So you can't get through...

[depechemodefan]

Last Sat. a co-worker and I were answering phones between 9-10am. At one point I got a woman who was in our catalog and coudln't find 2 books, so she wanted me to look for "a couple more" which ended up being 8 books. That took up a lot of time (I wished she done it herself, but I didnt' have a polite way to tell her), but really, in between calls we had gaps (maybe a min. or 2) of time. People didn't have to wait long. Note, we have caller id.

So here's this SC.

Me: *phone answering speil*
SC: What time you open?
Me: 9am
SC: who is in charge?
Me: It's Kay Blah.
SC: Can I speak with her?
Me: Yes. One moment please.

Behind me I hear my coworker saying:
Kay Blah is charge. One moment, I'll see where she is.

Me: hey, cw, I have someone who needs Kay too.
cw: Is it Hemy Tire? (note, changed name of guilty, even the person in charge)
me: yah. *confused*

So we both get back on the phone and realize the woman is talking to both of us.
Me: Ma'm? I'll let my coworker help you.
SC: I don't care who helps me, I want to talk to the person in charge.

I hang up for the next call.
My cw can't find the person in charge. The person in charge isn't suppose to wander around. He/She is suppose to be reachable, esp. for occassions like this, when a patron wants to speak to the person in charge. I decided to look for Kay on the 3rd floor, where Telephone Reference is (we are in a small room), and I see her talking to a cw. I told her she was needed.

So Kay spoke to the sc. Who complained that she called and waited 20 min. for someone to pick up. None of us were on a call for 20 min. Kay asked if we were here the whole time, since we opened, and I told her yes.

The sc might have been on hold for a min. Hey, maybe even 5 min. But she had 3 lines in use to call us (according to Kay) and the sc didn't see the problem that she had the only 2 librarians answering the phones on the lines, tying up the line.

[Ironclad Alibi]

This reminds me of the story about the woman that wanted to buy some lottery (?) tickets by phone. She called on two lines just as the deadline for buying the tickets approached. She said something that made both operators think the other one was going to handle the purchase, and both operators hung up. Her cleverness in calling on two lines was her downfall, and she missed out on buying the tickets. (She wouldn't have won anyway, but that's not the point.)