Dumb Work Questions

[ronandannette]

Overheard at Disneyland:
"The schedule says the fireworks are 'immediately following the first parade'. What time is that?"

Honestly, I classify that as a dumb answer, not a dumb question. When somebody asks what time something is, tell them a time, as accurately as you can. Orienting it to some other occurrence they probably also don’t know the time of doesn’t help at all. Just say a time, they’ll thank you and you can both get on with your day. Geeze.

 

[KPeterso]

I have had a couple over the years that would leave me scratching my head. The one company I worked at was especially funny at times.

Me: I am originally from IL and moved here a few months ago.
Coworker: Oh, we have an employee in IL! Her name is ______. Do you know her?
Me: Well, IL is a big state, so no.
Coworker: Oh.
(I wanted to ask if she knew everyone that lived in CA where we were at that point).

Coworker1: Where are you going on vacation?
Coworker2: Hawaii
Coworker1: Cool, are you driving?
Coworker2: uhhhhh....no....

I have another former co-worker who had a hard time always articulating what he was trying to say, so we often went through several conversations to get to what he wants to tell me or ask me.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Honestly, I classify that as a dumb answer, not a dumb question. When somebody asks what time something is, tell them a time, as accurately as you can. Orienting it to some other occurrence they probably also don’t know the time of doesn’t help at all. Just say a time, they’ll thank you and you can both get on with your day. Geeze.

And, if the fireworks don't start at the time you say? Yes, they won't be able find the CM and tell them they were wrong, but the guests will think they got bad information, possibly even complaining at City Hall.

 

[spiders]

They weren't exactly questions but my two biggest winners that stand out from a previous life in rental car included:

This lady had 4 individual, free rental day certificates. She rented the car for 7 days. I gave her the total for the remaining 3 days and then she argued with me about how she should get the whole week free. Well, after several minutes of this, I finally had enough. I pulled out the giant desk calendar and said "Let's count together! 1, 2, 3..." Then I held up 7 fingers. I said "7 minus 4 equals 3! You owe for three days!" She screamed, "You ********* Asian!" and stormed out. I smiled, charged her card, and said, "Have a wonderful day!"

I was a manager so one of the perks was that I always drove a rental car instead of a personal car and got free gas. So, I drove this particular car the night before, stopped and refilled it before work so I knew this thing was full. Well, it got rented and about 30 minutes later the customer kept calling back saying how we cheated her and how it only has half a tank. She finally came back screaming. I went out to look at the car and she said "Look! I told you! It's half full!" It was the engine temperature guage....

Quitting that job was one of the better career decisions I ever made.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

For the record, I work in the loan servicing dept at a bank, NOT a car dealership.

Not me, but a coworker the other day:

Customer: Can you just email me the documents so I can get them quickly?
Employee: Yes
Customer: Will I be able to print them?
Employee: Do you have a printer?
Customer: Yes
Employee: Yes

The one below has happened to me, on more than one occasion as well as others in the office, and the conversation goes on back and forth:

Customer: My car tore up (motor, or transmission etc...) and I can't drive it anymore.
Me: I am very sorry to hear that.

Customer: I am not paying for a car that I can't drive.
Me: You still owe $5,000 on your loan.

Customer: No, the car doesn't work anymore. I am not supposed to pay for that.
Me: I know the car doesn't work, but you still owe for the loan that you took out to buy it.

Customer: You don't understand, the car doesn't work anymore.
Me: You borrowed money to buy this car from wherever you bought it. You owe the money whether or not the car works.

Customer: I can't pay for a car that doesn't work.

Usually the conversation closes with: Can you guys come get it?

An unusual one I had a while back:

Customer: I paid off my car and you sent me my title, but you didn't send the extra set of keys. Can I have my extra set of keys now?
Me: What???

Customer: Once my car is paid off, you should send me the extra set of keys.
Me: We do not have any car keys here.

Customer: You don't keep the extra set of keys when you are owed money on a car in case I didn't pay for it?
Me: No, we don't keep anybody's car keys.

Customer: Are you sure?
Me: Yes.

My DH is also a loan servicer at a bank and he says he is VERY familiar with these questions as well! He says the second scenario, when people still owe on a totaled car and don't want to pay it, happens almost daily. The other one that he gets the most is that people claim that if they don't receive a bill (whether for a car or their mortgage), they don't have to pay it. He also deals the most with property taxes and escrow, and right now he's getting a lot of people complaining about their payments going up, because their taxes (that the bank pays on their behalf) increased, and they insist that the bank is making money off them.

I don't know how he puts up with people...and with a straight face, no less.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Me: I am originally from IL and moved here a few months ago.
Coworker: Oh, we have an employee in IL! Her name is ______. Do you know her?

I'll do that sometimes.
Them: I'm from Chicago. "
Me: "Oh, do you know my cousin?" Not to be stupid, but to amuse.

 

[wilbret]

I don't get to have all these fun interactions like many of you, my biggest annoyance is when people ask for something that has already been provided. Level 2 is when they copy other people on the email. I get my passive-aggressive joy by replying to the person or group with the ORIGINAL EMAIL with the information they are asking about.

"My bad, I must have missed that email."
Then why did you feel the need to copy other people on it, jerkwad? Just ask me.

 

[StageTek]

My favorite question is when I'm walking through the store, with my name tag on my shirt, pushing a giant red cart with a walkie in my hand and someone will come up to me and go "excuse me, do you work here?" Like no, I'm researching what it's like to work in retail for a movie role.

I have always considered that question polite. I wonder how many store employees are like you and think it's a dumb question.

 

[KPeterso]

I'll do that sometimes.
Them: I'm from Chicago. "
Me: "Oh, do you know my cousin?" Not to be stupid, but to amuse.

I get that. But she was seriously a little shocked when I said no and that it was a large state. I can't remember where exactly this person was located, but it was not close at all to where I was. At my current company, we acquired a company fairly close to where I used to live and work (knew pretty much exactly where the building was before I ever visited it). I did find some people that I knew from my IL company who had moved there (same type of company). That did not surprise me at all to find people or names I recognized since it was a smaller group to look at. Reminds me of a funny conversation I had with my boss...

Boss: After my meetings, I will be heading to the office in _________. I believe it is east of the city.
Me: Not unless it moved from Northwest of the city into Lake Michigan.
Boss: Are you sure?
Yes: Chicago borders Lake Michigan. I know exactly where ______ is. Been there many times. It is also west of the suburb that I lived in.

I would not have expected her to know the geography of the area and what borders what, but to keep questioning me if I was sure was annoying. I finally drew her a bit of a map of Chicago and various towns around it.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Yeah, I don't know much about Chicago (most of my "knowledge" comes from Ferris Bueller and from Sara Paretsky's books), but I do know my cousin actually lived in a suburb.

 

[mrodgers]

I'll do that sometimes.
Them: I'm from Chicago. "
Me: "Oh, do you know my cousin?" Not to be stupid, but to amuse.

It's not so far fetched of a thought.

I am in the Pittsburgh area, my entire family is in the Pittsburgh area. I'm actually in a town about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. Mom was dating a guy from Chicago. They went to Chicago to visit his son. His son's neighborhood was having a neighborhood picnic which they went to. She was talking to someone (from Detroit who was also visiting the neighborhood) who asked where she was from. Oh, a little town north of Pittsburgh, you probably wouldn't know it. He says he does some work in that area. So she says where. Oh, that's exactly where I do business, in a little factory out in the outskirts of town. What factory? Oh, my son works there!. His name? Yeah, that's the guy I work with when I'm there!

I was like, OMG! You met Dauber! He looks, sounds, and acts just like Dauber on the old TV show Coach.

 

[mrodgers]

I have always considered that question polite. I wonder how many store employees are like you and think it's a dumb question.

Seems like a reasonable question to me.

I always had people ask that of me at Walmart all the time, or just come up to me and ask me questions as if I worked there. I explained I didn't work there, I worked at Giant Eagle. "Ah yeah! I knew I recognized you working in one of the stores around here."

 

[kaytieeldr]

It's not so far fetched of a thought.

Oh, sure. One Disney trip, I first encountered a party that I could tell was from Boston, but which neighborhood in Boston.

But that's not the weird. I was in line for one of the Food & Wine cooking demonstrations (back when they were still free, so she's ago). I was talking to the people around me. One was a couple from New Jersey, which is where the aforementioned cousin grew up. The husband grew up not just in New Jersey, not just in the same suburb as my family - but in the same complex at the same time.

 

[mrodgers]

Yeah, I don't know much about Chicago (most of my "knowledge" comes from Ferris Bueller and from Sara Paretsky's books), but I do know my cousin actually lived in a suburb.

So , KPeterso knows your cousin?

 

[kaytieeldr]

You're right! They must know each other! Hey, maybe @KPeterso is my cousin's ex!

@KPeterso, did you get married in New York (maybe New Jersey) in 1971?

 

[Earstou]

I dont mean to play devil's advocate but I am also in uniform and using work mandated equipment designed to store items. You dont need to look at a name tag to see their name to know they work there. Also if you see a vendor that's putting out the same product every time they come to your store, you should know that they are not employees.

I'm not sure customers are in stores often enough to know specific vendors, thus not able to recognize that they aren't employees. I worked in Target at least three times a week as a merchandiser and the only vendor I saw more than once was the Coke man.
I learned not to wear any shirt that had red in it, after the time I wore a wine and gold flowered shirt and was asked why I was wearing a red shirt if I wasn't a Target employee (like he thought I was lying about not being an employee).
Also learned not to wear blue to Walmart!
But I must look like a retail employee, because people are always asking me if I work in a store and can help them, even if I'm standing there in my winter coat with my purse on my shoulder!

 

[KPeterso]

You're right! They must know each other! Hey, maybe @KPeterso is my cousin's ex!

@KPeterso, did you get married in New York (maybe New Jersey) in 1971?

Going to go ahead and say no to that one since I was not born yet! LOL!

 

[texaslover]

As a teacher I get many outrageous questions but here is the first thing that came to mind:

Mom emails and asks if I can set a timer for every hour and remind her son to go to the bathroom because he has xyz troubles (can't remember the ailment bc he had a lot that year I always try to keep the peace so I say what I normally do to things like this - I will certainly try but if this is a matter of medical necessity we may need to involve the nurse, like having her call him down each hour bc it does get hectic with 23 other children in the class. There also may be times when he is at recess or lunch or PE and I am in a meeting and won't be able to go find him immediately.

Mom emails back and says please try to do my best since it is very important but she doesn't want to involve the nurse. Also, could I go into the bathroom after he is done and check the bowl and write down whether he went, what it was (#1 or #2), and how much? Uh, no - that took it over the line to a dumb question in my opinion lol.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Going to go ahead and say no to that one since I was not born yet! LOL!

Wait! Then are you one of my cousin's kids?

 

[Lilsia]

I work in food so get many stupid questions. Mostly about things people really should know about like what is healthier, turkey or roast beef, type of thing. Got one recently that asked if peanuts had gluten in them. A lot of gluten misinformation form people. One lady insisted that sourdough bread does not have any gluten and she can eat it just fine but not other bread. One lady asked if we used yeast in our bread. So many people have no idea what havarti cheese is, they have never heard of it. Many people have no idea that mayo is not a dairy product. Just a lot of general lack of food knowledge that most people should have. And this has been from older people.