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Not wholly to do with SCs - but it played it's part.
Normally when I spend my morning dealing directly with the public I see 8 people in a morning (because it takes a long time with each one - but I'm still in awe of everyone who managed a high turnover of SCs, particularly those who do phone work). Yesterday I spent 2 hours longer than normal and saw 7 people. A colleague had to help me out.
So :
1) She wasn't exactly sucky, she was perfectly nice. But she's also the reason my day started to fall apart. She had mental health problems and talked and talked. I'm pretty good at getting to the point, and directing people to keep on track, but nothing worked. What should have taken 20 minutes (as we couldn't really help her) took over an hour and left my head hurting.
2) Not sucky at all, but had a hideously complicated problem that we can't really give advice on but also can't say we don't help with. The booklet giving a brief introduction to the issue in question is 42 pages long, and doesn't really answer the question. Took along time, and I didn't feel like I'd helped much.
3) Not sucky - but again complicated. The customer had been ripped off by the landlord/letting agent and was asking about legal action. One thing hinged on a legal point we certainly couldn't answer, and neither could a trained solicitor we contacted. This meant I spent about half an hour trying to work out the answer, then another half an hour suggesting other places they could ask, and explaining all the different options as I couldn't suggest the best one. Took forever.
Slight
moment - I discovered they'd signed the tenancy they'd been ripped off with ONE DAY after my colleague advised them because they'd been ripped off on their last tenancy 
Nice guys. But I worry we may be seeing them again.
4) I've seen this woman before. She's not sucky in manner but...
She believes her landlords are wrong to tell her she owes a certain amount in rent. The landlords (housing association) say it all started in 2001 - when full rent was paid. But neither she nor the landlord has ever been able to pinpoint either where the rent wasn't paid, or where it was paid. I'm not ruling out the customer being right here, but I can't really help until she gets some evidence.
(I try never to rule out people being right. I once advised an elderly man who obviously had both mental health problems and some level of senility. He swore blind his bank hadn't credited him over a hundred pounds they should have. I was sure he must have made the mistake but asked him to return with a statement, thinking I could point out where he'd gone wrong. The bank really was wrong - and I sent him down with a letter that got them to credit the money the same day).
Yesterday she turned up with some evidence she'd found.
Computer print outs from 2001.
On spool paper. Selotaped into a long scroll.
With completely unexplained calculations all over it.
Miraculously I managed to show that the rent arrears occured in 1998 and 1999. Then the woman showed papers showing a lump sum was paid to clear this in 2003.
So now we're back to the evidence. If she can get an account from the landlord for 2003 it will either show the payment or not, and we'll know the answer.
Very annoyingly she hadn't said she'd shown the papers to a colleague last week. She told me (which is an SC thing) that my colleague said she couldn't help, but she'd found this since. Not true.
However my colleague had made such a balls up of her written records that this wasn't shown nor were several very important things she'd been told to tell the customer.
5) Sucky. Very very sucky.
This woman asked my colleague for help in November regarding scheduling debt payments. However she claims to be self-employed and has no evidence of income. the low income claimed (with just enough hours worked to claim maximum benefit to top it up) is extremely suspicious. I suspect either she is commiting fraud, or she is being exploited by someone who has found a way to underpay her...
We can't help without evidence of income.
Customer says that's lucky ! She has an appointment with her accountant the same day ! She'll come back tomorrow with the accounts.
2 months later she comes in.
She is now being evicted because as well as the debts we knew about she hasn't been paying the rent.
I can do absolutely nothing because we still need that evidence.
She barely understood english (particularly anything asking about the past - which made it complicated), she did however understand enough to be visibly embarrassed when I reminded her she said she'd be in the next day and asked how it had gone with the accountant.
She says she'll be back on Monday. I wonder what will happen. I don't believe she has the evidence. But without it she will lose her home...
6) Even more sucky. This woman had seen the same colleague as the last one - and had also lied to her.
She saw my colleague and told her one story.
The manager checked the case and thought we needed more information. She told him something completely different (meaning he thought my colleague had messed up
)
Yesterday she told me something different. Her paperwork showed something different again.
I had to rework out her position about 4 times as new information came up.
It all adds up to - she's completely out of luck.
7) Perfectly nice woman. Reasonable case - though not quick. Unfortunately they'd already broken me by then.
.....
I don't get why people lie to us. I give advice - that is it. I can't give you money if I like you
If you tell me what your situation is I can give you correct advice. If you tell me something you think will make me more sympathetic I will give you the wrong advice because I won't know what's going on really.
.....
So, for the bonus suckiness, I nearly killed a colleague yesterday. In one day she :
As I was leaving she was also leaving, and she got into a car with her husband I heard her snapping at him "You said you'd be 2 minutes". I don't know what was wrong with her - I never like her much but I've never been sent into a near murderous rage before either.
I am posting today not yesterday because I just recovered from being curled in a foetal position.
Victoria J
Normally when I spend my morning dealing directly with the public I see 8 people in a morning (because it takes a long time with each one - but I'm still in awe of everyone who managed a high turnover of SCs, particularly those who do phone work). Yesterday I spent 2 hours longer than normal and saw 7 people. A colleague had to help me out.
So :
1) She wasn't exactly sucky, she was perfectly nice. But she's also the reason my day started to fall apart. She had mental health problems and talked and talked. I'm pretty good at getting to the point, and directing people to keep on track, but nothing worked. What should have taken 20 minutes (as we couldn't really help her) took over an hour and left my head hurting.
2) Not sucky at all, but had a hideously complicated problem that we can't really give advice on but also can't say we don't help with. The booklet giving a brief introduction to the issue in question is 42 pages long, and doesn't really answer the question. Took along time, and I didn't feel like I'd helped much.
3) Not sucky - but again complicated. The customer had been ripped off by the landlord/letting agent and was asking about legal action. One thing hinged on a legal point we certainly couldn't answer, and neither could a trained solicitor we contacted. This meant I spent about half an hour trying to work out the answer, then another half an hour suggesting other places they could ask, and explaining all the different options as I couldn't suggest the best one. Took forever.
Slight
moment - I discovered they'd signed the tenancy they'd been ripped off with ONE DAY after my colleague advised them because they'd been ripped off on their last tenancy Nice guys. But I worry we may be seeing them again.
4) I've seen this woman before. She's not sucky in manner but...
She believes her landlords are wrong to tell her she owes a certain amount in rent. The landlords (housing association) say it all started in 2001 - when full rent was paid. But neither she nor the landlord has ever been able to pinpoint either where the rent wasn't paid, or where it was paid. I'm not ruling out the customer being right here, but I can't really help until she gets some evidence.
(I try never to rule out people being right. I once advised an elderly man who obviously had both mental health problems and some level of senility. He swore blind his bank hadn't credited him over a hundred pounds they should have. I was sure he must have made the mistake but asked him to return with a statement, thinking I could point out where he'd gone wrong. The bank really was wrong - and I sent him down with a letter that got them to credit the money the same day).
Yesterday she turned up with some evidence she'd found.
Computer print outs from 2001.
On spool paper. Selotaped into a long scroll.
With completely unexplained calculations all over it.
Miraculously I managed to show that the rent arrears occured in 1998 and 1999. Then the woman showed papers showing a lump sum was paid to clear this in 2003.
So now we're back to the evidence. If she can get an account from the landlord for 2003 it will either show the payment or not, and we'll know the answer.
Very annoyingly she hadn't said she'd shown the papers to a colleague last week. She told me (which is an SC thing) that my colleague said she couldn't help, but she'd found this since. Not true.
However my colleague had made such a balls up of her written records that this wasn't shown nor were several very important things she'd been told to tell the customer.
5) Sucky. Very very sucky.
This woman asked my colleague for help in November regarding scheduling debt payments. However she claims to be self-employed and has no evidence of income. the low income claimed (with just enough hours worked to claim maximum benefit to top it up) is extremely suspicious. I suspect either she is commiting fraud, or she is being exploited by someone who has found a way to underpay her...
We can't help without evidence of income.
Customer says that's lucky ! She has an appointment with her accountant the same day ! She'll come back tomorrow with the accounts.
2 months later she comes in.
She is now being evicted because as well as the debts we knew about she hasn't been paying the rent.
I can do absolutely nothing because we still need that evidence.
She barely understood english (particularly anything asking about the past - which made it complicated), she did however understand enough to be visibly embarrassed when I reminded her she said she'd be in the next day and asked how it had gone with the accountant.
She says she'll be back on Monday. I wonder what will happen. I don't believe she has the evidence. But without it she will lose her home...
6) Even more sucky. This woman had seen the same colleague as the last one - and had also lied to her.
She saw my colleague and told her one story.
The manager checked the case and thought we needed more information. She told him something completely different (meaning he thought my colleague had messed up
) Yesterday she told me something different. Her paperwork showed something different again.
I had to rework out her position about 4 times as new information came up.
It all adds up to - she's completely out of luck.
7) Perfectly nice woman. Reasonable case - though not quick. Unfortunately they'd already broken me by then.
.....
I don't get why people lie to us. I give advice - that is it. I can't give you money if I like you
If you tell me what your situation is I can give you correct advice. If you tell me something you think will make me more sympathetic I will give you the wrong advice because I won't know what's going on really......
So, for the bonus suckiness, I nearly killed a colleague yesterday. In one day she :
- glared at me when I walked in the building because she thinks I should have been there earlier
- Interupted me when I was talking to the manager, about a customer, while a customer was waiting for me. That means I HAVE PRIORITY. What did she want - well she repeatedly said "excuse me, excuse me" turned all the lights on and off, and complained the bulbs seemed a bit dim.
- walked through me instead of round me (and then glared at me for this)
- Tried to make me sign a birthday card for someone while I had a customer waiting. I told her I could only do it after I'd finished working with the customers.
- Get the receptionist to later call me away from a customer to sign the same damn card.
- Take up over 10 minutes of the managers time (apparently, seen through the glass door, asking for his opinion on a case then disagreeing with him) while all of us with customers couldn't then talk to him. He was specifically on the rota to support US, and it basically meant all of us lost 10 minutes while we waited for answers...
- Walk past and sneer and say "Oh, that's the smell" as I walked through the main office with my lunch. A somewhat greasy toasted cheese sandwich may not be the most appetising thing, but it was all that was available as I'd finished so horribly late and didn't get lunch till nearly 3.
As I was leaving she was also leaving, and she got into a car with her husband I heard her snapping at him "You said you'd be 2 minutes". I don't know what was wrong with her - I never like her much but I've never been sent into a near murderous rage before either.
I am posting today not yesterday because I just recovered from being curled in a foetal position.
Victoria J
). I'd ship you mine but it would take some time, being overseas and all.
That's a LOLcat waiting to happen.
I AM the evil bastard!
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