Waste of Time

[lobo94]

I work for a company that rents portable storage containers. People use us to move locally or long distance, storage on the customer's property, things llike that. We also store containers in our facilities between addresses.

Tonight, I had a customer who wanted to schedule a redelivery to her new address. She didn't have the destination zip code, so I took down the other address information while she went to look it up. If we don't have a zip code, it's possible we may not service an area. It also helps us determine pricing and local ordnances that may affect placement.

The customer said she couldn't find the zip code, and asked if we had a way to look up addresses. I advised her that we didn't. She asked if there was a way to save the information I had talken and she could call back with the zip code. I said that there wasn't. I had been writing down the information so I didnt have to ask for it later.

The customer said I had wasted her time and that she didn't have time for this. She hung up after saying she'd call back.

To that, I say, well, you should have had your information ready in the first place before you called. I mean, we'd brought a container to her where she was starting from...it's not rocket science. If anyone's time was wasted, it was mine.

[Teskeria]

If you're in the States, suggest she go to USPS.com You can get any zip code by entering the street address, city and state. I've used it hundreds of times at work. Easy enough for a first grader (or 80% of SC's) to use.

[Wolfboy]

It's the same in the insurance office where I work, people expect instant quotes without having to give any information, on one occation a woman came in wanting to insure a car she just bought but did'nt know the name,make or even the regestration number of vehicle and she got all huffy when she had to phone her husband to get the info.

[gremcint]

If you're in the States, suggest she go to USPS.com You can get any zip code by entering the street address, city and state. I've used it hundreds of times at work. Easy enough for a first grader (or 80% of SC's) to use.

I don't know the url but there is a canadian one as well.

[MsCrankypants]

It's the same in the insurance office where I work, people expect instant quotes without having to give any information

same here; people want to know if they'll be eligible for benefits without giving any of their information (or just by giving me hypothetical situations) and then get snitty when I tell them the only way they know for sure is to apply, or to get back to us when the hypothetical situation is a real situation, and send verification of such.

The worst that can happen is that you'll be denied, or if you're already on benefits, your benefit will decrease. Then we get to hear the screaming about why their benefits are decreasing. It's a no-win situation really. I'll get yelled at either way.

[freeatlast]

I work for the same type of company - possibly the same one you work for. And I agree that many of the customers are total idiots. I work for a franchise that does billing and collections for many other franchises around the country. In order to look up an account (because, of course they can't be bothered to have their account numbers when calling) most of them don't even know what city and state their container came from. But I'm wrong for expecting them to know anything and for hoping that they might have their account number. They also are notorious for getting a quote with one destination zip code and then end up having the container delivered to a completely different zip code and expect us to honor the quote. I have dealth with about 10 customers with this same issue in the last couple of weeks. Total idiots!!!

[Hyndis]

If you're in the States, suggest she go to USPS.com You can get any zip code by entering the street address, city and state. I've used it hundreds of times at work. Easy enough for a first grader (or 80% of SC's) to use.

Yes, but I don't do this because I will then be liable for any mistakes.

Customer inputs their own address, its their own fault when, not if, they give me the incorrect info.

If I try to help them out and try to decipher their address? If anything goes wrong, then I'm to blame.

[bainsidhe]

Most of our orders come via fax or email. On the rare occasion I accept a phone order from Joe Public, I have a nifty little notepad to scribble the info down. That's because our computer isn't set up for instant entry of phone orders. There's many different screens and it's set up for our sales/production departments, not for phone orders. So I just love it when customers give a zip code or just a city and assume you know exactly where they live because my "computer" will pull it up. Um no, my ink pen can only do so much.

[Munkie]

I don't know the url but there is a canadian one as well.

Canada Post and also Canada 411 which is the one i used to look up the postal codes of all the places i lived in the last 10 years (security required it before i could get my shiny blue RAIC pass)

[callking]

I used to work in a call center for a phone company in the west that starts with a Q. People would get really upset because we couldn't set up their phone without an address. Seriously, how are we to know where to turn on the service? Either that or they insisted the service address was a PO Box. We also had the people that wanted us to find them by saying they were across the street from that one school or some other local landmark. We covered a 14 state area so who knows to what school they were referring.

[lobo94]

Hey, Freeatlast,

I feel your pain. You'll forgive me if I don't pry further?

[Shimatta]

we get paperwork all the time that list the street with no street ending-?Suffix?
It will be 100 2nd and that is all. Look it up and there's a 2nd st, 2nd ave and 2nd blvd all in the same zip or city. Some people just don't under stand how important that little part is. (I deal in security so no address = you're screwed)