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DUMBTH!
Comic Steve Allen wrote a book several years ago, complaining about the dumbing of America.
The excerpts I read had him acting somewhat SC-ish in the first place, but his point is well taken by those of us who serve the public and have co-workers of varying skills.
Anyway, let's share some tales of the beyond-dumbest things customers have said or done.
A lady came to pick up a used wheel, so her husband could get a tire installed on their other car after a curb encounter.
The lady unnecessarily parked waaaaaay down the street, literally half a block, so by the time we get to her car I'm baking in the sun and my fingers hurt from the wheel digging into them. Plus, she keeps telling me all these things about their other car, which is NOT going to be brought in in the next month at least.
The problem I have with this is, on any given day, I have 8 to 20 vehicles tracking through my shop, that have to be finished TODAY. In addition, I will have discussions about 15 to 30 vehicles that are NOT in the shop on a given day. Therefore, by the end of the day, my memory is a blur of cars, and it is near impossible to remember off the top of my head a discussion of a given car, especially without the work order in my hand. As a customer, you do not WANT me to fix at your expense, what I thought you said orally earlier. It is like this every day, forever. Therefore, EVERY word of a discussion of future repairs will have to be gone over again ON THE DAY it is dropped off for repairs. Every time somebody uses the word REMEMBER while writing up a ticket, I want to b-slap them, figuratively.
Trying to explain this is impossible. I've already told her 3 times, tell me all about it ON THE DAY you are dropping it off! Still, she prattles on as we walk, oblivious to verbal and body language cues. Now, she's on to an intermittent problem.
"The fuel door? You know, where you put the gas in? Yeah, that door gets stuck sometimes." (me: [pause] Okaaaaaaayyyy, longer each time with each pointless question, yet she does not discern a pattern and keeps at it.) "So we have to play with it, sometimes, when it doesn't work." [pause] Okaaaaaaayyyyyyyeeeee. "But then, sometimes, it WORKS!" [......] "So, I don't know what the deal is, with that." [thinking, around $150 if and only if you STFU about it until the day you're bringing it for the repair!] Then she wants to start organizing her trunk while I stand there holding the wheel, so I set it down, at which moment she says OH and just sweeps everything aside so I have to pick it right back up again.
Having suffered 15 minutes of prattling from her already, my patience was thin. It had already been said a half dozen times that her husband was getting the tire changed. However, she has a question.
"So, do they take the rubber off when they do the tire?"
Look down at used tire and wheel assembly. WTF rubber? Blank look.
"The rubber? They don't take that off?" She points to the tire.
Look down at tire more. "Yes, maam, when they install a new tire on a wheel, they take. The. Old. One. Off... First......"
"Oh, okay, I wasn't sure. [blather blather]"
Thanks, have a nice day. (force smile, JOG back to shop in case another question randomly pops into her head.)
The excerpts I read had him acting somewhat SC-ish in the first place, but his point is well taken by those of us who serve the public and have co-workers of varying skills.
Anyway, let's share some tales of the beyond-dumbest things customers have said or done.
A lady came to pick up a used wheel, so her husband could get a tire installed on their other car after a curb encounter.
The lady unnecessarily parked waaaaaay down the street, literally half a block, so by the time we get to her car I'm baking in the sun and my fingers hurt from the wheel digging into them. Plus, she keeps telling me all these things about their other car, which is NOT going to be brought in in the next month at least.
The problem I have with this is, on any given day, I have 8 to 20 vehicles tracking through my shop, that have to be finished TODAY. In addition, I will have discussions about 15 to 30 vehicles that are NOT in the shop on a given day. Therefore, by the end of the day, my memory is a blur of cars, and it is near impossible to remember off the top of my head a discussion of a given car, especially without the work order in my hand. As a customer, you do not WANT me to fix at your expense, what I thought you said orally earlier. It is like this every day, forever. Therefore, EVERY word of a discussion of future repairs will have to be gone over again ON THE DAY it is dropped off for repairs. Every time somebody uses the word REMEMBER while writing up a ticket, I want to b-slap them, figuratively.
Trying to explain this is impossible. I've already told her 3 times, tell me all about it ON THE DAY you are dropping it off! Still, she prattles on as we walk, oblivious to verbal and body language cues. Now, she's on to an intermittent problem.
"The fuel door? You know, where you put the gas in? Yeah, that door gets stuck sometimes." (me: [pause] Okaaaaaaayyyy, longer each time with each pointless question, yet she does not discern a pattern and keeps at it.) "So we have to play with it, sometimes, when it doesn't work." [pause] Okaaaaaaayyyyyyyeeeee. "But then, sometimes, it WORKS!" [......] "So, I don't know what the deal is, with that." [thinking, around $150 if and only if you STFU about it until the day you're bringing it for the repair!] Then she wants to start organizing her trunk while I stand there holding the wheel, so I set it down, at which moment she says OH and just sweeps everything aside so I have to pick it right back up again.
Having suffered 15 minutes of prattling from her already, my patience was thin. It had already been said a half dozen times that her husband was getting the tire changed. However, she has a question.
"So, do they take the rubber off when they do the tire?"
Look down at used tire and wheel assembly. WTF rubber? Blank look.
"The rubber? They don't take that off?" She points to the tire.
Look down at tire more. "Yes, maam, when they install a new tire on a wheel, they take. The. Old. One. Off... First......"
"Oh, okay, I wasn't sure. [blather blather]"
Thanks, have a nice day. (force smile, JOG back to shop in case another question randomly pops into her head.)
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