Excuse me, sir?

I never intentioned this blog to have a lot to do with my job, but this situation screamed for a post. So forgive me for the journey I'm about to take you on. It'll be worth it, I promise.

Being a phones supervisor, I get to talk to a lot of crazy people. Crazy people are usually pissed, and pissed off people can let some language fly. As I covered in my last post, doing this will generally get you nowhere with me. But the guy I spoke to this morning took it to a whole different level.

I've been cussed at a lot in my 3+ years in this position. If there's a curse word that exists, I've heard it, and I've heard it applied as some sort of adjective to me. I've been called a Jehovah's Witness because I charged someone an installment fee (not sure how that works, since I am unfamiliar with the faith. apparently, Jehovah's like to charge for paper? never knew that.). But the guy I spoke with this morning called me the N-word. Not nice, not a ninny, not a nancy boy. The big N-word. Huck Finn traveling down the river with a guy named N-word Jim, N-word. I'll give you a moment to let that sink in a bit.

.......
.......
.......

Wrapped your mind around that yet? Didn't think so. Not only am I one of the whitest people you'll ever meet, how is that something you say on the phone, regardless of how pissed you are? So, as the post title suggests, I said, "excuse me, sir?". To which he replied, "whatever, go f-yourself". Clearly this gentleman was in rare form. However, this would be the end of the line for him. I told him that based on his language, I would be hanging up on him. When he started to talk again, I interrupted and let him know if he wanted, he could call back 24 hours a day. He kept on talking, so I told him to have a good day and hung up on him. Now there's a sweet feeling for you.

Calling Customer Service...

In case you didn't know, I am a supervisor at a call center for Progressive Insurance. A small portion of the calls I take regularly are people who are pissed about something and ask to speak to a supervisor. This is me. Now, when you call in and bitch about something on your policy, I can either do something for you or I can't. If I can't, there's no way you're getting what you want, whatever it is. Insurance is one of the most regulated businesses in the country. If it can't be done, it can't be done. Making you happy isn't worth my insurance license, or my job.

However, for some people, there are things I can do. I can give you what you're asking for or I can find a way to compromise so you at least get something, which makes you feel all warm inside because you feel like you won. This is generally based solely on my mood/willingness to be helpful at any given time. So here's a suggestion: whenever you call a company and request a supervisor, keep your language in check. If you start off the call by launching yourself into some profanity-laced tirade at me, you just lowered your chances of me doing something for you by about 50%. I understand you're upset. You wouldn't have asked for me if you weren't. But cursing, calling me names, etc, are not the way to go. Be polite. Ask for something like a civilized human being. Talk to me the way you would if we were face to face. Because you wouldn't start the cussing right away if we were face to face, trust me, I'm a big dude. And remember, frequent use of profanity just shows a lack of intelligence and language skills. I am not impressed that you can drop the F-bomb 4 times in one sentence. And you just made it a lot easier for me to tell you no.

Intro...

William Shakespeare seems like an ok guy. Some people debate whether or not he was one person, or a group of people that published works using that name. And that's fine. I'm not here to debate that. But I am borrowing generously from him with my new blog. In his play As You Like It, a character named Jaques is waxing on about how the world is a stage, and that people are merely living their lives as actors on that stage. Well, it seems nowadays, nearly everyone has a blog, so I'm diving right in. It will be a great place for me to things off my chest, get opinions from my soon-to-be faithful followers about all manner of issues, both important and non-sensical and to feel like a big shot by having a blog. Please feel free to sign up on the right to get updates whenever I post an update, or just check back whenever. Thanks for tuning in, and I hope you're here to stay.