"Ya gotta understand." The worst customer service phrase ever.
When you hear it, you know you're in trouble. It means the person is only thinking about themself, their own insulated institutional world, and the customer is definitely not Number 1.
Last month our son Sammie enrolled in a technical college (see "Sammie tries to enroll," August 15 entry). Bad enough customer-service-nightmare. But then we had to get him books.
So Julie calls the college bookstore. They need to know Sammie's "schedule." But no one will tell us his "schedule" (there's only one offering of his courses in our tiny town) This is TOP CONFIDENTIALCLASSIFIED INFO , even though we are his parents and paying the bill.
After a few phone calls, Julie (being smarter than them) tries a new angle and asks his instructor/advisor if he can tell us Sammie's "courses." Of course, he says. Just not his "schedule." If this makes any sense to you, let us know. In essence, Julie is doing their thinking for them. Julie goes to the bookstore with his "courses" and they finally ship the books. Can this college make it any harder? We'll see.
Perhaps y'all should stop doing all the work for Sammie and he should have gotten his own books? Will you be doing his school work for him too?
Posted by: Clive James | September 15, 2005 at 07:07 AM