You need to change name because I am dumb

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

The place I work at is a multi-language (and multi-client) support centre. Therefore, as you might imagine, there are people from different countries here. We all take calls in our native languages and, most of us, in English (after having passed a test to make sure that we were up to the task).

A couple of days ago I take a call from a line that usually suggests that the customer has dialed the wrong number. Simply, for that specific company, we support only two specific products while a different location (still in the UK) supports most of the others.

To be said that, while I am Italian, I apparently have an accent that can be mistaken for British. Not that I am complaining about this.

Also, while my name is Marco, I have a colleague named Michael (who is Polish) and one named Malcolm (Welsh/Scottish, actually one of the supervisors but he is always more than willing to take calls when we are short-staffed).

Me: Good morning, this is [Company] technical support, my name is Marco, how can I help you?
SC: I don't think you can [good start], but I have a problem with my [unsupported product].
Me: I'm sorry Sir, at this location we only support [supported products], I'm afraid you'll need to call [number].
SC: But they are all foreigners there! They can't understand what I say [admittedly this man had quite a "charged" accent] and they are stupid! Last time I called there I spoke to a [choice word] Italian! What are Italians doing answering my calls?
Me: Sir, I have to say that I am Italian as well, and...
SC [interrupting]: Why you lie to me! I called you more than once some time ago for a problem with [supported product] and you told me you are Polish! Then I called again and a man with a Welsh accent told me he was the only one by that name in the company, in case I needed to call back about that same ticket! You are the third Michael I talk to, and you are lying!
Me: Sir, the Polish colleague is the only one who is actually called Michael [his name is actually the Polish version of Michael, but he introduces himself as Michael to avoid puzzling customers with a name they might not recognise], the colleague with a Welsh accent is called Malcolm and I am called Marco.
SC: Well, so, just agree to use different names! Bye.
[hangs up]

[NateTheChops]

I catch crap about my name too.

It's spelled with an extra "L" and a "E". And I'll still get people who will fervantly insist that I've spelled it wrong.

Yes, because I'm likely not to know my own name.

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

I catch crap about my name too.
It's spelled with an extra "L" and a "E". And I'll still get people who will fervantly insist that I've spelled it wrong.
Yes, because I'm likely not to know my own name.

Oh, I can imagine the feeling - my cousin has a fairly common name but it is spelled with one small letter change. He regularly gets heck every time he needs to spell it because he "is spelling it wrong".

[Gawdzillers]

I have a Czech last name with a silent "H" at the beginning. Everyone pronounces it wrong and I get very irritated.

[UncleImpy]

Ahhhh, name fun. My name is Shaun. The spelling that 99% of people never guess when trying to be helpful filling out forms. "And your first name please?" "Shaun" "S-E-A-N?" "No..."

Fortunately I've never had anyone say I'm spelling it wrong, at least.

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

Also what one of my (other) supervisors often goes through is funny.
His name is Jack. Not James, his documents say that he is called JACK.
He regularly tells us that he needs to insist, every time he has to fill in an official paper or, even worse, to give his name over the phone, that it IS his name...

[Chromatix]

S-E-A-N... of the dead.

[Magpie]

I catch crap about my name too.

It's spelled with an extra "L" and a "E". And I'll still get people who will fervantly insist that I've spelled it wrong.

Yes, because I'm likely not to know my own name.

Taking a guess as to what the name is, Jackdaw has it worse: the extra "L", but still an "A".

[Bookkeeper]

At least he had a vague idea of your name.... I was working yesterday (wearing a NAMETAG) and some "funny" guy decided to call me Mark throughout the entire transaction, even though I am a) a girl and b) it wasn't really necessary to call me anything at all. At least go for a generic girl's name!

[MoonCat]

Nobody listens. My first name is relatively common, I'd answer the phone and customers would say, "Oh, Kathy (or Holly, or Ginger, or Irene, or Sally...etc) can you help me please?" I had a list of over 30 different names that people apparently pulled out of their hoo-ha, some of them don't even sound anything like my name.

My sister's name is Marcia (some people spell it Marsha). A customer looked at her nametag and said "they spelled your name wrong."

[Gaki]

I curse my parents for my name because my (rather unusual) first name ends with an "A" and my last name with an "S" so invariabley when I say them together my first name becomes a rather common name ending with an "S" and my last name is missing the beginning "S."

CURSES. I've begun to either spell my last name after I say my whole name, or even just add in my middle name to cut it up a bit.

My nametag says my first name and of course people will stare at it until I say, "Like [famous person]'s daughter."

Then it's like some magic switch has been turned on and my name is suddenly okay and isn't some horrible misrepresentation.

[Stormraven]

My name's not difficult, and actually a fairly standard spelling, but for some reason, when I'm on the phone, no one can get it right. Despite the fact that I do clearly enunciate.

It's a two syllable word starting with 'S'. I've gotten all manner of responses such as a two syllable word starting with 'J'. At least they got the cadence mostly correct.

I called in a magazine subscription once, and spelled my first name for them, and the subscription still came in in the name of a one syllable name, starting with 'G'.

[telecom_goddess]

My name is a pain in the ass cause no one ever knows how to spell it if they hear it or pronounce it if they see it in writing. This is true for first and last. Sigh.

[Rhania506]

I've posted this before, but my real first name is April. Aparantly over the phone this is extremely hard to understand, so I tend to say "My name is April, like the month". Still almost every time I have some idiot go "Rachel?". Ah yes, the month of Rachel, comes right after Octember on every other leap year.

[SailorMan]

My first name is a biblical name, though not a common one. However, it is similar to a much more common biblical name. Let's say 'Samuel.' My last name is from England, but again, it's not a very common one. People mispronounce both names horribly.

I'm the fifth person in my family line to have this name; it was my father's name, grandfather's... and great-grandfather's. My grandfather had a second cousin with the same name -- they were both named after the same original relative with that name. But this couisin was in the band of a very famous country and western star of the 40's - 50's era. In fact, this cousin's father gave the star his first place in a real band. So, if you google my real name, you get lots of information about the bandmember.

Me: nearly famous, by association?