back in time what do you want?)

Since it convenently ties these two seemingly unconnected events together, you might have suggested she track down the vortex from The Final Countdown.

I mean ... I behaved similarly when I couldn't watch my favourite show ... but that was when I was 15 and the favourite show in question was the original TV series Dark Shadows.

Similar behaviour from me too. I had been anticipating the airing of a movie (Battlestar Galactica) which would then be followed up by a regular TV series, but the start time was delayed because of some incident in the Middle East.

For those wondering why I acted in an immature manner, why I referred to it as a movie rather than a miniseries, and can't recall a big event in the Middle East at the time it was airing, Starbuck and Boomer were male, and the event was the Iran Hostage Crisis (i.e. Jimmy Carter was in the White House).

[eltf177]

For those wondering why I acted in an immature manner, why I referred to it as a movie rather than a miniseries, and can't recall a big event in the Middle East at the time it was airing, Starbuck and Boomer were male, and the event was the Iran Hostage Crisis (i.e. Jimmy Carter was in the White House).

Do I remember that - seemingly hours of programming preempted so we could watch a live shot of an airliner just sitting on a runway doing absolutely nothing.,,

Or when the end of a FUTURAMA episode was preempted so we could cut to a "vital" discussion of the stupid Hanging Chad voting situation in Florida which not only started late but said absolutely NOTHING of any value. I had to buy the DVD boxed set to finally see the end of the episode which never aired again on the East Coast!

I am so glad for the invention of the VHS and the DVD - now I watch what I want when I want and don't have to worry about such crap ever again. I don't have cable and the money I save buys a LOT of used DVD's...

[Food Lady]

I am so glad for the invention of the VHS and the DVD - now I watch what I want when I want and don't have to worry about such crap ever again. I don't have cable and the money I save buys a LOT of used DVD's...

And beyond that I'm grateful for netflix and youtube. I rarely turn on my actual TV.

[Monterey Jack]

Or when the end of a FUTURAMA episode was preempted so we could cut to a "vital" discussion of the stupid Hanging Chad voting situation in Florida which not only started late but said absolutely NOTHING of any value. I had to buy the DVD boxed set to finally see the end of the episode which never aired again on the East Coast!

Christ, I remember how often Futurama got cut off, or not even aired at all...on one of the DVD commentaries, producer David X. Cohen even quipped, "Soon to be pre-empted by NFL DVD...!"

[Racket_Man]

Christ, I remember how often Futurama got cut off, or not even aired at all...on one of the DVD commentaries, producer David X. Cohen even quipped, "Soon to be pre-empted by NFL DVD...!"

and that was one of the BIG reasons Futurama got canceled while on Fox Sunday night and that pissed me off

I remember one X-Files episode being cut off about half way in because

OJ was doing his slow speed chase down the highway and everyone just had to cover it for some reason

I remember back in the 1960's I remember an episode of Batman (aired on Tuesday's and Thursday's) being interrupted by some breaking news that only adults would understand and it pissed me off that I could NOT watch Batman YEAH WWWWAAAAYYYYYYY before the days of home VCRs and DVRs or anything else like it.

[Sparklyturtle]

I flipped channels during the Nixon resignation speech, and there was nothing else on. I didn't miss a word. (Both the flipping channels and the Nixon resignation speech show I've got a few years on me.)

[Trixie]

I'd always get mad when the stupid March Madness would interrupt my soaps that I'd tape while I was at work. And it always seems that 3 is a very popular time for Presidential news conferences. Don't make me miss my stories! Even with being able to watch the soaps online I don't because they all suck now but that's a whole other topic.

[Lovecats]

I flipped channels during the Nixon resignation speech, and there was nothing else on. I didn't miss a word. (Both the flipping channels and the Nixon resignation speech show I've got a few years on me.)

My husband and I were stationed in the UK when that happened. And British TV didn't really cover it (well, at least as thoroughly as American TV). Read all about it in the Stars and Stripes.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Gotta love dealing with the television-watching public, don't you ...

I'm rather surprised at the old lady; she's probably one of those who's also always bitching about how today's young people (e.g. anybody under 45) know nothing about the past and care less.

I mean ... I behaved similarly when I couldn't watch my favourite show ... but that was when I was 15 and the favourite show in question was the original TV series Dark Shadows.

Remind me of 30 years ago when, as a discerning high schooler, I typed a letter and mailed it to the local NBC affiliate station questioning their decision to air syndicated episodes of "Solid Gold" on the 8pm Friday time slot instead of "The A-Team" (which had been moved from their Tuesday night to Friday night schedule for Season 5, which turned out to be the final season.)

The reply I received back (IIRC, this was back in 1986 so my memory may be fuzzy) was basically that they would be airing the "A-Team" episodes later in the evening (as in Friday night/Saturday morning timeframe.)

I still got to see it, I only had to basically check the local guide (this was back before we had on-screen guides you could scroll through on the tv via your cable receiver - we still had weekly TV Guides you could buy at the grocery store checkstand) and if I wasn't awake that late, set the VCR timer to catch it.

I think I still have those homemade VCR tapes of the final season somewhere.

[Pagan]

My mom spent some time being a floater out at NMSU. NMSU has the PBS station in Las Cruces. They'd come in the morning to messages on the machine saying, "I really liked that show. You should have more of it." The answering machine did not have a time stamp on it.

I remember back in the 1960's I remember an episode of Batman (aired on Tuesday's and Thursday's) being interrupted by some breaking news that only adults would understand and it pissed me off that I could NOT watch Batman

I got all mad that some special report interrupted the "Mickey Mouse Club" because some singer had died. Told my mom and she asked me the name of the singer. I said some guy named "Elvis". I was not quite 8 so what did I know.

[EricKei]

DGC - Friday night. Where TV shows go to die v_v

---------------

I remember watching cartoons on a Saturday morning as a kid when they all got pre-empted for coverage of the Falkland Islands war. It was the beginning of the end for SatAM toons...

[wolfie]

DGC - Friday night. Where TV shows go to die

IIRC, that's the place where Dukes of Hazzard and Dallas spent their entire runs (both were long-running series).

Funny thing happened with those shows. Both were carried on CBS, and in Canada the Dukes were on CTV and Dallas was on CBC. At the time, Canadian broadcast regulations required that if a show were being carried by a Canadian and a U.S. station at the same time, cable companies had to put the Canadian signal on both channels. As a result, if you tuned in to CBS, during the commercial break between the end of Dukes and the beginning of Dallas the signal would be cut over from CTV to CBC.

There was a short-lived soft drink called SunApple, whose slogan was "What tastes like apple on ice?". One Friday, during the break between Dukes and Dallas, the signal cutover happened in a funny manner. There was a SunApple commercial on, and immediately after the voiceover asked "What tastes like apple on ice?", the signal was cut over, and there was a cosmetics commercial with the voiceover "New adjustable mascara from Maybelene".