h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now, with all due respect to my fellow researchers in the service industry, I'd like to rant. As the name implies, it's their job to SERVE , right? Nothing irritates me more, can send me into near stroke-inducing rage than a service person who acts as though I'm infringing on her (and it's usually a "her") free time by *gasp* placing an order!

Or the "sales assistant" who sees you standing at the cash desk, continues her conversation with a colleague, eventually wanders over to the till, picks up a label and goes back to her conversation. I was absolutely livid. I had to leave before I did something which would be very cathartic, but would result in a conviction for GBH. I settled for vociferous objection to the customer service people, who also ignored me for a good while. I've never been back and never will.

I usually *accidentally* knock a whole display of clothes/tins/whatever the shop sells over as I leave...make a half arsed attempt to tidy them up (generally means you get to rub them on the floor and crease them a bit more) and then look at watch and hurry off like you have a bus to catch

nb: not reccommened in shops with "we charge for breakages" policies

Nah .. just because you're paid to do a job doesn't mean you have to enjoy it too. Perks like standing around chatting for a few minutes are a great cure for those minimum wage blues ..

On the other side of the coin there are the customers who assume that since you work in a certain place, you can (and have to) help them sort out all of their problems.

I work with Technical support for IBM. Trying to fix faults on Laptops, advising customers on what to do to get a solution to their problem. I can honestly say that I don't have the faintest idea on how the ordering system works when someone wants to order a new piece of hard ware, because it's not my job. But still, I get asked by a lot of people about where their nearest retailer is located, or how much this or that costs, just because I work where I work. And there are more than a few of these people who gets really stroppy when I politely tell them that I honestly don't know, but I can redirect them to someone who does know.
Hey, if I could, I'd gladly help them, as a matter of fact, I was once told by my Team Leader during a review meeting that I helped the customers TOO MUCH!
The problem is that I don't know everything about everything, but some people assume that you do when they call in.

I think what I've learned since working here is to have more patience with people working in call centres as I know how it feels.

Trying to talk to someone in a service industry and instead getting a stupid computerised voice mail system which
1) makes you listend to a lot of stupid lists & press a key to get to supposedly the right department.

I find refusing to push any buttons works quite well as you usually get put through to a human. (I say usually as I tried this with the Millenium Wheel and got a recorded message that basically told me to get a newer phone or come to London in person to book tickets!)

2) then puts you on hold for a stupid amount of time (my last one was 17 minutes) listening to cheap music and a recorded message telling me to hold & how much they love me & will get to me soon.

If there is a telephone people are busy then I would rather have a ringing or engaged tone - that way I wouldn't be paying to queue for their attention.

Just a tip. If anyonie reading this ever tries to call IBM, you will invariably get a standard message welcoming you to IBm and all that crap. If you want to skip that and get straight in to the line, press the Hash (#) key. That kills the message until the next cycle of message comes up. Also cuts the break in the waiting music down to a minimum.