A Mind-Numbing Phone Call

[customersruinmylife]

Oh dear this one speaks for itself.

Me: Good afternoon <insert bar name here> How can I help?
SC: Yes hello, could I have the number of the <insert hotel next doors name>
Me: Oh I'm sorry, but we're not <hotel>. They are our next door neighbour.
SC: Yes I know, but I would still like their number.
Me: I'm sorry, we don't have it.
SC: How can you not have their number?
Me: Because they are not part of our company.
SC: But they are just next door to you.
Me: Yes but they are not us, and I cannot leave my place of work to get their number.
SC: But you should still have their number.
Me: I'm sorry, but other than being our neighbour, they are of no other relation to us, so we do not keep their number.
SC: THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! I WANT THEIR NUMBER! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET THEIR NUMBER??
Me: I suggest you ring direct enquiries.
SC: I'M NOT PAYING FOR THAT! I WANT THEIR NUMBER!
Me: I do not have their number.
SC: GIVE ME THEIR NUMBER! GO AND GET THEIR NUMER!
Me: I'm sorry, this is a pointless argument. I'm hanging up now.
SC: DON'T YOU DA-
Me: Goodbye.

I put the phone down. I was amazed. She didn't call back.

[Miss Maple Leaf]

Oh man, what a real winner you had there.

I would have asked her if she knew her neighbour's number, and if she said no, responded with "why not? They are right next door to you."

Of course, I'm sure that would have sailed right over her head though.

[Massage Therapist]

I get this all the time at the salon. It blows my mind. Someone will call to ask for the number of our location in [insert random suburb here].

Me: I'm sorry, but we're not actually part of a chain. We only have this location.
SC: ...but I really wanted the number for the location in []!
Me: Again, I'm sorry, but we have nothing to do with whatever salon you're talking about. I have no information on them.
SC: isn't there one on such and such cross streets?
Me: *rips hair out*

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I was always amazed at the number of people who thought Kinko's was some sort of information/phone book service.

[Boozy]

I got this all the time at the wine store. People didn't understand that:
a) We are located inside a grocery store. We are not affiliated with the grocery store in any way, we simply rent space, like a store would in the mall. So I can't "transfer you to the meat department".
b) Amazingly, not all stores that sell liquor are in the same chain. So I don't have the phone number of our competitor. Yes, I DO have a phone book. But NO, I don't plan on making my paying customers wait in line while I look that number up for your lazy ass so you can go spend money with another company.

On a related note, my mom works for a major chain drugstore that is often confused with another major chain drugstore. Her biggest pet peeve is when people go to pay and hand her the competitor's loyalty points card. Okay, understandable mistake (I'm being generous here). But to then get angry when she says she can't take it and yell "I'm never shopping at (Competitor) again!" is truly stupid.

[BookstoreEscapee]

a) We are located inside a grocery store. We are not affiliated with the grocery store in any way, we simply rent space, like a store would in the mall.

My old BN (Store1) has a Starbucks attached, and it's the same deal. They rent the space from BN, they are not a BN Cafe, they are a completely different store from us. I was covering music one day and the phone was ringing like crazy, so I finally picked it up, and the woman wanted SB's number. I told her I didn't know it and she started yelling at me and this is ridiculous etc. etc. "They're right next door to you, how can you not know their number?" Um, because they're right next door, I don't call them. Now, if she had wanted Chili's number (they are in the same parking lot) I knew that one off the top of my head . Later I realized that the Starbucks number was in the phone's little pull-out thingy that you can write numbers on . Oh, well

One day we had a guy yelling at us because he was told he could use his member card in the cafe, and Starbucks told him he couldn't use it and he wanted a refund on the card because we lied to him, blah blah. When we asked him where he bought the card, turns out it was in *Other Nearby Store* which does have a BN Cafe. He did not get his refund (at least not from us).

[Sailornight6]

why do ppl feel if you though enough of a temper tantrum you will cave to there demands?

[MadMike]

why do ppl feel if you though enough of a temper tantrum you will cave to there demands?

Because a lot of the time, it unfortunately does work. Maybe a spineless manager caves in, or maybe they complain to Corporate and get their way.

[Sailornight6]

it is unfortant, we lack personal responicibilty. i wonder what our ancestors would think if they saw the way we turned out.

[draftermatt]

I have an opposite to the story. I was trying to call a bank in a Safeway but couldn't find their number. So I called Safeway and asked if they could transfer me, no they cannot. OK, do you happen to know the number?

They told me they did, and gave me the number to a carpenter. Now, I was never sucky about it just asked a question. A simple "no" would have sufficed.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I suppose it does make sense to think that a store would have the number to a store within their store handy. But if they don't there's no reason to go all SC about it. That's what that there intarweb is for. Or hey, they have this really neat thing, a big book with all kinds of phone numbers in it...I forget what it's called...

[Fraggle]

Because a lot of the time, it unfortunately does work. Maybe a spineless manager caves in, or maybe they complain to Corporate and get their way.

It annoys the hell out of me when that happens.
Especially when i've been on a phone call for over an hour with an 'adult' throwing a fit and me giving the verbal smackdown only for some manager to cave within 2 mins of taking the call.

[Hobgoblin]

My video game store is inside a video rental store. Apparently a phone book a year or so ago screwed up and listed our number as their number. So now we get calls fairly often (some people don't update their phonebooks I guess) for the rental place. That rates a post-it with the other store's number on it. Amazingly, people don't ask us to transfer them over (which would be impossible).

[Kara]

You know, the sad thing is that this genius could have looked in the phone book in less time that it took to make this call and harass you, or even faster by googling it. Ah, the twisted logic of the customer, it knows no bounds to its stupidity.

[Imogene]

"I'm never shopping at (Competitor) again!" is truly stupid.

"So, you'll be showing up here more often?"

Which all reminds me of the time I got one of those calls.
End of the day, at Chesterfield, it's about five minutes to close. I'm working with Old SM and Homophobe AM. Phone rings, I pick it up.
RJ: "*store*, this is Juwl, how can I help you?"
P: "What's the phone number for Miss Field's?"
RJ: "I'm afraid I don't have that information."
P: "Well, when do they close?"
RJ: "I would assume in five minutes, if they aren't already, like the rest of the mall."
P: "Can you go get their number?"
RJ: "I'm not on the same level, much less the same wing as they are, by the time I got up there and back, they'd be closed."
P: "You're no help."
RJ: *to SM* "What's the number for the mall directory?"
SM: *number*
RJ: *relay number to phone*
P: *relays number to a fourth person...*
RJ: "Anything else?"
P: *click*