Lily Tomlin was a visionary about customer service (https://vimeo.com/355556831). I'm glad she's still with us.

For those of you who were not around until the late 90's, the link above was about horrible customer service from the phone company. The one that used to provide our wired and corded phones. During a time when we couldn't carry phones around in our pocket and call whomever we wished from almost anywhere we were standing at the moment. It cost you a lot of money to call New York from California, much like calling from the US to Europe does today.

Kids today will never know the trick of making a collect call to Mom, and then saying your name so the callee would know whether to accept. But you said, very fast: "Mom, come get me at Jimmy's house!" then hung up so there was no charge.

It went something like this:

Call the Operator buy dialing "0".

Tell them you wanted to make a collect call to... "this number".

Wait.

The Operator would then tell the person you called, "You are receiving a collect call from... say your name, now."

"Mom, come get me at Jimmy's house!"

Usually, the Operator would sigh. They knew the drill.

Mom would say "No," and hang up.

No charge, but Mom got the message.

You see, Kids, back in the day, using a phone could be costly, and wasn't so easy! As LT said, we didn't have cell phones in our pockets. You had to find a payphone and usually have operator assistance, if you didn't have a dime or quarter to make the thing work. Yes, you put coins into the phone, just like a vending machine.

Then there was "long distance," which in my case, it was literally cheaper to call a relative 40 miles away than to call my friend, who was within screaming distance around the corner. Rural phone latta, you see. The cutoff line had to be somewhere - and it was right across the road from me.

Ah, the good old days.

Paolo wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2023 6:13 am Call the Operator buy dialing "0".

Tell them you wanted to make a collect call to... "this number".

Wait.

The Operator would then tell the person you called, "You are receiving a collect call from... say your name, now."

"Mom, come get me at Jimmy's house!"

Usually, the Operator would sigh. They knew the drill.

Mom would say "No," and hang up.

No charge, but Mom got the message.

Ah, the good old days.

And that Lily Tomlin thing I linked is the reason none of us felt guilty about doing that.

Losethem (imported) wrote: Thu Jun 22, 2023 6:04 pm Lily Tomlin was a visionary about customer service (https://vimeo.com/355556831). I'm glad she's still with us.

For those of you who were not around until the late 90's, the link above was about horrible customer service from the phone company. The one that used to provide our wired and corded phones. During a time when we couldn't carry phones around in our pocket and call whomever we wished from almost anywhere we were standing at the moment. It cost you a lot of money to call New York from California, much like calling from the US to Europe does today.

Classic! I remember seeing that long ago!

The variant on the 'collect call' drill that I used when in college was to make the collect call to the parent's house, which they would refuse, but was a signal that I wanted to talk so they'd immediately call back direct dial on their dime... (Especially when I was living in the dorm, where all I had was a pay-phone, it was EXPEN$IVE for me to do a long-distance call, and only about a quarter of that for them to call me...)

An amusing factoid, I used to work for a company in the telecom equipment business, and we could take night courses in telephony topics. The best instructor was a very senior engineer that had been working for AT&T since before the breakup...

According to him,

The number one day for long-distance calls - MOTHER's Day (we love you Mummy!)

The number one day for COLLECT calls - FATHER'S Day (Sorry Dad, you gotta pay!)

WheelyCurious

I have to confess, I'm really not a patient person for customer service.

When we are on-site doing sports photos, we have a large display with labeled sample prints in it. For example, an 8x10" print of player and their team. The name is on the print, too, as the text: "Player's Name Here". What you see is what you get.

And even when it's right in front of their faces, they ask what it is!

Not kidding - "How big is an 8x10?"

"What's a Custom 8x10?"

"Is there a team picture in a Memory Mate?"

And of course, "How much does it cost?"

And the grand poobah: "Who is this kid!? I don't want pictures of them."

I literally had a family that was so damn dumb, asking the same questions over and over, while looking at the sample board, that once they'd left, I said aloud, "That dad and boy need to be castrated, before either of them can breed any more moron children!"

One mother choked on her snack, but fortunately, everyone who knew them agreed!

Paolo wrote: Fri Jun 23, 2023 2:25 pm I have to confess, I'm really not a patient person for customer service.

When we are on-site doing sports photos, we have a large display with labeled sample prints in it. For example, an 8x10" print of player and their team. The name is on the print, too, as the text: "Player's Name Here". What you see is what you get.

And even when it's right in front of their faces, they ask what it is!

Not kidding - "How big is an 8x10?"

"What's a Custom 8x10?"

"Is there a team picture in a Memory Mate?"

And of course, "How much does it cost?"

And the grand poobah: "Who is this kid!? I don't want pictures of them."

I literally had a family that was so damn dumb, asking the same questions over and over, while looking at the sample board, that once they'd left, I said aloud, "That dad and boy need to be castrated, before either of them can breed any more moron children!"

One mother choked on her snack, but fortunately, everyone who knew them agreed!

Many people are functionally illiterate. They can read letters and words. They can't understand what is written.

Subway franchises are terrible: "Six-inch whole wheat, not toasted. Roast beef, provolone, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, light mayo," I say.

"Uh, okay, six inch or footlong and what kind of bread?"

Ato parts stores are also bad. They ignore everything you say unless it is an answer to their question.

Zipoid66 (imported) wrote: Tue Jun 27, 2023 8:21 am Subway franchises are terrible: "Six-inch whole wheat, not toasted. Roast beef, provolone, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, light mayo," I say.

"Uh, okay, six inch or footlong and what kind of bread?"

Ato parts stores are also bad. They ignore everything you say unless it is an answer to their question.

The trick w/ parts stores is to come up with an answer that is NOT in their application manual... I.e, when they ask "what car is it for" tell them something like a "1953 Berlinetta" and then describe the part... I used to do this when looking to find parts for my bikes at a much lower price than what the bike shops would want.... Having a sample in hand also helps.

WheelyCurious