New Pet Peeve

[SlaveToTheGrind]

Just got off the phone with a lady. Had to leave her a message for an individual. She asks me for my phone number, so I start to tell her. Then she says "wait, let me get a pen". And I'm thinking, why did you ask for the number if you had nothing to write it down with? This happens all the time. Just had to vent a little.

 

[Mastiff]

You should have said your number as fast as possible and had them make you repeat it 10 times... like they do on my voicemail (my pet-peeve).

 

[kms]

The man who answers the phone at our local DOT is really s l o w. He would offer to take a message, and when someone gives their first name, he asks for spelling, no matter how common or simple the name is. You can't just spell it because he says "wait" and then you have to tell him each letter, with a long time in between for him to write and repeat the letters. I wonder if it isn't a strategic way to eliminate telephone complaints about road conditions since it is so frustrating to deal with someone like that.

My own phone pet peeve is when you tell a caller that they called a wrong number, but they continue to ask for the person, as though asking over and over will make the person appear.

 

[biscuit]

My own phone pet peeve is when you tell a caller that they called a wrong number, but they continue to ask for the person, as though asking over and over will make the person appear.

[OT] kinda off topic but I recently changed my cell phone number and have since recieved at least a dozen calls from wrong numbers asking for 'Peaches.' [/OT]

 

[Zoning Goddess]

The ones ticking me off right now are the people in other departments who send all the trails calls to me. Since I previously worked in Planning, every time they get a call about trails, they send it to me, even if it's an engineering question (we have engineers here, but I'm the only planner).

 

[Rumpy Tunanator]

[OT] kinda off topic but I recently changed my cell phone number and have since recieved at least a dozen calls from wrong numbers asking for 'Peaches.' [/OT]

Have you been hanging out at the Pegasus Biscuit ?

 

[biscuit]

Have you been hanging out at the Pegasus Biscuit ?

LOL! You found me out Rumpy!
I've was trying to get into the world of Rumpy Tunanator and every clue keep leading me back there. ;-)

To tell you the truth I didn't even thaink about 'Peaches' being THAT kind of Peaches. Good Lord, what if my new number is scrawled across some bathroom stall at that bar? :-c

 

[Repo Man]

Mine is our "call out line" It was instituted because people were sick of getting answering machines when they called City Hall and someone was out of the office. So if someone doesn't answer after a few rings, it will bounce to me and some others in the office. However I seem to be the only one that ever picks up the phone when this happens. Well 75 percent of the time the call is not for me nor do I know the answer. Then the caller gets all pissed off because I can't help them. I tell them they have to go to that person's voice mail and they get even more pissed. Some people ask me to take a message and I just want to scream at them "I am not a secretary, use the damn vocie mail!" They ask for cell numbers (which we don't give out) or they ask me to chek someone's schedule to see if they can get an inspection appointment (which I refuse to do). It seems to me that by "fixing" one problem, you are making people even more angry then they were before.

 

[Rumpy Tunanator]

To tell you the truth I didn't even thaink about 'Peaches' beeing THAT kind of Peaches. Good Lord, what if my new number is srcawled across some bathroom stall at that bar? :-c

You better hope your new phone # is not in that place, Peaches

 

[plannerkat]

Mine is our "call out line" It was instituted because people were sick of getting answering machines when they called City Hall and someone was out of the office. So if someone doesn't answer after a few rings, it will bounce to me and some others in the office. However I seem to be the only one that ever picks up the phone when this happens. Well 75 percent of the time the call is not for me nor do I know the answer. Then the caller gets all pissed off because I can't help them. I tell them they have to go to that person's voice mail and they get even more pissed. Some people ask me to take a message and I just want to scream at them "I am not a secretary, use the damn vocie mail!" They ask for cell numbers (which we don't give out) or they ask me to chek someone's schedule to see if they can get an inspection appointment (which I refuse to do). It seems to me that by "fixing" one problem, you are making people even more angry then they were before.

We have a very similar issue with our brilliant receptionists, who even though one of them has been there for 5 years, still doesn't fully grasp that we are all different kinds of planners! For example, our notice signs are color coded based on application/department section. It would make too much sense for random caller who "saw a sign" to be asked what color the sign was. Rather, the reception desk seems to randomly transfer calls to whoever happens to be at their desk, thus resulting in pissed off caller. We have advised them several times that we don't all have access to the same databases (don't get me started on that) and are therefore not interchangeable planners. Grrrr!!!!

 

[Downtown]

My favorite is when our supervisor's office makes some new insane decree, and then refuses to take phone calls about it, directing them to our office for us to deal with the fall out. ie: when i got back into my office today, i was informed that the lead time from submission to scheduling for a Pl. Bd. meeting is now NINE WEEKS, up from four. sigh.

 

[SlaveToTheGrind]

Another one is when a caller inquires about development potential on property and they say the address and a pause, and then the name of the city I work for. And I'm thinking, good thing you mentioned the city because I could have swore you were asking about property in Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

 

[plannerkat]

My personal favorite that seems to be happening quite a bit these days are individuals who confuse the Planning Department with realtors. I've been asked by callers more than a few times lately if we keep listings of available properties in the city. Um, no, you need to call a real estate agent for that and no, I'm not comfortable recommending any. These are generally the same people who expect us to know the exact location of every property in our 840 square mile city.

 

[JNA]

Similar to plannerkat problem -
being asked which surveyor would I recommend, sometimes not for their accuracy but their costs, for doing a minor sub or parcelization.
my answer is - look in the yellow pages of the phone book.

 

[PlannerGirl]

I get annoyed as hell with folks that do leave a message but they say their number so fast and garbled that I cant make out what they are saying. Or they say their name but dont leave a number!

Argh A**Hats!

 

[Gedunker]

Like JNA I get a lot of people wanting a recommendation of a surveyor, architect, engineer or attorney. I always tell people that I am prohibited from recommending anyone (strictly true, but there's wiggle room). I usually explain that if I recommend an attorney every other attorney in the city would be on my @ss for not recommending them. Most people seem to understand, fortunately.

My pet peeve is our phone system, which does not indicate new voice mail messages (either audibly or visually), so that you have to dial up to check for messages, go through the whole phone tree system only to find, "you have no new messages and no saved messages" |-) They ought to add "and you've missed the possibility of slacking on Cyburbia for four minutes" :-D