When I call you I hope you’re up to what I have to say. When I pick up the phone you better be ready to take on any anger I spill forth. It may have nothing to do with you or anyone you ever knew but you’ll feel it. For a few seconds I won’t consider where you are in your life or how you’ll feel about my words. I just plan to lay it all out, get all this pent up anger off my chest. I don’t care if you’re ready, I don’t care if you can take it. I want what I want. I want to scream.
Life has been hard. I’ve become callous for a reason and this is why. This, this and this happened and I’m angry. I don’t care if you’re on the edge because this isn’t about you. I haven’t asked how you’re doing when you pick up the phone because this isn’t about you. This is about how angry I am. Forget that you lost your wife, your husband, your dog, a friend. Forget that you’re worried about bills, about your mother, about how you grew up, about a thousand other things including your health, your job and your future. This isn’t about you, it’s about me and how I need to spill my anger on innocent people. I hope you’re ready. I don’t care if you’re ready. I haven’t even considered how you’ll feel.
I plan to belittle you. I plan to tell you you’re just like the rest of the world. I plan to stomp on every bit of self esteem you have until a tiny bit of my anger has subsided. Then I’ll go home a little bit satisfied that I socked the world (you’re part of it) and got back a little of my power. I hope you can take it. I don’t care if you can take it.
(These are just a few thoughts I had about people who behave this way. This comes after yet another conversation with the lady at the cab company who insists I’m a liar and who feels justified in yelling at the top of her lungs just before hanging up on me in mid-sentence. I seem to be shaken to the core when speaking to this woman.)
This Isn’t About You
Wednesday, January 23, 2008-4:04AM EST
That cab lady woman needs to be drawn and quartered. Is she the supervisor? Need a good attorney? I might know one….
It blows me away how I crumble around her but it hit me yesterday, why is she so upset about this? She and I have never interacted this way. Before all this when she answered the phone I was sure to get things done right. But this, well, it seems to be too much for her. I can’t believe how she’s acting. The woman just loses it. Usually I’d come up with some smart ass answer like - You might want to calm down. If you throw a hissy fit you might break a hip. You can’t afford that being 70 and all. (She’s not 70.) I normally would point out the mortality rate for people with anger issues or I’d tell her that at her age she shouldn’t be throwing fits then ask her if she needed a time out.
Normally I’d have some smart ass come back but this stumps me. I’m totally thrown. Perhaps it’s the total lack of reason, the sheer anger in her voice the fact that she will not give me a word in edge wise. She’s yelling at the top of her voice, name calling…..damn. Yesterday when she told me no I couldn’t speak to someone else and I had to deal with her I felt a little bit stronger in my reply. I felt a wall come up instead and a little bit of resistance.
Then of course I’m pissed because it’s like, is this lady getting off on hearing me break up in the background or is she pissed when I start crying? What the hell is her problem? At this point I don’t care. So I’m trying to figure out what my options are. I want to make a formal complaint about it, something in writing because even after speaking with the owner it made little difference. He said he counseled her on it. I’m not looking for her to lose her job. I’m looking to call in for a ride as I always have without the concern that she’s going to go off on me like that. “No you can’t speak to anyone else, everyone has heard your story and everyone is going to tell you the same thing so pay the bill. Are you telling me you’re not going to pay the bill?”
I said, are you telling me I can’t speak to anyone else? You said your name is?? What time does your clock say so I can write the time down too. Please repeat yourself. I can’t talk to anyone else and I can only deal with you, is that what you’re saying? The woman hung up on me as if I OFFENDED HER.
At this point my concern isn’t $54 that they’ll let me pay off over three months time. That would be hard if I weren’t selling stuff on Redbubble. I think if I didn’t get to sell stuff on there I’d be a bit more upset. (I couldn’t buy a car if Redbubble sales didn’t come through) All in all its this supervisor and how she simply can not control herself that bothers me. That is what I think needs to be addressed. How can a company as big as they are in this city treat anyone like this?
My reply here just turned into an entry….
Let me shut up and get ready for therapy
I don’t care if you owe them $540, there is no cause to yell at someone. Do you always get her if you call? Is there another worker that will put you through to the supervisor? Next time, tell her that for “quality control purposes, this phone call may be recorded….AND PLAYED FOR HER SUPERVISOR.”
Can I do that, tell her for quality control purposes this phone call may be recorded? Is that legal?
I don’t see why you can’t say that to her…about recording the call. The phone company, cable company and electric company all do it to me. Here’s the big question…do you have the means to ACTUALLY record the call? I’m not sure how that is done, but it might help you out in this situation a great deal.
I just wanted to say that I love the way that you write and how similar the thoughts that I deal with are to the ones that you have written down. Keep up the good work.
Radio shack sells simple recording devices. Also many answering machines and cell phones are able to record. States are either single consent or dual consent states. Single consent states mean only one party to the conversation need consent to recording. So I can record any conversation I’m involved with and not let anyone know. Dual consent states require consent of all involved. That is why companies always tell you they are recording - because they don’t know what state you are calling from. If you tell her you are recording it, and she continues to talk, that’s her problem.
Of course you can say any damn thing you want, apparently so can she. As for actually recording something, yes you can and you don’t have to tell her. A conversation can be recorcded if one of the participants in the conversations is aware that the recording is happening. Telling the other participants is really just a curtesy. A recodring under these conditions will stand up in court. Turn the recorder on, call the number and before she answers say something into the recorder like”This is Joan of Arc, today is January 24, 2008, the time is 2:00 pm EST, CST OR PST, I am calling “EFFED UP Car Company…” You get the gist.
Tyler
Ha! I was so totally gonna talk about tape recording the freaking conversations with this insane woman myself. Seems others are totally thinking the same thing. Better yet, send a copy of that freaking tape to her supervisor or owner of that company. Don’t forget to keep a copy for yourself! That is f’ng outrageous! The fact you have to f’ng deal with her regularly, well, all the more to tape record and keep sending the tapes to her supervisor or the owner or whatever. Anybody to give solid proof and attention that this woman needs serious freaking ass help. She SUCKS! Ya know like once or twice, okay, that sucks, the person is having a bad day, whatever. It’s crap, but whatever. But this bullshit of her shitting on you all the time has to f’ng stop. Oh yah, I’m sorry, I changed the f’ng to be what it is but I just can’t change the other swear words. But I will in the future if it is a serial problem. Cuz I respect yous. It’s just hard not to say it like it is when I’m so pissed off about someone treating you like dirt. I so do NOT handle that well with my friends or Julie’s friends. NO WAY NO HOW!
Billie
Oh like I wanna say that I don’t think her shitting on you is “whatever.” That’s not what I mean. I just know with life that shit happens and people are crappy and what she’s doing sucks and is just freaking ass wrong and f’d up. She went way over the edge the first time and she continues to do so. That’s what I meant– now that is serially wrong and needs to totally stop! If she like did it once and had a shit fit for some damn reason of her own then like whatever, I get that everyone has moments like that… though I think that totally sucks and is crappy and whatever. It sucks and is crap and is wrong and yadda yadda. I think ya get me. But this deal with her doing it again and maybe over and over and sure as hell seems like she is going to continue– then like, no, that’s just way the frick over the top and just way way way beyond inexcusable. The first time was like totally inexcusable but now it is way the frick totally beyond inexcusable.
Didn’t mean to dis ya or minimize or whatever. Totally not what I meant but I read again what I wrote and saw that you or other people might think I think that and I so totally don’t think that at all. Whatever. I tried to explain myself best that I can. I can’t stand this woman!
Billie
Ask to speak to her supervisor. She sounds like she needs a good kick to the curb for her attitude.
I was once afraid that this insane accountant I hired about seven years ago might misuse my social security number. He went satanic on me after I demanded my paperwork back. It was a basic tax return with a few minor differences and I could have done it myself in the time he took. I called the state attorney general’s office and found out his license had expired. I should have checked him out better before I started working on him. The woman I talked to at the tax office actually laughed at me when I explained my situation. Then she starts in with “well, sir…”
“I’m a woman, you fucking idiot!” I shouted at that point. “And how dare you laugh at my problem. I want to speak to your supervisor NOW!”
Her tune changed then and she became very helpful.
Some “service people” need to get SERVED–their ass–to the curb.