Suprise Attack of the Spelling Nazi

[crazylegs]

Your revenge is simple, get her to spell this :- Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch, she gets doudble points for being able to pronounce it! (yes its a place name in Wales) or any of these as well http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A418565

(for some reason the software is breaking it up into two parts, its really all one word)

[Yfandes]

What the? I live on a street that can be spelled in a few different ways. There are many variations on spelling many many things. I *always* spell it out when asked for my address. She was a cow.

[Stormraven]

Llanfair is a fun place. Went there on vacation once (among many other places, of course). I've gotten to where I can pronounce it more or less correctly, but I'd never try to spell the full name by memory.

[Meadhands]

SERIOUSLY WTF. I feel better after typing all that. I am not a perfect speller and if I am unsure of how to spell something I will general ask rather than trying 3 or 4 different combos to get it right and then wasting there time.. was I being a bad CS Rep here?

No, you were not being a bad CSR. You see, your job is to handle people, not soulless demons.

CSR =
SC =

[flybye023]

The only thing I would advise is never make excuses and never try to explain in those situations. Why? 1) the customer really doesn't care 2) It nearly always just makes the customer madder and 3) they're just trying to get a rise out of you. And, really, you don't owe them any kind of explanation anyway.

Just calmly repeat the question until you get an answer and ignore their hostility (it's their problem, not yours).

If you must answer a simple "no" is best

Example:

SC: What do you mean, "spell it" are you stupid or something?

You: Please spell the *name, word, place*

SC: I can't believe this are you a f**** retard or something?

You: No, please spell the *name, word, place*.

And if they continue to be abusive, warn them and hang up just like you did.

[LifeCarnie]

I can't believe anyone would get angry over having to spell a word.

I just called information today and the automaton didn't understand the name, since there was a lot of background noise. When the operator came on, I immediately spelled the name after I had said it, since I knew it was difficult to hear clearly over the phone. She actually thanked me for the spelling.

**********************

Do you know how many SC's I have talked to who can't spell simple words like door and green?

I've stopped counting, due to the fact that it just depresses me at how stupid Americans have become. But they expect everyone else to wipe their butt for them.

As one of my co-workers once said "I'm a person, not dictionary.com!!"
*********************

My favorite SC's are the people who call with an inquiry regarding a obscure medical term that they can barely pronounce. More than once I've asked someone to spell a word that they couldn't pronounce and received "you're supposed to tell me!!" as a reply.

NOT when I can't even identify the word because you're illiterate.

Bare in mind that alot of these people are supposed to be highly educated, medical proffesionals.

[ringo]

Not sure about the rest of the world, but if you live in the US, you can go to http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/citytown_zip.jsp to see what zip codes are tired to what city.

[Crow The Robot]

What a little prick. In southern NJ we have a town called Maurice, you don't pronounce More-eese, but Morris, so you have to be careful with spelling we also have a lot of "boros" and boroughs" so assuming someone can spell something based on the way a person pronounces it is stupid. Oh, and you did nothing wrong the caller was a complete b-tch.

[PuckishOne]

I have to say, I'm a stickler for proper spelling, but being asked to spell a place name over the phone is hardly a sign that anyone is uneducated...in fact, I'd say it shows a good attention to detail, since often it's difficult to understand someone over the phone, and clearly you just wanted to get it right.

[chops]

I'd get caught a few times. I'm so used to spelling Worcester that I got thrown off a couple of times from someone in Wooster, Ohio. Then there was the time that I assumed the wrong spelling for Swansea, Massachusetts...since I would drive through Swanzey, New Hampshire on the way to see my parents, I got the two mixed up, much to the annoyance of a customer.

"boros" and boroughs"

Massachusetts has a few of 'em too...but the weird thing is, you'll see them spelled both ways, depending on the type of sign. The green highway signs will usually say "-boro" but the town markers usually say "-borough".

The "-boro" convention on road signs in Mass. seems to sometimes affect the spelling of "-borough" towns in other states. There's a sign off of route 12 just south of the MA/NH state line that points to "Peterboro NH"...thing is, they spell it Peterborough up there, and only that way.

[HowMayIHelpMe?]

What a rotten WHORE.

I'm sorry you had to deal with that.

[rerant]

You weren't sucky at ALL.
I guarantee that no one on this board who wasn't already aware of the spelling would be able to spell my suburb properly if they just heard it.
It has a silent "K" for crying out loud!

Hell, if I asked you for a listing near Queen's Key here in Toronto you would type "key" just like that, but it's actually spelled Quay.

People really need to get their heads out of their asses.

[mattm04]

The only experience I had close to that was when I was trying to take a phone order for cust. They weren't sure what they wanted, but they know it was break. Great that leaves us with about 20 different choices. I tried to ask them questions, what kind, what shape, etc. Eventually the SC started calling me a realllly long list of words. I told them this was not appropriate, as I am trying to help them. They hung up.

I informed my manager of the situation. About 20 minutes later the called to complain about my rudeness. The opening line to the manager was "Hey you are you a f****ing manager? right. Because i just dealt with one of your gay retarded employees..." The manger hung up on them, and sent an e-mail to corp in case they complain farther up the food chain. They never complained farther, to my knowledge.

[Boozy]

You weren't sucky at ALL.
I guarantee that no one on this board who wasn't already aware of the spelling would be able to spell my suburb properly if they just heard it.
It has a silent "K" for crying out loud!

I know where you must live. There's only one Toronto suburb with a silent "K"....hell, there's probably only one suburb in the world with a silent "k".

[daleduke17]

What a little prick. In southern NJ we have a town called Maurice, you don't pronounce More-eese, but Morris, so you have to be careful with spelling we also have a lot of "boros" and boroughs" so assuming someone can spell something based on the way a person pronounces it is stupid. Oh, and you did nothing wrong the caller was a complete b-tch.

You just reminded me of two pitchers in baseball:

Baltimore's Jon Leicester and Boston's Jon Lester. Both pronounced last names are pronounced "Lester".

Around this part of Illinois, they decided (way back in the day) to change a couple of town pronounciations when naming towns. San Jose, IL is "San Joe's" (said like something belongs to Joe) and Athens (Long "A" sound).

Silly Illinoisans. :-p