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Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

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Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

I work at a customer service-oriented site, but we don't ever have much familiarity with the visitor in terms of getting their names. It's always sir, ma'am, young sir or young lady, miss, etc. If they do volunteer their name, I rarely even remember it, and usually just go back to sir and ma'am. :p Then again, even my coworkers are usually referred to as Mr. ___ or Mrs. ___, no matter our friendship level with them.

And I'm usually referred to as Horn in some circles, Beer in others, since a good number of my friends have the same first name. No one ever calls me Beer Pong Horn anymore. (though I do get "BPH" in USCHO circles. :))
 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

Beer Pong Horn said:
I work at a customer service-oriented site, but we don't ever have much familiarity with the visitor in terms of getting their names. It's always sir, ma'am, young sir or young lady, miss, etc. If they do volunteer their name, I rarely even remember it, and usually just go back to sir and ma'am. :p Then again, even my coworkers are usually referred to as Mr. ___ or Mrs. ___, no matter our friendship level with them.
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Great. We just need all customer service jobs to go back to the conventions of 1825 and it'll all be good!
 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

I behave like an old man. I don't want to be bothered. If I am having touble finding something, I'll come find you. If I am having trouble finding you, I leave. I also call anyone I don't know sir or Mr., miss/ms. or ma'am. Never really thought about it. My maternal grandfather drove this stuff into my head at a young age. He is also the reason I have a very firm handshake and don't slump my shoulders.
 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

Beer Pong Horn said:
I work at a customer service-oriented site, but we don't ever have much familiarity with the visitor in terms of getting their names. It's always sir, ma'am, young sir or young lady, miss, etc. If they do volunteer their name, I rarely even remember it, and usually just go back to sir and ma'am. :p Then again, even my coworkers are usually referred to as Mr. ___ or Mrs. ___, no matter our friendship level with them.

And I'm usually referred to as Horn in some circles, Beer in others, since a good number of my friends have the same first name. No one ever calls me Beer Pong Horn anymore. (though I do get "BPH" in USCHO circles. :))
Click to expand...

I also have the bizarre syndrome of people calling me by my last name. It's a very distinctive sounding one syllable Germanic last name so it sounds really authoritative to say, I dunno.

What really sucks are all the people who see my first name is Mark and immediately start referring to me as Marky Mark or Marcus Aurelius.
 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

Twitch Boy said:
I also have the bizarre syndrome of people calling me by my last name. It's a very distinctive sounding one syllable Germanic last name so it sounds really authoritative to say, I dunno.

What really sucks are all the people who see my first name is Mark and immediately start referring to me as Marky Mark or Marcus Aurelius.
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I'm calling you Marky Mark from now on.
 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

state of hockey said:
I behave like an old man. I don't want to be bothered. If I am having touble finding something, I'll come find you. If I am having trouble finding you, I leave. I also call anyone I don't know sir or Mr., miss/ms. or ma'am. Never really thought about it. My maternal grandfather drove this stuff into my head at a young age. He is also the reason I have a very firm handshake and don't slump my shoulders.
Click to expand...

And you probably don't talk with your mouth full and cover your nose when you sneeze. Part of this is gender. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most men don't like to "shop." When I go to a retail joint I've got a pretty good idea of what I want and what I'm willing to pay. I NEVER go into a store without the intention of buying something. The idea of just wandering around looking at stuff would be like a trip to the dentist.

One variant of this erzatz familiarity is the random "how're you doing?"or "how are you today?" I'm making some selections and an "associate" drives by with a pallet of lard to restock the shelves and offers me a cheery greeting. I've not asked for his help, don't intend to interract with him in any way, and hauling lard doesn't require him to schmooze me--yet he does. Of course, in response to moronic training. I give 'em a perfunctory nod. Maybe I should whip out my latest x-rays and blood work results so we can have a nice friendly chat about how I'm REALLY doing. Companies obviously think this is the way to impress customers. I would prefer they do the impressing when I actually need or want it, not on a random basis because I pop up on somebody's radar screen.
 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

Old Pio said:
And you probably don't talk with your mouth full and cover your nose when you sneeze. Part of this is gender. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most men don't like to "shop." When I go to a retail joint I've got a pretty good idea of what I want and what I'm willing to pay. I NEVER go into a store without the intention of buying something. The idea of just wandering around looking at stuff would be like a trip to the dentist.

One variant of this erzatz familiarity is the random "how're you doing?"or "how are you today?" I'm making some selections and an "associate" drives by with a pallet of lard to restock the shelves and offers me a cheery greeting. I've not asked for his help, don't intend to interract with him in any way, and hauling lard doesn't require him to schmooze me--yet he does. Of course, in response to moronic training. I give 'em a perfunctory nod. Maybe I should whip out my latest x-rays and blood work results so we can have a nice friendly chat about how I'm REALLY doing. Companies obviously think this is the way to impress customers. I would prefer they do the impressing when I actually need or want it, not on a random basis because I pop up on somebody's radar screen.
Click to expand...

 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

bigblue_dl said:
But checks are a necessary evil for him, just think how happy he would be if he could trade a sack of oats for a carton of tobacco and some rolling papers!
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This might be the funniest thing you've posted in a long time. :D
 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

hockeybando said:
As someone who works in customer service and has to wear a nametag, I never do this to people I don't know and it makes me feel uncomfortable when people use my first name when I don't know them. To me it seems very demeaning (mostly because of how most customers will address we lowly retail slaves). My name is a term of familiarity. If you don't know me don't use it.
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I don't like it when they do it either. To me, it just feels very awkward. Though about half of my interaction with people nowadays is when they're already in a *****y mood about something so when they look for my name it's not so they can address me with it. :p

Old Pio said:
I would prefer they do the impressing when I actually need or want it, not on a random basis because I pop up on somebody's radar screen.
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My company has actually done studies and figured we were losing approximately $5 million a year by not asking people if they need help finding something.
 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

MinnesotaNorthStar said:
I don't like it when they do it either. To me, it just feels very awkward. Though about half of my interaction with people nowadays is when they're already in a *****y mood about something so when they look for my name it's not so they can address me with it. :p

My company has actually done studies and figured we were losing approximately $5 million a year by not asking people if they need help finding something.
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Well, depending on the size of the company, that could be the difference between success and failure. No doubt we've moved past the days of Mr. Whipple and there's no going back. Just about anything you can think of and lots of things you can't, have been tested with focus groups. The rationale is "we're just trying to help our customers" or similar eyewash. The purpose is to get customers out of the other guy's store and into yours. And anybody with a room temperature IQ understands there is zero sincerity involved here. It's probably true that asking people if they need help (especially when they really need it) is a plus. But that's not quite the same as the guy lugging ice up to the front of the store randomly asking "how're ya doin'?"
 
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Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

Medical Bills **** me off... It's like I need to hire a friggin accountant to keep track of who is paying what bill, when I am actually getting charged, and what exactly I'm being charged for... I had a medical problem in June and I am still fighting with my insurance company over why things were/were not paid for... Add on the fact that I have new bills showing up almost 5 months later, so the process continues...

Eff doctors and insurance... They need to get their crap together :mad::mad::mad:
 
Re: Grinding Away..Things that grind your gears, part three

RaceBoarder said:
Medical Bills **** me off... It's like I need to hire a friggin accountant to keep track of who is paying what bill, when I am actually getting charged, and what exactly I'm being charged for... I had a medical problem in June and I am still fighting with my insurance company over why things were/were not paid for... Add on the fact that I have new bills showing up almost 5 months later, so the process continues...

Eff doctors and insurance... They need to get their crap together :mad::mad::mad:
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Similarly, I have a debt collector calling me every Tuesday-Thursday about collecting on a medical bill paid in March. Actually, the bill was paid before they even started calling. They always call me while I'm in class, and it's always an automated message. I told them before it was paid but they said the needed the receipt number. Now, they want me to call them in my spare time during their business hours to verify that I paid it? Bull ****, screw hospitals/debt collectors/ autmoated messages.
 
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