Mr. Opposite

[Victoria J]

Customer : I am very happy. I saw this woman next week and she took all my paperwork and did nothing for me.



Very limited English language, very confused guy.

He also gave a completely different name to his last visit (2 weeks ago - NOT next week ) Last time he was FIRSTNAME OTHERNAME, this time he was DIFFERENTNAME MISSPELLEDFIRSTNAME He had no explanation for this.

We hadn't taken all his papers. We had done nothing - for a whole lot of reasons we had explained. We hadn't said we would do anything. We had sent to him to an appointment elsewhere which he remembered when I asked him about it, but couldn't remember whether he'd gone.

Luckily he was very easy to boss about. I think he spends a lot of time with official people who tell him he's wrong (because he is wrong due to the confusion). So he kind of went along with whatever I said.

Victoria J

[Andara Bledin]

Ok, Mr Confused needs to get himself a notebook and use it to keep notes about things, because he's obviously incapable of remembering much of anything on his own.

^-.-^

[lupo pazzesco]

Ok, Mr Confused needs to get himself a notebook and use it to keep notes about things, because he's obviously incapable of remembering much of anything on his own.

^-.-^

But...but...but...that would...make SENSE!!

Or, y'know, he probably said the same thing to himself a while ago and just can't remember whether he did or not.

:P

sorry, feeling silly right now.

[Ghel]

I had a similar issue with a customer today. No language issue, it's just that she's starting to get senile. I had to repeat everything two or three times, and I'm still not sure she got it. I ended up writing down the most important things on the outside of the envelope that I put all her paperwork in.

Now, the bit about having a completely different name baffles me.

[Andara Bledin]

On the name thing, I'm wondering if he's from someplace that puts the family name first.

And if it's from a non-Roman alphabet, different spellings aren't necessarily wrong.

^-.-^

[Victoria J]

On the name thing, I'm wondering if he's from someplace that puts the family name first.

And if it's from a non-Roman alphabet, different spellings aren't necessarily wrong.

^-.-^

Some variant spellings aren't uncommon (particularly with Asian names in my experience, presumably because the "right" spelling does indeed use different letters altogether) - but this is really mangled. I don't think it's a language issue. He's not from a family name first culture.

None of this would explain why he can't explain why he gave us different names, and just looks baffled when I ask.

(And we don't care what name you give us - we just need to find the file. If you want your firstname as your lastname on the file, fine as long as it is consistent).

It is possibly more significant that he also has apparently been accused by a government agency of fraud...

Victoria J

[Andara Bledin]

It is possibly more significant that he also has apparently been accused by a government agency of fraud...

Ahhh... So he's caught himself in his own tangled web, is that it?

Too bad he doesn't have a notebook; then it could be used as evidence.

^-.-^

[Victoria J]

Ahhh... So he's caught himself in his own tangled web, is that it?

I don't know that the two things are in any way linked. But attempted fraud is probably not a good idea if your grasp of the language is poor, you aren't very smart and you have mental health problems.

Victoria J

[Samaliel]

And now I'm wondering if you can get charged with attempted fraud because you're confused enough to completely bork your paperwork?

[Zombi]

When I was marking exams, the tutor had to fill in a recording sheet with the names of everyone who had taken the exam. The names on this list should match with the names written on the exam papers, right? One tutor had just written 'Olga' on the recording sheet, no surname or anything. There was no exam paper for 'Olga', but there was one for another student with a completely different name that didn't appear on the recording sheet. I had to track down this tutor, who had no idea who 'Olga' was at first, then it became clear to her when I showed her the exam paper. 'Oh, you mean ___!!' Well why didn't you write that on the form, you dingbat?!
You find that a lot with African students who have several 'given' names and don't always use the same one, or East Asian students who have their 'registered' name and then a different preferred name. Often they or the tutor will only give you their preferred name and you then wonder why it's not on the system.
That's why I imposed a rule that students had to write the name that was on their student pass on their exam paper, regardless of what they were called in class, because then at least I would know how to find them on the database.