What's the craziest situation you've been in at work?

[Vile Atheist]

People doing cranks on telemarketers and teleservice reps have always ****** me off. I've never done it myself and I wouldn't ever either. I think it's ridiculous and immature. The people on the other end of the line are simply doing their job. You may not like their job, but they have just as much right to support themselves and their families as anyone else and the simple fact is...all one has to do is to just outright ask to please be removed from their calling list. Boom. By federal law if someone requests to be removed from the calling list they have to be removed. The TSR cannot even respond to that with anything but telling them that they will remove their name and give the customer a toll free number if they wish to call for any follow-up and politely exit the call. But NOOOOOO...some people want to be jackasses to some poor person just doing their job.

Speaking of which, I got a call from Rogers the other day, offering me a new plan for my cell. Basically, they wanted me to pay $10-15 more per month for a plan and I would get all sorts of crap I don't need/would use on my cell. So I told the telemarketer politely that I have no need for the plan and so no thank you.

The guy wouldn't take no for an answer. He kept going through my billing information and mentioning how I can add an emergency line to it. At one point, I actually thought he was going to switch me over to the new plan without my permission, he was that persistent. I had to almost plead with him that it stays put.

Now, I'm not normally rude to telemarketers. I hear them out and then if I'm uninterested, I politely tell them I'm not interested. But this guy was really getting under my skin. I was eating dinner and this guy calls and keeps me on the phone for half an hour when I'm repeatedly telling him I'm not interested and he keeps insisting I get the stupid plan.

And then when he finally does take no for an answer, he has the balls to ask me why I didn't want the plan. I don't know how many times I told the guy that a) I didn't need it, b) it makes no sense to pay more for something I don't need, c) I'm satisfied with my current plan.

Rogers likes to harass me with their calls to offer their stupid plans and to do customer service calls to make sure I'm still satisfied with the plan (which if they did it more infrequently would actually be nice). So I don't have the option of putting them on a Do Not Call list because this is a company I give my business to.

I certainly felt like telling this guy where to go. And I understand he's just doing his job and his job requires him to push to get more people shafted up the *** on this plan. That's fine. But when I tell him no repeatedly for half an hour and I have to almost plead with him not to change my plan without my permission, it gets to be a little much.

So now I have a different policy. I'll reject their offer politely. I'll say it once and only once. And if they continue their spiel or try to convince me, I simply hang up. No, I don't want to be bothered at home while my family is trying to eat dinner to pay good hard-earned money for a product or service I do not want nor need. If I wanted or needed such a product or service, I would go out and purchase it. I do not require people to disturb me at home.

 

[Smoke]

So now I have a different policy. I'll reject their offer politely. I'll say it once and only once. And if they continue their spiel or try to convince me, I simply hang up. No, I don't want to be bothered at home while my family is trying to eat dinner to pay good hard-earned money for a product or service I do not want nor need. If I wanted or needed such a product or service, I would go out and purchase it. I do not require people to disturb me at home.

I feel sorry for telemarketers because they have a terrible job, but I figure I'm not doing them any favors by letting them go on and on when I know I'm really not interested. I say, "Thank you, but I'm not interested." When they keep going, I say, "I'm sorry, but I'm really not interested," and hang up.

And I never answer the phone during dinner. Not for anybody.

 

[Caladan]

And I never answer the phone during dinner. Not for anybody.

Hear hear. I can get quite mad when people answer the phone while dining with me.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Here's a work situation I was in that was crazy in a good way:

I worked part-time in a theatre all through high school; so did a bunch of my friends. One of these friends of mine got a summer job as a grip at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto. At the time, I was working in retail, selling electronics at a department store.

So... late Friday afternoon (I didn't have a shift that day), I get a call from my friend. He tells me that some of the people booked to work that night have cancelled or called in sick, and they're desperate for people to help with tear-down for the Lilith Fair. Apparently, the desparate manager asked the crew if they knew anyone with experience who could come in. My friend asks me if I want to work - I say "sure!" and head downtown.

I go through all the signing in stuff and they tell me to wait in a sort of lunchroom backstage until it's time for all of us to swing into action and start packing everything into the trucks.

While I'm sitting there, Sarah McLaughlin rushes through, seeming very flustered and concerned, looking around. She flies out the door at the other end of the room.

A few minutes later, she walks back through the way she came, calm and grinning, holding a big Mag Lite flashlight.

I never found out the story behind what happened, but at the time I thought it was a strange thing to see.

 

[Caladan]

LOL Jeff!! priceless.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

When I worked at a grocery store as a teenager I had countless sexual propositions from women - mostly older women who wanted to cheat on their husbands.

A fella could derive a lot of satisfaction out of fornication... almost makes me wish I hadn'ta been saved.

 

[Caladan]

When I worked at a grocery store as a teenager I had countless sexual propositions from women - mostly older women who wanted to cheat on their husbands.

A fella could derive a lot of satisfaction out of fornication... almost makes me wish I hadn'ta been saved.

Hmm I had 'dirty' offerings during several jobs, from both men and women I can only appreciate the flattery

I have a very funny story from the time I worked at a record store after my army service, but im afraid since its concerning the herb, it might break forum rules

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Hmm I had 'dirty' offerings during several jobs, from both men and women I can only appreciate the flattery

I have never been propositioned at work at any of my jobs. Not even once.

 

[Caladan]

I have never been propositioned at work at any of my jobs. Not even once.

Maybe it was the jobs I had and their location, like the main street in London, or a marina on the shores of the red sea as a photographer.

 

[Draka]

Speaking of which, I got a call from Rogers the other day, offering me a new plan for my cell. Basically, they wanted me to pay $10-15 more per month for a plan and I would get all sorts of crap I don't need/would use on my cell. So I told the telemarketer politely that I have no need for the plan and so no thank you.

The guy wouldn't take no for an answer. He kept going through my billing information and mentioning how I can add an emergency line to it. At one point, I actually thought he was going to switch me over to the new plan without my permission, he was that persistent. I had to almost plead with him that it stays put.

Now, I'm not normally rude to telemarketers. I hear them out and then if I'm uninterested, I politely tell them I'm not interested. But this guy was really getting under my skin. I was eating dinner and this guy calls and keeps me on the phone for half an hour when I'm repeatedly telling him I'm not interested and he keeps insisting I get the stupid plan.

And then when he finally does take no for an answer, he has the balls to ask me why I didn't want the plan. I don't know how many times I told the guy that a) I didn't need it, b) it makes no sense to pay more for something I don't need, c) I'm satisfied with my current plan.

Rogers likes to harass me with their calls to offer their stupid plans and to do customer service calls to make sure I'm still satisfied with the plan (which if they did it more infrequently would actually be nice). So I don't have the option of putting them on a Do Not Call list because this is a company I give my business to.

I certainly felt like telling this guy where to go. And I understand he's just doing his job and his job requires him to push to get more people shafted up the *** on this plan. That's fine. But when I tell him no repeatedly for half an hour and I have to almost plead with him not to change my plan without my permission, it gets to be a little much.

So now I have a different policy. I'll reject their offer politely. I'll say it once and only once. And if they continue their spiel or try to convince me, I simply hang up. No, I don't want to be bothered at home while my family is trying to eat dinner to pay good hard-earned money for a product or service I do not want nor need. If I wanted or needed such a product or service, I would go out and purchase it. I do not require people to disturb me at home.

Some things you probably didn't know: Statistically most telephone sales happen after a "no" and a rebuttal. Actually, the vast majority happen after 2 "no"s and responses. It is very rare for a "walk-through" sale to happen where the customer is just all "okie dokie" all the way through it...it happens, but is rare. There is usually some reason a person isn't interested and some clarification and further explanation usually brings a customer around. So...TSRs are usually required to give rebuttals. As a matter of fact, they can get written up or fired for just letting a person go who says "no" without at least trying two times to turn the customer around. So it's not that they are stupid and "just won't take no for an answer"...they aren't allowed to just take no for an answer. If they do they could lose their job.

Also, you can asked to be removed from the calling list even if you do regular business with a company. Calling lists are created per offer. So when you ask for your name to be removed from the list it is removed from the list for the current sales offer and they can't call you back about that particular offer. If you get frequent calls about different offers from the same company you can also simply contact the company directly and ask that you not be contacted for any special offers to have your name removed from their main calling list database for sales offers. This does not affect your dealings with the business, they just can't telemarket you. That simple.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Maybe it was the jobs I had and their location, like the main street in London, or a marina on the shores of the red sea as a photographer.

That might do it. I've mainly worked in offices and labs.

The department store where I worked was huge - 8 floors. I was up on the 5th floor, and we had a theory that the odder customers got filtered out more and more as you went up from the entrances.

One of my friends worked in "Men's Furnishings" (i.e. socks, underwear, ties, etc.) down on the first floor right by one of the main doors. He told me some stories about the weirdos he'd encounter... especially after the store changed its policy and decided that it would accept returns on any merchandise.

When I say "any", I mean "any". For us, it would be stuff like opened CDs; for furniture, it'd be used mattresses. Not that we'd re-sell any of this stuff, mind you - the store would just take the financial hit in the name of "customer service".

The policy didn't last very long, but my friend had an... um... interesting time with pervs with nasty grins on their faces returning... shall we say... questionable underwear until the policy was changed to something more sensible.

 

[Caladan]

The policy didn't last very long, but my friend had an... um... interesting time with pervs with nasty grins on their faces returning... shall we say... questionable underwear until the policy was changed to something more sensible.

:help:

 

[Vile Atheist]

Some things you probably didn't know: Statistically most telephone sales happen after a "no" and a rebuttal. Actually, the vast majority happen after 2 "no"s and responses. It is very rare for a "walk-through" sale to happen where the customer is just all "okie dokie" all the way through it...it happens, but is rare. There is usually some reason a person isn't interested and some clarification and further explanation usually brings a customer around. So...TSRs are usually required to give rebuttals. As a matter of fact, they can get written up or fired for just letting a person go who says "no" without at least trying two times to turn the customer around. So it's not that they are stupid and "just won't take no for an answer"...they aren't allowed to just take no for an answer. If they do they could lose their job.

Also, you can asked to be removed from the calling list even if you do regular business with a company. Calling lists are created per offer. So when you ask for your name to be removed from the list it is removed from the list for the current sales offer and they can't call you back about that particular offer. If you get frequent calls about different offers from the same company you can also simply contact the company directly and ask that you not be contacted for any special offers to have your name removed from their main calling list database for sales offers. This does not affect your dealings with the business, they just can't telemarket you. That simple.

It doesn't really matter to me if most sales happen after the first "no", the second, or the third. If I don't want what they are peddling, I'm not going to buy it. Especially when they want me to pay more to get virtually the same plan as I currently have.

Even if what you say is statistically true, it doesn't change the fact it is pushy and annoying. I know it's only their job and they're required to be insufferable in that regard. Annoying your customers generally isn't a good business model.

I used to work at a Zellers retail store. Zellers is part of the Hudson Bay Company. They have "HBC Credit Cards", which are pretty useless. There are employees dedicated to walking around the store offering people HBC Credit Cards as they're trying to shop. Do you have any idea how many people came up to me and complained about them? I would too. I'm there to get an item. If I wanted a credit card, I would've asked about one.

Do you know how often cashiers get yelled at because they have to offer it if the customer doesn't have it? I don't care how effective it is or isn't, annoying customers - or potential customers - is not the way to do business. Likewise, they should set down some ground rules like not calling during dinner (~6pm). Or late at night. Or very early in the morning. You'd think at least that common courtesy would be employed. But it isn't.

And no wonder people get ******. I mean yelling at the person or doing crank calls isn't justified. But the sentiment is certainly understandable, especially when you're initially polite and you have to tell them 'NO' seventeen times because they can't back off otherwise they'll apparently get fired. It's entirely stupid.

 

[Autodidact]

I guess it might be the time the opposing party threatened to "kill (my client's) Jew ***** lawyer." I don't know, a lot of crazy things happen at my job. Like the time a woman claiming to be a nun came into to ask for legal help about carrying her concealed weapon, and pulled it out of her purse. Good times.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I used to work at a Zellers retail store. Zellers is part of the Hudson Bay Company. They have "HBC Credit Cards", which are pretty useless. There are employees dedicated to walking around the store offering people HBC Credit Cards as they're trying to shop. Do you have any idea how many people came up to me and complained about them? I would too. I'm there to get an item. If I wanted a credit card, I would've asked about one.

You worked for Zellers? I worked for the Bay. Small world.

And no wonder people get ******. I mean yelling at the person or doing crank calls isn't justified. But the sentiment is certainly understandable, especially when you're initially polite and you have to tell them 'NO' seventeen times because they can't back off otherwise they'll apparently get fired. It's entirely stupid.

When I'm not interested in what a telemarketer is selling, I'll usually politely say something like "no, thank you" right off the bat. If they keep on going, as politely as I can, I'll just say "thank you, but I'm not interested. Goodbye." and hang up.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I guess it might be the time the opposing party threatened to "kill (my client's) Jew ***** lawyer." I don't know, a lot of crazy things happen at my job. Like the time a woman claiming to be a nun came into to ask for legal help about carrying her concealed weapon, and pulled it out of her purse. Good times.

I'd say the most grief I ever got on my job was when I was a surveyor.

I worked for the city, mainly doing pre-engineering surveys... the surveys that the designers would use as the basis for the construction plans they'd create. This meant that often, the first indication that the local residents had that their street was going to be ripped up in the near future was when we rolled up in our city van and started wandering their neighbourhood with a surveying rod.

Because of this, we were usually the first ones to hear from the residents just what they thought of whatever project it was that was going to happen.

The ones that were actually amusing were when we'd get two neighbours both come out and complain to us, but one would be complaining that the project was an unnecessary waste of taxpayer money and the other would be complaining about the fact that it needed to be done ten years earlier.

Most of the time it was a fun job, but sometimes I had to deal with unpleasant people.

Edit: the other not-so-fun part of the job was in the middle of summer. When you're on the gun (we'd call the Total Station scope "the gun" - not really sure why now that I think about it), your setup point would be based on how good a vantage it offered, not on how much shade it had. This meant that I spent a lot of my time during summer heat waves in the blazing sun with no shade at all.

There was a temperature sensor in the gun and it would shut down when it hit an internal temperature of 60 C. Every so often I'd hit the button for the temperature readout, hoping it was getting close to shutting down so I could get under a tree for a bit, but it never did. A couple of days it stayed near 55 C all day, but it never hit 60.

 

[Draka]

When I'm not interested in what a telemarketer is selling, I'll usually politely say something like "no, thank you" right off the bat. If they keep on going, as politely as I can, I'll just say "thank you, but I'm not interested. Goodbye." and hang up.

Actually, speaking from experience, I'd much rather a person just say "no thank you" and hang up on me rather than cuss me out for doing my job. I didn't set the rules or requirements, and where I worked it was a 2 rebuttal requirement. If we'd given two rebuttals to any objections and the customer still didn't bite we could get out of the call politely. We always had to get out of the call politely though. Even if a customer cussed me up and down and threatened to find where I worked and my home address and come find me and so on...I still had to end the call with..."If you have any questions please call 1-800-###-####, you have a pleasant evening/day/afternoon sir/ma'am. goodbye." If they were especially heinous to me I always did so with an extra peppy perk in my voice and the word "pleasant" became "great" or "fantastic" or the like.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Actually, speaking from experience, I'd much rather a person just say "no thank you" and hang up on me rather than cuss me out for doing my job.

My feeling is that it's a bit of a game: normally, I don't like to hang up on people when they're talking, but I realize that the tactics that telemarketers use will take advantage of people's politeness to try to keep them on the phone longer, which I think is impolite itself and therefore releases me from the constraints of normal polite behaviour somewhat.

I didn't set the rules or requirements, and where I worked it was a 2 rebuttal requirement. If we'd given two rebuttals to any objections and the customer still didn't bite we could get out of the call politely. We always had to get out of the call politely though. Even if a customer cussed me up and down and threatened to find where I worked and my home address and come find me and so on...I still had to end the call with..."If you have any questions please call 1-800-###-####, you have a pleasant evening/day/afternoon sir/ma'am. goodbye." If they were especially heinous to me I always did so with an extra peppy perk in my voice and the word "pleasant" became "great" or "fantastic" or the like.

Yeah... that sort of behaviour is out of line. People don't have an obligation to sit through a sales pitch for something they don't want, but they can get out of it just by hanging up.

My sister did telemarketing for a newspaper for a while. I was never really rude to telemarketers to begin with, but I think it kinda put things in perspective: how would I want someone else to talk to my sister?

 

[Vile Atheist]

My feeling is that it's a bit of a game: normally, I don't like to hang up on people when they're talking, but I realize that the tactics that telemarketers use will take advantage of people's politeness to try to keep them on the phone longer, which I think is impolite itself and therefore releases me from the constraints of normal polite behaviour somewhat.

Exactly.

 

[sonofskeptish]

...So now I have a different policy. I'll reject their offer politely. I'll say it once and only once. And if they continue their spiel or try to convince me, I simply hang up.

If they keep going after i saying no thank you once or twice, I just put the receiver down on the counter as opposed to hang up. Keeps them from annoying others. I had a similar experience with Rogers recently.