Monday, May 14, 2007
Voicemail
Part of my job requires me to fill ticket orders. Yes, yes, in addition to buying advertising and negotiating promotions and now even pitching stories to the media I am also a box office. It's probably worth mentioning at this point that I actually applied for a job in the box office about seven years ago and they turned me down-some things are just meant to be. But, I digress. We provide tickets-in the form of vouchers-to our sponsors, media partners and for donations to other non-profits. They then distribute these vouchers to whomever their little hearts desire and those folks call me to exchange them for actual tickets. Sometimes people call me at 2 pm on a Saturday afternoon and then call back on Sunday because they haven't heard from me, as was the case this weekend. It's extraordinarily frustrating and annoying, but it's part of my job so I just shut up and call them back...eventually.
A woman who bought two tickets to a show on Friday night at a silent auction, called me on Saturday to reserve her tickets and then called again on Sunday. While I found this slightly irritating I tried to return her calls as quickly as I could this morning. I called this woman no less than three times today, allowing the phone to ring multiple time (meaning: more than ten) and nothing. I looked up her phone number in our ticketing database and searched for her name in hopes of finding an e-mail address of cell number, and nothing. She neither answered the phone, nor did an answering machine or voicemail pick up. So, now I fear that I look like an unprofessional slacker, not calling her back, when in fact I called her all day distracting myself from actual work. And it's not even enough for me to rest on the fact that she has caller i.d. and saw my missed calls when clearly this patron is so stuck in the 20th century that she doesn't even have voicemail! And, it led me to wonder: how does one survive in the year 2007 without such modern conveniences? And, more importantly, might it be considered disrespectful to the rest of society by not allowing them? It's like people who don't read their e-mail. It's simply rude. You may not like it but e-mail is a part of business so fucking read and respond to it. If you can't do that then perhaps you should consider getting a job where you don't have to use it. Similarly, if you don't have voicemail on your phone then please don't even think about leaving a message on mine. If you don't take the responsibility of having technology seriously yourself, then please don't take advantage of the fact that I do. But then again, what do I know? I was denied the chance to work in the box office, after all.
A woman who bought two tickets to a show on Friday night at a silent auction, called me on Saturday to reserve her tickets and then called again on Sunday. While I found this slightly irritating I tried to return her calls as quickly as I could this morning. I called this woman no less than three times today, allowing the phone to ring multiple time (meaning: more than ten) and nothing. I looked up her phone number in our ticketing database and searched for her name in hopes of finding an e-mail address of cell number, and nothing. She neither answered the phone, nor did an answering machine or voicemail pick up. So, now I fear that I look like an unprofessional slacker, not calling her back, when in fact I called her all day distracting myself from actual work. And it's not even enough for me to rest on the fact that she has caller i.d. and saw my missed calls when clearly this patron is so stuck in the 20th century that she doesn't even have voicemail! And, it led me to wonder: how does one survive in the year 2007 without such modern conveniences? And, more importantly, might it be considered disrespectful to the rest of society by not allowing them? It's like people who don't read their e-mail. It's simply rude. You may not like it but e-mail is a part of business so fucking read and respond to it. If you can't do that then perhaps you should consider getting a job where you don't have to use it. Similarly, if you don't have voicemail on your phone then please don't even think about leaving a message on mine. If you don't take the responsibility of having technology seriously yourself, then please don't take advantage of the fact that I do. But then again, what do I know? I was denied the chance to work in the box office, after all.
# posted by Molly @ 9:45 AM 
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