Just so you can see the kind of people I get to deal with at the Y on a daily basis.
Got here at 6:55. Pamela is standing outside the doors while it's snowing, because she absolutely has to be the first one inside and get #1 for spin class. I think her head would explode if she wasn't first one day. (Just to be clear, all of the staff hates her, because she's a bitch. And then when a director goes to her and says "I'm hearing that you're mistreating the staff, she says "Oh no, it wasn't me, I wouldn't do that!" all sweet an innocent. Meanwhile, she made one of the toughest fitness instructors I've ever met cry one day.)
7:30 - Just watched a grown woman duck under the partition to go out the JCC door. Because she couldn't be bothered to walk 50 feet further and go out the doors she's supposed to.
7:36 - Phone Call:
Me: Community Campus, how can I help you?
Woman: Yes, I registered my daughter for the 9 o'clock swimming class.
Me: .................................. Oh...kay?
Woman: Yeah, I wanted to know if I can move her to a later class.
Wouldn't it have just been easier to tell me that in the first place rather than waiting for me to acknowledge your initial statement?
7:53 - Two people have called to ask if the Y is open or if classes are still going on because it's snowing. I have to just say "Yes, everything is running as scheduled today," but what I'd really like to say is, "Well sir/ma'am, look outside. There's about a centimeter of snow on the ground, and it's not sticking to the road. Would your place of business be closed because of that? No? Well then ours won't be either."
7:58 - It blows my mind that people spend $75 on a class for their child, and we print them an itemized receipt with the name of the class, class time, and the dates of the classes, and they still call us to ask what they signed their kid up for or when the class starts.
8:05 - Just got a call from Sallie May Loans for a girl who hasn't worked here since June of 2011, and using her maiden name, when she got married over a year ago.
8:07 - I really love it when people come to the desk, don't have their card, and make me type their name into the computer, and then get annoyed when I ask them what their address is, because there are 14 other people named "Amit Patel" who belong to the Y. Or when they tell me their name and get anoyed with me when I make them spell it for me. I'm sorry, I'm from America. I don't know how to spell "Devchandbhai" (no, I'm not making that one up).
8:45 - Current number of people who've called to see if we're open/classes are still on for the scheduled times because of the snow (which still hasn't gotten over a centemeter) - 5
8:47 - A woman just came up to the desk:
Woman: Hello, I'm here for my 9 o'clock adult swim lesson.
Me: ......... It's in the pool.
Woman: Oh it's in the pool. Ok, thank you.
o.O
9:33 - Another one!
Man: Excuse me, he's here for a basket ball class. Where is it?
Me: ...............On the basketball court.
Man: Ah, ok.
9:50 - I love the sense of entitlement that people have here. Just got off the phone with a woman who called asking about memberships:
Woman: How much is the membership?
Me: For two adults and any number of children in the household it's $54.50 a month.
Woman: Ok, and can we get any kind of discount on that?
Me: Um... we offer financial assistance for low income families, but not discounts on the membership.
Woman: Well what if we only want to use the pool and nothing else?
Me: We don't have a membership to just use the pool. Our membership rates are for the whole facility.
Woman: So you can't give us a discout if we only use the pool?
Me: No.
After another two minutes talking about what the facility has to offer:
Woman: So you have no discounts?
Me: No. No discounts.
I also love the fact that she started out the phone call by saying "Good morning. How are you?" "And when I responded "I'm good thank you, how are you?" She responded by nervously giggling.
9:54 - Grown man moved the partitians out of the way in order to go out the JCC door.
10:07 - Another person calling to ask if classes are still on due to the snow.
10:09 - Man comes in to register his kids for swimming classes.
Man: Can I get a discount?
Me: On.....?
Man: The swimming classes? Since I'm signing up two kids.
Me: No.
Man: Oh. Really? You don't give discounts for that?
Me: No, we never have.
Then I ask for his address because there are two people with his kid's name in the system. He wants to know how many people there are with the same last name as his. I tell him there are about 30, and he proceeds to tell me that every person with he same name is descended from the same family, and that he wants to get all of these people together and meet his "family".
Man: Can I get their addresses?
Me: No, I can't give out that kind of information.
Man: Well is there any way I could get it? Like maybe from the director? Maybe he can give them to me? Or their phone numbers?
Me: No, she can not give out the personal information of our members. That's an invasion of their privacy.
He goes on for another five minutes about finding some way to get their information. I finally told him the phone book would probably be his best bet, as we weren't going to give him anyone's personal information.
10:40 - I've stopped telling the grown adults going under the partitians that they're not supposed to be doing that. I just look at them and roll my eyes and shake my head, very condescendingly.
10:49 - Phone Call:
Man: Hello, yes. Actually I was calling because I want to register my daughter for swimming lessons, and I was wondering if you have any spots available?
Me: Well it would depend on what class you wanted.
Man: I was looking for a class on Saturday or Sunday. That would be best for me.
Me: Ok, well the YMCA classes are only on Fridays and Saturdays, and then the JCC runs classes on Sundays.
Man: Ok, I will take the Saturdays. What time is it.
Me: For which class?
Man: Which class?! The swimming class!!!
Me: Sir, we have about 15 different levels of swimming classes and five different time slots for them on Saturdays, you're going to have to be more specific.
11:15 - The JCC sells swim caps for the pool. Aparently the lifeguard told a man that his daughter needed one, so he came over to the desk to buy one.
Man: What colors do you have?
Me: Let me get them for you.
I bring over the plastic container and look through it.
Me: We have blue, red, white, and purple.
Man: Do you have pink?
Me: Nooo, we have blue, red, white, and purple.
Not believing me, he starts looking through all of them.
Man: Ok, I need a small one.
Me: Well they're all the same size.
Again, he thinks I'm lying to him and starts pulling out caps and measuring them against each other.
Finally, he's got three on the desk in front of him.
Man: Ok, can I take these over to the pool and show my wife?
Me: No, I can't let you take them without paying for them. They're $3 each.
Man: Ok, well I'll just leave $10 here and then when I come back I'll buy the one.
Me: Or you could just ask what color she wants and come back...
Then he went to the Y desk and asked for a rubber band and never came back.
After that, I moved back to the Y desk, so it was less crazy.
12:00 - A man came to the desk with Jeff (sports director) and Jeff had me look up his cash history to see how much he had paid for the last set of soccer classes. He claimed that his son joined the class half way through the session but he had paid full price for it, so he should get more classes to make up for that.
Me: Well that wouldn't have happened because the computer automaitcally discounts for the weeks missed when signing up for a program. Yup, it says here that you only paid $25, because the class was halfway over.
Jeff: So yeah, you only paid for the classes you got. So if you want him to do the class again, you'll have to register him again.
Man: Oh ok sure.
He starts feeling around in his pockets.
Man: Oh, you know what? I left my wallet in the car. I'll be right back.
After 5 minutes, we assumed he wasn't coming back.
Jeff: Put a note in the system that he has to pay full price because he came to the first class. I have a feeling he's just going to keep coming back and trying to pull the same thing.
12:20 - I went to lunch. At Panera, I really felt for the guy putting up the food. It was really busy and people were being just as stupid there.
Panera Man: Mary, your salad's ready.
Mary looks at her salad and makes a face.
Mary: Oh, I wanted the dressing on the side.
The guy looks up at the screen and doesn't see anything saying that.
Panera Man: Did you tell them that when you ordered it?
Mary: No, they never asked me.
1:00 - Back at the Y, a woman came to sign up for a class card. We asked her if anyone had informed her of the new policy for the class cards. She said no, so we explained that now if she wasn't a member of our Y or one of our three "sister Ys", she had to buy an adult program membership for $115 for the year, and then buy the $80 class card on top of that. She flipped out, telling us over and over again how ridiculous it was. She complained so much that the supervisor came over to deal with her.
Isis: Believe me ma'am, I understand. We can sympathize, but if you want to buy the class card, this is the new policy.
Woman: But that's crazy. I don't want to be a member. I just want to take the classes. Why all of a sudden do I need a membership?
Isis: It's a brand new policy, it just went into effect this month.
Woman: Well I'm already paying $80 for the class card. That's ridiculous. Why should I pay more for a membership that I don't want?
Isis: I understand ma'am, but there is nothing I can do about it. We have no control over it.
Woman: Believe me, I'm not shooting the messenger.
I had to fight the impulse to say "Well, actually, that's exactly what you're doing" so hard.
Woman: I was a member, and it's a joke. I was paying all this money to come for classes and I would get there and they were canceled, and they didn't let anyone know.
Again, the urge to say "Well, sometimes instructors get sick and can't make it. They can't really call every member to tell them that a class got canceled, just in case they were planning to go to it. You could always call before a class to see if it was canceled." had to be choked down.
Finally, we did what we always do when someone complains on the weekend and refuses to be appeased. Give them the director's business card and told them to either email him or call him on Monday and complain to him.
After that, nothing much happened. In fact, it was boring as hell, because it was so empty.
