Things That Piss me off.... Listening Skills

So I am going to start this edition of what pisses me off with a discussion about reading. Enjoy.

Reading is such a novel concept these days. It seems there is a generation of people in society who can not be bothered to do it. They want you to hold their freaking hand, point it out and then do it for them. This is the punishment of working in customer service tech support. I am just amazed at the low levels of common sense. Bill Engvall would have a field day yelling "Here's your sign!!" to half the people I talk to.

I have evidence of this, really. They are the statements I hear on the phone every day. "OK, it says next, do I click on that?" "If I want to cancel a bill do I click on cancel?" "I forgot my password, can you tell me what it is or do I have to click on forgot password?" "This says the user id has to be all numeric, does that mean it can't be letters? I like my id's to be letters." "It says click here to enroll now... so what do I do?"

Are you *listening* to words coming out of your mouth?!?

Further evidence is no matter how idiot proof we make the site, and clearly spell out what steps come next, I still spend most of my day pointing out what is on the screen, reading it to people. Over the damn phone! Damn it! When I get really frustrated, I make them read the screen to me. READ People! Before you call and bitch for 15 minutes about an answer that's been in front of you the whole time. You spent 5 minutes setting up a transfer, at the end a message displays saying how long it will take, yet I'm here telling you the same information.

The exception to this is older people and people under 22. These two generations read. I have an easier time getting Granny online the first time then getting a lawyer, who is on the site 15 times a day, to click on a simple link to see an image. Which amazes me. I mean Granny bought her first Mac computer yesterday and she follows directions and she's surfing the web, paying bills and helping her friend get online in 10 minutes and yet Robert Idiot Esquire is complaining he doesn't see where it says checks are deducted after they are cashed. I know its there, I see it, but it is apparently 1 inch lower than he can read on the screen, leading to this retarded call. I am reading to him over the damn phone, repeating myself.. Cause he is.... say it with me... Lazy! Or maybe stupid or both.

So do me a favor, before you call customer service to complain, ask your questions to yourself first. Out loud. So that maybe you can not sound like moron when you call in and say "This says I have to create a caption, do i have to do that?"

Keep a look out for next edition of what pisses me off, we will be discussing Listening skills.