Jackass

Yep. That's right. I talked to a jackass today (emphasis on the last syllable!). We were busy today with order after order. Around noontime, one of my co-workers took a call from a store out in Maryland Heights, MO. She answered the phone as she should have and the first words out of his mouth were, "What are you Doing there? Painting your fingernails or drinking coffee??" He wasn't asking in a joking manner and was rather abrupt with it. My co-worker's reply was, "You don't need to talk like that, sir." He them proceeded to very rudely tell her what he needed and then asked her if she thought she could dial the number or if she needed him to do it for her.

I overheard her side of the conversation and told her when she asked how to place the order that I would take care of it for her. When he was getting ready to hang up, he demanded a confirmation call-back. I took the information from her while she was telling her story. I placed my other orders (the ones way ahead of his!) to the side and immediately ordered his radiator through the online system. I edited the shipping information to "local pickup" because he wanted to go pick it up himself.

After the order was completed, I called him up (something I do not normally do. I don't have time to call everyone back with an order confirmation!) I asked for him on the phone and told him who I was and why I was calling. Before I could even get my complete sentence finished, he interrupted me with a rude, "Did you order my radiator"? I tried to tell him that I did place the order and he could go pick it up. He started peppering me with questions and even accused my co-worker of not telling me what he had told her to do. I immediately told him that she did indeed tell me what he wanted, but I have to order it online because that's what I was told to do. He then starts berating me on how he needs confirmation. I was trying to explain to him what I was going to do but he wouldn't even let me complete my explanation without trying to talk over me.

I was getting hotter by the sentence and felt my voice get louder and louder. I was calm and didn't yell, but I wanted to crawl through the phone line and give his jaws a good ringing! When I looked up, there was a small group of people watching the "performance" over my cubicle wall because they had never seen me get so tense! hahaha He told me he would wait while I called the vendor to make sure it would be ready for him to pick up because he had a 40-minute drive, yada, yada, yada, yada.

I immediately put him on hold and called the vendor. When I explained to the lady what I was doing, she said she knew the guy because he had already called her earlier. She confirmed that, although the order wouldn't show in their system until 2:15, she would make sure his radiator was waiting for his driver. When I hung up the phone with her, I left him on hold and made a few rounds to the copier and other places without the least but of guilt. Of course, the whole incident was the topic of conversation around the office. When I finally calmed down a little, I went back to the phone and told him that the order was confirmed with the vendor. He could send his driver now and it would be waiting for him. Without so much as a "thanks for calling", I disconnected the phone before I could hear anymore of his verbal abuse. My ire was very evident on my face and everyone knew it. But it didn't take me long to calm down and get back to working on the other orders.

I do not understand why and how people can be so rude and demanding. We were both there to see that he got his part in a timely manner. All he needed to do was simply ask and we would have complied. Rudeness does no one any good and only ends up making both parties feeling ill and resentful.

As in every situation, I try to see some humor in it. The most humorous part was my audience. To see all those eyes peeking over the wall made for a Kodak moment. The rest of the humor was when we discussed the phone conversation and talked about what a jerk he was. Come to find out, this particular man is well known for being such a jackass. What a way to leave a mark on your fellow human beings!

Now that I feel a lot better, I hope everyone has a blessed day!