Customer service pet peeve #1: Being asked "what's your first name?" and then "Okay [firstname], how can I help you?"

We get yelled at when we don't use your name! It's supposed to make the process more friendly and empathetic! We know it's annoying and robotlike, but our bonuses demand we obey.

CSPP #3: Having the person have to put you on hold several times to look up information, which makes you think that they have no technical skill at all.

Well, if you'd just tell us the full error message, or don't take 20 minutes to say, "Oh, did I say XP? I meant Vista, does that make a difference?", or admit you said "Yes" when the system asked "Are you sure you want to change that?" . . .

We reach out to you, the customer to our support, from the depths of our rigid hell, embracing the intelligent, courteous, patient souls we live for after having dealt with the people who snap "This problem started two days ago and the file is due in four hours and it took me a week to do all the work, so fix it."

It ain't no fun on this side of the phone either.

We get yelled at when we don't use your name! It's supposed to make the process more friendly and empathetic!

I think the GWU ER has some sort of policy to address all patients by last name. I heard most people being called Mr. or Ms. whatever, and everybody who interacted with me, their first question was how to pronounce my last name. (And then almost none of them could remember it, and seemed to just avoid addressing me by name at all.)

Interesting interview with a woman who's designing video games for girls: [link] I've always been skeptical of these "for girls" video games, starting with Purple Moon back in the early nineties. For the most part, games that are trying to be "for girls" but not "girly" tend to just look not terribly fun. Like this one:

Right now we're making a diversity game set underwater -- or in the sky, we're not quite sure -- [starring] creatures that become stronger and more interesting the more diverse they are, and with the more diverse company they keep. So you can create these themes that perhaps shift how players think of large-scale human issues without necessarily addressing a very clear social issue. The social issue can actually be embedded in the structure of the game instead.

The most "girl-centered" game that I can remember playing as a kid was Kings Quest IV, which had a princess as the main character. My friends and I had a few of the Kings Quest games, but that one was the one we played most often by far. It was the same sort of "gather the magical items, find the secret passages, put together the clues, rescue the kingdom" sort of thing as the other Kings Quest games, except it was a princess instead of a prince.

Same thing with Super Mario II: you got to choose which character you'd play, and one of them was Princess Peach. Same game, just that your representation on the screen was a girl.

The Purple Moon games came out when I was in sixth or seventh grade, exactly the target audience, and I remember thinking they looked like the stupidest games in the world. There was one where your character was a girl in school, and you had to make friends and navigate around the popular crowd and stuff like that. I remember thinking, "This is what I do all day! Why would I want to do it in a video game, too?" (That was also around the time that I really disturbed my mother by discovering Wolfenstein 3D. So not what she wanted her little girl playing.)

I think I just slept for four hours.

Wacky, wacky dreams. Part of 'em I was at work, but took some residents bowling. The other part, I was King David, on the run and hiding out. I'd been living in a cave by myself, when the soldiers found my cave, and searched it. I hid under piles and piles of blankets, which they only checked through part of, so they did not find me. Then I was sick and needed help, so sent a carrier pigeon to another hermit in another cave. Then I came out of the cave, was walking into town, and was spotted by some woman who had a grudge against my mother and sisters for being snooty to her, and who alerted the soldiers to my presence. I ended up taking refuge in a very modern house, going through room after room in the basement, looking for somewhere to hide. Finally hid under a pile of rolled up carpets, but just as they found me, that's when I woke up.

We get yelled at when we don't use your name!

Oh, I know that it's usually a stupid corporate policy and I don't blame the CSR. However, instead of asking for my first name, they should either default to Mr. or Ms. (since they know my last name because we've just gone through a whole thing to prove that I'm who I say I am) or they should ask "What should I call you?" instead of "what's your first name?"

Well, if you'd just tell us the full error message, or don't take 20 minutes to say, "Oh, did I say XP? I meant Vista, does that make a difference?", or admit you said "Yes" when the system asked "Are you sure you want to change that?" . . .

sure, I know that there are people like that. However, when I explain the problem clearly and the first thing that the CSR does is say "hold on", it doesn't raise the confidence level.

Sparky, just applied for another job at your U. It's with undergrads, which I had hoped to avoid, but it would be a good promotion in title.

As Vortex says, it's not calling me by my name; it's calling me by my first name.

I'm sure Connie is not one of these people, but my biggest peeve is people who obviously go through a spiel, no matter what you've told them. I usually sum up what I've done, including multiple reboots and turning the equipment on and off, yet they start with "Please turn off your computer." Also, they assume everyone is equally idiotic. One recent CSR put me through a whole series of steps, until it became clear that she wanted me to open the Control Panel, something I could have done in a third the steps. Why not say "Open the Control Panel" and only go through the steps if someone responds "Do I need a screwdriver?"

I guess it was coming. My firm's just announced that there will be layoffs in our future.

Well, that sucks, billytea. Much job~ma to you.

Sparky, just applied for another job at your U

YAY! Er, was it actually listed on the HR site? We got the memo freezing all hires last week, but I think it's safe if it is on the HR site. Otherwise, we're all waiting for more direction from above as to what this means to our individual schools/departments. Not to try and quash your ambition, or anything, but we're looking at not getting a librarian replacement and having to cut 5% of this year's budget.

Good luck, bt!

(Note to Perkins: No one should be that hawt when standing next to dusty reporters in the law library. And it makes my students look even worse.)

Okay, I'm going home now. I should grade... but I doubt it. Bye!

Erin is me.