Entitlement

I often wonder if they know the word "manners"...

I talk to a lot of people in my job.  It's 90% customer service, and I know how to do it.  I'm extremely good at solving the problems that these people call me about and I do it with a lot of grace and politeness, and that's saying a lot - considering these people are East Coasters (more specifically "Main Liners") and therefore very rude, and very obviously entitled.  Here's a sample of the kind of person I have to deal with help in a day:

A woman calls me and announces herself as "Adri-aaahhh-nah," and says that she had left a message for me earlier in the week and I never got back to her, so she's calling me again.  I've never heard of her, so she is either making up that she called or she called and left a message for the wrong person--someone who is not me.  At any rate, she says she has bought tickets from us in the past and says that she's decided to do something different this year (ooh, ahh!) and buy tickets to our family series.  Adriaaahhhnah then goes on to ask if we get more money to do those particular shows, because "they're soooo much better than your other shows.  The sets look much better made, there are more people in them..."  I try to explain that actually our other shows have bigger budgets and therefore we spend more on them, but that all of our shows are made to the highest standards regardless of budget.  Adriaaahhhnah ignores my reply and begins talking over me to say that she just realized that she doesn't have any idea what dates she wants.  She will have to look at her calendar because she has season subscriptions to every single sports team on the East Coast.  (Literally--she listed about 10 teams out to me.  Didn't even know we had that many out here.)  So she asks for my direct number, and before I can get out that I have an extension but the receptionist will probably pick up the phone and just transfer Adriaaahhhnah through to me, she interrupts me again to say, "you know what?  Can you just call me in an hour and I'll give you the dates then?  I don't want to have to call and get the switchboard to patch me through."  Switchboard...?  Honestly, what era are you living in?  At this point, my only stunned thought is, "JUST WHO THE HELL DOES THIS LADY THINK SHE IS!?!?"  (Gurren Lagann, anyone?  Anyone??)  I'm totally over her at this point so I say sure, I'll call her in an hour.  I go to lunch, and when I get back there's a message from her (ohmigosh, she actually called the right person this time!) saying that she is just calling "to tell you that I still don't have the dates for all of the home games, so I'll call you some time next week."  Right.  So in other words, you called me upset that I hadn't called you back because you were in so much of a rush to get your tickets...and now you're going to call me when you feel like it.  Mmhm.  ...I sincerely hope she forgets to call me, because we don't need her money if she's going to behave like that.

And now that I've ranted, here are some fun things to look at!  These are a couple of shots I took of our Teen SummerStage program kids rehearsing & creating advertising for their piece.     Happy Thursday!