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  • How did you even graduate??

    We've been dealing with a particularly difficult woman lately who has been nothing but trouble since she started placing orders.

    For context, my current assignment is at a corporate print shop where - among other things - we produce product manuals for high end medical equipment. As can be imagined, it is very important that everything is done exactly right, as these will be shipped all over the world.

    This woman....she has so much trouble with basic reading and verbal comprehension it makes me wonder how she didn't flunk her way out of school by 6th grade.

    Here are a few things she just can't grasp:

    "I don't understand why you can't just download the files from [internal system]!! Why do I have to provide them?!"

    This one is simple, and yet she just doesn't get it: we DO NOT have access to that system! Whining won't do anything to change this.

    "Why can't I just submit a single ticket for all the books I need?!"

    *Every* time she orders anything, she doesn't bother entering any specs; she just attaches a single page PO with multiple line items, each for an entirely different manual and each with different quantities!

    If the different items had identical specs - including quantity - then yeah you could do that. But they aren't. Each one is similar, yes, but still different. Different book = different job = separate ticket. The system is not designed to accommodate entirely different jobs in a single ticket. Trying to force it through will - at best - cause error messages to pop up and at worst will utterly and completely screw up the billing. Plus, if anyone needs to refer to that ticket in the future, they'll never be able to figure out what was done.

    "What do you meeeaaaan you can't use the locked files?!" "What do you meeeaaan I have to sort them out?!"

    So after finally wrangling the files out of her, she sent all the different files for 7 books in a single zip file, many of which were locked down.

    Ugh....really? Even if the file names were easy to follow - which they aren't - it's not up to us to sort everything out for you. And since the names are NOT named in an obvious way, we'd have to manually match up everything, which is just asking for mistakes to happen. This is the digital equivalent of giving us loose hardcopies of the manuals all thrown together in a box.

    Oh, and no you can't send us locked PDFs! While we can print them, locked files cannot be manipulated in any way, which means we can't set the job up to print the chapter tabs automatically....or set up the chapter breaks....or anything else really. And if it's read-only we can't use it at all.

    "What do you meeeeaaaan they won't be ready tomorrow?!?!"

    Well, you asked for 250 copies, and each one is about 250 sheets. The printing alone will take 30+ hours with the tabs, not including the time to set the job up and then bind the books. So no, you can't get the full order tomorrow. We can get you *some* tomorrow but the rest will take about a week.

    Oh, and we checked with her manager, and found out those 250 books should've been ordered 8 weeks prior!

    Every. Single. Time. She orders. We have to deal with this BS.
    Last edited by Dave1982; 08-21-2019, 03:38 PM.
    "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

    RIP Plaidman.

  • #2
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    Sounds like every single time she make a major mistake, send them to her manager and make sure you date when she brings in the order. It is clear she is NOT doing her job and not doing it WHEN she should.

    You may look petty, but once the manager sees the work is not being done on time questions will be asked.

    Comment


    • #3
      It may be time to (politely) ask the manager to put someone else in charge of her projects. At this point, she's either costing them money, or about to.
      "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
      "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
      "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
      "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
      "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
      "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
      Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
      "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally, this was a temporary situation; she was filling in for the guy who normally orders these while he was on vacation for two weeks.

        However, that guy never liked ordering manuals. My understanding is he inherited this duty from the previous guy when he retired, and it's on top of his normal workload. So from what we gather he basically fobbed off responsibility to SC and now we're stuck dealing with her.

        Of course, this excuses nothing. Our "boss" at this company (we are contractors) is going to be made aware of this.

        I forgot to mention that each book is not a single file. Each *chapter* is a different file, and there could be 20 or more chapters. And each file is named with a long string including the manual number, language number, revision number, and other info. Making sense of 7 books worth in a single folder? Yeah. Rude.
        Last edited by Dave1982; 08-21-2019, 01:47 AM.
        "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

        RIP Plaidman.

        Comment


        • #5
          Oh man Dave.. I feel your pain. I have to instruct customers at ine site to fill out their tickets correctly as if it's busy, we run a production report and if they didn't enter it correctly, then their job can be push back in que.

          Comment


          • #6
            Quoth earl colby pottinger View Post
            Sounds like every single time she make a major mistake, send them to her manager and make sure you date when she brings in the order. It is clear she is NOT doing her job and not doing it WHEN she should.

            You may look petty, but once the manager sees the work is not being done on time questions will be asked.
            I second this. Her manager needs to know she is screwing up badly. Especially when she's trying to speed-demand an order that should have been sent in eight weeks previously, and she's let it sit there, and now wants it done ... yesterday.
            Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
            ~ Mr Hero

            Comment


            • #7
              And, of course, when there's any problem of ANY kind, the blame gets put on the printers.


              Oh, I got a nasty thought: Not only forward the issues to her manager, but also send said manager a new pricelist. Normal rates for him or most anybody else, but noticeably higher if SHE does the ordering.
              Similar signage seen in mechanic shops Labor: $10/hr. If you watch, $15. If you help, $20 .... If you worked on it first, $50/hr. Old sign, old rates, of course.

              Comment


              • #8
                Quoth EricKei View Post
                At this point, she's either costing them money, or about to.
                There is no "rush fee" (though I wish there was). However, if she screws up the timing badly enough then it's possible she could incur overtime charges, in which case yes, she will be costing the company money. I believe the rate is $150/hr for billable overtime (of course, only a small fraction of that would go in *my* pocket, but that is a whole 'nother rant....)
                "We guard the souls in heaven; we don't horse-trade them!" Samandrial in Supernatural

                RIP Plaidman.

                Comment


                • #9
                  There are many companies that want to avoid needless fees like that at all costs. Sneak this in to your next communique with her boss.
                  "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                  "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                  "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                  "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                  "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                  "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                  Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                  "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    I am reminded of an article I read a few years ago titled something about "firing customers".
                    The author runs a storage place that does document storage, and one of their customers is a law firm. When that contract came up for renewal, during negotiations he asked if (law firm's office manager) was still going to be their point-of-contact, and when they said "yes" he replied that that was a deal-breaker for him.
                    He said the stress of having to deal with her had cost him several good employees, forced him to give raises to others to retain them, and caused costly deviations from normal procedures.
                    This wasn't a "we want more money" situation, he explained. Rather, the terms were exactly as he said: we deal with someone else, or you take your business elsewhere. They chose the latter, and he said he had no regrets.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Quoth Dave1982 View Post
                      This woman....she has so much trouble with basic reading and verbal comprehension it makes me wonder how she didn't flunk her way out of school by 6th grade.
                      Based on the problems she has, I'd say she's intelligent enough. When she wants to be. She simply doesn't want to learn, doesn't want to do things the way your company needs them. So she acts like the idiot. It's not getting her out of anything, but this behavior is so ingrained that she doesn't stop.

                      I have a coworker that does something similar. Just act like it's literally her FIRST TIME doing a task, apologize like crazy, and hope that someone takes pity on her. Your customer skips the apologizing part, but the acting ignorant bit... Yeah.
                      Replace anger management with stupidity management.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Quoth notalwaysright View Post
                        Just act like it's literally her FIRST TIME doing a task, apologize like crazy, and hope that someone takes pity on her. Your customer skips the apologizing part, but the acting ignorant bit... Yeah.
                        When the Overlords of the Universe beam down from Dimension Ten and make me Manager of the Galaxy (that sounds crazy when I type it out...) this bullshit right here ("Oh, but I don't know how to this this thing you've carefully trained me on! You can fix it, right?") will get you twenty years to life on Devil's Island...
                        I have a map of the world. It's actual size.

                        -- Steven Wright

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Quoth TonyDonuts View Post
                          ("Oh, but I don't know how to this this thing you've carefully trained me on! You can fix it, right?")
                          If I thought for one second that she honestly didn't retain the information, I wouldn't be complaining. I know there are those who take longer to learn something. But this particular coworker does things like this all the time. If she is taught a certain way often she changes it just slightly so it's to her liking. Not enough to be technically wrong, just enough so it's like she's saying she knows how to do it better than those who have been her for years and taught her different.

                          Or regarding the task I was thinking of, she made it clear she wouldn't learn it. Right off she said it was too hard and if you tried to give her ways to learn it she would say that doesn't work for her, or she wanted some other way to learn. There's no other way. So she just would be horrible at it. I think she even got this one manager's pity enough so maybe she won't be doing this task at all anymore. On the one hand I'm irritated that she got her way in the end, but on the other hand, FINE YOU PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE NUTJOB. Go way. (P.S. It's Ernest)

                          ...sorry to threadjack.
                          Replace anger management with stupidity management.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Quoth TonyDonuts View Post
                            When the Overlords of the Universe beam down from Dimension Ten and make me Manager of the Galaxy (that sounds crazy when I type it out...) this bullshit right here ("Oh, but I don't know how to this this thing you've carefully trained me on! You can fix it, right?") will get you twenty years to life on Devil's Island...

                            Don't worry, it's just a name.

                            Admittedly, there are times when I do need to be shown things over and over again. But usually it's a task that I only need to do once every few months when a bug happens to land in that functionality and I can't defer it onto others with more experience. (I try to avoid our Database application and its functions like the plague).

                            But usually once I've been shown it again, I'll remember it for awhile, at least until I finish the current bugs and can get back to more familiar areas of the codebase.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              TonyDonuts, I could use someone like you to help plan torments when I ascend to my throne in Hell
                              My son thinks I'm Lucifer Morningstar. I'm not sure he's wrong.

                              Comment

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