They Can't Spell--Yet They Want Me to Find It!

[dougiezerts]

Working in Directory Assistance, I could start my own forum on SC's! But this is a special pet peeve:
A customer calls up for a doctor, or lawyer. He/she has a difficult foreign name--and the customer can't spell it!
If the SC was given this name by someone else, that's one thing. But if this is someone they've been going to for years, and they can't remember how to spell their name, that's quite another! It shows a lack of respect, in my opinion.
I need AT LEAST the first 4 letters of the name. No, our computer doesn't have a spell checker! I can try a couple spellings, but I don't have all day to check the listing, OK? If the SC can't provide me with at least that, I won't be able to find their listing--and that's not a bad reflection on me!
There, I feel better.

[Evil Queen]

*pets*

I get the same thing working at my hotel. I know what you mean.

[Bramblerose]

My maiden name (the name I use) is Scottish and short, so it's little trouble, save that last vowel.

The only people who can deal with it are 1) our blood relatives and 2) six year olds. Why six year olds? Because they carefully sound everything out. Once the human being passes the magical age of six and reads with enough fluency to gestalt (I know that's missing an h somewhere), the brain, happily skimming along, hits our name like a car on a highway hits a wall. Having been shaken out of their happy reverie, the average 7+ person will then take a glance, PANIC, and improvise something with teh same first letter and final syllable.

When you figure all that in, of course no one can spell it. These are people who do respect us in every other form, but they just can't spell and barely pronounce our name. I'm beyond caring. No one in this Bible Belt infested state can spell my rather simple first name either (the Catholics in St. Louis could get it every time), so I give.

[zigcat]

Good lord I hated those people! They'd act like it was your fault for not being able to spell it.
Look, it's your doctor/lawyer etc...

Is there an office or clinic I can check?

"I don't know"

Do you have a bill or any kind of statement that might help us?

"I didn't want to have to look for it. That's why I called you?"

Well unfortunately nothing's coming up under that spelling.

"I know he's in there. You just aren't trying hard enough. The last person found it for me?"

?????

Of course the last person found it for you. But did you write it down? Did you take the option to connect. And what, prey tell, information did you give them that you're not giving me?

[friendofjimmyk]

gestalt (I know that's missing an h somewhere), .

No, there's not. You have that spelled correctly...if that's what you were referring to.

[MyEccentricHell]

I feel your pain when it comes to looking up employees for callers on the company directory.

We list strictly last name only over 150,000 employees globally. No I cannot just seach for a Cathy so & so.......who's last name you think might start with a J in R&D.

[Andara Bledin]

gestalt (I know that's missing an h somewhere)

Nah, you're good. It's German. That's how they pronounce the "st" pairing.

^-.-^

[Bramblerose]

Thanks for that, I thought it might be up with the "g" somehow.

Something missing from the original post- In front of The only people who can deal... should go "My married name is Polish, and really, it's easy Polish.

He got too many "you should take her name" cracks when we were getting ready to marry he actually snapped (he almost never snaps). People would ask if I would hyphenate. God No. 1) I am not a fan and 2) it would be ******-*********. No form on earth is big enough for that.

I just ask a tiny bit of compassion for us weird names, I know people who would look right at my last name and spell it wrong, and I am sick to the teeth of the numbnuts who hear me clearly say "C" and write "K" anyway on my first name. I guess I have no expectations left.

I am not in favor of the utterly clueless who cannot take notes, even if it is a rough phonetic guide.

[chainedbarista]

i feel for anyone who has an 'odd' name, first or last; mine is a bear too (first name), which is one of the many reasons why i don't use it outside of legal needs.

[PepperElf]

My maiden name (the name I use) is Scottish and short, so it's little trouble, save that last vowel.

the only people who can deal with it are 1) our blood relatives and 2) six year olds.

I feel your pain... except... 6 year olds can't even get mine right. Unless they're fluent in Polish
And that's not even counting the Japanese... Polish names do NOT translate into Katakana very well.

[mcjohnwcheese]

I like having a hard to pronounce name. It makes it easy to weed out telemarketers:
TM: "Hello, is Mr. Mac-nay there?"
Me: "Click"

[Ironclad Alibi]

I have an easy to spell, and say, name. But people still get it wrong. Sometimes I didn't bother correcting them. Like when I worked for the Navy, a caller sometimes thought my first name was Captain. I let them think that.

Other times they just got the name wrong. I figured if any complaints came out of the transaction, they could blame whoever they could find with that name.

[Pagan]

Oh, hell, my last name is only 4 letters long and is one of the books of the bible and a saint and people still can't spell it right.

[crazylegs]

I always hated people who wanted a CD by <obscure band noone in the music shop has heard of> but they had no idea of the bands spelling nor the album title...