Work Stories!

[imperfectforyou]

Hello all! I tend to browse the forums a lot while on the job, as I work at a desk and only have limited duties. I would love to share and hear some work stories, rants, and any content related to your job!
There have been other forums similar in the past, however they are long deserted and the original posters have been inactive. I think this could be a great space to relieve some work-related steam!

About me
Before I share any specific stories about my job, I would love to give a general idea of my work position. I work as a BDC (Business Development Center) service agent at a dealership in a rather large city. I essentially work the role of a receptionist: answering calls, scheduling service appointments, and redirecting calls to correct departments. I work alongside another coworker who does the same tasks as me. My desk is fully decorated to my taste, and I would love to share pictures in the future!

Rules
Rules are simple!
1) NO SHARING PERSONAL INFO. This includes full names, business titles, and locations. Do not share anything you would not normally share when following site rules.
2) no ASKING other parties for personal info

Thank you and I hope we have some fun!​

Post automatically merged: Apr 19, 2024

WORK CONTEXT: I work as a BDC (Business Development Center) service agent at a dealership in a rather large city. I essentially work the role of a receptionist: answering calls, scheduling service appointments, and redirecting calls to correct departments. I work alongside another coworker who does the same tasks as me.

As you can imagine, people wanting their car fixed aren't gonna be in the best mood from the get-go. But when you add an additional lack of understanding of the structure of a dealership, as well as self-entitlement, situations like the following happen:

A lady calls me regarding a safety recall on her vehicle. Nothing out of the norm. However, right off the bat, she seems to be expecting a mechanic to have had answered the phone. Which, is not how this works. Mechanics work on cars, they do not answer the phone. She is essentially wanting the nitty-gritty details of how the recall will be performed, which as a simple receptionist, I cannot answer. I proceed to tell her I can schedule her appointment, and/or send her to a service advisor's phone to get those details. She VERY reluctantly agrees, and I place her on hold to page an advisor.

When I put a call on hold, anyone in the dealership can pick up within approximately a 4 minute timespan. If they are busy, it will ring back to me and I take the customer's information to give them a call back.

Not TWO minutes roll by, and she is calling back. Meaning she didn't wait for an answer, and instead hung up to call me back. Here is our general conversation from there:

"Listen, I dont have time to wait on the phone all day. Just tell me about the recall."

Me: "Im so sorry ma'am, they must be busy at the moment. Like I said, your recall will be free and *list more simple details here* If you want, I can take your information and have them call you back ASAP if you're looking for anything more detailed than what I just told you!!"

"NO, I do not want to wait on the phone. I don't understand, all you're telling me is you can schedule me or get me to someone else, I'm trying to talk to you."
(EXACTLY? THATS WHAT IM TRYING TO TELL YOU???? THAT SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE TO SPEAK TO YOU?)

me: "Ma'am, my apologies but I cannot personally provide you with that information. I'll have to take your information."

"LISTEN, I KNOW I'M BEING BELIGERANT, BUT YOU'RE NOT UNDERSTANDING WHAT I NEED, OTHERWISE YOU COULD TELL ME."

My coworker finally notices I've been going back and forth with her for about 8 minutes now. At this point, I was newer on the job, so I wasn't really aware of how and when to cut off the conversation. She finally takes the phone and simply says "Yes, ma'am. I'm so sorry. We will have them call you back!" Then hung up.

And that my friends, is how I learned to have a limit with my customers' behavior.

 

[Midoriya]

I work in operations for one of the best financial companies in the U.S. I don't generally have any stories to share or that I'm willing to share, but I will say I enjoy my job a lot and I get a lot of laughs every day out of it while I'm there.

Basically, my job doesn't stress me out because the people I work with are great and there's nothing stressful about it in the first place!

 

[imperfectforyou]

I work in operations for one of the best financial companies in the U.S. I don't generally have any stories to share or that I'm willing to share, but I will say I enjoy my job a lot and I get a lot of laughs every day out of it while I'm there.

Basically, my job doesn't stress me out because the people I work with are great and there's nothing stressful about it in the first place!

That’s amazing! I actually absolutely love my job too! It’s a very rewarding experience working with a *majority* of customers. I also love my coworkers, they’ve actually helped me out a lot recently with getting a new vehicle!
I’ve never been happier at a job in my life! Plan to stay here for years to come
I just enjoy talking about the interesting experiences that come with it. It’s part of what makes my job more exciting!

Post automatically merged: Apr 19, 2024

It’s very shocking everytime to me how people treat those working a front desk job like they don’t know anything.
Today I had a lady call in to my dealership. Having issues with her car. No problem! I proceed to get her scheduled in, so I’m asking her questions about her vehicle situation.
She’s cussing the entirety of the conversation, which while is unprofessional, I usually disregard, because I know car struggles are extremely complex and stressful.
She finally SCREAMS at me, “I DONT NEED YOU ASKING ME ALL THESE QUESTIONS, I NEED TO BE SCHEDULED, ****ING TRANSFER ME.”
….
“Ma’am… it’s quite literally my job to schedule you. That’s what I’m trying to do right now.”
That being said, she did not get scheduled in with me. The conversation ended, due to her lack of human decency. My company doesn’t tolerate those types of situations.

She ends up getting scheduled in with my coworker, who was quite more stern with her. Was also cussing the whole conversation and blaming us for her problems.

Finally, she calls back to speak to a service advisor. Service advisors oversee all maintenance in the shop, they are who you drop your keys off to, and they give you all details and updates on your vehicle throughout service.
She is still rude and yelling at me to do what she wants.
I go back to warn him about her. She proceeds to be an absolute DOLL to him. Sweet as can be. We were all in awe at the shift in her behavior.
Really goes to show, that to some people, receptionists (or anyone lacking a degree/certification) is useless and untrained. Despite working for a specific company and knowing the ins and outs.

 

[Chris]

Removed.

 

[imperfectforyou]

This is just an unfortunate and puzzling situation a customer is in.
I work at a dealership.
A lady calls in and starts with "...so my wiper fluid container... that holds wiper fluid?"
Instantly I know something terrible is gonna be said. I'm like "Okay... and....?"
She says. I can't make this up: "Gas was put in it. By accident"
When I tell you everyone in this building had their jaw on the ground when they found out. How does this even happen.

 

[TN4U]

I got a quick and funny one:

Back when I worked at my first job at a pizza place, someone placed an online order for an extra cheese pizza, but customized it themselves to have light cheese. I was so confused as to why this was, so when making it, I simply made a pizza with the regular amount of cheese. Even the co-workers around me were laughing at what this customer wanted, and one suggested they call their phone number to double-check. We never did, and the customer must've been satisfied with what we made as they didn't even complain or mention why they made such a confusion decision.

Look, if you're going to order a light cheese pizza, don't customize the extra cheese one. That's all I gotta say.

 

[Late Night Thoughts]

This is just an unfortunate and puzzling situation a customer is in.
I work at a dealership.
A lady calls in and starts with "...so my wiper fluid container... that holds wiper fluid?"
Instantly I know something terrible is gonna be said. I'm like "Okay... and....?"
She says. I can't make this up: "Gas was put in it. By accident"
When I tell you everyone in this building had their jaw on the ground when they found out. How does this even happen.

I really want to know what happened because what?!

 

[Neb]

My first job was three years ago. I signed up for vocational rehabilitation, which is government assistance for disabled people looking for work, and they put me in a job that the worker I was assigned with was acquainted with. It was filling up containers with roasted nuts and packaging them to be shipped usually nationally for a local start up business. I was their first employee and I was paid what was minimum wage at the time. I got free samples when I first joined that tasted great. The job was a lot of fun and I often had to force myself to restrain my temptation to eat what I was sending. I was very precise, but I was on the slow side and I sometimes made mistakes when shipping or cut myself while preparing the packages. They were forgiving for me since most of the orders turned out fine. About two months into the job I was laid off because they wanted someone a bit faster and they didn't think I had the computer skills to handle their new shipping system. My mom thinks the real reason they fired me was because for the first two months the vocational rehabilitation program paid the business to let me work there at the same rate as I was being paid. Basically I was free labor. After the first two months were up they would've had to pay me at a loss if they didn't lay me off. When they laid me off they gave me more free samples, but I still teared up.

 

[imperfectforyou]

I really want to know what happened because what?!

I genuinely don't know how she managed to do it. My service advisor had a very lengthy conversation with her, and pretty much told her "Hey, we don't care where you take it. Take it somewhere TODAY and get it flushed." we were just in shock, honestly. At first I genuinely expected it to be a prank call.
We never got updates on how it turned out. I'm not sure how much she ran it after putting in the gas, but she could've very easily ruined her whole engine.

 

[imperfectforyou]

My first job was three years ago. I signed up for vocational rehabilitation, which is government assistance for disabled people looking for work, and they put me in a job that the worker I was assigned with was acquainted with. It was filling up containers with roasted nuts and packaging them to be shipped usually nationally for a local start up business. I was their first employee and I was paid what was minimum wage at the time. I got free samples when I first joined that tasted great. The job was a lot of fun and I often had to force myself to restrain my temptation to eat what I was sending. I was very precise, but I was on the slow side and I sometimes made mistakes when shipping or cut myself while preparing the packages. They were forgiving for me since most of the orders turned out fine. About two months into the job I was laid off because they wanted someone a bit faster and they didn't think I had the computer skills to handle their new shipping system. My mom thinks the real reason they fired me was because for the first two months the vocational rehabilitation program paid the business to let me work there at the same rate as I was being paid. Basically I was free labor. After the first two months were up they would've had to pay me at a loss if they didn't lay me off. When they laid me off they gave me more free samples, but I still teared up.

Employers are sneaky like that. Happens to the best of us. Sucks, but I hope you found even better work since then<3

 

[TN4U]

I'd love to talk about the wacky experiences of driving a school bus, but unfortunately cannot reveal anything currently (direct or indirect) due to our district policy. If I switch jobs, maybe I'll reveal some things.

However, I would like to bring up one story from a job I previously had. From September 2020 to April 2021 (right after lockdown basically), I worked at Lowe's, which is a hardware store in the States if you're unfamiliar. It was a job I particularly hated, and it only got worse the longer I stayed. The next job I had after that (service assistant at car dealer), was much better. Anyway, to my point...

I once got a call from someone asking about some concrete bricks we had for sale, and wanted to order them online for delivery. I could clearly tell that English was not their first language, as they had a distinct Eastern European accent. They asked what color of bricks we had, and I told them that gray was the only color we carried. At first, I thought they meant clay bricks from the landscape department, but the customer wanted construction blocks in a beige color. He kept saying that we had beige concrete bricks in stock, and stuck with that claim throughout this call. I tried telling him several times that we only carried gray, but he persisted that he wanted beige bricks. Then, he told me to look on the Lowe's website myself to see what he was talking about. I match the item number to what he gave me, and looked at the preview picture. They were listed as gray bricks, but due to the lighting of the picture, they appeared a bit yellow-ish. I explained to the customer that they appeared that way due to the lighting of the preview photo, but they STILL insisted that we had beige bricks. After a few minutes of back-and-forth nonsense, I thought I was able to convince the guy that they were gray bricks, and nearly got him to place an order, but then wanted to confirm that they were beige. At this point, it was nearly 30 minutes of talking on the phone with this guy, and I still had to go stage deliveries for the next day as I was by myself in my fulfillment department. I became frustrated, and knew then this guy was wasting my time. After 5 more minutes of talking on the phone, I asked if the customer wanted to speak with a manager. He agreed, and I transferred the call (three times as a matter of fact, as the call kept getting redirected back due to the manager not picking up). When the manager finally answered, he was talking on the phone with the customer for over 10 minutes telling him the exact same things I was trying to tell him in the first place. After the call finally ended, the customer placed no order, and the manager simply shook his head in disbelief.

Annoying phone calls that asked stupid questions like that were a major reason why I quit Lowe's. Let me focus on getting deliveries set up, jeez. I don't have time for nonsense I can barely help with.

CORRECTION 5/16: The customer thought they were beige bricks, not red.

 

[imperfectforyou]

I'd love to talk about the wacky experiences of driving a school bus, but unfortunately cannot reveal anything currently (direct or indirect) due to our district policy. If I switch jobs, maybe I'll reveal some things.

However, I would like to bring up one story from a job I previously had. From September 2020 to April 2021 (right after lockdown basically), I worked at Lowe's, which is a hardware store in the States if you're unfamiliar. It was a job I particularly hated, and it only got worse the longer I stayed. The next job I had after that (service assistant at car dealer), was much better. Anyway, to my point...

I once got a call from someone asking about some concrete bricks we had for sale, and wanted to order them online for delivery. I could clearly tell that English was not their first language, as they had a distinct Eastern European accent. They asked what color of bricks we had, and I told them that gray was the only color we carried. At first, I thought they meant clay bricks from the landscape department, but the customer wanted construction blocks in a reddish color. He kept saying that we had red concrete bricks in stock, and stuck with that claim throughout this call. I tried telling him several times that we only carried gray, but he persisted that he wanted red bricks. Then, he told me to look on the Lowe's website myself to see what he was talking about. I match the item number to what he gave me, and looked at the preview picture. They were listed as gray bricks, but due to the lighting of the picture, they appeared a bit red. I explained to the customer that they appeared red due to the lighting of the preview photo, but they STILL insisted that we had red bricks. After a few minutes of back-and-forth nonsense, I thought I was able to convince the guy that they were gray bricks, and nearly got him to place an order, but then wanted to confirm that they were red. At this point, it was nearly 30 minutes of talking on the phone with this guy, and I still had to go stage deliveries for the next day as I was by myself in my fulfillment department. I became frustrated, and knew then this guy was wasting my time. After 5 more minutes of talking on the phone, I asked if the customer wanted to speak with a manager. He agreed, and I transferred the call (three times as a matter of fact, as the call kept getting redirected back due to the manager not picking up). When the manager finally answered, he was talking on the phone with the customer for over 10 minutes telling him the exact same things I was trying to tell him in the first place. After the call finally ended, the customer placed no order, and the manager simply shook his head in disbelief.

Annoying phone calls that asked stupid questions like that were a major reason why I quit Lowe's. Let me focus on getting deliveries set up, jeez. I don't have time for nonsense I can barely help with.

This is so very relatable. The common sense really lacks in these people sometimes. I deal with countless situations like this daily as part of my job, but in all honesty I do enjoy it sometimes. It makes every day different and interesting!

 

[Reginald Fairfield]

Another coworker might be off his bipolar meds. I'm not sure why they let him come back, aside from being desperate for staff.

 

[Neb]

Might as well share a story at my third job. I worked as a dish cleaner at a popular local family restaurant that served mostly American breakfast food with a few Mexican dishes thrown on the menu. I was fired from my previous job as a busser there since I wasn't the most efficient and couldn't give very expressive customer service, but my boss liked me so she was willing to give me a second chance. I was doing much better with this job, but one day I got a really bad virus and called in sick. I forgot we were supposed to call a day in advance to say we were sick and my boss screamed at me on the phone about how she had to have a waitress do my job for me. I was promptly fired. Lesson learned.