biggest pet peeve ever

[momentarygenius.livejournal.com]

Alright. I know you all can relate to this one.

There is nothing I hate more on this planet than people who eat while they are on the phone with me.

Really? You can't take 10 minutes away from your food? Or use the mute button over there between speaker and hold... You'd think working for a globally known medical device company that constantly shoves "healthy living" down our throats that it wouldn't happen often, but all hours of my 10-7 shift I get at least one caller feeding their face.


What's your biggest peeve?

Comments

[xforge.livejournal.com]

I think that's number one for me too, followed closely by people too dumb to be able to tell me if they're logged into a PC or a thin client.

[scazon.livejournal.com]

Windows.

[ptstech.livejournal.com]

Better to listen to it going in one end than coming out the other.

Yes, it happened all the time.

No, I don't miss it.

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

My wife used to do wireless data support for one of the phone companies (starts with a V). Her tales of folks calling from bathroom stalls horrified me. Can't these people shut up, for at least 10 minutes of their life?

[adamjaskie.livejournal.com]

People asking for a stapler. No, we don't have a stapler for general use. Can't you read the sign? We'll sell you one for $2, but we don't have one for you to borrow. No, we don't plan to get one; it's your own damn fault for BREAKING THE DAMN THINGS over and over again, STEALING them (no, it wasn't chained down; it was BOLTED down, and STILL stolen), and so forth. Don't like it? Take up a collection or something and buy one for the labs.

You'd think MECHANICAL ENGINEERING students would understand how NOT TO BREAK a stapler...

[spooforbrains.livejournal.com]

He took my stapler ...

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Not putting the fscking food down long enough to talk to me is one big one, for sure. Close behind that would be people who don't grasp basic verbal handshaking, much less the slightly less common variety that allows reasonably efficient communication for tech support, which I think of as "verbal QSK" for want of a better term. And close behind that would be people who refuse to do anything at all adaptive during the call, which would include remembering how to do something I just told them how to do about a minute ago, or bothering to read what I'm absolutely certain is right there in front of them on the screen. Things like that.

And part of what's most frustrating about those things is that people seem to have no idea how inefficiently they use the phone most of the time, or how much of everyone else's time they obviously waste on a daily basis. (And the ones who consider themselves experts are the worst, when they second-guess me and try to convince me it's something I've already proven it cannot possibly be and then get pissed off at me when I try to explain logically why it can't be what they want me to spend 40 minutes working on with them, and if they would just stop trying to take control of the process and spend the 2-3 minutes doing what the logic actually indicates, we'd be off the call already .. those are the ones that need to be dropped in a hole somewhere.)

The fact that most of these people evidently make enough money to buy products that make me green with envy (an all too common occurrence with my employer at least) only rubs salt in the wounds .. and makes me wonder how in the world these people can even feed themselves, much less pull down that kind of income ..

[ateji.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, how much "verbal handshaking" do you prefer?

I've found that being asked "how are you?" is a complete waste of time; my mood is irrelevant to my having to do my job. I had a woman from another university start sounding a little strained that I didn't ask how she was in return last week.

Just...tell me the problem so I can tell you the solution(s) or kick it up a level.

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

Oh, forgot.

Mouth-breathers.

You know what I mean.

(especially those who combine mouth-breathing and really dense ignorance with certain extremely irritating -- to me -- regional accents that are sort of like fingernails on a chalkboard .. the ones that sound like Tom and Ray from Car Talk, but not in a funny way, are some of the worst .. sorry, folks in MA whom I might have offended with that, but I dread some of those Boston calls almost more than I do the ones from Montréal .. even if I am addicted to the Car Talk podcasts .. LOL)

[spooforbrains.livejournal.com]

Pepsi Max mood themes? :P

Um ... people who are "too busy" to spend five or ten minutes to go through a problem with you.

People who insist on giving out their account details to other people, even though we've told them a. not to and that b. they'll be held responsible for anything stupid done under their account.

People who say things like "So and so started this morning, we'll need a user account, email address and yadda yadda for them" knowing full well there's a 24 hour turnaround on those requests, they could easily have informed us in advance and, most annoyingly, neglecting to tell us which fucking department they're in or what their role is.

[13aftermidnite.livejournal.com]

Has to be the mothers who expect me to troubleshoot over the noise of their kids screaming their heads off.
Or the idiots that say 'yuh, yuh, yuh' as you're talking them through something and then after half a dozen steps you find out that they either haven't done anything you've told them or have done something totally different.

[davetheinverted]

"Oh, you mean you wanted me to do that right now?"

Even better when it's immediately followed by, "I'm not in front of the computer."

Dav2.718

[darkrose.livejournal.com]

"You're CUSTOMER SERVICE! I don't care if you don't support $SOME_OTHER_COMPANY'S_PRODUCT, I'm your customer, YOU HELP ME NOW!"

- making demands of me will get you absolutely nowhere.
- I don't get paid to support your crap software you downloaded off the internets. In fact, I don't even know why I answer the phone. Not my job!

[taleya.livejournal.com]

Noisy eaters
Screaming children
But the biggest?

THE RANDOM CLICKER

Did I tell you click? NO. STOP DOING IT.

I actually said that to a customer once when I was on the helldesk. The TL was loving it - some arrogant 14 year old little shit incapable of following directions to get his modem configured. Handballs the call to me...and the little shit got an earful of "The Mother Voice"

"Why are you typing? I did NOT tell you to type anything. Stop clicking. Don't tell me you're not, I can hear it. If you want this to work, you need to do EXACTLY what I tell you to do and nothing more. I HEARD THAT. LEAVE THE MOUSE ALONE OR I WILL TERMINATE THIS CALL RIGHT NOW"

[fenrirvallin.livejournal.com]

See, I do the same thing with users like that like I do dogs. Drop my voice a couple octaves and say cleanly and clearly "NO!"

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

unbridled stupidity and thinking that's ok.

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

I think the eating thing is one of my biggest pet peeves. It's like they think "oh, i'll call the helpdesk, that's a good time to sneak in morning tea". I can't stand to hear people eat now, the amount of people on the phones has made it into an aversion.

[ateji.livejournal.com]

People who can't answer a simple question. "Did you do XYZ?" That is a yes or no question, not give your life story in verbal essay format. I don't have a script to follow, but I know the ins and outs of our system very, very well.

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

Chewing in my ear is my all time hit-the-roof piss me off action. I don't care about being polite any more: Can you please stop eating while I'm on the phone with you. It's very gross sounding. is my regular spiel now. Shuts them right down. They also then tend to do exactly what I tell them to do and get a quick fix.

As far as I know, my boss never once got a complaint about me being rude, either. Cool!

Another trigger for me was one customer who, on asking How are you? then got a little miffed when I answered Ok. What trouble are you having?

No, really, how are you?

She was upset I didn't want to "share" with her or something. Weird. Is like asking how your toaster is doing.

[tecie.livejournal.com]

Not knowing what telnet or SSH is and how to access it.
From DBAs. Talking to me (a UNIX admin).

I'm not asking them to debate the finer points of the communication protocols with me. I'm saying if I do something, and it requires some sort of checking by them on the system, they don't give me the "Dur, I only use DB2 Connect" excuse.
Frankly, it mystifies me that one in such a position can be oblivious to the operating system that their databases are running on. They need to be tuned differently on pretty much every flavor of UNIX, z/OS, S390, W2k3, and a million other environmental variables if they really want their databases to work well.
The two saving graces are: internal company instant messaging, so I don't actually have to talk to them, and I can be about as mean as I want to be and it is accepted as my being inherently evil by management.

[jasoncrowley.livejournal.com]

Oh tubbers, how I hate thee.
Put down the sammich, coke, and fries
Else this call will end abrublty.

[prozacnation.livejournal.com]

Speaker Phones

People answering other calls on every other phone in the background while they are calling in for tech support.

Their screaming crotch droppings who are so close to the phone they make me go deaf.

"I don't know anything about...[insert whatever it is here]"

"I'm not that good on computers." Oh really then why did you buy one?

Literally crying about the issue. Honestly it's not going to make it better.


"I have a million dollar business to run!"

Speaker Phones...

[ayelmar.livejournal.com]

Argh! And not just on speaker phone, but TEARING DOWN stacks of reports on TOP OF THE PHONE!!!
Nah...I didn't need that eardrum anyway...and the bleeding from the ear is no problem, really...

[deaddoloreshaze.livejournal.com]

people who say, when i ask them to click on okay, "shouldn't i click on apply first?" IF I WANTED YOU TO CLICK APPLY I WOULD HAVE ASKED YOU TO CLICK APPLY!

after that -

* people who put me on speaker phone
* people who chew on the phone
* happy clickers
* people who constantly ask, "is that a left click or a right click?"
* people who call from a restaurant or coffee shop
* loud breathers
* when i ask the customer something and they don't respond.
* having to fill the dead air with small talk
* people who say "i'm so glad you speak english"
* people who are surprised i speak english
* people who assume canada is always really really cold
* people who have screaming kids in the background, or loud music, or the tv turned on loud
* people who require ten explanations of each step

i feel better now.

[deaddoloreshaze.livejournal.com]

oh and one more thing -

i hate hate hate when people tell me they are computer illiterate. but i hate even worse when they say it wrong and say "computer literate."

[onlycauseihave2.livejournal.com]

I hate it when customers call in and as soon as I answer they ask me to hold. When that happens its back in the queue for them.

[no-smorking.livejournal.com]

I used to pick up calls to hear hold music - yes, the callers had put the call on hold while still waiting in the queue.

[ayelmar.livejournal.com]

Hell, I've had them put it on hold before it's had TIME to go to queue, I've grabbed it on the first ring...many, many times.

[edling.livejournal.com]

I'm quite surprised that no-one's mentioned people who phone and ask you to come over urgently, but who then wander off to make coffee, talk to someone else, or stand in a corner drooling, leaving you with no idea what you should be looking at when you get there.

[wherdafux-d-cat.livejournal.com]

Gum. I freaking hate being on the phone with a gum chewer.