ACT I:
I called the school at 10:40 this morning. I'd like to point out the obvious that this is before 11am.
"Right, he's not in right now."
"When will he be available?"
"Well, he stepped out of the office for the day. Can I give you his voice mail?"
"Uh, no. We tried that last week and I never got through to it. I have been trying to get a hold of him since last week. You told me that he would be in today before 11am."
"He was, but now he is out."
Taking a deep breath to avoid biting this woman's head off. "When is the best time to get a hold of him?"
"The morning."
"It is the morning. When is the best time to get a hold of him in the morning?"
"He's ususally here until 11."
"It is before 11. Can you just have him call me?"
"I could put you through to his-"
"No, can you-"
"Or I could just take a message and give it to him, if you would prefer."
Taking another deep breath. "YES. THAT is what I would prefer."
I'm begining to think that SSB is right, that he is right there in the office motioning a No-Take on the call because he just doesn't want to talk to me. This is not boding well for JD. Now I have to decide if I am going to play the hard-ass parent to try to muscle out what my child deserves or if I am going to remain patient and let these people take me for a ride to avoid bad feelings toward my son. Eh, I think either way, we are screwed.
***************************************************
ACT II:
Yesterday we went mattress shopping. I am so stressed out!! Who knew that shopping for a mattress could be so tough? My nerves were frazzled by the end of it all. And I can tell you the name of the guy that frazzled the last of them- Carl.
"What kind of mattress are you looking for?"
"A cushy one."
"Do either of you have back problems?"
I say that I do.
"Come this way." In a very creepy sort of way.
He tells us to try out two beds. The very first one that I lay down on is soft on top, but bottoms out to what feels like a pile of phone books. No- this will not do. I try the other one and that is even worse.
"Well, what did you think of that mattress." he says grinning with smug pride. He still has the people that he was helping sitting there with him.
"Well, actually, I hated it."
His smile falls away and he looks a little irritated with me. "Well, what didn't you like about it."
"Well, I can't really describe it. I guess, I really didn't like most everything about it. It felt like it bottomed out-"
His smug smile returns. "That's called 'back support'." He said it real slow like I was retarded.
"Well, that 'back support' feels more like bed rock and that is not what I am looking for."
His people shift nervously as his smile fades away again. I think I saw a spark in his eye that spoke of a challenge. I just turned and walked away.
We were lucky enough to get another sales person to help us that wasn't an asshole. We tried out one of the adjustable air beds. I think for the money, not so great. But it was comfortable. She told us about a couple of others that we might want to try. While we were trying out one of those, Carl reared his ugly mug again. He looked determined.
"I was so glad to see you get off that air bed. It's no good."
Laying next to SSB trying to get comfortable. "I thought it was very comfortable. Much more comfortable than that first mattress." A little dig to give him the hint. He didn't bite. He goes on to an indepth lecture about how they hammock and just like water beds are awful for your back, blah, blah, blah... Does this guy suddenly think he's an orthopedic surgeon?
"How do you like the bed that you are on right now?"
"I think it's OK."
His face screws up with the biggest, smuggest grin he could muster. "WELL! THAT HAS BACK SUPPORT!!"
What a condescending little bastard, I thought. SSB was looking wide-eyed at me. I could see he was tensing up for my reaction.
He moves over to sit on the bed next to me and starts yammering away about the evils of soft beds and the righteousness of a firm mattress.
I roll over and interrupt his mattress manifesto, "Could you go find other people to help? I'd really like you to go away from me now."
His mouth drops open. Then he recomposes a little, spits out a little more info on how I'll regret dissing back support and he slithers away.
Later as he saw what a good time we were having with the other sales person, he gave her and me dirty looks. Jealous much, Carl? Got a life, Carl? Get many sales today, Carl? Sure didn't get ours!
Go here to read another bloggers woes with mattress shopping.
-
evilsciencechick said... "Could you go find other people to help? I'd really like you to go away from me now."
you are my hero. I would like to call you whenever I'm dealing with an irritating sales person and just hand the phone to them, so you can tell them off for me.- Shannon said...
Not to laugh at your pain, but that matress scenerio is fucking hilarious. Sales people can be such a pain. At least you weren't buying a new car...
As for the school, it sounds like the secretary is a real champ. Is this the only school option you have?- Sylvana said...
ESC- That's one of the things that I am very valuable for. I can cut through the bullshit and tell it like it is. Especially when I am very cranky from sleeping on a shitty mattress every night!
Shannon- Yeah, it was. That scenario drove me to eat a Reeses blizzard twenty minutes later. But I went shopping at Kohls and felt so much better! Finally, decisions I could make and feel good about!
And yes, we only have one middle school. So this is it.- OldRoses said...
I called the local plumbing company one time and they sent over these two smug, patronizing rip-off artitsts. I threw them out of my house and called the plumbing company back and demanded they send me a REAL plumber. This despite the fact that my basement was flooded because my sump pump had broken.
I spent 25 years in customer service. I prided myself on offering my clients the best damned service ever. When I'm the customer, I expect the same.
BTW, it doesn't matter if there is one middle school or a dozen of them. The people in the front office are always idiots.- Sylvana said...
OldRoses- AH! You made me laugh! They ARE all idiots!
Life is too short to waste on idiots and assholes.- Maria said...
Wow! I've always wanted to say something like that to rude salespeople, but never had the guts. You've inspired me. I'm going to be a bitch to the next employee who looks at me cross-eyed.
- Sylvana said...
Maria, its the only thing they respond to.
- Sask 1 said...
Should of done a Pretty woman line and said to the salesman "Do you work on commission"
- Derek Knight said...
awesome...With the salesperson, not so much with the principal.
I mostly hate salespeople. I do make their job very easy, mostly, I do my research offsite and, if I have to try something out, I try to do so without intereference so that I can come back at a later date, go straight to what I want and buy it without a salesperson hovering.
Still, people try and screw with me..."I just want this"..."but we have many exc..."
"shut up. I just want this."- Sylvana said...
June, I so wanted to go up to him and tell him what to do with his back support, but I was trying to remain in control which is why he didn't get to hear what I REALLY intended to say to him!
Derek, you had me laughing. Yeah, shut up and get me what I want! I really hate it when they say, "Oh you don't want that. THIS is what you want. This is what everyone else is buying." To which I reply, "Well, let everyone else buy it then. I want THIS one!"- E-Lo said...
Aggh! I just posted about what a pain in the ass mattress shopping is... why are all mattress sales people complete idiots?
- DrMax said...
During my first part time job I was in the parking lot after my shift with one of the salesladies. A Moony (Unification Church) drone came up and started in with the speech. My polite Wisconsin upbringing told me to stop and listen to this cult member's speech. The saleslady came up and told the Moony to take a hike. Then she looked at me and told me to NEVER let anyone steal my time, she said life is way too short to let anyone, but me, waste it. From that point on I haven't had a problem with rude people.
- Sylvana said...
E-lo, I'm going to go check out your post. I hate mattress shopping. So I'm going to go do it again tonight!
Dr. Max, that is so true. I said something similar in a response to one of the other comments. I know so many people that will listen to the telemarketers too. I just hang up. No sorries or anything. What do I have to be sorry for?- Randi said...
see i dont believe in medicating children. ADD is just kids that want to play and parents stick them in front of a tv and then they get anxious. no offense if this is what your child has tho. middle school is also a completely different world for parents and kids. the kids are like aliens and parents have to go thru the "they are growing up" phase. its a lose-lose situation.....
- Shannon said...
Amen, Dr. Max!!
Yeah, I don't get the listening to telemarketers thing. However, I was told to say "Take me off your list." If you just hang up, apparently, they are still able to call you back at a later date (for a different product presumably). If you ask to be taken off the list, they must remove your name from their call list by law.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.- Sylvana said...
Randi, you are just openning up a whole new can of worms with that comment! ADD is a real medical condition, problem is that any child that acts up at all gets labelled ADD. This makes things very difficult for those children that actually have the disorder. This runs in my family and it is far more than just normal rambunctious children, trust me!
I also don't believe that it is a normal part of life to become disconnected with your children. It is definitely not something that I want for mine. (just so you know, I did not take offense).
Shannon, Dr. Max rocks! And you are right, if you ask them to take you off their list, they are by law supposed to in most states, but they rarely do. I just don't even want to start talking to these people. And I have noticed that just hanging up does drastically reduce the amount of marketing calls that I receive.- Jago said...
I can't be anything other than polite but firm with telemarketers, since, for a time, I did that gig (It was only about three weeks, but it still counts.)
The reason I can't simply hang up on them is this small story:
When I was on the job (selling portraits from a very good photographer in my town), one guy interrupted my spiel.
"What do you want?"
I tell him what I'm selling.
"Listen to me this one time, and I'll tell you what you can do with your phone call..."
There then followed a profanity-laden tirade which lasted about two minutes, and then he hung up.
I sat at the table stock still, with the phone at my ear, recovering from the shock of the call.
Then I shrugged, put his name in the re-call pile, thinking to myself, "You know, that bastard never actually said no..."- Sylvana said...
Jago, welcome to my blog! I heard you had a good time at Party in the Park ;)
See, now don't you wish that the person had just hung up without saying anything?- Randi said...
see, i just dont believe in medicating children at such a young age. and it just seems weird that there are what seems to be a ton of cases nowadays. thats really all i meant.
- Sylvana said...
I have noticed that a lot of people share your concerns, Randi.
20 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment form