That Looks Like Incompetence

When I was in Idaho this past summer, I got an e-mail from a merchant about something that needed changing. And another. And another. I was gone for a long time, after all. Then, he got frustrated because he wasn't getting a reply from me and sent his e-mail to the box that I answer anyway, on the day before I returned.

I answered his e-mail (replying to everyone on the group list so they would know I had completed it), and included a note that I didn't get to it sooner because I was out of town. Boss² sent me an e-mail stating that I shouldn't have told him that I was out of town and no one else was around to answer his e-mail "because that looks like incompetence [on the part of the company]." What I wanted to say was "if the shoe fits..." but I told Boss² that I told him I couldn't answer sooner because of the three e-mails he had sent directly to me over the course of the two weeks I was out.

Two weeks ago, we got a brand new phone system. We converted from a standard PBX to VOIP, gradually company-wide. This meant that some incoming phone numbers changed, and all automated greetings had to be re-recorded (I'm the back-up voice for when the main voice is unavailable. Neat, huh?). There is one number that rings to a long message of information and goes directly to a voice mail box after the message (a voice mail box that has since been added to the one I already check. I was quite unhappy about this). Included in that message is a fax number that we encourage merchants to use. The problem is Voice #1 misspoke the fax number, saying "3" when it should have been "2." So, everyone who calls this number gets the wrong fax number to use, a number that does not exist. I told the department management team about it as soon as I discovered it; the day the new phones went live exactly two weeks ago.

A little less than a week later, I told them again because it was still not correct. Boss² replied that the people who could do something about it had been informed, the new message was recorded, and it just needed to be uploaded. I have seen an influx of messages left by increasingly more angry merchants because the fax number they have doesn't work. I confirmed yesterday that it is still not correct.

This is not rocket science. It should not take two weeks to fix a message. I even verified it with the phone guru (aka dad) who said it might take a day tops. There is no excuse for this delay, and I am very angry about it because it increases my workload. I have no problem telling these people when I call them back that I told management about the problem two weeks ago and they are sitting on it with their thumbs up their collective ass.

That looks like incompetence.