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21 November 2006

This is a two-part thread. One for ranting, and one for requesting that interrobang get his itchy ass in here and tell us he's okay. →[More:]

Rant:

Jesus FUCK, people, have some basic phone manners! You do not call my office and then say "Derrr is Michelle dere? No? Okay. Bye." WHAT YOU SAY IS: "Hi, this is so and so and I'm calling for Michelle. Oh, she's not there? Well, this is in regards to blah blah blah. You can take a message for me? Oh, wait, you actually can take care of that for me/answer my question and I don't even have to bug Michelle? Great. Thank you."

Also: I noticed a small chip on my (10+ year old) dental prosthesis (called a "flipper", isn't that charming?) and must find an oral surgeon who can make me another one immediately. I fucking HATE this thing and the fact that I'm missing an upper front tooth and that it's gonna cost big bucks.

Also: I've been putting off going to the dentist because I hate it and I'm scared and dear god if I could go back in time and re-do one thing it would be taking better care of my teeth. My head is full of fillings in my soft English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh teeth and I'm only 32.

I'd better stop there, because if I keep ranting I'm just going to get depressed.

post by: Specklet at: 13:02 | 19 comments

Specklet, if it's any comfort to you, I have just gone through a whole load of dental work, over the summer months, and after that I vowed I would never, ever leave my teeth so long without attention and at my 3-month checkup last week, all was just about well, although there is still more I can do at the flossing/interdental brushing stage.

I was very, very scared when I had to get the big descaling done, but they numbed me as much as they could, and I also had my walkman on very very loud too, and took my glasses off. Sensory deprivation.

Good luck.

posted by essexjan 21 November | 13:13

Is something wrong with interrobang? He posted something in MetaTalk yesterday or the day before, so he's around.

I have crappy Scotch Irish English teeth too! No Welsh that I know of, although maybe...

I have a little phone peeve that I hate too. We have a client who can't just say "hi, this is so and so, can I speak to so and so" when we answer the phone. She has to right off the bat try to guess who's on the other end. So if I answer the phone with a "hello, this is joe blow's blah blah" she will always counter with a "um (long pause)....Specklet? No (more pausing) ...taz? No, wait, is this.....(long pause) iconomy?" It drives me FUCKING NUTS. She does it every single time. For no reason whatsoever. She always wants to talk to the owner, so it really makes absolutely no difference who answers the phone. She never says who she is, she just wastes my time trying to guess who I am, even though it doesn't matter. So my phone peeve is: say who the hell you are, don't waste my time playing games with me! I have things to do and you're annoying me.

Hah...she called while I was typing this.

posted by iconomy 21 November | 13:20

Huh. I've gotten to where I'm starting off with "This is Pax Digita speaking" (except with my non-Meta* name) when answering any ringing phone, which is a little brusque but makes people cut to the chase a little quicker. Even works on eleven-year-olds!

posted by PaxDigita 21 November | 13:27

(My dog's name was Pax)

posted by LunaticFringe 21 November | 13:32

Welsh people have good teeth. My mom didn't get her first cavity until she was in her 40s, and I'm still waiting for one, although my Welsh is diluted with some German and Scot/English as well.

posted by sciurus 21 November | 13:37

Oh, and...I just got a porcelain inlay & a fill 2 weeks ago, and am getting another fill that might be a root canal in another 2. It'll be nice to chew painlessly again, but...+30 and dental issues...you have ALL my sympathy, Speckers.

posted by PaxDigita 21 November | 13:37

Haha at PaxDigita.

One thing I love about my cell phone is insta-caller ID. With a particular friend (who is one of those people who would chit chat for 10 minutes on the phone before telling me the house was on fire), I always answer "What?" in a brusque tone. He knows it's me, I know it's him, let's get to the point.

posted by muddgirl 21 November | 13:38

whoops, haha at the 11-year-old comment, not the root canal comment! I hate teeth issues!

posted by muddgirl 21 November | 13:39

PaxDigita, I actually don't answer the phone too often and don't have much interaction with our customers, so I don't like to answer the phone with my name. Cuz, see, people tend to remember stuff, and then next time they call they ask specifically for me, and I don't like it when that happens ;P

posted by iconomy 21 November | 13:53

I was sooo tired at work today, I managed to answer the phone thus:

Good afternoon, customer service. Er, no, that's not right, that's where you're ringing from. What department do I work in again? Oh, I give up. Who are you?

Not my finest hour, but I did get a laugh out of the person at the other end.

Oh, and don't talk about teeth, I hate the dentist.

posted by TheDonF 21 November | 13:57

I'm not on the phone much, to the point that personal callers need to identify themselves. This is trickier, because you don't want to say "who IS this" to a family member or friend. My MIL and SIL sound exactly the same and say the same thing. "Hey. Whatcha doin'?" And I'm always trying to figure out if it's Il Duce or The normal one. Plus they usually call early in the morning, adding to the confusion. My friend M called me the other night and just said "Hey. . .. how are you" And finally, I guess I was acting strange, she said "this is M" and I yelled GD-it M say the heck who you are already!" How hard is it, you know? Maybe it's a power trip/test thing.

posted by rainbaby 21 November | 14:20

I have two friends, Kate and David. Kate got a phone call from David and was very glad to hear from him. They chatted for a surprisingly long time before they figured out that it was a wrong number and they didn't know each other: a different David had been looking for a different Kate.

posted by tangerine 21 November | 14:44

Why I was asking about interrobang.

posted by Specklet 21 November | 14:44

What? The US stereotype about bad British teeth is an ethnic thing?! I thought it was just because we don't bother with orthodontists and live on sugar over here. My lack of fillings must be down to being an octoroon, then.

posted by jack_mo 21 November | 16:17

Well, all I know is my soft enamel is hereditary. I blame my ancestors.

posted by Specklet 21 November | 17:19

I had a call once from a guy who said "hello is this nomis?" to which I replied "why yes it is". Then he entered into a discussion about the yacht that I was apparently buying from him. Wrong number, wrong nomis. Eerily, at the time of the call I was standing at a marina looking at yachts.

I won't even enter into discussion of my English teeth.

posted by nomis 21 November | 17:45

I parrot how other people answer the phone so my pickup varies. When I was two weeks in on a job in Holland - thus, not knowing a word of Dutch yet - I parroted how everyone else picked up the phone. "ÄffHaVe/BeBeDeO met Dabitch". People on the other end would go on forever in Dutch asking for people or stuff or whatever and it was always a little embarrasing to admit that I had only gotten that far in my Dutch.

And eeeew, dentists are freaky scary man. Best of luck.

posted by dabitch 21 November | 17:57

I'm okay!

posted by interrobang 21 November | 19:30

Yaaaay!

posted by Specklet 21 November | 20:31

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