Three examples of an annoying phenomenon.
Me: Hi. I’ll go for a large quarter pounder cheese meal please, with coke to drink
Fast food operative: Quarter pounder cheese. Would you like to go large?
Me: Yes please.
Fast food operative: And what drink would you like with your meal?
Me (trying not to grit teeth): Coke, please.
Me: I’d like a wake up call for eight am please
Hotel receptionist (looking away and typing after my 5th word): Certainly sir. A wake up call. And what time would you like that for?
Me: Can I get a taxi to the train station at nine please?
Hotel receptionist (looking away and writing after my 5th word): Certainly. A taxi at nine am. And where will you be going?
Am I giving too much information up front? Should I stop trying to be helpful and let people request it at their own pace?
“Me: Hi. I’ll go for a large quarter pounder cheese meal please, with coke to *drink*”
Was this a particularly edgy branch of McDonald’s? :-)
They dissolve it with Evian as long as you go to the right place.
I think that this is generally a failure of computer systems.
Humans who type something into a machine take the information in the order the machine wants it. If the machine can’t take it in any order, then the human can’t.
If the human operator were taught to use a shorthand typing notation and then to type the complete instruction as the customer said it, there would be no problem. The computer should interpret the complete instruction regardless of order.
As software gets better (assuming it does), you can expect these problems to be resolved.
If a person has a job as an input device, you can’t expect them to do any processing.
“If a person has a job as an input device, you can’t expect them to do any processing.”
I think it’s different. Roo just has an expansive sense of entitlement :-p
A true gentleman would ask: “Can I book a wake-up call please?”
Rather presumptive to just *assume* you can and relay your order without checking :-)
(Alternatively, I’ve become so conditioned by such unexpectedly bizarre responses that I only ever ask one thing at a time)
Arrghh!
I hate this too. Funnily enough, Ritazza at work are the worst culprits.
“Medium decaf black coffee please”
seconds later…
“Do you want milk?”
However the really annoying thing is that they often just presume you want milk (despite you actually *telling them* and start to pour it before you can jump in and say NO!
Mind boggling.
I think the problem with the first one was that you were eating at McDonald’s at all :-)
Frank, you were not supposed to notice that. It was supposed to be a generic large quarter pounder cheese meal with coke to drink. You spotted my guilty truth.
And Richard, I know you’re only joking about me not being a true gentleman (because, you know, you’ve met me), but I’m pretty use that bit of the conversation was actually at the very end of checking in. It probably went more like “Her: And is there anything sir?” “Me: Oh, actually, yes.. I’d like a wake up call for 8am please”. And so on.
“And Richard, I know you’re only joking about me not being a true gentleman (because, you know, you’ve met me), but I’m pretty use that bit of the conversation was actually at the very end of checking in. It probably went more like “Her: And is there anything sir?” “Me: Oh, actually, yes.. I’d like a wake up call for 8am please”. And so on.”
Indeed. For those who have not met Roo, it would be hard to find a more polite and engaging guy :-)
You are too kind, sir.