Went into DIY shed today

[tim.....]

to buy some wood. It was the one that's really not sure if it's a trade building supplier or a domestic retail outlet.

Whilst I was there, I happened to have in my hand something that I needed to take back to the shed that's "really not sure if it's a diy store or a lifestyle outlet", which should have been on the same estate but has closed since I checked up its location yesterday.

Item in question was missing the grub screw fixing, so rather than make the

30 mile round trip to the next nearest alternative store I asked at the info desk (of the competing store) if they might sell packets of replacement grub screws.

He took me to the appropriate isle and started looking at different lengths screws. It became clear that he didn't have the faintest idea what a grub screw was, even after I explained it to him.

Where do they get these people?

tim

[orion.osiris]

Romania?

[spuorgelgoog]

Graduate recruitment fairs?

Owain

[jgh]

More than 20 years ago I went into O&D and asked a chap who looked in his 50s with "electrical expert" on his badge at the support desk, where the "intermediate or crossover switches" were. He couldn't understand what I wanted. "For lights controlled from more than two positions". Nope. He handed me a two-way switch.

Ended up walking to a pre-toolstation shed on an industrial estate a mile from the nearest bus route to get one.

JGH

[The Other Mike]

They are rejects who couldn't get a job at Currys and PC World

[Mark]

Don't worry, they'll soon get a job in the cabinet.

[Mentalguy2k8]

Same with garden centres. It sounds discriminatory perhaps but I try to steer clear of the young and the elderly staff unless it's a basic query. Sometimes you'll get a middle-aged person who actually has an interest in the stuff they're trying to sell (and that's why he's working there), who is very helpful. The others seem to only be there because it was the only job they could get, they have no interest or experience in the trade. It's just "shop work" for them, wouldn't matter if they sold sofas or lawnmowers.

I suppose it's like most other customer service roles, if you pay peanuts then you're not (generally) going to get people who know their stuff if they could be earning far more elsewhere.

[orion.osiris]

I always groan when a woman answers the phone when I have a query, because

99 times out of a hundred, you know you're going to have to explain your pr oblem twice. First to this woman who misguidedly thought she could 'help' a nd then again to the man she has to transfer you to.

[tony sayer]

In article , [e-mail] scribeth thus

Me too especially as most of these calls are of a Technical nature and fem is guaranteed to say sorry I'm not technical and invariably a mans voice deals with the actual call content.

Around Three, yes just three times in the last 30 years its been a Female voice who did know what I was on about and it was very pleasant to hear a lady knowing the answer..

Ought to be more of them...

[charles]

When I ran an office which took tecnical enquiries, most of the calls could be answered by our (female) clerk, but some people demanded to speak "to an engineer". When this happened, I did try to have our one female engineer take the call. Of course if the call was taken by a male clerk, the caller would launch into a long technical complaint - at the end of which the clerk usually hd to put the call through to an engineer.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Like the woman at Rank Wharfedale who knew the Leak speakers inside out and knew exactly what I wanted and where to get it. I think she used to build them.

Indeed.

[Bob Eager]

SWMBO started out college lecturing about 30 years ago, just after we had bought our first house and (jointly) done a lot of work on it.

She was assigned to teach basic computing to practically everybody, for some reason. We are talking brickies, plumbers, buttchers, sparkies, etc.

When it came to practical work (a simple stock database or similar) she went round and started each off on a set of items to put into the database. Theye were amazed to know that she knew about different bricklaying bonds, plumbing fittings, cuts of meat (as it happened) and also about wiring accessories. There were a few more and she pretty well covered all of them.

Now she's in charge of a college's engineering and computing student.

Despite the degree in English and American Literature! .-)

[jkn]

[Huge]

When I worked in the City, I discovered that the Sun Microsystems help desk had a list of customers who knew what they were doing, who when they rang and said "I have a defective processor", instead of being walked through the "Did you power it off and on" script, just got sent an engineer and a replacement.

[orion.osiris]

Women like that not exactly typical, though!!

[Bob Eager]

Oh, she is far from typical. It's a pain sometimes...

[Rick Hughes]

used to be Youth Opportunity Schemes

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Dream girl.