Oh geez, I’ve had the worst day at work. (sorry about all the "backstory" posts - if you’re only interested in Linux-related things, this post will not appeal to you at all). My boss has been away and uncontactable for the past couple of days.
Yesterday, a customer (who I will call Steve) called up to ask why he hadn’t been called about a Panasonic phone that he’d ordered. The boss had promised that it would be here at the shop last Friday. I checked, and it hadn’t arrived. So I called the Mindarie store (we have to get Panasonic gear from another store, it’s a long story) and they said they had been invoiced for the phone, so it should arrive at their store later that day.
It didn’t. Steve called back and threatened to cancel his order (quite rightly too, he’d been waiting a week at that stage). I tried calling Mindarie again, and by this time they’d found that my boss HADN’T ACTUALLY ORDERED THE PHONE. I called the customer, somehow managed to get him to agree to having the phone on Thursday afternoon, and then quickly ordered the phone for real.
Everything turned out okay? Possibly - let’s hope that Panasonic don’t let us down on that Thursday estimate. But in the meantime, much worse stuff happened today.
It started when a customer (who I will call George) called and complained that my boss hadn’t come round to his place and delivered and installed a Panasonic plasma TV on Sunday. He threatened that if the TV didn’t arrive this weekend, he’d demand a refund. Once again, I can understand his annoyance! I called Mindarie and they called Pana, and apparantly the salesperson from Pana told them that the particular model would be available in mid-November.
The customer wasn’t happy about that AT ALL, since my boss had told him it would arrive on Friday!
Another person called up (we’ll call him Sam) called up to ask where his vacuum cleaner was. Because if he didn’t get it by tomorrow, he’d cancel the order. I searched high and low for any information about the order - I checked the orders book, the computer, the desk and cupboards, but my boss hadn’t left any information about it, and Sam couldn’t remember the model number so I couldn’t call Electrolux and ask for an ETA on it.
I asked him to call back tomorrow when my boss was around. He called back later today to cancel the order. Not that we could actually cancel the order there and then - we didn’t even know exactly what to cancel!
George came into the shop and virtually gave us an earful. Now he said that if the TV wasn’t here by tomorrow, he wanted his money back. After he left, we called Panasonic directly, not telling them our identity. They said that if the TV was ordered last week, it should have arrived already. If we ordered one this week, then it would arrive next week. So we called Mindarie and asked when they had placed the order. They said that my boss had called to order the plasma YESTERDAY. No bolsheviking wonder it hadn’t been installed on Sunday!
Lastly, a woman who gave no name (I’ll call her Sheila) called to complain that she hadn’t yet recieved a quote for installing an air conditioner. My boss had gone out to her place a week and a half ago to measure everything, and promised that a quote would be sent to her. She had called in the meanwhile, and my boss had denied responsibility for the quote not being sent.
I understand that Sheila was upset and annoyed, I understand that she was feeling like our store didn’t care about her, and I don’t blame her for feeling this way. But she ripped into me personally, and she ripped into two of my colleagues who she claimed must’ve been responsible for the delay, and she was so offensive that I found myself raising my voice to her. I’m good at preventing my feelings from showing (I’m too good at it, it hinders my personal relationships), but my colleague knew I was seriously pissed-off by the tone of my voice.
After that lady hung up on me, I was close to crying out of frustration. I’d been on the recieving end all day without the ability to put anything right. I really don’t want to go to work tomorrow when the shop-of-cards crashes down around me. Steve’s phone probably won’t arrive, George will be an angry visitor, and Sheila might start swearing down the phone at me again. And who knows which other customers haven’t recieved their purchases and will be calling tomorrow.
A good customer yesterday gave me a beer for coming out to his place and fixing his TV without charge. I’ll definately be drinking it tonight.
And to make matters worse, I haven’t heard back from Kym for what seems like ages. Today’s episode of Oprah was about people suffering from depression who attempted suicide and survived - this really didn’t make me feel good, considering that Kym suffers depression. Maybe after today, we will share a common affliction 
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