Ugh. I had really weird, really screwed up dreams. One of them was really creepy and was right out of a horror movie, the other was this absurd but somehow disturbing science fiction type dream. I was waking up every hour. When the weird dreams finally went away, I heard kids and lawnmowers outside my window and couldn't sleep. I finally gave up and got up, but I have the feeling I'm going to be exhausted all day.
Rob left at 4:30 this morning for Milwaukee, for a meeting. I always get a little nervous when he does those long drives on next to no sleep.
Well, I went back to work yesterday. It was one hell of a day. It seemed like that karmic thing, where when I say most of our customers are nice that I get all the assholes at once. I had a straight hour of just impossible people that would demand to know something and as soon as I tried to explain why that might be just started shrieking at me and demanding to talk to my supervisor. Fun. I had one woman who had gotten forced coverage placed on her home. She'd gotten notices of this, had paid off her loan after the forced coverage took place, and two months after the loan was paid off, she wanted to know why she wasn't going to get a refund on her escrow. I told her that was because of the forced coverage. (The reason most people try very hard not to get forced coverage is because it is a lot more expensive than regular insurance and really doesn't cover much of anything.) She started shrieking that she had coverage. When I told her that we never saw any proof of it, none was sent in, she started shrieking at us that wasn't her fault, it was the insurance company's fault. Then, when I said we actually sent her letters warning her that forced coverage would happen if she didn't send us proof she started screaming that she was out of the country for three months and so it wasn't her fault. Heh. Apparently, nothing is ever this woman's fault. She demanded to speak to a supervisor, which I happily let her do. (they always think that they're getting you in trouble when they ask that. What they don't understand, is they're so damned annoying you're more than happy to pass off the call and not deal with them.)
The next person I talked to was looking to refinance. He wanted a payoff quote faxed to him. I explained there would be a twenty dollar fax fee. He gave a stink about that. I realize that it is excessive, and most people realize that I don't set the policy, I just have to warn them about it. This guy didn't. Then, he asked how long it would take. I told him that it took a 24-48 hour turn around. He got really mad about this, and told me I should put his request to the top of the pile. (um, it doesn't work that way. Faxes get sent out in the order that the request is received.) So I attempted to transfer him to the payoff department. Now, we don't just transfer them and leave the call. When we transfer we have to put them on hold and wait for someone to pick up the call and get permission to put them through. Well, I wait for about ten minutes but payoffs was pretty backed up so I came back and informed him they weren't answering and asked if he wanted to continue holding. He got really irate and accused me of trying to "punish" him for wanting refinancing. Oh yes, that's it all right. I have nothing better to do but make you wait for a long time because I take it so damned personally that you're refinancing. I tried to politely explain to him that I had no control over how busy payoffs was and that the policies were the same for everyone, refinancing or not. But he was quite convinced it was a conspiracy against his refinancing. He then angrily demanded to talk to a supervisor. I transferred him. I was starting to wonder why all my customers wanted to talk to a supervisor until I heard the girl across from me also sending customers through. No, they were just being ridiculous.
I wouldn't mind them freaking out if they had a reason to, but it seems the ones who have a reason to be upset that are actually pretty reasonable. It's the ones that somehow expect to be some sort of special exception that start screaming, and it's always about stuff that you have no control over and that really a mature person would just deal with.
Well, I went on my break after that because I was overdue. When I came back, it was a bit more tolerable. I actually talked to a woman from Long Island who was very pleasant and very reasonable. She asked a question about one of our payment policies. When I explained that, unfortunately, we couldn't accomodate her in that regard, she was very nice about it. At the end of the call, she thanked me a lot, and told me how incredibly helpful I'd been. So that kind of helped even out the two idiots from earlier.
So I still stand by my opinion that most people are basically nice, and you can't let the assholes give you a disregard for all your customers. When you talk to that many people in a day, you're bound to get some beligerent assholes who think the world revolves around them, but you're bound to get some people that are very appreciative and nice.
As far as Chicago goes, I am still waffling on this one somewhat. Part of me still has so many reservations but when it comes down to it, I really do miss that town. I mean, I like the idea of going to Kendall and I am still going to apply there to see what sort of scholarship I can get but I really would like to go back to Chicago. I just need some sort of plan. One that will actually work. So that the things I want to do can still be done, and where I will see more of the positive side of the city than the negative. I dug out some apartments in wicker park that have the basic amenities (ac, dishwasher, a washer and dryer in the unit if possible..) that we require. I actually found some really promising looking ones in the $1,000 a month range. That really is not bad, it's only fifty dollars more than we're paying here. Of course we can't seriously look until february. Rob still wants to look at the gold coast apartment, but that's still up in the air. I think I would rather live in wicker park or ravenswood than the gold coast. So who knows, we have the better part of a year here. Time will tell.