It's Not My Fault that We're Busy!

[dougiezerts]

"Dammit, I've been waiting for ten minutes for you to answer the phone! Are you all on your lunch breaks?"
How many of you have had SC's say that to you?
Well, it's not our faults that we're extremely busy. Ultimately, it's the fault of management for not hiring enough of us to handle the phone load, and/or not scheduling enough of us during busy periods.
By the way, I was just asked to start my shift early. Always a bad sign. . . .

[marasbaras]

Me: *click* oops

[Javarod]

Laughs, "Hmmm, how to reply to that...

I'm sorry, I'm new here and was trying to figure out this weird noisy thing.... now how does it *click*.... whoops

[protege]

"Dammit, I've been waiting for ten minutes for you to answer the phone!

The proper reply would be... "If idiots would stop calling us to ask what MS-DOS means, we wouldn't be so damn busy..."

[JustADude]

"Dammit, I've been waiting for ten minutes...

SC-to-English translation: I am impatient, stupid, and think I can browbeat you by grossly exaggerating my 90-second hold time.

[SpyOne]

When I was about 18, I needed to phone the Department of motor Vehicles about something (I can't remember what, but it needed to be handled by their main office, not my local branch, so it needed to be handled over the phone).
I timed my call, as I always do, to not be terribly near to opening, closing, or lunch, both because these are time the staff will be a little light and because these are times business is busy.

The phone rang for 45 minutes before it was answered.

So, the first thing I said when it finally was answered was that I had been waiting for 45 minutes for someone to answer, and if they were really that understaffed, I was available.


A few years later, I moved to another state and needed to change my cars' registrations over to my new state, and one of them I had just recently bought and (of course) new state and old state handle that totally differently, so the paperwork I have is mysterious and foreign to the new state's DMV. So, after some discussion, the clerk at the DMV takes my paperwork into the back office, I thought to talk to a supervisor or something. She's gone a LONG time, like half an hour or more, and I am seriously beginning to wonder if she's gone to lunch or somethign, when she comes back and apologizes for the delay saying that she was trying (unsuccessfully) to call the Connecticut DMV to get them to explain some of these documents to her, and before my brain can engage my mouth says, "Oh, you're never going to get them to answer the phone."

In the end, they decided that, although I could not present anything they regarded as proof of ownership, they would accept the fact that Connecticut has issued me a registration for that car as proof that Connecticut believed that I was the legal owner of that car, and they issued me a new title with my name on it.

[technical.angel]

"Dammit, I've been waiting for ten minutes for you to answer the phone! Are you all on your lunch breaks?"

I get it all the time... just not for my office.

I think we're the only office on campus that staggers lunch times to make sure that the phone is covered. So, during the noon hour, I'd be getting calls from people trying to reach other offices, usually for student loans and the like, who can't reach anyone.

For some reason, they really don't like when I ask them to call back after 1pm.....

[edicius]

Ugh, I hate phones.

I got this one person claiming a week after the fact that they called and called and called my office and no one answered.

Despite the fact that on the day in question at the times in question, I never left my office. And I did receive and answer OTHER calls from OTHER departments. And didn't get a single voicemail from the department in question. And the person in question who allegedly called and called and called has a reputation around campus as being completely incompetent and lazy.

Of course, this means she never bothered to call. But who do you think her boss believes, me or her? Which, of course, gets me bitched at by MY boss.

I'm waiting to find out how long it actually takes me to truly get some seniority around this place to the point where I'll receive the benefit of the doubt. I'll be entering my 10th year in August........

[technical.angel]

I'm waiting to find out how long it actually takes me to truly get some seniority around this place to the point where I'll receive the benefit of the doubt. I'll be entering my 10th year in August........

I think the answer is either: neither or when everyone else in that department has been replaced. Take your pick.

[TechChick1]

Blame Management or the Lack Thereof!

Just a typical day for me. I can't lie and say the customers who call us however are unjustified in their anger for holding so long, and they will say what I want to say but can't. We sell a very popular sports product and it's the height of it's season. The idiots doing hiring, hired college students because the company is NOT hiring anyone permanent anymore, and now, they are all going back to school, furthering the customer's waiting woes. I monitor our call queue and I have seen customers hold anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour! Now, you can ask, who will hold that long, but what the customers tell me is that the IVR tells them they are only going to be on hold for about 5 minutes, then 20 minutes, and so forth. One told me, "your managment is so f*cking incompetent! I mean, you poor people it must be 3 of you all handling calls." In this case, I let him rant and prayed the brainless, lazy fools were monitoring that call. In this case, the customer was dead on!

[Dips]

"Dammit, I've been waiting for ten minutes for you to answer the phone! Are you all on your lunch breaks?"
How many of you have had SC's say that to you?

Oh, yes; I've had that. And the answer is, "That's right. It's 12:30 and some of our staff are at lunch right now. How can I help you?"

They HATE having their attempted little dig at us turned into a moment of plain truth like that. Takes the wind right out of their sails.