What really grinds your gears?

[Alpha Strike]

My primary job is Customer Service, in what is best termed a call-center. Three things that really chap my hide:

1) The Helpers: These are the fine folks who don't actually answer the question you ask Instead, they provide anything and everything that comes to mind in the vain hopes that something they offer up will fit the bill.

Me: Okay SC, so I need to get into your account to answer that question. Can I get Piece of Information [A] or Piece of Information [B]?
SC: Sure! Here's Piece of Information [C], [D], and [F].
Me: I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. I'm looking for [A] or [B] please.
SC: Right - exactly! Here's [G], [H], [I], [J], and [K]!
Me: I'm actually looking for [A] or [B] - do you happen to have that handy?
SC: Oh I don't even know what that this...


2) Check-Writers Corollary: Several folks have mentioned how incredibly irritating it is to be stuck behind an SC who wants to pay by check but waits until the very end to even bother pulling out their checkbook, never mind writing the damn thing.

The Corollary to this is the SC who calls in looking for help or for information, but doesn't bother getting their account # or statement until after they start talking to me - even if they've waited for any length of time or admit they knew they needed it. This is especially fun when the SCs start off the conversation by complaining about how long they've been waiting to talk to me, but then waste the next 5 to 10 minutes randomly searching for their account #, statement, etc.

3) The Spoon Feeders: SCs who, under the guise of "computer illiteracy" or "confusion" need to be hand-held and coddled through every step of any transaction.

SC: I just don't understand computers and this is all so confusing!
Me: Okay I'm happy to help - what's showing up on your screen?
SC: Well, it's asking for my name. Should I type in my name?
Me: Yes, go ahead and type in your name.
SC: Okay, NOW it's asking for me to press continue. Should I press continue?
Me: Yes, go ahead and press continue and then type in your information on the next page.
SC: Okay, now it's asking me for my other information. Should I type it in now?

Wash, rinse, repeat.

[crazylegs]

I hear you on this one. I had one bitch bring her kid in by ambulance because her kid had pinworms. We'd told her the treatment was OTC. She came back for the same complaint.

The one I hate is when someone calls me "just a nurse."

Sorry pal, nursing graduated from being bed pan changers about 60 years ago.

This is why I love being able to refuse transport

Yep, anyone who says a nurse is 'just' anything clearly has no understanding of the sheer bloody hard work that goes into obtaining the knowledge and skills required.

New pet peeve

Anyone who thinks we took too long to remove the patient from the house. Bonus points for any fused lower limb joints. Bonus points for narrow and/or steep stairs. Bonus points for off legs. Bonus points for a BMI over 30. Win all the points for a spiral staircase...

[Halo_miles]

Another example? Hmm... how about the grumpy young guy who comes in and complaints about everything in the store....loudly. When checking out, he will throw money on the counter somewhere in between the groceries. Pay attention, he will demand a discount if his bills happen to get sucked under the conveyor belt. He cannot touch your hands. You're beneath him. Obviously.

THIS. This right here. This behavior pisses me off to no end, especially working in a truck stop. I'm not beneath you, my assholish customers. I graduated with honors and the only reason I'm not pursuing another career? Because I gave up my education monies at nineteen to buy my first house, then sell that one, and buy a better house. I'm 27, with no debt, and I own a house. I'm happily married, happy with my job, and happy with my life. I have more than I could ever ask for, and I came from nothing. So that doesn't make me beneath you, that makes me better than you, because I can treat people with respect.

[Halo_miles]

The one I hate is when someone calls me "just a nurse."

Sorry pal, nursing graduated from being bed pan changers about 60 years ago.
.

I can definitely appreciate nurses. My surgeon wouldn't have been there cleaning out the catheter tubing they used to stitch me up after the first set of surgeries. My surgeon didn't sponge bathe me, or teach me how to walk again. My surgeon spent sixteen hours a day for nine days saving my life, but the after care was left to my nurses. I had a fantastic team of people that worked together to take care of me.

[Plankton78]

I appreciate all of you. Nurses, drivers, waitresses, cashiers. Seriously. You guys are all so very awesom .

I want to know if anyone gets this type of customer.... They whip out a checkbook and pull a blank one out and just hand it to you.

Um... Ma'am.... I'm sorry. Our machines don't just print the information, you'll need to fill it in for me please.
Ughhhh. Fine. Where's a pen!
Right here ma'am.
Ughhhh. Can't you do it for me??? I can't see, I'm not wearing my glasses!

*I can understand if you're seventy, eighty years old and are physically unable to write. But ma'am.... You're in your mid thirties. And why are you driving without your glasses if you can't see anything!!*

No ma'am. I cannot for security purposes. You'll have to fill it out (cuz you're a bitch) and sign it for me please.
What ever happened to good customer service? / Why are you so RUDE? /Why can't you just do it my way? Whine, whine, whine.

One particular customer comes in every week, five minutes before closing, and then pulls this shit EVERY TIME! Get a life woman!!

[MelindaJoy77]

Welllll.....our machines do print the check....so I kind of have the opposite problem I do think it's weird though that anyone under, say, 40 is writing a check at a store in the first place. Checks are so old school! They run just like a debit nowadays at most places, only the process takes forever...because people don't listen to me when I tell them they don't have to fill it out

[siskaren]

And why are you driving without your glasses if you can't see anything!!

I need glasses to read (just the cheap readers from the drugstore), but not to drive.

[Jay 2K Winger]

What grinds my gears?

When someone-- anyone, Sucktomer or no-- implies that retail/food service work isn't a "real job."

It had always bugged me, but it especially aggravated me when the end was in sight for my retail career, when I finally got a job in the IT field. My Mom teased me about "finally getting a real job," and I finally just let out my frustrations about that mentality.

Any job that pays you money is a "real job." Just because the money may not be enough to be able to afford the lifestyle to which society thinks you should aspire, doesn't mean that it's not a "real job." Just because you're not working behind a desk, doesn't mean that it's not a "real job." Just because you're not working in a job in the field in which you received your degree, doesn't mean that it's not a "real job."

I forget the exact words I used when I told off Mom about it, but when I was finished, she apologized, and then gave my Dad some flack about it later that day when he made the same "getting a real job" crack.

Since then, they occasionally do comment on my having a "real job," but they do apologize for using the term, because they know I don't like it.

[EricKei]

When someone-- anyone, Sucktomer or no-- implies that retail/food service work isn't a "real job."

If only I ruled the world, as I was meant to... *sigh*

I would impose a law requiring that anyone who made such a crack in public would immediately be required to work AT that job location, at the lowest possible rank/position, for six months' time, at minimum wage. Failure to perform adequately/show up would have consequences upon any other job they happened to hold at that time, or financial consequences, if not. Extra hours and money would, of course, be built into every applicable workplace to account for this, so that the actual workers don't get shafted. Attendance for a full shift on Black Friday and other major 'shopping crush days' would be mandatory, on pain of arrest.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

People who tell you their entire life story as you're trying to help them find something.

Today I get shafted into helping some little old lady with the Loreal makeup because she asked for help at the service desk and they paged somebody over, and that happened to be me because I was working close to the cosmetics.

As I'm telling her we don't have some type of makeup I've never heard of and whose production was likely discontinued years and years ago, she's going on and on about how she always used to buy this makeup here, it came in such-and-such container, she used to get so many complements over it, who used to work at the swamp and help her find this makeup, blah blah blah.

Or something. The important thing is, she had an onion on her belt, which was the style at the time.

[Monterey Jack]

Or something. The important thing is, she had an onion on her belt, which was the style at the time.

Back then, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. "Give me five bees for a quarter", you'd say...

[Racket_Man]

If only I ruled the world, as I was meant to... *sigh*

I would impose a law requiring that anyone who made such a crack in public would immediately be required to work AT that job location, at the lowest possible rank/position, for six months' time, at minimum wage. Failure to perform adequately/show up would have consequences upon any other job they happened to hold at that time, or financial consequences, if not. Extra hours and money would, of course, be built into every applicable workplace to account for this, so that the actual workers don't get shafted. Attendance for a full shift on Black Friday and other major 'shopping crush days' would be mandatory, on pain of arrest.

^^^^^^^^^ This times 1000000000000------ especially in my line of work.

I would love those 2+ levels above me to have to do my job with the low pay, low vehicle reimburisment, vehicle (sometime MAJOR) repairs and maintenance and insurance. THEY would have to live EXACTLY like we have to as in NO company CCs, NO leased company vehicles, work in the same sever weather conditions we have to, work in the same in-store environment, loose the same hours when business is slow, loose the same hours we have to when it is decided some new government program will "bankrupt" the company, loose the same hours/takehome dollars because the crappy vehicle provided for them breaks down multiple times during their tenure.

NOPE sorry you can not live in that nice BIG house with the 2 or 3 cars, nor can you access that nice bank account/investment/savings account/cash stash/etc. Your family MUST live like we do ie. from paycheck to paycheck and hope to whatever God(s) that nothing catastrophic happens to you medically, life wise or vehicle wise.

They "claim" we are "overcompensated" for the use of our vehicles but then they FEAR getting the shit sued outta them (as are a LOT of large pizza chains and their franchises) with the workers actually winning (as many are these days).

[Ironclad Alibi]

I would love those 2+ levels above me to have to do my job with the low pay, low vehicle reimburisment, vehicle (sometime MAJOR) repairs and maintenance and insurance. THEY would have to live EXACTLY like we have to as in NO company CCs, NO leased company vehicles, work in the same sever weather conditions we have to, work in the same in-store environment, loose the same hours when business is slow, loose the same hours we have to when it is decided some new government program will "bankrupt" the company, loose the same hours/takehome dollars because the crappy vehicle provided for them breaks down multiple times during their tenure.

Sounds a little like the Mel Brook's movie Life Stinks.

[Blue Ginger]

Yep, anyone who says a nurse is 'just' anything clearly has no understanding of the sheer bloody hard work that goes into obtaining the knowledge and skills required.

Are we allowed to say that nurses are 'just' freaking fantastic?

The nurses that looked after my Nana while she was in hospital for her last 3 days were just fantastic and amazing and I can't say enough good things about them.


People who forget that Reception/Switchboard are the gatekeepers and pissing us off will only result in all the calls going directly to you instead of split amongst the team.

[Plankton78]

Are we allowed to say that nurses are 'just' freaking fantastic?

Absolutely. I'm at my doctor's office to see when I can get back to work and my nurse snuck me a candy bar.