City Dwelling Addresses

[SteveZim1017]

I service a 3 state radius for sales, and it never ceases to amaze me how many large city dwellers dont give their full addresses. it always goes the same way...

ME: And Your address sir?

SC: 25 Johnson St

::Silence::

(this is the point where I try the old "mmmhmm" or "ok.." just in case they were pausing to let me write/type)

::more nothing:::

Me: and the rest?

SC: thats it

me: I need the city state and ZIP....

:: always all huffy:: SC: grumph, its obviously <large city>


am I the only one who gets the half addressers?

[phantasy]

Nope. I get them too, and my company services the entire nation.

I also get the people that think I already know what their phone numbers area code is.

Me: "And may I have your phone number?"

SC: "It's XXX-XXXX"

:silence:

Me: "Your area code?"

SC: *mumbleblargle* I'm from <state>

Me: "And I'm from MD but I don't live there anymore...."

SC: "ugh, it's XXX"

See? Was that so hard? You could have saved 10 breaths just by giving me 3 more digits.

[Sheldonrs]

I get them too. Mostly because people who find our phone number from our web site don't notice that we are in Phoenix.
I also get annoyed by the ones who abreviate their information when the write or fax us. PCH instead of Pacific Coast Highway, etc.

[Hermione]

I've gotten this before on the phones:

Me:"May I have your address WITH THE CITY STATE AND ZIP CODE?"
SC:"23 Sucky Customer Street"
Me:"And the city state and zip code?"
SC:"Idiotville"
Me:"And the state and zip code?"
SC:"Texas"
Me:"And the zip code?"
SC: "25747"

They don't get it. For account security I have to verify the WHOLE ADDRESS.

I weep.

[Dreamstalker]

My stepfather will tend to omit the zip code when sending things; generally they show up on time, but I once had a Christmas present wind up on the other side of town. Luckily the box had delivery confirmation and the accidental recipient was honest enough to point out the mistake so it got bounced back to my local PO and they called me.

[Hyndis]

I get this ALL THE TIME.

We send out things to the the entire planet, barring countries under embargo or war zones for obvious reasons. Very often I get people who only give me the street name and number, and thats it.

What city?

What state/province?

What country?

C'mon, this is important information! If I'm going to ship something to you I need to know where you live. Should I just address the box with your $1000 item in it to "Joe Smith, 123 Main Street" and then hope for the best? Hey, its your money...

They will fight me on it. They will throw tantrum, write angry rants, report me to the BBB, write letters to the CEO trying to get me fired. Sometimes it takes literally weeks for them to actually give me the information requested!

I just don't get it. They will go through mountains of time and effort to write 5 page angry letters to us, but refuse to give their full shipping address.

[Sonoma]

If we get a call from an office that's not in part of our regular service area, we'll ask for their city & state. You don't know how many times I just get told "California" or "Texas", or any other random state.

Now, I've never been to Texas, but I HAVE been to California. I can pretty much guarantee that either state does have more than one city. Heck, they may even have 3 or 4.

[Exaspera]

I'm so curious. Why on earth (no pun intended) would they refuse to give you an address?! Do they want to fight the fact that they didn't get what they ordered with you, too?

[bainsidhe]

For some reason customers never want to tell me the state they reside in. They'll say "Johnsonville" and act surprised when I prompt them for additional info.

[mikoyan29]

Because you know Johnson is such an obscure name that it could only be in one city....

Dumb ass...

[MergedLoki]

I've gotten half (or 1/3) birthdates.

like ok i work @a hospital so what were supposed to do when we get a patient is confirm that 'john smith' born 'may 5th, 1960' is really the right guy.

so we ask for name and birthdate (usually) to confirm we have the correct patient.

a few times now i've gotten this respone

me: mr. john smith?

patient: yep thats me.

me: alright sir and what's your birthdate?

pt: 1960

me: ...
me: ...
me: and... the montha nd day?

pt: May.

me: ...
me: ...
me: and the day?

pt: 5th!

i mean really when someone says 'date of birth' or 'birth date' they dont just mean the YEAR you were born.

[HYHYBT]

From the customer side, I've gotten the opposite now and then. This is a small town. One zip code, and even with cell phones you're not likely to have but the one area code either. Even though we've had ten-digit dialing for some years now, I get people looking at me funny when I give my number starting with 706- because everyone else leaves that off as assumed. For that matter, until about fifteen years ago everybody had the same prefix as well, and only said the last four digits, which kept me from being able to place a call until second grade or so because I didn't know you had to put in 335 first! And I've gotten the same giving my address too, most recently at the bank. I had to get my ATM card replaced, and the lady asked me to confirm my address. Again, a funny look when I continued past the street into that last line of city, state, zip.

[smileyeagle1021]

HYHYBT, I get that a lot. I get strange looks for giving out my full 10 digit phone number... people look at me like I have two heads when I start with the area code, like no shit, you have a Salt Lake area code (which btw, supposedly they are adding another one). Of course the fact that I frequently travel and do have to worry about the full 10 digits is irrelevent, for that matter, in a tourist city like Salt Lake, you should expect that anyone giving you a number could be an out of area number.

[Bandit]

From the customer side, I've gotten the opposite now and then. This is a small town. One zip code, and even with cell phones you're not likely to have but the one area code either. Even though we've had ten-digit dialing for some years now, I get people looking at me funny when I give my number starting with 706- because everyone else leaves that off as assumed.

I went through the first Area Code split in Canada, and it was chaos.

Since then, I've lived in a couple of regions where the split has not happened yet.

It's chaos - I've so use to rattling off the full number that people have looked at me like I've grown a second head at times.

There's a new overly area code coming here (for the first time) in a couple of weeks, so I can see even more chaos coming soon.

I picture much of both rolling of eyes and pulling of teeth coming.

B

[Magpie]

I also get annoyed by the ones who abreviate their information when the write or fax us. PCH instead of Pacific Coast Highway, etc.

Are any of the abbreviations ones that will get the package to the recipient anyhow?

And I've gotten the same giving my address too, most recently at the bank. I had to get my ATM card replaced, and the lady asked me to confirm my address. Again, a funny look when I continued past the street into that last line of city, state, zip.

With confirming addresses I can see that, because sometimes all they care about is if you've moved. As long as the street address is the same they're good. What's amusing is that this is the third address I've had on this street. My previous address was the same street as I currently live on, and one three houses ago also was. So I get "You're still on XYZ street?" and I then have to either just give the full street address (which a lot of the time they're not expecting so it throws them for a loop and slows them down), or ask for more details. While the latter does break them out of routine also, I find people get less confused if I do that. They just think I'm an idiot instead.

I went through the first Area Code split in Canada, and it was chaos.

Since then, I've lived in a couple of regions where the split has not happened yet.

It's chaos - I've so use to rattling off the full number that people have looked at me like I've grown a second head at times.

I thought that they decided that the area code split went so badly that they weren't going to split them again, just add new area codes. However, the number of people who still have their 7-digit signs is disturbing, especially since the new area code has been rolled out here already. I wonder how many of them try to dial *old area code* *new area code* *number*. Because some of the people who think I'm crazy for giving a 10-digit number are dealing with a lot of students, who are far more likely to have the new area code.