I guess what I want is for companies to provide the sort of working environment that will keep people at least as happy as is plausible to expect at work. Like I say, I call my bank ALL THE TIME, part of it just so we can TALK. And I do try to be super polite - a, you get more from people if you tell them up front that you're going to make them crazy with what you want (because you won't, actually, they've seen worse, but they now think that YOU think that you are a pain in the ass, and they give you leeway) and b, it's got to be a boring-as-fuck job, talking on the phone all day long. So being polite gets results, and I generally have FANTASTIC luck on the phone.
If I don't, of course, I can also try cruel - I once was within a whisker of getting two months' rent charged back to me AND made the person on the phone cry, over a mistake that wasn't anyone's fault, but I really didn't have the rent money they hadn't charged me. I mean, just so no one thinks that I should simply phone in my blog.
So I'm totally aware that the ticketmaster flunky probably hates her job, but STILL. I was being polite, I was being nice, I was giving her warnings of things that were difficult, but she acted very much like I was any old asshat who was yelling at her about their tickets, and the closing spiel was so rushed that it was ludicrous. But I also hate shopping at Safeway because I hate their "personalised" greetings - when you can't pronounce my last-fucking-name, using it DOES NOT make me feel like we know each other. I'd rather have an interaction based on friendly but impersonal service than the attempts to "make me feel important" because the thing that the managers and the focus groups don't seem to have figured out is that hearing the spiel delivered in a perky, chipper voice by the person hired to present the spiel is not the same as hearing it delivered by the person who now has to make the spot call whether the a's in my name are long or short and whether is Mah-RAH-betta or MARE-a-betta or any of about a dozen variations. I don't feel important with this shit, I feel like what you say - the manager feels important. I'm FINE with "Thanks for calling, have a nice day," rather than the ten-line "your call is important to us, thank you for calling Ticketmaster, let us know...blahblahblahdyfuckingblah." I also support improvisational closings, rather than scripted ones. I know you have to get the right information in the right order, but the closing should be freeform.
As long as it's not "FUCK YOUR PUNK ASS WITH A CHAINSAW, BITCH," but even then, that could be situational. After the person says "I'M NEVER USING YOUR SERVICE AGAIN!", perhaps.
Which part? The rockstar trap is ten pounds of coke and thirty feet of chain, MCR is on Projekt Revolution (you didn't think I was going for some OTHER reason, did you?) and I'm already going to be back there scalping Taking Back Sunday, so WHY NOT? *g*
But it is a totally false rumour that I keep musicians in cages. If I DID, I'd have a lot of cages in my relatively small apartment by now. It's too much work.
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If I don't, of course, I can also try cruel - I once was within a whisker of getting two months' rent charged back to me AND made the person on the phone cry, over a mistake that wasn't anyone's fault, but I really didn't have the rent money they hadn't charged me. I mean, just so no one thinks that I should simply phone in my blog.
So I'm totally aware that the ticketmaster flunky probably hates her job, but STILL. I was being polite, I was being nice, I was giving her warnings of things that were difficult, but she acted very much like I was any old asshat who was yelling at her about their tickets, and the closing spiel was so rushed that it was ludicrous. But I also hate shopping at Safeway because I hate their "personalised" greetings - when you can't pronounce my last-fucking-name, using it DOES NOT make me feel like we know each other. I'd rather have an interaction based on friendly but impersonal service than the attempts to "make me feel important" because the thing that the managers and the focus groups don't seem to have figured out is that hearing the spiel delivered in a perky, chipper voice by the person hired to present the spiel is not the same as hearing it delivered by the person who now has to make the spot call whether the a's in my name are long or short and whether is Mah-RAH-betta or MARE-a-betta or any of about a dozen variations. I don't feel important with this shit, I feel like what you say - the manager feels important. I'm FINE with "Thanks for calling, have a nice day," rather than the ten-line "your call is important to us, thank you for calling Ticketmaster, let us know...blahblahblahdyfuckingblah." I also support improvisational closings, rather than scripted ones. I know you have to get the right information in the right order, but the closing should be freeform.
As long as it's not "FUCK YOUR PUNK ASS WITH A CHAINSAW, BITCH," but even then, that could be situational. After the person says "I'M NEVER USING YOUR SERVICE AGAIN!", perhaps.
Which part? The rockstar trap is ten pounds of coke and thirty feet of chain, MCR is on Projekt Revolution (you didn't think I was going for some OTHER reason, did you?) and I'm already going to be back there scalping Taking Back Sunday, so WHY NOT? *g*
But it is a totally false rumour that I keep musicians in cages. If I DID, I'd have a lot of cages in my relatively small apartment by now. It's too much work.