Thursday, August 10, 2006

Dumbass of the Day

What a day. In our office there are 3 of us at any one time, and one of the girls is away for 3 weeks on holidays, so on Thursdays and Fridays there are now just two of us. We had to swap shifts around to cover her, also I swapped a shift yesterday to leave early for Jessie's birthday dinner, and swapped a shift tomorrow because I'm leaving for a weekend away - so it was all very confusing. This morning both Julie and I thought we were on late shift, my manager called when I was just about to leave and said "There's no one here!" panic! We both made it here pretty quickly, but had to log on and start taking calls before we'd even switched on our computers or taken our handbags off... drama!

And THEN all the stupid customers seemed to be calling me! We have a quota of 3 Dumbasses of the Day. This quota is always filled, and regularly exceeded. There are a few regulars who appear on this list, but it's always entertaining to get a promising newcomer. I got them all this morning.

Me: "Welcome to Customer Service, this is Amy"
Lady: "Can I speak to Customer Service please."
Me: "This is Customer Service, how can I help?"
Lady: "I want to speak to Customer Service!"
Me: "This is Customer Service!"
Lady: "Yes please."
Me: "You are speaking to Customer Service, this is Amy, how can I help you today?"
Lady: "Oh! You're Customer Service?"
Me (gritting teeth): "YES."
Lady: "Oh! Customer Service!"
Me: "How can I help???"
Lady: "I need to get a price for this item."
Me (taking code): "Price is $127.20 for a box of 20."
Lady: "It used to be $99.00."
Me: "I think that's an old price, the current box price is $127.20."
Lady: "Are you sure it's not $99.00?"
Me: "I'm sure!"
Lady: "So how much is it?"
Me: "Box price is $127.20."
Lady: "And that's for a box?"
Me (gritting teeth): "YES."
Lady: "So it's $99.00 for the box then?"
Me: "Box price is $127.20. That's $127.20 for the box, and if you would like to purchase a box, it will cost you $127.20."
Lady: "Oh! So has the price gone up?"

Oh.... you get the general picture.
My stress level was through the roof. I was perilously close to having a tantrum, perilously close. I had to break out the emergency rations.



It was ridiculous how much better I felt after having some chocolate! But the crazy customers kept coming, and there's only so much chocolate you can eat.
To add to my stress level, I had a relatively traumatic waxing experience at the beauticians at lunch time.

Beautician: "It looks a bit ingrown, I'm just going to pierce you with a lancet."
Me: "Hey, what? Will it hurt?"
Beautician: "Well it won't feel great."

Erk. Thursday was turning out to be a Very Bad Day.

Luckily, I work with a very beautiful girl called Julie who sorted me out with just exactly what I needed to feel better. Now the customers could say whatever they liked - but I was totally smiley, informative and helpful.



Sometimes you just need a bit of sparkle. Nuff said.

2 comments:

Mishy-Jo said...

I just realised that we used to have dress-up Wednesdays when it all got too much. Seeing all that sparkle, I remember how useful it was. Time for some more sparkle for Mishy. Loving the dumbasses.

Unknown said...

Uh... can we just backtrack here for a second... 'There's only so much chocolate you can eat' ?!?!?!?!?!?!?! From YOU?!?!?!?!?! I can't believe what I'm reading!

(qrbdm)