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I work nights at a Canadian hotel on the west coast. As you may guess, this hotel has a toll-free 1-800 number for reservations. As it happens, this number is 1 digit off from a 24-hour customer support number for Travelocity. For every call we get for a reservation, we get at least 4 misdialed calls intended for them.
What drives me crazy is that I answer the phone like this: "Hello, <Hotel name,> <location,> Infinitemonkies speaking." And every damned time I hear "Yeah, I's done missed mah ay-row-plane..."
There are many threads about how people never listen to the spiel. This isn't one of them, that part is just the background.
It seems a major East Coast Hospital in the U.S. sent out all their billing for February with a typo. As it turns out, the toll-free line for their billing department is also only 1 digit different from ours. Guess which got mistakenly printed on god knows how many bills?
I usually get 3-4 calls on my 1-800 reservation line during the night shift. According to the phone logs, I had over 300 calls on my shift yesterday. Only 1 was NOT a wrong number.
Venting done, on to the stupid:
<Phone rings>
"Hello, <Hotel name,> <location,> Infinitemonkies speaking."
"Yeah, this is <name> I've got a question about the test results from my stool sample...."
"Erm, I think you want the <East Coast American Hospital>, the number is..."<Guy cuts me off>
"It's <number for hospital billing dept.> Your coworker gave me the correct number when I called earlier. But they're closed, and I just had a quick question..."
"Sir, there is really nothing I can do to help you. Haveagoodday." <Hang up>
Now to recap:
Guy has a question about his test results.
Guy decides to call and ask his question at 1am.
Guy decides to call the billing department to ask his medical question.
Guy dials wrong number, is given correct number.
Guy finds out billing department is open 8am - 5pm.
Guy decides at 5am to call a hotel on the other side of the continent, KNOWING he has the wrong number, to ask his question anyway.
What drives me crazy is that I answer the phone like this: "Hello, <Hotel name,> <location,> Infinitemonkies speaking." And every damned time I hear "Yeah, I's done missed mah ay-row-plane..."
There are many threads about how people never listen to the spiel. This isn't one of them, that part is just the background.
It seems a major East Coast Hospital in the U.S. sent out all their billing for February with a typo. As it turns out, the toll-free line for their billing department is also only 1 digit different from ours. Guess which got mistakenly printed on god knows how many bills?
I usually get 3-4 calls on my 1-800 reservation line during the night shift. According to the phone logs, I had over 300 calls on my shift yesterday. Only 1 was NOT a wrong number.
Venting done, on to the stupid:
<Phone rings>
"Hello, <Hotel name,> <location,> Infinitemonkies speaking."
"Yeah, this is <name> I've got a question about the test results from my stool sample...."
"Erm, I think you want the <East Coast American Hospital>, the number is..."<Guy cuts me off>
"It's <number for hospital billing dept.> Your coworker gave me the correct number when I called earlier. But they're closed, and I just had a quick question..."
"Sir, there is really nothing I can do to help you. Haveagoodday." <Hang up>
Now to recap:
Guy has a question about his test results.
Guy decides to call and ask his question at 1am.
Guy decides to call the billing department to ask his medical question.
Guy dials wrong number, is given correct number.
Guy finds out billing department is open 8am - 5pm.
Guy decides at 5am to call a hotel on the other side of the continent, KNOWING he has the wrong number, to ask his question anyway.
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