(no subject)

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

You know what really annoys me? Random companies that call your office trying to sell you toner. You're not around, so your colleagues give them your name and email address. You're called "Jo" so they automatically assume because you're in IT that you're male.

Well guess what buddy? You were told during that phone call that I'm a Mrs, so addressing the email to "Mr Joe Caswell" lost you any chance at all of getting my business before I even read the rest of the email. Your prices weren't that good anyway.

Comments

The heck

[scottish-alth.livejournal.com]

With an ambigious name and human stupidity everyone in IT is male ;). If I forgot I would have just used Sir/Madam rather than an assumption.

Its the co-workers that misspell your name, when you wrote it twice in the email [usual thanks [x] then sig you forgot about. Also your name is IN your e-mail address that really gets my goat,

Re: The heck

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

It's only ambiguous because "Joanne" doesn't suit me :) (Interestingly, my boss is also a Joanne who only answers to Jo. That can get confusing at times). The worst thing is I know Stephen told the guy I'm a Mrs - he knows how much being called Mr pisses me off!

Before I married, I think I only ever met one person could spell my surname correctly - even if it was written in front of them, or I spelt it out. I've eliminated that problem now (although I occasionally get some really weird spellings of Caswell), I just need to train the rest of the world how to spell Jo :)

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

Y'know, the toner industry is so scammy, I'm tempted to bring my dot matrix out of retirement.

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

Great, then my spam content will change from V1@gR/\ and Toner, to V1@gR/\ and r1bB0ns.

THANKS!

[microchip.livejournal.com]

LMAO!

[abstrak-tokatl.livejournal.com]

ya, i've gotten that call.... i put them on hold for twenty minutes of rob Zombie & OC Remixes.

[jacobine.livejournal.com]

Whenever anyone mentions anything vaguely about computers, our receptionist sends them straight to the helpdesk. Argh. I like putting them on hold and leaving them there. Since we don't have call metrics, I can do this.

I also hang up on them randomly. If I'm in a good mood, I'll transfer them to somebody who isn't in.

But yeah... people misspell my name all the time, too. It's not hard! They also call me Daisy and Tracy instead of Stacy. Fortunately they don't generally call me male (although I do get emails from our Singapore office addressing me as Mr and by my last name.)

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

I got called "Donny" instead of "Tommy" all the time at my last job.

It made me cross.

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

...actually, when I hear the name "Jo" I always hear it as "Joe" and assume the person is male whether it's IT or not.

Don't stab me.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

OK, no stabbing. But can I slap you a little bit? :)

[axessdenyd.livejournal.com]

So unfriendly.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

Sorry, it's been a hard day :)

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

I love when clueless salespeople call the helpdesk trying to push something.

Can I buy anything? No.
Can I authorize anything? No.
Do I know who can? No.
Can they speak to anyone else? Sure, you've got a phone and a dialling hand, knock yourself out.

[jcaswell.livejournal.com]

The problem is, I'm officially the IT buyer too, so technically he had the right person. He's still not got a chance though :)

[tmercenary.livejournal.com]

I had to deal with salesmen from the same company when managing a cocktail lounge for a bar, all salesmen werefed the same script once. They call, and get the resturant office:

"Hey, who is your bar manager......Can I speak with them?"
Now they are transfered, and when you pick up they are automatically using your first name, and acting like your longtime best pals. Smart receptionists see through this, and can deflect them most of the time.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

That has to be the hardest part of outbound business sales - getting your foot in the door. Screeners are just rough as all hell and most of them really do know their stuff in this regard, if only out of practice. Were I the person doing this, I'd probably get information and blacklist them from consideration without a darn good reason, but that's just me :)

[foxbaby.livejournal.com]

I actually assume all Jos are FEMALE. I have never met a real life Joe for any amount of time.

maybe the name's just not that popular in Australia?

I've met more Monty's (2) than Joes LOL

[harry-whodunnit.livejournal.com]

Every so often I have the following conversation:

Me: "##### faults, ##### speaking."
Caller: "Could I speak with the lady of the house?"
Me: "No. Clear the line, please."

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

Hmm...try talking on the phone with someone who's got a high-pitched androgynous voice, on top of a hard-to-pronounce name. You can't exactly say Mr/Miss ________, as you don't know gender, and the name's something crazy you give up on the first time you hear it. Only time I'd excuse "Hey You" on the phones..