I know the customers I deal with can sometimes be… creative. However, they aren’t the only ones that can raise my blood rate.

The scenario: Customer calls, wants to check the status of an item on their order. The item was out of stock when the order was originally placed, but was in stock at the time the customer called to check on the order.

The procedure: Send an email to the supervisor or to the movement team to bring it to their attention that this order is still waiting for an out of stock item to be shipped, and that item is currently not in stock.

The idiot: He changed the in-hand date and placed in the notes for the order that the item was in stock and to move it along. He even thanked whomever would come by and read it later. But he never sent an email to follow up.

The problem: TODAY was when she needed the products. I am the one handling the call, noticing the items are now out of stock and in back order until next week. I end up having to substitute the item for her but at a cost to the company of over $500 because the replacement item was a third of the cost of the original item. And apologizing for the inconvenience.

It’s not the first time I’ve handled his stupidity. In fact, the other night I handled a similar problem handled by the same guy, who can’t seem to understand why he gets passed over when he was a supervisor or team leader at the last job he was at.

Holy crap, I commented about it in a reply to Christina. Here’s how I remembered – I was about to bitch about him being a Mets fan, and I remembered using that line elsewhere!

Customer calls to ask how much each item costs at 100 quantity. I tell her $2.65. She asks, “And how much would that be total?”

Puzzled, I told her it would be $2.65 each. “No no,” she replies,” I mean how much would a hundred of them cost in total!”

So I tell her. $265. Because $2.65 x 100 = $265. Basic mathematics, right?

“Wow,” she replies, “that’s less than what I figured.”

In an effort to better my life, I bought a new mattress. It took about two weeks for my back to get used to it, but I no longer wake up with a sore back. I mean, I’m still sore in the morning, but each morning it’s less than the day before.

I visited my friend Johanna in Boston over the weekend, and she has one of those memory foam pillows. It’s not my first encounter with this pillow, but I noticed something the first night I was there: I slept like a log. The second night, not so much. The difference between the two nights: I did NOT use the foam pillow the second night.

With that, I went to Walmart last night and bought a new pillow. My neck feels better already.