I Hate the Phone

[Miss Maple Leaf]

Wow, so it's been a long time since I lasted posted here. A couple of years, I think. I've been lurking of course, but I decided that it was high time that I got back to posting here, especially since I just signed up for a Fratching account. (off topic, my spell check seems to hate Fratching. It wouldn't recognize the word until I added it; curse you spell check! My mortal forum enemy!)

Anyway, I've had a couple of jobs since my last post, and am currently working at a well-known Canadian retail store that has its own currency in denominations from $0.05 to $2. I'm a cashier there, and also run the Customer Service desk, which means that I get to answer a good chunk of the phone calls that our store receives.

Since you guys enjoy a good laugh, I thought I'd share some of the calls I've received with you. Enjoy my pain.

Gift Card Confusion

*Note: Our company also owns a chain of clothing stores for guys named Mark who work in a warehouse*

Me: *Opening spiel*
SC: Do you guys accept <Clothes Store> gift cards?
Me: I'm sorry, we don't.
SC: But it's the same people!
Me: Yes, but it's different stores.
SC: Fine! *hangs up*
Me:

(I posted this one to NotAlwaysRight as well. I hope it gets posted there! That would be cool)

If You'd Wait a Minute, You Might Actually Get Through

This one happened today.

With this guy, he called us and wanted the Parts department. I told him I'd put him on hold and page them for him. Now, Parts can be a busy department at times, especially on Sundays when there's only one guy in, so it usually takes a few minutes for them to get to the phone. (Hardware's the same way)
Most people understand this, and don't mind waiting on hold. Not this guy, though.

He hung up after about two minutes on hold and called right back, asking for the Parts department again. Once again I asked him to please hold and paged Parts. Once again he hung up after about two minutes. He called back again and angrily asked for Parts, mentioning that he was on hold twice already and didn't get through.

I explained to him that the Parts guy is a little tied up at the moment and asked him if he'd like to try again. He did, so once more I put him on hold and paged them. This time he didn't even wait one minute before hanging up the phone. At least he didn't call back anymore after that.

I know it sucks to have to wait on hold for the department you want to pick up the phone, but Jesus! He could have at least given Parts more than a minute or two to get to the phone, especially on a Sunday when we have minimal staff in. They are good about answering the phone, but only if they're given time to actually get to it. I hardly think it would have hurt the guy to just wait five minutes for them to answer, instead of hanging up so quickly.

The funny thing is, he was on Line One when he called each time, so I had to page Parts each time with that message. Poor guy there probably thought I was nagging him to answer the phone.

Please Get the Department Right

I get a few calls where people ask for our Parts department when they mean the Service Centre, and vice versa, which leads to me paging the department they ask for, and then shortly afterward hearing a page over the PA asking the other department to pick up the line. It's not sucky per se, but it is a bit inconvenient in that it wastes the asked-for department's time.
If they would just tell me what they're looking for I could page the right department for them from the get-go, instead of them guessing which department they needed and guessing wrong.


Well, those are the only ones I can think of at the moment, though I'm sure that I forgot some. Oh well. If I remember them later, I'll just post them in a new thread. Plus, I'm sure there will be many more calls where that came from.

[Jester]

Parts vs. Service might not always be a mistake.

For example, I might call and ask for Service to ask them how much it would be for them to change my truck's Rapscallion gasket, or clean out the Draggar pan. Service might then tell me that I need to order the gasket, or that it would be easier to just get a new pan. At which point I would ask them to transfer me to Parts...you see where I'm going. Also, to some people, a large department store having an automotive department might mean to them to just ask for "service" or "parts," not realizing that they are two separate departments under the "automotive" umbrella.

[bainsidhe]

About the "on hold" guy that was calling for Parts, I can understand why someone might hang up and keep trying back. Our old work phones would keep someone on hold forever without ever ringing back. Departments get busy and/or sometimes don't hear the page. If no one paged the department a second time, the customer could sit on hold for hours on end, no one the wiser. So though it may be frustrating to have a customer keep calling back (with attitude too!), I can appreciate why someone might do it.

[mattm04]

About the "on hold" guy that was calling for Parts, I can understand why someone might hang up and keep trying back. Our old work phones would keep someone on hold forever without ever ringing back. Departments get busy and/or sometimes don't hear the page. If no one paged the department a second time, the customer could sit on hold for hours on end, no one the wiser. So though it may be frustrating to have a customer keep calling back (with attitude too!), I can appreciate why someone might do it.

Sound like the same type of person who when calling a call center, keeps hanging up and calling back, but ends up putting themselves at the end of the line. If calling retail location, only giving them a minute to pick up is jut not enough time. I think our phones ring back somewhere between two and three minutes.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

At my store, hanging up and calling back every couple of minutes would definitely be dickish. The phones ring back at the service desk periodically if not answered, and their pages can be heard across the entire store.

One problem we do have is that at some of our stores, music plays over the phone while you're on hold. That doesn't happen at my store, and corporate doesn't interested in fixing that.

[Gizmo]

About the "on hold" guy that was calling for Parts, I can understand why someone might hang up and keep trying back. Our old work phones would keep someone on hold forever without ever ringing back.

Slightly off topic however I did work with someone once who was completely annoyed that someone was avoiding them for no good reason. In quick succession they phoned the company once, got put on hold. Phoned again on another phone and got put on hold again. Phoned again on another phone and got put on hold again. Eventually the reception got fed up with so many of their lines being tied up and just dropped them through to the person in question and they got the answer they'd been trying to get for weeks.

Not nice to do but I did understand considering the circumstances.

[Miss Maple Leaf]

Parts vs. Service might not always be a mistake.

<snip>

Huh. I didn't realize that. I guess because I work there, I'm used to viewing them as separate departments, but I can see now why people might view them that way.

Irv, our phones are like that too. You call the store, are given a list of numbers to press for the department you want, and the phone will ring in that department. If nobody answers it after a couple of rings, it automatically rings over to us, where we ask them to hold and page the department for them. Sometimes there's nobody near the phone in the department (because they're in a different aisle/getting something from the back for a customer) so they can't hear it and answer it, but the PA can be heard all over the store.