Why to minimize contact with (some) salesfolk.

There is a place for those who work in sales and support to let off steam. You can find it here, where customers_suck. Now, that those who have crappy experiences dealing with customers can let off the steam is fine. Many of the stories are about people I'd have even less patience with. (I've dealt with the bozos who proclaim "It's broke. Fix it." while not explaining how it is broke, or how it was broken. If I can't find the problem, then I can't fix it, now can I?) The thing is, there are few comments that indicate something is the wrong way to do something. ("NEVER whistle to get my attention!") But no mention of the right way. One commenter listed so many things I wondered if there was a right way for him (or her). Sure, I'm seeing the worst moments, but now picture this. Someone like that has just had a customer who actually was a real jerk, or three, and now you have to try to deal with this person. I get the idea from reading that account that it'd be like tap-dancing in a minefield. While theoretically possible, it's unlikely one would escape unscathed.

And I'd like to point out there really is such a thing sucky service, too. Not the accidental slip of an early morning or a late night, but the just plain wrong. It's one thing to be helping out a customer. I quite understand that. I can wait patiently for this. But if someone sees a someone at a counter and ignores them, chatting with who knows who, that's poor service. A quick "I'll be right there." would even be an improvement. This example is hardly unique. You've been there, haven't you?

So you can skip it: ( A tale of comic shops )

On the trail again... sort of.

Jay and I decided to look at treadmills yesterday, something we'd been planning on for a while. We figured we'd look, maybe pick something out, and buy later, since the prices would likely put immediate purchase beyond what we cared to spend just now.

( It went a little differently. )

The Great Phone Switch

We had our phone system switched over at work. Now a fancy-schmancy digital system, rather than the aging analog system that while it ran, was starting to get difficult to repair. Overall the changes are superficial. It's a phone. It still rings and gets answered, it still can be dialed (for "poke" values of "dial") out. There are a couple new features and all the old ones, or something close enough.

The changes that affect me are a different ringer and having an LCD for caller almost ID. Now an electronic doodle-oodle-oodle-oop rather than a real ring. I can change tone and volume, but am stuck with the same doodle-oodle-oodle-oop as everyone else. One would expect the possibility of ring tone selection, to make distinguishing that much easier. The new ring will take some getting used to. Mainly as it's a new sound and I am not yet accustomed to ignoring it when someone else's phone rings. Also I now have a sort of caller ID. I can see which other internal extension is calling anyway. The first out-of-plant call I got showed up as "T1 Line3" or something like that. Oh yes, the LCD has time and date. And naturally the phone time and the computer network time disagree by three minutes...

There is no MUTE button. There is, annoyingly, a PAGE button. I expect to hear even more accidental pages or pages are someone leaving leaving it off hook and not realizing sorts of things. Before it took three buttons to do that. Now a single button allows that to happen. Since 1) I almost never page and 2) the old three button method works (so not every phone had to be switched over...or something) and 3) MUTE is more useful and less dangerous than PAGE, I may look into how to trade the functions. Yep, the phone is fancy enough to allow some button redefinition.