ROADSIDE FOLLIES

[spatch]

ME: "May I have the last six digits of your Vehicle Identification Number, please?"
CALLER: "Uh... 4712."
There is a pause.
ME: "Thank you, now may I have the two numbers before that?"

This would be exponentially funnier if it didn't happen four or five times every shift.

Comments

[glowkitty]

I was laughing until I saw that last line. Then I just felt bad for you. Ah, customer service. At least it's a few steps above elementary school paraeducation. I get to deal with stupid adults AND their spoiled children.

[reveritas.livejournal.com]

i could kind of see that. you're so often asked for the last four digits of your SSN, your credit card, your bank account number, but mostly your SSN ... but yeah. four or five (or six) times a shift is too many!

[sarcasma.livejournal.com]

Bwa. When I was a video store jockey (or whatever) we used to ask people for the last five digits of their eighten-million digit membership number. I finally gave up and asked everyone for the whole thing, since I can reliably count to five and they, well, couldn't.

Although I suppose that would fark up your acronym time. :p

[emshort.livejournal.com]

These stories are making me feel bad about all the times I've called up a customer service person and then not had ready some vital piece of information and made them wait while I looked for it. Admittedly this is sometimes because they wanted information I didn't know I was going to need, but it didn't occur to me that they were actually sitting there waiting in consternation as I blew their Average Servicing Speed Record or whatever.

[spatch]

To be fair, I don't think it should expected for someone to have 100% of the information immediately at their fingertips when they make a service call, unless it's done business-to-business (because then as a professional, doing this stuff all day, you're supposed to have that kinda stuff ready to go.) And there's a big difference between "I need which number? Let me find it in the papers..." (I speak from experience on that one big time) and "I need which number? Ok, I'll put the phone down and run four flights to the car and get it for you no it's no problem don't worry here I go *clud* *run run run run run run run ru...*"

And on the extreme other side of the coin (EXTREME COINAGE!!!) there's the fellow who says "HIMYNAMEISBOBNELSONMYVEHICLEISA2003G45 THELASTSIXOFMYVINARE381929 IAMATTHECORNEROFMASONICANDELM INEEDATOWPLEASECOMEGETMEOKAYBYE."

Yeah, I had one of those the other day. Absolutely brilliant. Thank god for *69.

[heathbar27.livejournal.com]

I think it's a little frightening that that guy has done this so often that he knew exactly what info you'd ask for and was able to rattle it off that quickly and hang up.

Someone get that guy some driving safety lessons or something, like "How Not To Run Over Nails" and "Oil Changes: A Happy, Healthy Way To Avoid a Seized Engine". Or investigate the sabotaging of his automobile.