Did you want help, or did you want to be a $#*t?

[Skarredmind]

Working the audit last night at the hotel.

I had a guy call in around 2am to ask:

SC "Where are you located?"
Me "Oh we're in Horse&BuggyVille, USA on Route XX right off the Phoneyville Exit"
SC (getting huffy) "Yes, but where ARE you?"
Me "Uh... We're just off that exit..."
SC (Definitely Huffy)"Look someone else told me that you are on Route XX, but I am on route YYY. So Where are you?!"
Me "We're on Route XX..."
SC "Someone else told me that! But I am on ROUTE YYY going WEST!"
Me "Uh... Hold on?"
(Puts SC on hold, while I try to come up with an answer for "Where are you located?" Other than... you know... telling him where we're located. I realize after a minute that maybe he means, "How do I get there from where I am?")
Me "Thank you for holding, so are you..."
SC "I don't know why you can't just tell me where you are! I've been driving for 5 hours and someone told me where to go and you aren't there!"
Me "Well you said you're on YYY heading West, can you tell me where you ARE on YYY so I can try to help you get here?"
SC "Well I am going East now!"
Me "ok..."
SC "I turned around at the Lizardbreathtown exit!"
Me (Oh wow, he's WAY past us but at least he gave a landmark so I have some clue where he *MIGHT* be) "Ok... well from there you want to get off at the ZZZ exit, I think."
SC "YOU THINK?!?!?! You think or you know?! I've been driving for Blargety blarg and blah blah ANGRY BLARG!"
Me "Look sir, I am just trying to help, you can take my help or you can find someone else to give you directions..."
SC "ISN'T THERE SOMEONE ELSE THERE WHO KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE?!?"
Me (Looks at the clock yeah, still way late at night) "Um no? Its 2am..."
SC "BLARGETY BLARGLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!"
Me "..."
SC "Blargety Blarg!"
Me "Let me put you on hold a minute." (CLICK. Hits up google maps, and tries to figure out exactly where Captain Numbnuts is.)
Me "OK sir, if you are where I think you are, you want to get off at the Fate Street exit. Which is Route BB"
SC "WHAT HAPPENED TO RT ZZZ?!?!?!"
Me "You can go that way if you want."
SC "JUST TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE!"
Me "Ok, if you are where I think you are you want to get off at the Fate St Exit which is route BB"
SC "RT GG?!"
Me "No. RT B! B!"
SC "BLOAT STREET?!"
Me "No, *FATE* STREET then follow *FATE STREET ROUTE BB* until you see us on the right."
SC "Fine." (Click)

When the knob walked in he tried causing shit too, demanded his receipt for his stay before you know, he actually stayed. When I explained that we don't charge him for his stay until check out he demanded to know if we'd be at the desk still at 6am (Its now around 2:30am) when he was planning to check out. I told him of course we would. (He said it in such a way that he figured we'd close the desk down for some reason, and that he'd need his receipt now, before he'd checked in. Even though it wouldn't show anything until he checked out.) Big shocker when I left at 8am and he'd still not been down for his 6am check out.

You know, I can understand being frustrated at being lost. But here's the deal. If you are going somewhere for business, and don't have the sense to get good directions before you leave. Or, as in his case can't FOLLOW those directions (because if he was on YYY he drove past a VERY well marked connection with XX... well marked enough that he must have been struck with temporary blindness (or permanent stupidity) to miss it.) then it KINDA falls on him, the traveler to avail himself of one of the multitudes of ways that one might be able to navigate their way from point A to point B somewhere else in the country.

Nowhere in my job description does it say, "Translate Idiotese." Nor does it say "Be a Human Atlas with on phone index capabilities."

Sigh. Oh and I work all weekend this weekend, and all weekend next weekend. Joy.

[thehuckster]

"Look someone else told me that you are on Route XX, but I am on route YYY. So Where are you?!"
"I don't know why you can't just tell me where you are! I've been driving for 5 hours and someone told me where to go and you aren't there!"

Contradictory SC is contradictory. Not to mention extremely stupid if he drives 5 hours aimlessly before finally asking for help. Although isn't that the male stereotype?

[Dips]

Ugh.

I wouldn't even let my own daughter talk to me like that when she got lost and called looking for help.

I don't care how frustrated he was, he doesn't get to treat the person trying to help him like that.

[Trixie]

I hate when people call up my store asking where we are and directions. Knowing all the landmarks, highways and exits for a 50 mile radius isn't in my job description. I know how to get to where I need to be and if I don't know I find out for myself. Or get someone else to drive.

[XCashier]

Contradictory SC is contradictory. Not to mention extremely stupid if he drives 5 hours aimlessly before finally asking for help. Although isn't that the male stereotype?

Yes, there is an old joke about that.
Q: Why did Moses wander in the desert for forty years?
A: Because even back then, men wouldn't stop and ask for directions!

But seriously, when I'm going someplace, I print out directions from Google maps or Mapquest. Since I started doing that, I've never had to call anyone for directions (though I certainly would if I needed to, and I definitely wouldn't scream at that person!). Eventually I will get a GPS, but until then, Google maps will do nicely.

[Jester]

I have called and asked for directions when I couldn't find something. And even if I was frustrated, as is usually the case when I can't find what I'm looking for, I never berated the person giving me directions. Because they're giving me directions. They're helping me unlose myself. Why in the flying hell would I want to piss these people off?

[Skarredmind]

Believe me, it took all my willpower to not just inform him that if my help wasn't what he needed he was welcome to speak to anyone else in the area that was open at 2am for help.

I get people who call for directions not REGULARLY, but commonly enough that I can USUALLY help people out. But to give directions I need to know... you know... where you're coming from. In light of I am heading West on a Road that quite literally covers half the state.

The best part (because I just looked the whole thing up) is that the roads don't just MEET near me... the road he was on STARTS there. He literally HAD to be on the right road, and inexplicably GOT OFF THE ROAD he was supposed to be on, in order to venture off into lala land.

I print my own maps online too. My wife also has a GPS that I use for any trip over an hour where I am not familiar with the route, and my phone has a built in GPS that (at the least) shows me my position via google maps, so I can navigate my way out when I am lost.

I just can't fathom hopping in the car for a multiple hour trip without planning ahead to have the main plan and a contingency in case something happens. (Murphy's law was mostly written for me and my family... it ALWAYS applies.)

[Skarredmind]

Also if you want information, asking the right question never hurts. Its not, "WHERE THE BLOODY A*#$*( &@#&@#@ $&@)(#$()@ @&#@($ ARE YOOOOOOUUUUU????"

Its, "I seem to have made a bad turn somewhere, can you help me figure out how to get there?"

But then that's me...

I actually notice that the business this guy was related with is about 50% EWs and 50% really awesome down to earth guys (and gals). Considering they all work in sales... its just a mystery to me. Maybe some day if I move on to a different job I will call some of the troublemakers to "purchase" one the the things they deal in.

[Merriweather]

SC "ISN'T THERE SOMEONE ELSE THERE WHO KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE?!?"

Sir, I know exactly where I am. You, on the other hand, are the one who doesn't seem to know where they are.

[bainsidhe]

Considering they all work in sales...

I can believe it. I've worked with salespeople who were sweet as pie and charming to customers, but were assholes (either demeaning or rudely demanding) of anyone "beneath" them, which included lower-level coworkers or someone they were buying a service from (including vendors).

The demeaning attitude was sadly more common. Fortunately I've largely worked with awesome people.

[MoonCat]

Yeah, salespeople can be bitches, I should know. Of course I'm on the bottom rung of salespeople, somewhere below "peon." So I've gotten bitched at by salespeople who consider themselves members of the upper echelon.

I've had people call in and ask me to tell them how to get to our building from where they are. I don't drive, so I can't help 'em. I can't even tell them what exit to get off the thruway. Usually I transfer them to someone else who does drive.

I did have to wonder a little at the guy who claimed to be driving a truck with a load of Sunday inserts, who said he didn't know how to get here.

[BlaqueKatt]

Because they're giving me directions. They're helping me unlose myself. Why in the flying hell would I want to piss these people off?

yeah you do that and we might turn what would be a five minute straight drive into a two hour wild goose chase, not that I ever did that while working 3rd shift in a gas station when they'd ask for the male worker to give them directions. He'd direct them to me as he just moved there , he knew what I'd do when irked by a sexist, He lived with me

[malmalthekiller]

I hate when people call up my store asking where we are and directions. Knowing all the landmarks, highways and exits for a 50 mile radius isn't in my job description. I know how to get to where I need to be and if I don't know I find out for myself. Or get someone else to drive.

In my retail job, and past jobs (current full-time job is a call center) do this as well. I'm notoriously horrible with directions. If I don't know how to get somewhere, I'm using my GPS. God help me if there's an accident and I have to veer off course from the way I usually go. I usually call my sister, exasperated.

So people will call and yell, asking where we are located, how do they get there from _____ town, or highway. When I don't know, they get frustrated. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW?"

Listen, this is the 21st century, GOOGLE MAP IT, ok?

[Trixie]

In my retail job, and past jobs (current full-time job is a call center) do this as well. I'm notoriously horrible with directions.

Yeah, I'm horrible with directions, too. I'm good in the car and can usually find my way on the road but as far as telling people how to get somewhere, forget it.

People will come in all the time and when I can't help them ask if anyone else can. Uh, let me just read everyone's mind here and figure that out for ya, k?

[Andara Bledin]

I'm the resident direction-giver at my work. I seem to be the only person who can manage to not get people lost. *

The worst part is that even when my co-workers give good directions, the people involved still can't manage to get to our building. My favorite was the woman who sent her elderly, barely-speaking-English parents to come will call a part, didn't give them any real directions to speak of, and then they called trying to find out how to get there and then they refused to turn around after it was learned they were going the wrong way and had been for miles. ... It probably didn't help that another person in the office kept saying, "Make a right... then another right... then another right...." repeating liberally. It's now a meme at the office. Then again, considering how stubborn and irritating those people were, it probably didn't hurt, either.

* We won't discuss the time when I told someone to turn right when there was no right to turn and it should have been a left. It never happened. Never! >_>

^-.-^