Queens is not a state.

[Spiffy McMoron]

What state are you in? A state of ignorance, apparently.

I prefer the state of denial.

Thank you for calling BN Mytow-uh-Othertown Of course once I did it the first time I kept doing it.

I'll still do that, after I switched jobs--and I don't even work for the same company anymore!

[DesignFox]

I give you call center people mad props for what you do. I posted a thread about a particularly rough customer I dealt with...and goddamn, the way he talked to the people on the phone was TERRIBLE.

I don't know how you deal with the stupidity and the inherent nastiness...I guess it's because the person can't see you, so it's easier for them to objectify/ignore you?

[technical.angel]

Working in a call center has caused me to doubt the intelligence of the general population.

I thought high school did that, Kimness!

[CurlyLocks]

I guess it's because the person can't see you, so it's easier for them to objectify/ignore you?

Actually, my boss has told me several times that she thinks it does have a lot to do with that, and I definitely agree.

[CSR Kim]

I don't know how you deal with the stupidity and the inherent nastiness...I guess it's because the person can't see you, so it's easier for them to objectify/ignore you?

That probably is part of it. I know I am more...assertive when talking to someone over the phone as opposed to talking to their face. Probably the same thing goes for the customers.

I've dealt with sucky customers in person, and I've dealt with them at the call center, and I must say the call center ones are a lot easier. You've got the mute button if you want to cuss them out and you can always transfer them to a supervisor if they get absurdly offensive. So far I haven't gotten any earth shattering bad customers, but the yucky ones I have gotten don't leave me feeling like I am going to cry, week in the knees, etc. If I encountered a jerk at my old job, it'd freak me out so bad I'd be shaking for an hour. I hated confrontation.

I thought high school did that, Kimness!

High school started the job, working in retail finished it.

[protege]

The people who live there don't mind getting more than their fair share of San Diegos tax money they just like to pretend that they are "special". They even use that in their addresses. Fucking snobs.

People pull that crap here too. They always want to say they live in, say, Upper St. Clair (nice 'burb south of Pittsburgh), when in reality, they live 5 miles from the township line in freaking Bridgeville (former mining/manufacturing town, not a bad area, but not as nice as USC).

*and no, I do not live in USC. I don't like most of the people...the snotty bastards who live there

[Simply Amazed]

I give you call center people mad props for what you do. I posted a thread about a particularly rough customer I dealt with...and goddamn, the way he talked to the people on the phone was TERRIBLE.

I don't know how you deal with the stupidity and the inherent nastiness...I guess it's because the person can't see you, so it's easier for them to objectify/ignore you?

I extremely rarely get a customer who continues to act badly enough that I lose control of the call. It's not that I have thick skin but I have really good debate skills and don't shy away from using words to my advantage and am extremely lucky when I do. It's second nature really and I still get great customer satisfaction scores.

One example came from a hospital job I had. There was one doctor who I just didn't get along with who called one night and ( extremely out of character btw ) just screeched at me "transfer me to <name of city another hospital is in>

I was caught totally off guard and frankly didn't immediately even realize the request was for the hospital. It seemed like such a vague request. My keen verbal reply was "what"?

<slowly this time but very nasty> "Transfer me to <name of hospital>"

By now, I recognized the caller and understood what was being requested but was still put off and in defensive mode so I said "I'm sorry. I can't do that."

"What?!!!"

"I don't have the authority. If you want a transfer you'd have to talk to the HR department then interview with your new boss, get a job offer and get permission from your current boss. I can't approve all of that. I'm simply a phone operator."

She then shrieked "fine, I'll do it myself" and hung up the phone.

I thought for a while and figured I'd get in trouble for that one but instead she was as nice as could be with me from then on and we developed a fairly friendly work relationship.

I do have a pretty funny story on how I handled a particularly nasty misogynist doctor who actually made a coworker of his cry by belittling her and then proceeded to verbally abuse one of my coworkers and refused to talk to me, hanging up when I told her to either give me the phone NOW or hang up on him. All of this because we couldn't break two hospitals rules requiring him to take five minutes to call us and verify his orders.

It took me a year to get that sucker on the phone ( he worked for a rival hospital at the time but eventually he came to work for us ) but as they say, revenge is a dish better served cold and as a teaser, he was way too embarrassed to complain about it, being made a fool of by a simple "phone person", a phrase he had used on my coworker when he said he would "not be spoken to like that by a simple phone person.

He was right. I was much worse.

[TWOLF]

Working in a call center gives you a sense of what people learn in school. One woman asked if she was going to get charged for roaming in Hawaii and advised her that since it was part of the 50 states she would be covered under her plan. Out of the blue she stated she didn't know it was a state and asked when this happened. Of course you also learn that Mexico and Canada are the 51st and 52nd state. Or that Nebreska is a country.

[ArenaBoy]

Of course you also learn that Mexico and Canada are the 51st and 52nd state. Or that Nebreska is a country.

Wha???? I've heard some stupid things said in my time such as the person who thought the upper penisula is a part of Wisconsin but Nebraska being a country? That's a new one.

[TWOLF]

Becaue of 9/11 we aren't supposed to give our location and I normaly say our call center is in the Midwest. The question I got to that one is that in Arizona.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Wha???? I've heard some stupid things said in my time such as the person who thought the upper penisula is a part of Wisconsin but Nebraska being a country? That's a new one.

Is that like how Vatican City is a separate country within Italy?

[ArenaBoy]

Actually, Vatican City is a city-state, not a country.

[Jester]

Come down to my neck of the woods.....South Florida. Many of the foreigners, mostly Cubans, are under the impression that Miami is another country, and not an exact city that is, well, last time I checked, still a part of Florida. And, yes, they get upset when they find out you're not talking to them from the same exact city, er country, that they are in. If I work in West Palm Beach, it's "Huh? Where is that at?"

We get stuff like that in the Keys all the time.

Just the other day, my last day working before this vacation, I had a guy at a table suggest to one of his friends that he buy a cigar here and "sneak" it back home. I chimed in: "You don't have to sneak it. It is legal to sell that cigar here, and since Key West is still part of the U.S., it is legal for you to take it home with you."

I can kind of understand that one, as many of the cigars down here are made by Cubans with leaves from Cuban seed, so are for all intents and purposes Cuban cigars, but are not actually Cuban cigars.

The one that just astounds me though happened a couple of weeks ago at The New Job.

A young couple took a coaster with the bar's name/logo on it and asked their waitress and the hostess to sign it. The waitress asked, "Oh, you collect these?" since many people do. The young couple's response:

"No, this is just our first time in The Bahamas."

Feel free to check your favorite map site to see where The Bahamas are and where Key West is. And I may be wrong, but I am guessing that in The Bahamas there are not nearly so many cars parked on and driving down the streets with Florida license plates on them. Just a guess.

[Mr. Crow]

Depending on who you talk to, Vermont is a city in New Hampshire or (more usually) Massachusetts. And some of them flatlanders get angry when you make crazy comments about it being its own state.

[Jester]

I have had people quite confidently debate with me the number of states there are, convinced that I am wrong that there are only 50.

I also have, on more than one occasion, heard Chicago referred to as a state.

My friend FE has a great take on this last one: "Just outside of Chicago there's a lovely little place called Illinois."