by Tally » Mon Oct 03, 2022 7:17 am

In this day and age of everything being digital.... Including our customers needs that we keep getting shoved down our throats.

Then why do none of the bloody customers ever answer their phones, return calls or texts or reply to bloody emails until days later... If at all.

Drives me f****** mad

As this was posted in the Curmudgeons Corner I thought I might offer an opinion here.

My thoughts, based on my own personal experience is that the digital age, while it can be extremely convenient (when the tech works correctly), is a royal pita these days.

With all the spam/marketing/political phone calls, spam texts, marketing/spam/political emails and texts I can be slow to respond. Due to in home business we have 2 land lines and cell phones. Add to that 2 computers with necessary multiple email accounts. You can spend half a day just weeding through the crap. When the phone rings we glance at the ID and do not answer unless we know the caller. Emails and texts get deleted en masse. Sometimes we lose valid ones but that is the price we pay for being connected.

I set aside a specific amount of time each day for computer work and other activities. If I run out of time then the rest wait until the next time. Otherwise I would be a total slave to technology. That's my reasoning.

Point of interest. I used to use an AOL email account. I never closed it and it has been dormant for several years now. A few months ago I logged in out of curiosity. I had thousands of marketing /spam emails. Boggled my mind...

I get that people are busy, unknown call,etc

It's the fact that they've initiated contact to have work done on their vehicle, they know we are going to contact them.
They have requested contact by, phone, text email..... Smoke signal.... So they know we are going to contact them.

I have to assign staff to the work, who in turn have to work to productivity, time to serve, NPS and a whole host of other kpi that the higher ups have set.

All get tetchy when work doesn't get done through no fault of our own and it is solely on the fact that the customer does not respond to us trying to make contact to get the work booked on.

If I've booked something to be done or worked upon, then I know that someone is going to be contacting me in regards to it.

Don't give me abuse and earache because as a customer it's taken you days or weeks of trying to contact you before you finally come back to us and you're now at the back of the queue.

Kip wrote: ↑Tue Oct 04, 2022 10:40 am
As this was posted in the Curmudgeons Corner I thought I might offer an opinion here.

Kip wrote: ↑Fri Nov 12, 2010 12:04 am It is just a place to make a statement of why... about the little curiosities of life... not to answer them.

So there you have it.

State your gripe or ask your question only..don’t answer anyones’s and you will not get an answer. Just a place to vent a bit.

I thought the whole point of Curmudgeons Corner was that there were no replies. By copying and pasting into a new thread that sets a precedence. It may well be, that any OP does not want an opinion made but all he or she wants is to off load.

I have to be honest and totally agree with Richard's post.

I was a little dumbfounded when I realised that the thread had been opened by Kip himself.

scooter

I've never understood why replies are NOT allowed in the Curmudgeons Corner but ARE allowed in the Non-Curmudgeons Corner.

Ah a topic that has been discussed on more than one occasion, over the years!

I have probably given my view on the reply or no reply debate, on more than one occasion.

IIRC I disagree with a few forumites on this; forumites that I regard as friends, who I probably agree with on most other things that are discussed on here.

The OP in the thread stated no replies, so it is what it is. However IIRC at some point it was agreed that forumites could comment by starting another thread….

At the end of the day, I would like to think that any such comments in a thread, that referenced a post in the original thread, would be done in a manner that was in accordance with the rules and spirit of the forum….

Neil

I will let you guys decide if this topic is a "Mea Culpa" .

I am being accused of bending the rules of "The Curmudgeon's Corner". The very ones I created.

My intention was to start a discussion around us being slaves to technology and used the post in the CC by Tally as a lead in. Perhaps I should not have titled the topic "Curmudgeons Corner response". If it was titled "Are we Technology slaves" would that have been acceptable? Perhaps I should not have referenced Tally's post at all. I did clearly state it was an opinion in the post. However my title also clearly states "response" I think that is where it is wrong.

If most of you believe I am guilty I will edit the topic title or delete if you feel that is the proper move. I also want my Admin Team to chime in here.

It was certainly not my intent to break or bend the rules.

Personally, I think comments should be allowed in the corner. I would like to comment on some of the posts, but would hardly ever feel sufficiently exercised to actually start a new thread. I won't break the rule on purpose though. A couple of times without realising, that's all.

There was quite a long discussion about this a few years ago re whether or not the no reply rule should be changed. There wasn’t a unanimous response obviously but in general the feeling was that the no reply rule prevented the thread from getting lost in long strings of replies where you’d be unable to find the original post, and also prevented a kind of bad vibe feeling where people just launched in, creating little of worth except a chance to moan and be negative.

My feeling is that venting in the moment is one thing, and can be positive, while piling on the gripes is less useful.

If people want to discuss stuff in a new thread then fair enough - I don’t see it makes a difference how that thread is introduced but it means I can avoid it if I think it’s going to be an overly negative thread.

Kip wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 10:30 pm I will let you guys decide if this topic is a "Mea Culpa" .

I am being accused of bending the rules of "The Curmudgeon's Corner". The very ones I created.

My intention was to start a discussion around us being slaves to technology and used the post in the CC by Tally as a lead in. Perhaps I should not have titled the topic "Curmudgeons Corner response". If it was titled "Are we Technology slaves" would that have been acceptable? Perhaps I should not have refernced Tally's post at all. I did clearly state it was an opinion in the post. However my title also clearly states "response" I think that is where it is wrong.

If most of you believe I am guilty I will edit the topic title or delete if you feel that is the proper move. I also want my Admin Team to chime in here.

It was certainly not my intent to break or bend the rules.

You did not break, or bend the rules. You followed the advice that was provided by your good self, on one of the previous occasions that comments in the “Curmudgeons Corner” thread were discussed. I.e. you started a new thread.

Kip wrote: ↑Sat Oct 21, 2017 10:51 am

nbg wrote:I have never understood why comments are not allowed on this thread. Any particular reasons?

Neil

Read the first post.

Thermexman wrote: Maybe to stop a particular topic gaining legs and momentum of its own. Allows you to vent and move on, without risk of garnering retaliation from dissenters.

Correct

nbg wrote: True, but a forum flourishes or not, based on the interaction of its members. There have been many posts on this thread where others may have been able to add a similar experience or bit of banter.

Neil

Start a new thread based on the comments.

missF wrote:i think, though, thaat for most posts in this thread it's best to vent and move on rather than spiralling off into a self-stoking morass of unhapppiness / unpleasantness. i've always felt very good about the no comment rule on this particular thread. kevin's post was of a different order, though, as AVO pointed out, and i'd hope tthat any replies wouldn't be moderated in this iinstance.

Exactly.....

Now back to the rules of this topic.

Neil

Richard D wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 5:37 pm I thought the whole point of Curmudgeons Corner was that there were no replies.

Correct; within the Curmudgeon Corner thread.

Richard D wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 5:37 pm By copying and pasting into a new thread that sets a precedence.

How come? For a long time now when the Admin Team has deleted a 'reply' post in the Curmudgeon Corner thread, we have advised the poster by PM that, if they feel strongly about a discussion on the subject of the post that is being deleted, they are always welcome to start a new, separate, topic.

Richard D wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 5:37 pm It may well be, that any OP does not want an opinion made but all he or she wants is to off load.

If this is the case, there is the 'Report' button available to the OP which will alert The Admin Team to the unwelcome attention and request action be taken.

Guy

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 11:43 pm

Richard D wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 5:37 pm I thought the whole point of Curmudgeons Corner was that there were no replies.

Correct; within the Curmudgeon Corner thread.

Richard D wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 5:37 pm By copying and pasting into a new thread that sets a precedence.

How come? For a long time now when the Admin Team has deleted a 'reply' post in the Curmudgeon Corner thread, we have advised the poster by PM that, if they feel strongly about a discussion on the subject of the post that is being deleted, they are always welcome to start a new, separate, topic.

Richard D wrote: ↑Thu Oct 06, 2022 5:37 pm It may well be, that any OP does not want an opinion made but all he or she wants is to off load.

If this is the case, there is the 'Report' button available to the OP which will alert The Admin Team to the unwelcome attention and request action be taken.

Guy

Seems I’ve hit a nerve.

Richard D wrote:
Seems I’ve hit a nerve.

Not really, Richard.

I'm merely providing what I feel is a considered and measured response to the points you raised.

Guy



Sent from my XPERIA 5 III using Tapatalk

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote: ↑Fri Oct 07, 2022 12:41 am

Richard D wrote:
Seems I’ve hit a nerve.

Not really, Richard.

I'm merely providing what I feel is a considered and measured response to the points you raised.

Guy



Sent from my XPERIA 5 III using Tapatalk

Nope, I hit a nerve.

Life is too short to worry about whether an arbitrary rule on a forum about watches was violated