Special Snowflake Stories

[KenveeB]

Not all call centres use canned responses.  Where I work, we are given suggestions at times on how to word responses but not asked to sound scripted at the same time.  I notice the canned responses & sounding very scripted from the overseas centres (like in India as an example) a lot more compared to those where I can tell the people are either Americans or Canadians the rare times I must call customer service places for help. 

I did check my ticket and the one done by the person who took over the call.  The customer was given the detail I was attempting to give plus asked other questions from that same person that she did not ask of me.  I still think its both SS & rude  to ask for a supervisor if the person is attempting to provide an answer or possible solution to you, and you do not allow that person to finish what they have to say first then say "I do not like your answer, I want a supervisor" after the agent has finished speaking. 

I do not deny a supervisor request from a customer, but at the same time they must allow the agent to attempt to assist them first.  I know that I must remain professional and calm even if the customer is trying to rile me up at times.

Maybe they've just experienced the same "customer service" I have lately, where the sole purpose of the first people you call seems to be to make you jump through a series of hoops that don't have anything to do with your actual problem and you have to escalate to a manager to get anything accomplished. Companies will train customers that they have to do a certain thing in order to get anything done, then complain when the customers actually do that.

That doesn't mean they get to be rude.  Frustration isn't a pass for rudeness.

I agree with your last sentence, but I disagree that simply asking for a supervisor instead of going through the useless hoops first is rude. It can be done rudely, yes, but it's not inherently rude.

[PastryGoddess]

I was taking a walk around the neighborhood and someone posted a sign on their tree that said "Do NOT leave your dog poop on our property!!!"

I have been tempted to put up a sign myself.  If you can't take responsibility for your dog, you shouldn't have one.

We ran into a person who yells at us about letting our dogs poop at all, even though we clean it up.  Little dog was pooping on the grass Not in his yard. It was yard, sidewalk, grass strip, curb, road, and little dog was on the grass strip. We looked at him like he was crazy, big dog looked at him like he was crazy, little dog kind of twisted while pooping to see who the crazy was.  He kept yelling even as little dog finished up and I bagged his poo for disposal.

Am I a bad person for making this the unofficial pooping spot because I like poking the crazy with a stick? He still yells 2-3 times a week even though we clean up.

I wouldn't say you're a bad person, and I wouldn't find anything wrong with allowing your dog to do his business if he just happened to decide "It's time!" right there. However, I'd say it's kind of rude to make this your "designated pooping place" just to spite the guy.

I tend to agree.  I think your dog's designated pooping place should be your own grass, not the public's.  Do you not have a yard for him to go in?

Where we live this grassed strip is public land.  He yells if we pass by, if we stop because little dog wants to poo, if we cross the street on the way to the field behind our neighborhood (yes, we have the owner's permission), and as this is the most direct route, we will continue to go that way. 

I'm sorry for those offended by the label "unofficial pooping spot" because that was kind of tongue in cheek.  If he has to go, he has to go. We do not lurk around or lead him to this spot to poo. As for the yard, yes, we do have a yard.  Our dogs are indoor dogs and the function of a walk for them is 2 fold - exercise and to get their systems on the go so that they can eliminate.  My older dog will get backed up and not go for a couple of days if he is not walked properly.

I certainly wasn't offended. You indicated that it happened 2-3 times a week (which didn't lead me to believe you were being tongue-in-cheek or hypothetical in the slightest) and asked if it made you a bad person. I answered your question. That's all.

My dogs go that many times a day, so 2-3 a week is very little.

LOL, I'm not saying pooping that often isn't normal , I'm saying that if I'm walking my dog around the neighborhood, she tends to poop when the mood strikes her. Pooping on the same stretch of lawn that just happens to front crazypants' property several times a week? That seems a bit much for coincidence. Maybe if I was just walking up and down that section of street, but actually taking them for a walk?

Well, I said he yells 2-3 times a week, not that he poops there that much.  Crazypants will yell if he sees that we are walking by, and as we walk by there to get to open walking space, we pass by 3 times a day, 21 times a week. Little dog poops there maybe 1 or two times a week, but that has no correlation to the yelling. I am not offended by anyone's opinion whether they think I am in the wrong or not.  I guess my tone does not come through well, so I'll take it as all good 

In my area, that strip may be public property, but I am still responsible for it - I have to keep it clean, rake, mow and seed it if someone's animal ( or anyhting else) destroys the grass on it - but I can not take  the grass out and make it cement. While you may pick up  after your dog, the process still leaves fecal matter on the grass, and a certain smell after ward. That property owner did not take on the responsibility of dealing with your dog's messes - your did.
  If I were you I'd make sure the dog  went in it's own yard before I went for a walk and actively discourage your dog from going in this yard since you know it aggravates the person responsible for it's up keep.

OP is this the case in your area?  Or is that stretch of grass maintained by the city/town/municipality?

If the OP's neighbor is not responsible for the upkeep then OP is not rude for allowing her pet to do it's business on a publicly maintained piece of land.  If the OP's neighbor is responsible, then yeah, I do think its pretty rude to let your dog go on that piece of land.

[artk2002]

Where we live this grassed strip is public land.  He yells if we pass by, if we stop because little dog wants to poo, if we cross the street on the way to the field behind our neighborhood (yes, we have the owner's permission), and as this is the most direct route, we will continue to go that way. 

Even when it's public land, frequently the maintenance of those strips is the homeowner's responsibility. Yes, all the responsibility and none of the real authority. The municipality can take the land at any time to widen the street, but the resident has to keep it looking nice. There are a lot of places where that applies to the sidewalk as well. Public land, private maintenance.

[Hillia]

We had this in Phoenix with the alleyway behind our house.  Homeowners were responsible for maintaining the alley from their property line to the middle of the alley, even though the houses were built with solid cinderblock back fences, with no access at all to the alley - so you had to haul your mower, weedeater, etc around the block to the alley opening.  And, of course, clean up the fast food containers, empty liquor bottles, dirty diapers, and various other piles of trash garbage behind by the SS's who though of the alley as their personal trash heap.

[Cutenoob]

Could we move the doggie poop to another thread, please?

[mmswm]

Somebody alert the media!  There's a blizzard in Miami, FL!

I remember now why I hate it here so much.  Everyday it's something different.

Today, I drove my mother and sister to the plastic surgeon's office for phase two of "repair lil' sister's eyebrow". The surgeon's office was on the second floor of the building.  When we got off the elevator, there were some guys there with a bunch of Christmas decorations, presumably going up the elevator to put them back into storage.  I got off the elevator and went in the only direction I could, which was the opposite direction of where I needed to go.  I also needed to make sure my sister, my son and my mother had also gotten off the elevator so Christmas Tree guy could get on the elevator and I could go on my way.  At this point the entire hallway is taken up.  I turned to make sure my mother was safely off the elevator and this woman wearing scrubs shoved her way past me, pushing me into my sister and both of us into Christmas Tree Guy.  No codes had been called, so there wasn't an emergency anywhere that I could tell.

[Mental Magpie]

Not all call centres use canned responses.  Where I work, we are given suggestions at times on how to word responses but not asked to sound scripted at the same time.  I notice the canned responses & sounding very scripted from the overseas centres (like in India as an example) a lot more compared to those where I can tell the people are either Americans or Canadians the rare times I must call customer service places for help. 

I did check my ticket and the one done by the person who took over the call.  The customer was given the detail I was attempting to give plus asked other questions from that same person that she did not ask of me.  I still think its both SS & rude  to ask for a supervisor if the person is attempting to provide an answer or possible solution to you, and you do not allow that person to finish what they have to say first then say "I do not like your answer, I want a supervisor" after the agent has finished speaking. 

I do not deny a supervisor request from a customer, but at the same time they must allow the agent to attempt to assist them first.  I know that I must remain professional and calm even if the customer is trying to rile me up at times.

Maybe they've just experienced the same "customer service" I have lately, where the sole purpose of the first people you call seems to be to make you jump through a series of hoops that don't have anything to do with your actual problem and you have to escalate to a manager to get anything accomplished. Companies will train customers that they have to do a certain thing in order to get anything done, then complain when the customers actually do that.

That doesn't mean they get to be rude.  Frustration isn't a pass for rudeness.

I agree with your last sentence, but I disagree that simply asking for a supervisor instead of going through the useless hoops first is rude. It can be done rudely, yes, but it's not inherently rude.

Interrupting someone to do so is, which is what happened in the OP.

[Poppea]

Hee hee.  Others might disagree, but I don't think you're a bad person at all.  Sometimes it's fun to poke the crazy.

For some reason that reminds me of when my husband and I had a garage sale a few years ago.  We did the usual thing people do to advertise a garage sale; i.e. putting signs around the neighborhood.  These signs were on stakes that we hammered into the ground, and they were professionally lettered (a friend did them for us so that they'd be eye-catching).  Well, I guess they caught someone's eye, all right - when we went for a quick walk to make sure all of our signs were still up, we found that several were missing.  We'd been very careful to put them on public property, so I don't know if someone thought that we'd used their lawn (we hadn't) or if they just objected to garage sales in general.  There was no wind that day, so there was no way they'd blown away.

I would have removed your sign if it was in my parkway.  The city either owns the grass strip or has an easement in most places.  That would not give you any right to put a sign there.

[Mental Magpie]

Hee hee.  Others might disagree, but I don't think you're a bad person at all.  Sometimes it's fun to poke the crazy.

For some reason that reminds me of when my husband and I had a garage sale a few years ago.  We did the usual thing people do to advertise a garage sale; i.e. putting signs around the neighborhood.  These signs were on stakes that we hammered into the ground, and they were professionally lettered (a friend did them for us so that they'd be eye-catching).  Well, I guess they caught someone's eye, all right - when we went for a quick walk to make sure all of our signs were still up, we found that several were missing.  We'd been very careful to put them on public property, so I don't know if someone thought that we'd used their lawn (we hadn't) or if they just objected to garage sales in general.  There was no wind that day, so there was no way they'd blown away.

I would have removed your sign if it was in my parkway.  The city either owns the grass strip or has an easement in most places.  That would not give you any right to put a sign there.

If her city has a laws where people are allowed to post things on public property, she most certainly would have a right to put a sign there.

[Poppea]

Hee hee.  Others might disagree, but I don't think you're a bad person at all.  Sometimes it's fun to poke the crazy.

For some reason that reminds me of when my husband and I had a garage sale a few years ago.  We did the usual thing people do to advertise a garage sale; i.e. putting signs around the neighborhood.  These signs were on stakes that we hammered into the ground, and they were professionally lettered (a friend did them for us so that they'd be eye-catching).  Well, I guess they caught someone's eye, all right - when we went for a quick walk to make sure all of our signs were still up, we found that several were missing.  We'd been very careful to put them on public property, so I don't know if someone thought that we'd used their lawn (we hadn't) or if they just objected to garage sales in general.  There was no wind that day, so there was no way they'd blown away.

I would have removed your sign if it was in my parkway.  The city either owns the grass strip or has an easement in most places.  That would not give you any right to put a sign there.

If her city has a laws where people are allowed to post things on public property, she most certainly would have a right to put a sign there.

I seriously doubt there is any municipality in the US that is densely populated enough to have a garage sale where there is also an ordinance giving permission to post signs on a parkway/grass strip.  Most cities/villages/towns have ordinaces against obstructions because it is a traffic hazzard.  Imagine walking out of your house and finding signs stuck in your parkway.  How are you supposed to mow it? 

[JoW]

I seriously doubt there is any municipality in the US that is densely populated enough to have a garage sale where there is also an ordinance giving permission to post signs on a parkway/grass strip.  Most cities/villages/towns have ordinaces against obstructions because it is a traffic hazzard.  Imagine walking out of your house and finding signs stuck in your parkway.  How are you supposed to mow it?

My city has a law against posting signs on publicly-owned land along a road and requiring that the owner of the ajoining land take them down.  I've taken several down along the front edge of my property. 

[Poppea]

I seriously doubt there is any municipality in the US that is densely populated enough to have a garage sale where there is also an ordinance giving permission to post signs on a parkway/grass strip.  Most cities/villages/towns have ordinaces against obstructions because it is a traffic hazzard.  Imagine walking out of your house and finding signs stuck in your parkway.  How are you supposed to mow it?

My city has a law against posting signs on publicly-owned land along a road and requiring that the owner of the ajoining land take them down.  I've taken several down along the front edge of my property.

Exactly.  My town sends out a notice every election season reminding homeowners that any political signs "must" be on private property and are absolutely not allowed on the parkway.

[Shalamar]

Well, I'm in Canada, for what it's worth.   And we had put our signs on the strips of grass that belonged to the city.

I guess what bothered me the most was not that someone took down the signs, but that they kept them.   My friend worked hard on them, and we'd hoped to reuse them at a future yard sale.    Even just leaving them on the grass with a note that said "HEY, JERK, DON'T PUT SIGNS HERE" would've been preferable.

[twiggy]

I ran into a SS at Walmart tonight.  I know, I know, I'll give you all a minute to get over your shock [/sarcasm]

Throughout the store there are a few of those price scanners in the aisles so that you can do a quick price check without having to find a cashier. I went to check on a soccer ball and saw that the scanner I wanted was in use by a woman with a very full cart. So I patiently waited for 4-5 minutes before I realized that she was scanning every single item in her cart. I decided that I would pick up a few other things I needed and come back. 15 min later, she was still there, scanning away. Personally, I've never used the scanners for more than 2 or 3 things at a time, but live and let live, right? First come, first serve; she has just as much right to use the machine as I do. So, I gave up on the scanner, wandered around for a while longer and eventually decided to get in line to check out. As it usually happens, as soon as I picked a line, I remembered the one thing I actually came to the store to get. I happened to notice on my way out that the woman was gone, but she had left a HUGE pile of stuff on the floor in front of the scanner.

[LadyClaire]

I ran into a SS at Walmart tonight.  I know, I know, I'll give you all a minute to get over your shock [/sarcasm]

Throughout the store there are a few of those price scanners in the aisles so that you can do a quick price check without having to find a cashier. I went to check on a soccer ball and saw that the scanner I wanted was in use by a woman with a very full cart. So I patiently waited for 4-5 minutes before I realized that she was scanning every single item in her cart. I decided that I would pick up a few other things I needed and come back. 15 min later, she was still there, scanning away. Personally, I've never used the scanners for more than 2 or 3 things at a time, but live and let live, right? First come, first serve; she has just as much right to use the machine as I do. So, I gave up on the scanner, wandered around for a while longer and eventually decided to get in line to check out. As it usually happens, as soon as I picked a line, I remembered the one thing I actually came to the store to get. I happened to notice on my way out that the woman was gone, but she had left a HUGE pile of stuff on the floor in front of the scanner.

I see that a lot at department stores. I worked for one during the holiday season, and there would frequently be massive piles of clothes left at the foot of the price scanners, often times just tossed onto the floor to get dirty and crumpled.