Did I miss the announcement?
The receptionist where I work forwards any call that sounds remotely
technical to me. Even though sometimes it is “can you send me a catalog”
or “I didn’t get the screws I need” or “how much furniture should I order
for my office”.
Once in a while it is things like “how much weight can the desk take?”
which is the sort of thing I know.
She doesn’t give me any warning either. Usually I pick up the phone and
get “I’m told you can help me with this…”
Anyhow, today I get one of these blind calls.
“I was told you can answer this for me,” the man says. “Are the power
infeeds to your system Greenfield?”
I’ve never heard of Greenfield. I don’t know if it is a company, a wiring
system, an industry standard, or what.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand the question,” I tell the man. “Can you be
more specific?”
“Look,” he says. “Is it Greenfield or not?”
“Greenfield?” I ask.
“You don’t even know what it is, do you?” he demands.
“I’m afraid not,” I say.
“Then you should have just told me that to begin with and not wasted my
time,” he says.
“Well, when I said ‘I don’t understand’, that was a clue to you that I
didn’t know what you were asking about, I’m sorry you didn’t catch it,” I
said. “Now, if you want to try and ask it in another way I’ll do my best
to answer.”
(Yes, I did say that to a customer.)
“I need to know what wire is used in your power feeds,” he says. “What
wire size, what color wire, things like that.”
“It’s in our catalog, page 5.2,” I say. “All of that information is there.”
“I don’t have a catalog,” he says. “All I have is the information someone
at your office sent me.”
“If you have email access, you probably have web access, right?”
“Yes,” he said. “I do.”
“Our catalogs are on our web site,” I say. “Click on the link for
e-Catelogs and go to the electrical page.”
“How do I know where that is?” he asked.
“Page 5.2,” I say.
He hung up.