a lady phones for a quote, i ask for the details, she tells me, i tell her the price. she is hard of hearing though, so i explain as the cake is being delivered that i would need payment in full, when it was received the cake would be booked in and i would ring to let her know i had received payment, she didnt understand this so i explained again.
she said this is too difficult i dont want it!

what was difficult having to actually pay for what she wanted?

lol........so funny!! Maybe she was confused about the cake being "booked in" and why you had to call her again? Whenever I tell people "this will book your cake", I continue with "what this means is that the date of your cake is secured and no other orders will be taken on that day to ensure all of my time and attention go towards your cake"........I don't think everyone understands our lingo all the time.

Like I've said before I'm pushing 60~~but I look much younger

All kidding aside, life is freaking complicated nowadays. When I was growing up, you paid for stuff with cash. You could use a check if you were pre-registered with that store. Which involved filling out an index card that was kept in little index card file boxes by the check out counter.

'Things' in general are so much more complicated nowadays--I shop at Sam's for the bookstore--I have to take a check because my bookstore credit card is not accepted at Sam's although my personal credit card is. Cahhhn't brreathe.

It's nuts! If someone can make something easy for me I'm their friend for life.

By saying 'hard of hearing' I was getting that maybe she was older--but even young folks with disabilities can have lengthier histories of being screwed and therefore might be less patient. Trust is the first casualty huh. If you cannot hear something it's major yes?

Two more thoughts.

I'm getting hard of hearing--just the loss from age --especially if there's background noise--like a party. I ask people to repeat themselves--often I can't hear it the second time--I can hear about 95% of what they say--but that 5% can make a ton of difference--whadayah gonna do? How do you answer if you don't know for sure what they said?

If you want to be heard by those with hearing loss--ramping the volume is not always the answer. Speaking each word crisply from start to finish in all the same confident volume makes a world of difference in true communication--Look at them--engage their eyes too--if you turn your head away a bit--the volume dimishes just that little bit.

Engage their face--don't shout. Don't drop your sentence at the end. Don't drop your volume at the end of the word. Don't run your words together.



Those are chocolate bunnies of course. Whhaaat???

No no no no no--I got it!! You wanted payment in advance because the cake would be delivered, yada yada.

You din exactly say the part about 'pay in advance'

K8, it's always fun to read your conversations with yourself.

Gee Deb, you could just tell me the PIN and I'll hold the card for you, then when you need it I can whisper the number in your ear as I'm handing you the card. Can you think of anything easier?

It's too bad that a communication issue lost a sale for you, but hopefully this will help you out in the future. You can look closely at how you said it, and try to figure out which part confused her, then maybe find a simpler way of saying it. I can remember the days when I would walk into the grocery store and pick something up from the shelf and just walk past the cash register, hold it up and say, "Put it on Gramma's tab." And sure enough, they'd pull that old sales slip pad with the carbon between the sheets and write it down and stick it in 'the box'. They knew who "Gramma" was, and that she would allow me to charge on her account. I miss those days. Of course, I miss Gramma more.

I was a little lost with term, "Book In" myself. I think that sometimes people, in general, use terms that they are familiar with an assume others are as well.

For instance, I work in the accounting field and if said the the words, "Credit or Debit" versus increase or decrease you may not know what I'm talking about.

So, it's all relative. Just food for thought. And probably the fact that you were dealing with someone that was hearing impaired just made it a little frustrating on their part???? That's my guess......

cakeymom

I think she means,
'Because the cake is being delivered'
She's in England too so 'As the cake is being delivered' means the same thing-pretty sure--just reads funny.

Another communication hint (shoot me anytime you want)
Say the same thing two or three different ways to check that your point is understood.

The blue vase is on the table.
The table has a blue vase.
Blue is the color of the vase there on the table.

Adhd children have what they call perseverance--they repeat actions and/or questions over and over and over and over and over and over. <weak grin> I survived perhaps not intact but nontheless. So since I raised a hyper-boy I had to figure out how to respond to him to satisfy his request/need.

Hahahaha, yes of course. I get it now! LOL! Wow, I read that 3 or 4 times and never took it that way, OMG
So she means, as the cake is GOING to be delivered!
It's all clear now

Agreed- what's so hard to understand about that? LOL

She probably just got frustrated with not being able to hear you, that's what was too difficult, and she just gave up. I've had a lot of aborted conversations with my Father-in-law for the same reason. He's almost totally deaf, and will just say "ah, forget it" halfway through conversations where you've had to repeat yourself ten times and he still doesn't understand you.

Hey I am in the UK and still did not quite understand teh first sentence It was only K8 conversation with herself that made me understand a bit better

Quote:

Originally Posted by snarkybaker

Quote:

Originally Posted by indydebi

Quote:

Originally Posted by K8memphis-

'Things' in general are so much more complicated nowadays--I shop at Sam's for the bookstore--I have to take a check because my bookstore credit card is not accepted at Sam's although my personal credit card is.

Same here. My company card is a debit/credit card. At Sam's, I have to run it as a debit. As they explained it to me, it's a security thing, since it's a company card. It helps prevent just anyone from charging up stuff on the company account. If they have the PIN, chances are real good they are authorized to use the card.

your personal card? Nah! Who cares what they charge on that!

It's a PITA because I never use my card as a debit so I have trouble remembering the PIN! I finally figured out a gimmick so I remember it.

That is a big fat LIE!! Sam's Club does that because on large purchases it is cheaper for them to run PIN based transactions. The CC company charges only 10 to 20 cents for a pin transaction vs. the standard 1.7 to2 percent for swipe and sign.

What is a big fat lie???

Edited to say--Oh the drivel from Sam's about it being to protect the merchant--yeah for sure. Not to mention the company cards are even more expensive for Sam's (or anyone) to run as opposed to personal cards. Gotcha

You should never have to give your SSN to anyone when you are purchasing something, other than maybe a car or a home..... geez. What a load of crap.

Oh, I LOVE the "it's for your protection" line! My credit card company put a block on my card when I tried to charge something to pfeil and holing, who I've ordered from for years. When I called them to straighten it out, they had also put a block on another online accoun that I have set up that gets charged automatically every month, and had done for some time.

They said "We do this for your protection" and I asked "In what way is blocking a charge that has gone through without me questioning in for the last three years protecting me?"...Uh, for some reason they had no answer for that.

While I was on the phone with them I was online filling out an application for a new credit card with a different company, by the way!