talkmagic.co.uk

themagicwand wrote:We've had an old lady phoning our house for six days now (often several times on the same day) asking if I'm a gardener. When I tell her that no I'm not, she gets all shirty and says "well someone gave me your number and told me you were a gardner". She won't go away. She's driving me mad. I even looked up a gardner in Yellow Pages for her this morning and gave her the number. Will it do any good? Will she leave me alone? Time will tell.

Do BT do a number block thing whereby I can block her number? I've 1471'd her and have her number.

This is my current gripe.

There's a local fireplace company with a number one digit different to mine (a zero instead of an eight). I always answer the phone with "hello?". Instead of asking if I'm the fireplace company, callers simply launch into their complaint and I have to stop them. When I point out that it's a wrong number, they always say "Oh. Well, this is the number I was given," as if I can somehow make it the right one.

My favourite is:

"Hello?"
"Hi, can I speak to Mark?"
"No Mark here I'm afraid, I think you've got the wrong number."
"...But this is (your number), isn't it?"

Oh actually, you're right, here's Mark now.

What I hate is people that just hang up when you tell them they've dialed the wrong number.

A simple 'excuse me' wouldn't go amiss - anything to acknowledge that the person on the other end of the line is a real human being. Instead, they just drop the receiver.

gits.

My pet hate of yesterday was a customer who asked for a product that is no longer manufacturered. After I told him that it was no longer made, he got incredible aggressive and said he would go elsewhere in furture.

Did he not see that if they are no longer made, then we are unable to buy them and subsequently unable to sell it to him???

Apparently not...........

themagicwand wrote:We've had an old lady phoning our house for six days now (often several times on the same day) asking if I'm a gardener. When I tell her that no I'm not, she gets all shirty and says "well someone gave me your number and told me you were a gardner"..

Phone back and ask her if she is a stripper then an hour or two latter does she still do tours of the west country etc etc.

Many years ago, when I was single and living in a flat, I picked up the phone and dialled a wrong number. A lady answered and it soon became apparent that I'd got the wrong number. I apologised and put the phone down. Ten seconds later the phone rang. I picked it up and this bloke launched into a volley of abuse at me: "What you doing phoning here? Who are you? What do you want? Where did you get our number from?" I tried to explain that I'd simple dialled the wrong number. "I don't believe you!" he continued. "I think you're an idiot! I want to know who you are!?" I explained again that I had been trying to phone someone and had obviously dialled an incorrect digit. "You're a pr*ck aren't you?!" he screamed at me and put the phone down.

I was left shocked and disturbed. The only thing I could imagine was that this man and wife (presumably) were in the middle of an argument - perhaps about who's been flirting with who - and then in the middle of the argument this strange bloke (me) phones up. Perhaps the angry man thought I was his wife's lover. It's the only thing that remotely made sense to me.

Weird stuff seems to hunt me down.

themagicwand wrote:The only thing I could imagine was that this man and wife (presumably) were in the middle of an argument - perhaps about who's been flirting with who - and then in the middle of the argument this strange bloke (me) phones up. Perhaps the angry man thought I was his wife's lover. It's the only thing that remotely made sense to me.

Man, these types of analysis over simple stimuli are used as exemplars for investigators.

I have to admit I probably couldn't have reacted as nicely as you did. I probably would have started asking questions back, "I dialed the wrong number... but she did sound kind of hot is she still there?"

Tomo wrote: And people who say "I am OCD." Grrr.

Absolutely! Maybe, when relevant, a response of "That's a shame, I heard you were flu last week..." might make the point

Yesterday in town I was talking to a friend when one of his younger friends runs up to us says "you're new" to me followed by shaking her hands at me, saying "embrace the wierd!!" then running off.

I remember when punk kids were punks...
now all we get are attention seekers who then act like they're irritated at the attention. What's the point?! I blame the internet!

My biggest pet hate other than politics in general is Adult's who group all youths under the same banner.

The ammount of trouble I have had with my re enacting because apparantly being 18 I must be carrying a knife and the absolute worst is when some one rants ona forum about a youth having done something like sworn at them and then some says back all kids are the same, just to say NO WE ARE NOT NOW F**K OFF

The gardening lady phoned again.

themagicwand wrote:The gardening lady phoned again.

MagicalSmithy wrote:My biggest pet hate other than politics in general is Adult's who group all youths under the same banner.

The ammount of trouble I have had with my re enacting because apparantly being 18 I must be carrying a knife and the absolute worst is when some one rants ona forum about a youth having done something like sworn at them and then some says back all kids are the same, just to say NO WE ARE NOT NOW F**K OFF

Yeah right on! And it must be terrible to be lumped in with those kids who can't spell or use apostrophes correctly!

MagicalSmithy wrote: some one rants ona forum about a youth having done something like sworn at them and then some says back all kids are the same, just to say NO WE ARE NOT NOW F**K OFF

I was young once. I was a skinhead. Being looked down upon and cursed by the rest of society was part of the fun - although at the time I would have denied this and gone on about how terrible society was.

Don't worry. You'll be 45 one day like me (and it'll reach you quicker than you imagine) and then you'll look back on the days of being classed as a yob with great affection. And of course by then it will be another generation who are saying "yeah man, leave us kids alone". Youth is but a fleeting gift.

Farlsborough wrote:Ultimately though guys, for all your understandable gripes: you get paid to be on the other end of that phone

True that.

And I hope I get to speak to people like you n the phone mate, instead of people who think I'm paid to be shouted at and sworned, verbally abused daily and generally treated like c*** (not the best).

Besides which, everyone who works in a call centre knows this:

If you are rude to us... we will be very unhelpful.

Nice customers get great customer services... If you're rude to me, I am not going to go out of my way to help you.