Re:These are customer service types
on
The Jungle
·
· Score: 1
Missing something? No, I suppose you have the same customer service bias most socially-clueless techboys manifest.
I'm sure that the level of technical skill involved in customer service work at Amazon varied. However, from a classification perspective, because they worked in a technical field, almost certainly performing much of their job with the assistance of computers, and probably answering at least some questions about the technology -- web-site issues, etc -- they're knowledge workers. They're using their brains, not their hands. Get it?
What concerns me more is the underlying contempt for technical support and customer service workers that seems endemic to the industry, as indicated by your post and the responses to it. It's because of such contempt that so many of the workers at this level feel under-appreciated. The fact is, most of the very people who whine about customer service being unskilled don't have the very skills that make a good customer service tech -- they may be able to hack code, but they can't hack people, or social situations.
While you could say that amounts to stereotyping geeky techboys, I can promise you the smooth, comfortable-with-customers-and-people programmers are outnumbered by the socially-inept by at least 50 to 1.
So, what does this mean? It demonstrates that the programming and IT elite have lost the courtesy of respect that has traditionally been the appropriate response tradespeople give each other. The stonemason and the glassmaker have different skills, but both can be respectful of the other. Yes, there are inept, stupid customer service folk; there are also inept, stupid programmers writing bloated inelegant code, too. However, there are wizards and gurus in both fields. The elite customer service folk deserve reciprocal respect from their programming counterparts.
Sure, the megachain may have the magazine you want -- but the smaller store could certainly order it to come in with their magazine shipment, if you asked for it.
It doesn't matter if the megastore has tons of books, though, if they don't know where they are. I spent several years working in a small bookstore; we didn't carry everything, but we damn well knew where every book we carried was. If I were asked for a particular type of book, I could find it in the store, as could any other member of the staff.
I've given up ever doing the same thing in a megastore. I can go to the "information desk" and ask about a book, and they can tell me it's in, or not. However, if I ask where that book is in the store, or what they have similar to it, I'm going to be seriously SOL. To quote one salesperson, "We have too many books to know where each one is."
So, there you go. While any smaller store can get a particular item you need, larger stores simply can't compete in sheer product knowledge, for the most part.
An A/C, or heater (and let's face it, Californians are going to have those on 24/7/365, too)
Actually, no -- not in many parts of California, at least. One of the wierdest things about moving here was discovering how much Northern Californians eschew central heat/air. A/C is very uncommon in residences, except in some apartment complexes, though it is the norm in commercial settings. Central heat is similarly far less common -- wall mounted gas room heaters and other localized heat sources are common, in older homes.
My experience is that even when they have it, people here don't use it the way east-coasters do. Any time I travel east these days, I'm struck by how much warmer indoor areas seem; I've evidently gotten used to the northern Californian norm for keeping the heat off or way down (65 and below!). When I think back to the winter I moved out here, I remember constantly complaining about how cold I was, how cold people kept spaces. Now I don't even notice it.
Of course, Southern Californians are much more obsessive about AC, but I can't imagine they're much different about heating, really.
...no one has provided a useful answer about why I should buy one, or anyone for that matter.
You almost certainly *shouldn't* buy one. You -- and other/. users -- are not the target market.
Someone else has already commented about a grandmother using an IA and how well that's caught on. I think it's easy for those of us who are are already part of the existing net community, and have been for some time, to overestimate the comfort level novices have with computers and related technology. I've got a friend whose family basically has to manage the grandparents' answering machine for them, because recording a message or retrieving voicemail is too frightening for them. Stretch your brains, people; try to imagine what it's like to be completely overwhelmed by the kinds of technology you take for granted?
In the same way that many/. readers can't imagine ever spending money on an IA, there are literally millions of people who can't imagine what they'd do with a computer -- who could almost certainly use and make use of an Internet Appliance.
For that matter, just the word "company" can be a misnomer when describing the security sources used for this kind of background checks. For example, my father did Risk Management work for employee leasing companies. They got consent on applications to do 'third party' background checks. The leasing company had purchased software that they used to do the actual checks.
What a 'third party background check' consisted of in this case was my father at home on his PC, dialing into service and downloading whatever information he wanted, based on the SSN/Name/DOB of the applicant. If my father mistyped or didn't verify he had the right person, oh well.
There's evidently a sizeable market for these software packages, meaning that Suzie the HR bimbo who had you fill out the application may be the one making the error in the background check.
Slashdot Mirror
Missing something? No, I suppose you have the same customer service bias most socially-clueless techboys manifest.
I'm sure that the level of technical skill involved in customer service work at Amazon varied. However, from a classification perspective, because they worked in a technical field, almost certainly performing much of their job with the assistance of computers, and probably answering at least some questions about the technology -- web-site issues, etc -- they're knowledge workers. They're using their brains, not their hands. Get it?
What concerns me more is the underlying contempt for technical support and customer service workers that seems endemic to the industry, as indicated by your post and the responses to it. It's because of such contempt that so many of the workers at this level feel under-appreciated. The fact is, most of the very people who whine about customer service being unskilled don't have the very skills that make a good customer service tech -- they may be able to hack code, but they can't hack people, or social situations.
While you could say that amounts to stereotyping geeky techboys, I can promise you the smooth, comfortable-with-customers-and-people programmers are outnumbered by the socially-inept by at least 50 to 1.
So, what does this mean? It demonstrates that the programming and IT elite have lost the courtesy of respect that has traditionally been the appropriate response tradespeople give each other. The stonemason and the glassmaker have different skills, but both can be respectful of the other. Yes, there are inept, stupid customer service folk; there are also inept, stupid programmers writing bloated inelegant code, too. However, there are wizards and gurus in both fields. The elite customer service folk deserve reciprocal respect from their programming counterparts.
Sure, the megachain may have the magazine you want -- but the smaller store could certainly order it to come in with their magazine shipment, if you asked for it.
It doesn't matter if the megastore has tons of books, though, if they don't know where they are. I spent several years working in a small bookstore; we didn't carry everything, but we damn well knew where every book we carried was. If I were asked for a particular type of book, I could find it in the store, as could any other member of the staff.
I've given up ever doing the same thing in a megastore. I can go to the "information desk" and ask about a book, and they can tell me it's in, or not. However, if I ask where that book is in the store, or what they have similar to it, I'm going to be seriously SOL. To quote one salesperson, "We have too many books to know where each one is."
So, there you go. While any smaller store can get a particular item you need, larger stores simply can't compete in sheer product knowledge, for the most part.
An A/C, or heater (and let's face it, Californians are going to have those on 24/7/365, too)
Actually, no -- not in many parts of California, at least. One of the wierdest things about moving here was discovering how much Northern Californians eschew central heat/air. A/C is very uncommon in residences, except in some apartment complexes, though it is the norm in commercial settings. Central heat is similarly far less common -- wall mounted gas room heaters and other localized heat sources are common, in older homes.
My experience is that even when they have it, people here don't use it the way east-coasters do. Any time I travel east these days, I'm struck by how much warmer indoor areas seem; I've evidently gotten used to the northern Californian norm for keeping the heat off or way down (65 and below!). When I think back to the winter I moved out here, I remember constantly complaining about how cold I was, how cold people kept spaces. Now I don't even notice it.
Of course, Southern Californians are much more obsessive about AC, but I can't imagine they're much different about heating, really.
The browsing area isn't obvious from the home page. To be more precise, what you want is the store index listing shirt "stores" by type.
...no one has provided a useful answer about why I should buy one, or anyone for that matter.
/. users -- are not the target market.
/. readers can't imagine ever spending money on an IA, there are literally millions of people who can't imagine what they'd do with a computer -- who could almost certainly use and make use of an Internet Appliance.
You almost certainly *shouldn't* buy one. You -- and other
Someone else has already commented about a grandmother using an IA and how well that's caught on. I think it's easy for those of us who are are already part of the existing net community, and have been for some time, to overestimate the comfort level novices have with computers and related technology. I've got a friend whose family basically has to manage the grandparents' answering machine for them, because recording a message or retrieving voicemail is too frightening for them. Stretch your brains, people; try to imagine what it's like to be completely overwhelmed by the kinds of technology you take for granted?
In the same way that many
What a 'third party background check' consisted of in this case was my father at home on his PC, dialing into service and downloading whatever information he wanted, based on the SSN/Name/DOB of the applicant. If my father mistyped or didn't verify he had the right person, oh well.
There's evidently a sizeable market for these software packages, meaning that Suzie the HR bimbo who had you fill out the application may be the one making the error in the background check.
-Trin.