Took a call from a customer yesterday - as I have sometimes been known to do LOL - and we had made a mistake on the order. No biggie, just needed a change of address on the order, from Unit 1 to Unit 3 or something as insignificant as that, and the guy says -
'I guess a Mohammed put that order in'
I did not want to talk to this customer any more after that, but I did my usual keep the smile in my voice while still on the phone with him. At the end of the phone call he also said 'hooroo', which I think was the first time I have heard anyone say that in at least five years - at least outside of TV land.
I did not want to update the customer details either. I did not want to help him at all, and the shock of someone actually saying something like that - the Mohammed thing, not the hooroo - versus my reaction was roiling my stomach, as if a mini clash of civilisations was happening in my abdomen. My brain was trying to reconcile the stupidity of the idea but all I was getting was 'Does. Not. Compute.'
Really mate, yes, it is only Arabs or Muslims that stuff up addresses, or maybe we send the orders off to India or Pakistan to be actioned, or maybe it is a part of the 'other' side's strategy for the war on terror. Sarcasm, people, sarcasm.
The customer slash dickhead who I had on the line would probably vote for a renewed White Australia policy, believe in the idea that Australia was 'terra nullius' before 1788, and agree wholeheartedly with keeping illegal immigrants either out in the desert at Woomera or shipped off to Papua New Guinea or Nauru or where ever, mmm, the Pacific Solution.
You can slag off at me, can slag off at my company, and I won't get riled at all (it is somewhat expected), but the minute you are racist or sexist or querying the equality of basic human rights, bring it on wanker LOL.
But of course, I couldn't really, him being a business customer and all, and the company needing as much good will from the customers as we can get. And, the fact that in the two extra minutes I had him on the phone, it really didn't sink in what he said - who SAYS that sort of thing in this day and age?
Was thinking of complaining about it to the boss, but then, even though I have a perfectly reasonable boss and all, it may have come across as me being thin skinned. And we can't have that now, with all the belt tightening, losing staff through attrition, be happy if you are not attrited (if that is a word), going on in the office at the moment.
Two words to the customer though. Dick. Head.
Pauly
'I guess a Mohammed put that order in'
I did not want to talk to this customer any more after that, but I did my usual keep the smile in my voice while still on the phone with him. At the end of the phone call he also said 'hooroo', which I think was the first time I have heard anyone say that in at least five years - at least outside of TV land.
I did not want to update the customer details either. I did not want to help him at all, and the shock of someone actually saying something like that - the Mohammed thing, not the hooroo - versus my reaction was roiling my stomach, as if a mini clash of civilisations was happening in my abdomen. My brain was trying to reconcile the stupidity of the idea but all I was getting was 'Does. Not. Compute.'
Really mate, yes, it is only Arabs or Muslims that stuff up addresses, or maybe we send the orders off to India or Pakistan to be actioned, or maybe it is a part of the 'other' side's strategy for the war on terror. Sarcasm, people, sarcasm.
The customer slash dickhead who I had on the line would probably vote for a renewed White Australia policy, believe in the idea that Australia was 'terra nullius' before 1788, and agree wholeheartedly with keeping illegal immigrants either out in the desert at Woomera or shipped off to Papua New Guinea or Nauru or where ever, mmm, the Pacific Solution.
You can slag off at me, can slag off at my company, and I won't get riled at all (it is somewhat expected), but the minute you are racist or sexist or querying the equality of basic human rights, bring it on wanker LOL.
But of course, I couldn't really, him being a business customer and all, and the company needing as much good will from the customers as we can get. And, the fact that in the two extra minutes I had him on the phone, it really didn't sink in what he said - who SAYS that sort of thing in this day and age?
Was thinking of complaining about it to the boss, but then, even though I have a perfectly reasonable boss and all, it may have come across as me being thin skinned. And we can't have that now, with all the belt tightening, losing staff through attrition, be happy if you are not attrited (if that is a word), going on in the office at the moment.
Two words to the customer though. Dick. Head.
Pauly
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