Is this year over yet?

I had a great call today (and by great, I mean frustrating). This guy calls and first he rambles on for ten minutes about nonsense. That's kind of my fault since I made the mistake of telling him that I don't live far from where he does, so he of course starts complaining to me about traffic and his blood pressure. Yeah, cause that makes sense. Whatever. He was old and Christian . . . those are the worst kind of ramblers. Then, he tells me his stupid complaint. The team members keep rolling their eyes every time he asks them to fill the fry container all the way up. Okay, fine. The trouble begins when I ask him when this incident occurred. I have never received a negative response from this question. And I have to ask it. Then, he tells me that he's not going to waste anymore of his time (like he's not already wasting mine) giving me details unless he knows he's going to get something complimentary (i.e. coupons) out of it. Well, there is no way I'm going to promise him any coupons before I get his address and can check to see if he's a repeater or not. I try to get his contact information from him and he doesn't want to give me that either. He accuses me of giving him the third degree. He says that I'm getting paid to sit here and listen to this (not enough) and he's not getting paid anything. He said that I started out the call great, but I ended it horribly. I tried to explain why he we needed the information of when the problem occurred (so the Owner could fix it) and that we would hate to lose his business, but he wasn't having it. I was not making him happy. He asked for my supervisor's name, which I gave him. He asked for her number, but we can't give those out. Of course, if he had asked to speak to her, I would have had to get her. Then, he just said that he would call back and speak to someone else and get Truett Cathy's number (who owns the company). Then he hung up. He had actually said earlier in the call that he knew Truett Cathy personally. However, at the beginning of the call, he didn't even know his son's name. If he knew him personally, wouldn't he know his son's name? And his phone number? Whatever. I just sat there for a few minutes after he hung up and took a few deep breaths. And then I took my next call. I feel bad that I wasn't able to make him happy. But I did the best that I could. I think.

Later, we get this e-mail from a guy about a roach in a restaurant. Okay, I understand that. But apparently, he didn't tell anyone because they no one "looked" like they spoke any English. How do you look at someone and tell what language they speak? Maybe the workers were from America, even if they were Hispanic or Asian. Or even if they're not from this country. That doesn't mean they can't speak English. Maybe they were actually speaking in their own language. Heaven forbid you know how to speak more than one language in this country. Aren't there Americans who can speak more than one language? What an ignorant bastard. Pardon my language.

I have tried to request vacation time a year in advance and have had zero luck. I am the lowest man on the totem pole. I couldn't get the day after Thanksgiving off, Christmas Eve, Christmas day, nor could I get the 27th through the 31st off. Great. I'm calling in Christmas Eve. I know that. I'm going to have a hard time using my vacation time next year.

I'm Back. . . .

Okay, so it's been about three months since my last post. But I have decided to bring my blog back due to popular demand (i.e. Luke and Dos). I will use this blog to describe all the idiotic calls I get throughout my day. Oy.

So apparently, it's official. We have become 411. A customer buys our gallons of Sweet Tea and can't find a place in their city to recycle the containers. They have decided to e-mail us to ask us where THEY can recycle in THEIR city. How the hell should I know?? They're not even in the same city (let alone the same state) as me, for crying out loud. That one's going to be a head scratcher.

And the Owner of a Chick-fil-A calls us because he tried to contact a customer and the number is invalid. He wants to know if there is some other contact information for the customer. Hmm . . . maybe he should have tried the address that was right under the phone number in the report that I sent him. And then he says, "Well, it would just help if we would have a valid number." But he says it like it's my fault or something. I took the phone call and I just typed in the number she gave me. I know I verified it. Can I help it if she gave us the wrong one? I hate it when Operators shoot the messenger.

And since I am the one who does the e-mail assigments every single day, wouldn't you think that I would be informed if someone was no longer on our team? Hmm. . .

As crazy as it sounds though, I kind of don't hate my job. Oh, and the fact that it is still the holidays is making traffic a breeze! It's actually only taking an hour to get to and from work, which is what it SHOULD take, instead of two.

Update to my day. . .

Apparently, they are recording a training CD to use in future training classes in order to emphasize voice tone and call management techniques. The traning supervisor wanted the managers to ask for the participation of the best people on their team and she asked me! I'm so flattered. I guess all that fake empathy really paid off. . . I hope they remember this when it comes time for my raise in April. :)

Last call of the day. . . a woman calls to complain because there were teenagers smoking and hugging in the play area and apparently she does not want her children seeing "that type" of behavior. The customer also cussed as he was leaving. She did tell the employee about the smoking and they did ask the customer to leave. So. . . what does she want from me? It's hardly the employees fault if the customer cusses. My God. She calls me at 3:59 for this crap so I had to stay past my shift to finish the call. I'm just glad she didn't want coupons cause I sure didn't want to give her anything.