Is it so hard to get good help

[fireproof]

So some moron dials my direct line into their FAX machine, which calls and calls and calls, until I finally decide I've had enough and transfer it to my FAX machine.  So I get the FAX and call the sender to let them know that the FAX they think they have successfully sent has instead gone to someone who totally doesn't need it.  So I get the receptionist:



ME:  Hi, I just received a FAX from your company by accident.  



(Silence)



ME:  It was sent to my direct office line, and I transfered it to our FAX machine.  It looks like it was supposed to go somewhere else.



HER:  Oh, well, I don't know who would have sent it.



ME:  Well, you obviously have a customer who was supposed to get this, and someone in your office who thinks they have sent it successfully, so you really should try to find out where it came from.



HER:  Oh.



ME:  (describes it)



HER:  Where are you?



ME:  It doesn't really matter where I am, since I wasn't supposed to get this anyway.  Someone else was, which is why I am letting you know that I got it.



HER:  Oh.



At this point I gave up.  Should I have apologized for bothering her with something in which she had no interest?  Was I wrong to expect a simple "sorry" for the inconvenience of dealing with this thing, or a little "thanks" for letting them know that their business with this customer was incomplete?    ARRRRGGGGGHHH

[execsec]

It could be that the company has multiple faxes but only shows the main number to call back on.  I think you handled it the best you could unless it showed a fax number, then you could fax them back and say that you received this in error and tell them the same story about it coming in on your line and you transferred it to the fax line.



It's like having caller i.d.  You could be one of hundreds of employees making the phone call but the caller i.d. only says the main number.  So when a person calls into the switchboard and says "someone there called me," all you can say is there's 100+ employees here and I don't know who called you from what phone.  So the person replying to you legitimately may not have had an idea who sent you the fax.

[dragonladybug]

Happens to me all the time and it used to drive me crazy.  Now I have my fax machine set where it prints out the fax number it was sent from, so I just fax it back to them with a standard "this fax was received in error" type message that I typed up - I keep copies handy on quarter sheets of paper and tape them to the original fax.  After that, I just shred the original fax, and forget about it.

[bethalize]

People like that are so annoying. It doesn't take much sense to explain that you don't know who sent it and can't find out. I would have asked you to fax it over and to see who could have sent it. At the very least you can narrow it down to sales, and pass it on from there.

Did the fax not have a to or a from number on it?

Last place I worked someone kept delivering (by hand) confidential information to us. I sent the first one off somewhere, but the second one was a huge document with lots of confidential information about pensions and income in it. I wrote a covering letter and sent it to the account manager. A couple of days later I got a very nice note thanking me profusely for returning highly confidential information and saying that the problem was now fixed. Wasn't that nice?

[fireproof]

I guess I should have said it was from a local car sales company.  I've been there, they can't have more than 10 or 12 employees, and one fax machine, two at the most.  She just didn't want to be bothered to get off her tushie.



It was just the "I don't know and I don't care" attitude that got to me - after all, I was doing THEM a favor.



Ah well, it takes all kinds.

[mlm668]

OOOK........I have to add the flip side of this.  



Even in a small company the receptionist is not a mind reader and doesn't know or always have time to track what every single person is doing.  If the person sending the fax didn't bother to put their name on it, she has no way of knowing who sent anymore than you do.  And if she is the only person to answer the phones, she can't necessarily take the time to go to every person in the office and ask them who sent such and such fax.  Also, take into consideration that this may be a common occurance and she is just sick and tired of babysitting these idiots who don't put their name on the fax they are sending and don't take care to dial the number correctly.  HOWEVER......I do agree she should have provided you with an explanation to that affect instead of dumb silence.



 I run into this kind of thing from people who call the office and say that "someone" from your office called me - your number was on my caller ID.  Well, we have 10 people in the office and 5-10 men in the shop at any given time.  Any one of them could have picked up the phone and placed a call to this person.  So I try to be polite and ask if they have any idea who it could have been.  "No, but your number was on my caller ID."  Ok, what company are you with?  Maybe I can get an idea of who might have called if you tell me what company you are with.  "Not with a company, just saw your number on my caller ID and wanted to find out why you called me."  Well, I'm sorry I can't help you.  If you don't have any ideas of who it was, I really have no way of finding out.  "Can't you ask around and see if anyone called me."  By this time the phones are ringing off the hook, bossie #3 is standing in front of me looking P*##@*d because I won't get off the phone for him to tell me what he's going to be doing when he leaves and this fool on the phone wants me to interrogate 20 people to see who they called that day when 1/2 of them aren't out in the shop yard somewhere or possibly out for the day.



Oh well, such is life.  One of these days I will be moved up or find a job that doesn't require me to be the receptionist.

[mlm668]

I can sympthize with having a fax ring in your in when you answer the phone.  It is very, very annoying.  Every month when bid time rolls around it is inevitable (sp?) that someone will dial main number from their fax machine.  At that time of month, the phones ring almost non-stop and I have no way of transfering to our fax machine.  (Small company, old phone system)  



 

[futurshox]

To add to the bizarreness, every couple of months or so, starting about a year ago, I get a fax as a data call to my mobile phone!



Now, in the UK, mobiles have a set range of area codes and therefore could/should not be confused with a landline. So I'm really not sure why they try to fax my mobile.



I called them back once or twice but it's the same scenario- big company and they don't know who did it...



My guess is that their fax would give them an error report, at least, as all I do is kill the data call.



Wierd, though...

[Katie G]

Hey, Fireproof,



My suspicion is that you're more upset over the poor attitude (and rightly so) rather than the fact that she couldn't trace who sent the fax.  Sounds like she was pretty abrupt and that little bit with the silence when you first called was, well, rude.  



For the past week I've been getting phone calls at home for "Megan."  Ok, this is either a wrong number being given out, or some minor screw-up with a phone line or something.  No reason to get upset.  But more often than not, when I get the calls and inform the caller that they have the wrong number (pleasantly, mind you), they get "huffy" as if I'M the one putting THEM out.



Don't they teach simple phone manners and etiquette anymore?  (I remember having lessons on that in school in third or fourth grade.)  

[chris68]

In defense didface, when we moved into our house and changed our number, unlisted mind you, we kept getting phone calls for the previous owner of that phone number.  They were all very polite and said please and thank you.   We were pleasantly surprised and when we got a wrong number, we really didn't mind saying something like, you have the wrong number, or they no longer have this phone number.



On the flip side of this though, the reason for changing the number in the first place was we kept getting this drunk person calling in at 2-3 am during the week and weekends asking for such and such a person and he was actually carrying on a conversation with the answering machine and filling up the tape.  Mind you hubby gets up very early in the morning, so for him to have the phone ring at 2 & 3 am he has to get up in a few hours.  We even went so far as putting his voice on the answering machine instead of mine to ward off him calling, didn't stop him.  He wasn't nasty, just annoying.  Mind you this wasn't the main reason for changing the number, just the final straw.





Chris68

[laundryhater]

It was thoughtless and rude of that admin not to offer to find out who sent the fax to your phone number and correct the situation.



My people are really good about putting at least their first name on the fax cover sheet, but if someday they do not here is what I would do:



Send a company-wide email describing the content of the fax in as much detail as I can and asking would this employee please double check that they have been given the correct fax number and then please try sending it again. I would also suggest that this employee stand by the fax machine and wait for the fax to go through properly (because if someone picks up and says "hello" on the fax speaker phone, you have obviously dialed a phone number and not a fax number).



This way I do not have to call or visit 500 people just to find out who the moron who didn't put their name on their fax sheet is.



Even if you know for absolute certain that you dialed correctly, you should always, always put a TO: and a FROM: on your fax because you don't know if the fax number the customer gave you goes directly to their desk or to the main fax line where anyone at the company would pick it up and have to figure out who to deliver the fax to.



My pet peeve is when I call the person who dialed wrong and explain to them that they dialed my phone number instead of the correct fax number and they reply, "Well that's the number they gave me." And I say, "Well they gave you the wrong number." Then they ask, "Do you know the correct one?" Like I'm psycic or something. Obviously if they don't work here I don't know who this person is, let alone their fax number! Duh!

[ssc1208]

A couple of years ago I was awakened at Midnight by my phone ringing. Picked it up, and it was someone trying to fax me. Problem is, I don't have a fax machine! Well, I hung up, but it was one of those automated things that keeps calling back until the fax goes through. Very annoying. Luckily, I have fax software on my PC and I turned it on and set THAT to pick up the fax. It was a company trying to verify my change of address (because I had just moved). Apparently not so important to them was the fact that I didn't have a fax. Oy!