Special Snowflake Stories

[wonderfullyanonymous]

I'm not sure who was the bigger SS here, the customer or my boss.   I used to work for a dinner theatre, and one night I got a call in the ticket-booking office from a prospective customer wanting to know details about the show.  I hadn't seen it (we employees didn't get free tickets, and they were too pricey for me), but I answered as best I could by reading the program.   The customer seemed satisfied and hung up.

A few days later, the theatre received a blistering letter complaining about how ignorant I was and how unhelpful I had been.    Luckily, she hadn't gotten my name - because my boss was absolutely furious about the letter and vowed to fire whomever was responsible.   

This is the exact reason why I will not use my name on the phone, when I have to answer it.

[RingTailedLemur]

Reminds me of when I was doing work experience at a radio station, before widespread Internet use.  I was 15 and it was Valentine's Day.  A woman rang to ask what the "St Valentine's Day Massacre" was and I had no idea.  I suggested a local library and offered to get their addresses for her, but she crossly insisted, "I want you to tell me."  Bizarre.

[ladyknight1]

I'm not sure who was the bigger SS here, the customer or my boss.   I used to work for a dinner theatre, and one night I got a call in the ticket-booking office from a prospective customer wanting to know details about the show.  I hadn't seen it (we employees didn't get free tickets, and they were too pricey for me), but I answered as best I could by reading the program.   The customer seemed satisfied and hung up.

A few days later, the theatre received a blistering letter complaining about how ignorant I was and how unhelpful I had been.    Luckily, she hadn't gotten my name - because my boss was absolutely furious about the letter and vowed to fire whomever was responsible.   

This is the exact reason why I will not use my name on the phone, when I have to answer it.

We are required to give our full names, as well as email address to anyone who calls, be it angry student, parent, or reporter. Ah, life in the public sector!

Edited to fix the quote tree. Twice. 

[AfleetAlex]

Reminds me of when I was doing work experience at a radio station, before widespread Internet use.  I was 15 and it was Valentine's Day.  A woman rang to ask what the "St Valentine's Day Massacre" was and I had no idea.  I suggested a local library and offered to get their addresses for her, but she crossly insisted, "I want you to tell me."  Bizarre.

I used to do radio and if I ever slipped up and mispronounced a word, some anonymous listener would photocopy that page in the dictionary, highlight the word and the pronunciation and mail it to me. 

[heartmug]

Another driving one!

I was in the left turning lane waiting for a break in traffic (I had a green light). There was a steady stream of cars going in the opposite direction; but 5 cars down there was a decent break coming. Apparently the lady behind me felt I should have zoomed through even with oncoming traffic and started honking and waving and yelling. I simply waved back and pointed to the (still) oncoming cars. Once the break was there, I went through and she zoomed around me (still yelling) to pull into the parking lot of the stores on the corner. Total time she had to wait from when I arrived at the light...2 minutes 

Sorry lady, I am not causing a horrific accident so you can get to the store a whole 2 minutes sooner. I like body parts to still be attached.

Oh gosh, that just happened to my teen.  She is learning to drive and, thankfully, being super cautious.  She didn't feel comfortable making a right turn when a car was kind of far away.  I let her make the judgement call but the guy in the truck behind us had a few choice words for her as he zoomed past us after making his turn.  She learned the ugly truth that that is part of driving.  Idiots.

[CrochetFanatic]

I used to do radio and if I ever slipped up and mispronounced a word, some anonymous listener would photocopy that page in the dictionary, highlight the word and the pronunciation and mail it to me. 

I actually understand the anonymous listener's feelings here, but he/she had no business correcting you.  I'm a little particular about pronunciation and spelling, or even what something is called, and I sometimes have to catch myself from saying, "You mean such-and-such?"  I used to have a customer who would come in and buy Marlboro Ultra Lights, and she would always say without so much as a hello, "Ultra Light Marlboro."  I would bite my tongue and get her the cigarettes, thinking to myself, "Must...not...nooo, you keep your mouth shut, CrochetFanatic!"  Also, would it kill her to use complete sentences and say "please" and "thank you"?  Guess I sort of have to work to not be a Special Snowflake when it comes to that kind of thing.

[AfleetAlex]

Most often it would just be a case of tongue tripping that caused the mispronunciation, and a few days hence, I could expect the anonymous letter. 

[gramma dishes]

Most often it would just be a case of tongue tripping that caused the mispronunciation, and a few days hence, I could expect the anonymous letter. 

Well, at least you knew that you had at least one listener who was really paying attention!   

[Midnight Kitty]

I used to do radio and if I ever slipped up and mispronounced a word, some anonymous listener would photocopy that page in the dictionary, highlight the word and the pronunciation and mail it to me. 

My husband is a volunteer DJ on public radio and the university student radio station.  There is another girl who DJs on both stations.  She is relatively new to the islands.  A public radio listener heard the Girl DJ mispronounce the name of her town so she, the listener, posted a nasty comment on her Facebook that the public radio station should be ashamed of itself for having such an ignorant DJ who doesn't know how to pronounce [Town Name].

I spoke to Girl DJ later.  She said this woman listener discusses on her Facebook account how her greatest challenge is learning to tolerate ignorance gracefully.  I think she has a long way to go before she qualifies as "graceful."  The listener could have called the DJ directly and simply told her the proper pronunciation of the town name.  She didn't have to go for public humiliation.

[MissRose]

I used to do radio and if I ever slipped up and mispronounced a word, some anonymous listener would photocopy that page in the dictionary, highlight the word and the pronunciation and mail it to me. 

My husband is a volunteer DJ on public radio and the university student radio station.  There is another girl who DJs on both stations.  She is relatively new to the islands.  A public radio listener heard the Girl DJ mispronounce the name of her town so she, the listener, posted a nasty comment on her Facebook that the public radio station should be ashamed of itself for having such an ignorant DJ who doesn't know how to pronounce [Town Name].

I spoke to Girl DJ later.  She said this woman listener discusses on her Facebook account how her greatest challenge is learning to tolerate ignorance gracefully.  I think she has a long way to go before she qualifies as "graceful."  The listener could have called the DJ directly and simply told her the proper pronunciation of the town name.  She didn't have to go for public humiliation.

I had a now ex friend that often pointed out me mis-pronouncing stuff on air as I do volunteer broadcasting.   That is among the reasons why she is now an ex friend (including making comments about blogs related to body image that were not nice and trying to tell me how to do my show when she would not do one herself).

[AfleetAlex]

We did occasionally have very kind listeners who would correct us over the phone if we mispronounced, say, a small town name that we'd never come across before. You were always supposed to pre-read everything before you put it on air, but if you came across breaking news, you entered a 'rip-and-read' situation, meaning you tore the story off the (dot matrix!) printer and dashed it into the studio, and sometimes you'd hit a word you weren't familiar with while live on air. I still sometimes come across towns I've never heard of in this state and I've lived here my whole life! 

[Outdoor Girl]

A friend of my mother's called those words 'wheelbarrows'.  This lady claimed that if she got to a word she couldn't pronounce, she'd just say 'wheelbarrow' and carry on.  I never heard her do it in all the times she did a reading at church but I did hear her ask, in response to being asked to do a reading, 'Has it got any wheelbarrows in it?

[Elfmama]

A friend of my mother's called those words 'wheelbarrows'.  This lady claimed that if she got to a word she couldn't pronounce, she'd just say 'wheelbarrow' and carry on.  I never heard her do it in all the times she did a reading at church but I did hear her ask, in response to being asked to do a reading, 'Has it got any wheelbarrows in it?

DD2 would substitute words if she could guess from context what it is.  One was 'moccasin', so whenever she came to that word, it would be "Indian shoe". 

[elephantschild]

We have a reader of the paper who, whenever he or she catches a word misused, highlights it, writes the correct usage or spelling next to it and mails it to us. Since corporate considers things like copy editors unnecessary these days, this is rather more common than we'd like. 

I consider it a point of pride that I haven't received one. (Now watch me have a typo in one of my stories tomorrow!    )

Actually, we haven't seen one at all recently and are hoping that he or she is OK ...

[Morrigan]

I'm listening to a favorite series of books, and not enjoying the narrator.  I posted on the Amazon discussion boards for that author and asked if anyone else didn't like the narrator, and listed my reasons why I didn't (which include her pausing at really odd times, and not pronouncing Mackinac right, despite half a book being set there).

Most of the others said that they liked her, but one listener told me that if I didn't like the books, to read them instead, and that I shouldn't complain about them at all.  Just go read them.     Despite me explaining that I like to listen to something I've read (multiple times) and don't have to have my full attention on.