Give Me Directions Now!

[Andara Bledin]

This didn't happen to me, and I wasn't here when it did happen, but this is how I understand it to have gone down...

The cast:
R - Our Receptionist
DM - Dirction Man, the SC
CW - A CoWorker at a nearby desk

*phone rings*
R - Such-and-Such Corporation
DM - I'm on the ## heading east and I think I'm lost so I need you to give me directions.
R - I'm sorry, I don't know the area very well, so let me transfer you to CW and she'll tell you how to get here.
*[i]R puts DM on hold[i]*
R - CW, there's a man on line 1 who needs directions.
CW - There's nobody on line 1.
*everybody shrugs*

*phone rings*
R - Such-and-Such Corporation
DM - I don't want to be put on hold, just tell me how to get there from here.
R - I'm sorry, I can't help you, I don't know where you are.
DM - Just give me directions!
R - Let me put you on hold and CW will be right with you and give you directions.
DM - No! I don't want to hold, you just give me the directions.
R - If you wait a moment, CW will pick up right away.
DM - Fine, I'll just turn around and drive back to where I came from (over 150 miles away)!
*DM hangs up and makes good on his threat*

Cripes! I know it's tough to wait on hold a whole 5 seconds, but I seriously doubt it would kill a person.

Now, if you were to drive over 100 miles to meet up with your supplier, don't you think you might, first, get directions before leaving? And then, you think you'd give the supplier a chance to help you out when you go a bizarre route to begin with, then get off at the wrong point (that particular freeway has an exchange to a route at two different points about 5 miles apart, once while it's a regular street and once while it's another freeway).

But noooooooo. This guy just had to have the first person he made contact with take care of his problem, regardless of whether or not that person had any ability to do so.

^-.-^

[blas]

Don't you know that part of your job as an employee anywhere, you are required to be a human "Mapquest"?

When I worked at the gas station, I riled up many a truck driver or lost tourist because I didn't know where everything was. Look, bucko, I haven't lived here all my life, and just because I work in this brokedown one horse town doesn't mean I know everything. When I say I don't know, I DON'T KNOW. Do I need to write it on the chalkboard like Mr. Hand did?

I'm sorry that I was not of much help to people, but I had other customers to serve, who were impatiently waiting behind these stupid truckers and tourists. Ya know, being a trucker, wouldn't you already have been given directions or looked them up on a map or the internet? For cripes sakes, it is the DUMBEST idea to not have any idea where you are going, and then demand answers from someone, and then get even more angry when they cannot help you. As tourists, it's YOUR responsibility to have a map on hand or to know the general direction of where you are headed. Not everyone in small towns has lived there forever.

Sorry, that was quite a rant.

[Andara Bledin]

[OT] Google maps is what Mapquest wishes it could be when it grows up....

Yeah, I'm the resident comptuer geek, gaming geek, internet geek, and directions person. I get all the really fun calls, and most of them come from my co-workers.

I've only ever gotten one person lost and that was because I said right instead of left for a turn. There is no right at that spot, so they knew something was wrong right away and called back for corrected directions.

We had one incident (immortalized as "Just turn left") where one of our buyers sent her elderly, Korean-speaking parents to come pick up a part. She didn't give them a map, and gave them bad directions, and they didn't listen very well even to those. They called in trying to get directions and then wouldn't listen to what the manager told them.

For instance, when he found out they were going the wrong direction, he tried to get them to stop and turn around. For nearly 10 minutes. Unsuccessfully. The woman across the room kept on saying "just turn left, you'll get here... just keep turning left" while we listened to the manager try to get this couple to our building. He spent nearly an hour on the phone with them. We had the woman who sent them call in twice because they had called her. He did a conference call with her to try to get some communication going. It was a real clusterfsck.

^-.-^

[BookstoreEscapee]

Hell, I have lived in my town nearly my entire life and I am, generally speaking, NOT the person you want to ask for directions. I have little sense of direction (my dad is already researching the best way for me to get to Rhode Island for my friend's wedding - which is in September!! Frankly it's a little annoying). I am better than I used to be but if I am at all in doubt I will pass you off to another person. I was very happy when BN put in their "nearby stores" link and included directions to each of those stores from your store, for when customers asked us to call to see if someone else had their book. (Ironically, I've only had to use that particular feature once.) I don't go anywhere unfamiliar without mapping it on the web first, and printing the directions even if I'm pretty sure I can find it without them.

[Imogene]

I will pass you off to another person.

Extra points if the person you hand them off to, while always suspicious of your direction sense, has no knowledge of how to get where the caller wants to be.

Seriously. Had that happen to me long before Chesterfield closed down. Working one day with Old SM. He liked to pick on me for all manner of bizarre reasons, like, enjoying anime, not knowing how to get places, even with directions, a map, the ship on autopilot! No good, I got lost.
Anyway, someone calls in, says "I'm lost, how do I get to your store?"
My response? "Where are you?"
"I-35."
"I have no clue where that is, much less how to get you here from there." *move phone, look at Old SM* "Hey, how would you get here from I-35?"
OS: "No clue. Have them call the mall service desk..."
I gloated in my head that he had no idea how to get anywhere either.

[BusyBee]

Don't you know that part of your job as an employee anywhere, you are required to be a human "Mapquest"?

And encyclopaedia, and dictionary, and phone book, and trivia master, and thesaurus, and....

[Freemage]

My fiancee works as a security guard at a factory, and has to deal with a lot of truckers. Apparently, a lot of the time the directions they get from their dispatcher (which, in turn, probably come from Mapquest) are... less than helpful. Mapquest is good for the long-haul, but I've seen it send people completely around the block for the finisher.

And people getting directions from relatives often get lost because those directions failed to include some vital step that the person who lives there never even thinks about, or because said person doesn't really accurately count the streetlights (ie, "Turn left at the third stoplight," instead of a street-name. Later: "Oh, yeah, I forgot about the one at the mall parking lot entrance."). :P

[JustaCashier]

I'm very familiar with pretty much my entire city. Give me any street address in the Seattle area and I could likely give directions, as long as it isn't on one of the obscure, named steeets, that only runs a block or two.

Because of that, I will often pick up the line if another of our staff pages out a line for directions.

Back in '83 when I had just started in the parking business, one of my cow-orkers there nicknamed me "Mr. Map" because I was freshly laid off from my previous job as a delivery driver, and could give directions in such detail, as to let the person know which lane the needed to be in at a certain intersection, to continue on the right path to their destination. One intersection I remember, I would tell them they needed in one or the other two center lanes that developed at the intersection at the bottom of the two lane hill, in order to go straight, which wasn't exactly "due" straight because of the way all the different roads converge, to continue, and go over the bridge, and not be forced to do a right turn from the far right lane, or forced to do a left turn from the far left lane.

Mike

[Daphne]

I hate when people call and ask for directions. I don't mind giving simple directions, but I hate when people call and expect me to give them exact directions from their location. They'll usually give me a freeway exit or something, which doesn't work for me because I don't take the freeway. I live in a city of 2 million people; I don't know where everything is.

[powerboy]

Mapquest sucks. They always send me to somewhere completely different, then what I wanted. Google Maps & Yahoo directions, are great for me. But I do like Google Maps more. I once gave wrong directions, and that was because they told me they were at a different location. I have lived in my town all my life(except for the month in Reno, NV). I used to go by street lights, and stop signs. Now I go by street names. But there are those times, when I cannot think of the best way to get somewhere in town, until I get there.

[Primer]

Anyway, someone calls in, says "I'm lost, how do I get to your store?"
My response? "Where are you?"
"I-35."
"I have no clue where that is, much less how to get you here from there."

Juwl, you're in the Dallas/Fort Worth area now, right? So the SC also should have told you if he was on I-35 EAST or I-35 WEST. It would make a difference if he were talking to someone who could give directions.

When I worked at the gas station, I riled up many a truck driver or lost tourist because I didn't know where everything was.

As tourists, it's YOUR responsibility to have a map on hand or to know the general direction of where you are headed.

Blas, the only time I ever needed directions, I knew where I was going, I just didn't know where I WAS.

I had a state map, and I knew on which highway I was, but the guy behind the counter could not narrow it down to less than 250 miles. All I was trying to figure out was if I was north or south of another major highway. At 1 in the morning, it's hard to find landmarks. All I could do was fill up my tank, keep going, and hope for the best. Eventually, I did find my way home. (Actually, I'm still lost out in the middle of east Texas...)

[InsanityInc]

I used to drive a truck long haul. One of the companies I drove for was very well known for giving bad directions. You'd get "turn right at X St." You'd get there, and on the right is an empty field. Calling the delivery was a 50/50 shot as well. I've had more than one tell me they couldn't give me directions, landmarks, and clue how to get there.
I got really good at turning a truck around.

[Imogene]

Juwl, you're in the Dallas/Fort Worth area now, right?

Well, I am NOW, but at the time of my story, I was in Missouri. There wasn't an I-35 anywhere nearby that I remember... I just pulled a number out of my head.

[reformedwaitress]

See, here's the thing with me. I'm a walking map. Once I go somewhere once I will be able to get there, from pretty much anywhere, for the rest of my life. It might not be the fastest or most direct route, but I'll be able to get there. I'm just really good with directions and have a really good sense of direction.

This means that my family (mother, grandmother and sister) and all my friends will call me whenever they are lost in Atlanta or trying to find somewhere. They'll stop in a parking lot, call me and say "I'm in this parking lot on this street, I just passed this intersection and I'm trying to go to blah" and I'll be able to get them there. I can do the same thing in Savannah. It's a little scary sometimes.

So yeah, I'm ALWAYS the one that has to give out directions. I hate it when people won't listen to me about them!

[Noelegy]

And encyclopaedia, and dictionary, and phone book, and trivia master, and thesaurus, and....

And yet you (generic) must be stupid if you're working in customer service. Go figure.