Did I miss the announcement?

[fbhjr]

The receptionist where I work forwards any call that sounds remotely
technical to me. Even though sometimes it is “can you send me a catalog”
or “I didn’t get the screws I need” or “how much furniture should I order
for my office”.
Once in a while it is things like “how much weight can the desk take?”
which is the sort of thing I know.
She doesn’t give me any warning either. Usually I pick up the phone and
get “I’m told you can help me with this…”

Anyhow, today I get one of these blind calls.
“I was told you can answer this for me,” the man says. “Are the power
infeeds to your system Greenfield?”
I’ve never heard of Greenfield. I don’t know if it is a company, a wiring
system, an industry standard, or what.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand the question,” I tell the man. “Can you be
more specific?”
“Look,” he says. “Is it Greenfield or not?”
“Greenfield?” I ask.
“You don’t even know what it is, do you?” he demands.
“I’m afraid not,” I say.
“Then you should have just told me that to begin with and not wasted my
time,” he says.
“Well, when I said ‘I don’t understand’, that was a clue to you that I
didn’t know what you were asking about, I’m sorry you didn’t catch it,” I
said. “Now, if you want to try and ask it in another way I’ll do my best
to answer.”
(Yes, I did say that to a customer.)
“I need to know what wire is used in your power feeds,” he says. “What
wire size, what color wire, things like that.”
“It’s in our catalog, page 5.2,” I say. “All of that information is there.”
“I don’t have a catalog,” he says. “All I have is the information someone
at your office sent me.”
“If you have email access, you probably have web access, right?”
“Yes,” he said. “I do.”
“Our catalogs are on our web site,” I say. “Click on the link for
e-Catelogs and go to the electrical page.”
“How do I know where that is?” he asked.
“Page 5.2,” I say.
He hung up.

Comments

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Now our head of IT is into the act.
I just got an email from him that included this sentence about shipping instructions with each order:
Ship the instructions (don’t a very good option – 50 pages or so)

Don't a very good option?

[yebo.livejournal.com]

Yes, and "All your base are belong to us" now!

[yebo.livejournal.com]

Flexable metal conduit - you can think of it as BX or MC, but it isn't....

Without going to your site, I can tell that your power feeds can be made to be Greenfield compatable if they aren't already, as nobody wants to run EMT to something that might move....

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Maybe it is International Stupid day:

A customer in Canada called to ask us why all of our jumpers are female.
“They are intended to jump from power bar to power bar,” I said. “As the
power bars are all male, all the jumpers are female.”
“Well I want to string some together to make an extra long one,” he said.
“And, I can’t.”
“That’s true,” I said. “You can’t. As I said, they are designed to go
from power bar to power bar, not string together.”
“But, I want them to string together,” he said.
“I understand that, sir,” I said. “But, they are not built that way.”
“Maybe I’m not explaining it to you well,” he said. “I’ve got 3 36”
jumpers and I want to go from one 36” panel in the middle to another one
three panels away. How do I connect them together?”
“You don’t,” I said. “They don’t connect together. To do that you should
have power bars in each panel, and put the jumpers between them. You can
get extended jumpers that skip a joint, or pass through jumpers for
skipping a panel. But, you can’t join them together.”
“So, how do they connect?”
“They connect to the power bars in the panel,” I repeated. “That’s all.”
He said he’d go “look at one” and call me back.

Ten minutes later I hear from the cubicle next to me:
“No, sir, they don’t connect like that. They go to the power bars in the
panel.”
“No, they can’t be joined together.”
“That’s not how they work.”
“You could get a pass through jumper to skip a panel, but you can’t make
one out of shorter ones in the field.”
“They’re just not designed that way.”

So, I guess if one engineer tells you it can’t be done, ask another.

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind a little criticism....

“It’s in our catalog, page 5.2,” I say. “All of that information is there.”
“I don’t have a catalog,” he says. “All I have is the information someone
at your office sent me.”
“If you have email access, you probably have web access, right?”
“Yes,” he said. “I do.”
“Our catalogs are on our web site,” I say. “Click on the link for
e-Catelogs and go to the electrical page.”
“How do I know where that is?” he asked.
“Page 5.2,” I say.
He hung up.

You had asked before why you think people may see you as an asshole - the "It's in our catalog, page 5.2" you said to the customer - I could see that coming off as asshole-ish. The customer was asking for the straight answer, and instead you 'schooled' him in looking up the information himself - aka - telling him he's an idiot and how to do his job (much like your receptionist who isn't able to 'screen' calls and properly place them), and antagonizing him that if he has email access, then surely he must have web access...Instead of just saying "It should also be on our webpage, under Electrical, page 5.2"

And, “Well, when I said ‘I don’t understand’, that was a clue to you that I
didn’t know what you were asking about, I’m sorry you didn’t catch it,” can also be misconstrued as very arrogant and asshole-ish.

I know it's not your intention to be so asshole-ish, and that you're aggrivated when people ask you rather obvious/imbecilic questions...But it happens...So sometimes you have to pretend to care, forget trying to make the person realize how silly/rude/oblivious they are being.

Personally I think I would have responded:
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by Greenfield, could you be more specific?"
"You don't even know? Who the hell knows anything at your company?!...I want to know what wire is used in the power feeds, what size, color wire things like that"

- At this point, if I knew what the schematics were, I'd rant them off without a problem...Since I did not, I'd say:

"I'm sorry I don't know the technical details on that specific item, BUT, that information is all written in our catalog, it should be on page 5.2"

"I don't have a catalog you incompetent moron, isn't that obvious? Why would I bother calling you if I had the damn catalog?! That and the information your company's office sent me was useless, just like you."

"Ok, well we also have the catalog online, go to www.iworkwithmorons.com/youreAkneebiter.html and find Electrical Page, it should be right there"

At my shop, I have people who don't care to read the work order forms/paperwork that is supposed to tell them exactly everything they need to know to do their particular function. Even the smackhead who's supposed to be the "Lean program Team Leader" for re-doing the paperwork, since he's so good at what he does, he cuts me not enough plaques or ones that are 1/16" off which means when I lay them out they end up 1/2" off from the artwork, so nothing lines up properly...

Or the person who says
"what size tape goes on the back of this? 1/16"?"
"What does the paperwork say?"
"What paperwork?"
(reading paperwork and pointing)"it says 1/32" tape."

Or the person who comes to my station and asks where the shop rags are, when they are in a large obvious cardboard box under my worktable...And yet he's been able to find the rags without asking a hundred times before...But he apparently has Daft Days and needs to ask me...So instead of getting enraged (like I used to), I've trained myself to "tune it out" and either point to the box (nearly pushing his nose into it notunlike a dog), or saying "it's in the box under the table", and continue working without a second thought.

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm sorry you think I was being an asshole to the customer.