Valentine Gems
Over the past two weeks, I've been supporting a
major online flower seller for the Valentine's Day
holiday in a seasonal customer service position.
I've talked to hundreds of people around the
country (and around the world), taking orders and
resolving complaints. I've worked a lot of
overtime, which has contributed to the lateness of
some of this week's postings.
While in some ways the job could be considered a
bit tedious, there has been no shortage of
interesting (and often entertaining) moments. In
honor of Valentine's Day, the culmination of my
recent work, I'd like to share some of these
nuggets with you. Here they are, in no particular
order:
- From a man who didn't want to give his email
address, lest his wife find out, two flower
orders: one for his wife—and one for his
girlfriend.
.
- An order by cell phone from a man in the
boonies of East Texas, where he was spending
Valentine's Day away from his wife, hunting for
space shuttle parts.
.
- A man whose Vietnamese accent was so thick
that it took nearly an hour to get all of the
correct shipping and billing information from
him for one order.
.
- A phone call from someone with my last name
(not an earth-shattering coincidence, but still
quite uncommon).
.
- A sailor calling from a Navy warship,
probably floating somewhere in the vicinity of
Iraq, ordering flowers for his wife on the other
side of the world.
.
- The man whose gift card message (which I
won't repeat here) involved g-strings and
whipped cream.
Now that Valentine's Day is here, I know the
last few days of my assignment will be the most
enjoyable, as I field hundreds of calls from
irate—probably hysterical—customers whose
lives have been irrevocably ruined because their
flowers didn't arrive on time (or didn't arrive at
all).
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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