Hard Day

Today isn't the greatest day. I don't know what's going on out there in residential living-land, but I got a whole lot of angry people calling me today. It's doubly hard because I am empathetic and I feel their frustration. I know they get the run-around. I know how frustrating it is to call a hundred numbers and get a hundred voicemails. Then they come to me, the first live human and they just unload. The problem is, I'm just a receptionist, I can't do anything. All I can do is send them back out and pray that someone picks up the phone this time. It seems that every other phone call is someone complaining that they can't get a live person on the phone and all they want is an answer - something I don't have. Every other call from that is someone looking for money - again these vendors say they've been calling for months on end with no return phone calls.

They could be exaggerating - they could have only called once and they're just saying that they've called a million times. But then there are others - I can hear the honesty and desperation in their voices. Those that are just looking for their security deposit when they've moved out over six months ago - for them, my heart breaks. I know how desperate they are for that $350. I would be too. I wish people in the company would return phone calls. I wish they had infinite resources so they could pay all their vendors as soon as the service is rendered. I wish everything ran smoothly. But in real estate, it doesn't. When a property is bought and sold, often people fall through the cracks. If you move out the days a property changes hands, or anytime around then, you can pretty much guarantee that you'll fall through the cracks. Between change of management, software, name and policies, your little security deposit gets buried further and futher below the stacks of paperwork. Now multiply that by the hundreds and hundreds of apartments we have across the country and those are the people that call me every day.

I am powerless to help - all I can do is transfer them to yet another voicemail and pray with them that this time someone will get back to them. But when they're angry... I had to dry my tears just now because some terrible man in California ripped me a new one, cursing me to no end all because he was tired of getting voicemails. I had to hang up on him he was yelling so loudly.

I've been in customer service my whole life - retail, waiting tables, flight attendant, and now receptionist. I'm ready to take a couple steps away from the customer for a while - I need a break. I'm tired of people talking down to me, I'm tired of them yelling at me. No I won't go get my boss, yes you can have my name and you better not misspell it, a**hole. I'm a person too, you jerk.