Friday, January 09, 2009

No cell phone yesterday

I wasn't able to post about this nonsense, because I left my cell phone in my Mom's car yesterday.

1. A woman calls and says that she wants to read a sentence to me to see which
tense I think she should use. I don't remember the exact sentence, but she was
addressing two people. She wanted to say something to the effect of, "I wish to
send blessings your ways." I told her that the use of way in the singular
sounded better. We went back and forth for a minute, until she finally said,
" I want to know what the correct use of the word in this sentence is!" I told her, "I don't have a degree in English Literature, nor have
I ever taught an English class. Since you are the one composing and sending the
letter, you need to use whatever you feel comfortable with." She then says, "Is
there someone else there who can give me the correct usage of the word?" I put
her on hold and spoke with two of my co-workers. When the other librarian went
to answer the call, she had hung up.

2. A patron rushed up to the reference desk yelling that he needed help with the
computer. One of the lazy librarians who was leaving the desk said, " Oh, my
co-worker will be glad to help you(me.") I followed the patron to his assigned
computer. He stood there and looked at me like, "What are you going to do now!"
I told him to log onto the computer. As he was logging on he said, " I just want
to know how to access my e-mail." The box appeared where you chose which
you want to use. As I was telling the man to click the start button, he opened
up the adobe program. I told him that wasn't the right program. He turned and
yelled, "I HAVE A FLASHDRIVE AND I WANT TO USE IT." That was the point where I
began walking away. The patron said, as I was walking back toward the reference
desk, "AREN'T YOU GOING TO HELP ME?" I said, "I was, until you yelled at me
and told me WHAT TO DO!"

5 comments:

rumour said...

i don't know how you keep your sanity with these people--- wow! i guess you can get lost in a book to escape the insanity. more power too you lol.

Doret said...

I once had a customer call and play me a song (a tape mind you) over the phone to see if I recoginzed it. I was too beat down to say no Sir that is not something we do, it was easier to pretend to listen and then say Sorry Sir that does not sound familar.

Nexgrl said...

@Rumour
I have begun taking a walk around the block when it gets to be too much.
@Doret
I would have probably put him on hold, with the hope that he would just hang up.

Doret said...

I've pulled that trick before. I have a hat full of tricks to ward off such customers.

YouToldHarpoTaBeatMe said...

Sounds like the patron needs to switch to decaf.