From: allane@earth.gas.unsw.OZ.AU (Allan H. Evans)
Subject: Counter droids
Keywords: droids
Reply-To: allane@earth.gas.unsw.OZ.AU
Organization: School of Geography, UNSW.
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 00:31:12 GMT

Peeve: CounterDroids

I never cease to be amazed at the droids that are employed
to work behind counters... especially government counters.

The scenario: The Post Office. It is about 9:30am, and I have
a paper that has to be in Canberra ASAP (I am in Sydney).

The droid was a bubbly efferdescent (sp?) lady of unknown age.  
At first glance she was eager to help; all bubbly and bouncy.

I explained that I needed to get the package to Canberra by
the earliest possible opportunity. The only address that I
had was CSIRO, Canberra (sort of like State Deparment, Wash
D.C.) the type of address that should work, even if a street
address is unknown.

After determining that I wanted Express Post (as opposed to
Express Courier which requires a signature at the other end)
I presented the parcel to the droid. She said in a lively
voice "You need a postcode..."

Me: This is the only address I have
Droid: But you need a postcode.. here I'll look it up

(she flips quickly through a book)

Droid: It doesn't exist.
Me: It is the largest government research organization in
    Australia. It exists.
Droid: No... see, here are all the suburbs...
Me: It is a branch of the government, it is not a suburb...
Droid: Oh. What suburb is it in?
Me: I don't know. It is in Canberra.
Droid: Check the phonebook...

(she points to a bookcase filled with most of Australias phone
 books in it... I look up CSIRO, the address is:

 limestone rd (street?), cmpbl, ACT )

Me: Here it is. Do you know what "cmpbl" is an abbreviation for?
Droid: No... I'll look it up... what suburb is it in?
Me: All it says is "cmpbl". (I show her the address)

(she races around for about five minutes asking people, meanwhile
 I deduce that a page MUST exist in the phonebook explaining the
 abbreviations... I find it "Campbell" = "cmpbl")

Droid: It is Campbelltown (a suburb of Sydney)
Me: No, it is not. It is Campbell (pointing to the address again)
Droid: In Sydney?
Me: NO, in CANBERRA! 

Here I am thinking "What the fuck have we been talking about for
all this time, for fucks sake"

Me: Let me see the book of postcodes again... (flip, flip)
Droid: (after handing me the book) Oh wait... I can look it up
       on the computer... what was the suburb again?
Me: (flip, flip).. here it is... 2061 (or whatever it was..)

(the droid continues to attempt to get the info from the computer
 after I have found it already...)

Me: I have the postcode...
Droid: ? ... Oh, for Campbelltown?

(I wrote the stuff on the envelope and handed it to her)

My real gripe is not that she wasn't attempting to be 
helpful, it was just that she didn't think. Everything I said
went over her head and bounced of the back wall. Just because
this was a little bit out of the ordinary, her brain got lost
in a restricted event loop. While I was standing there it 
reminded me of a more general droid peeve, droids that are
rushing and flailing around so as to look "busy and efficient"
but they don't actually listen to what you are saying. They
skim your words to pick up key sounds like "burger" "fries"
"take away", etc. Then they quickly put it all together while
you frantically try to get their attention to inform them 
that you said "NO fries", but they weren't listening.

Gads.

Al

_______________________________________________________________________________
| Allan H. Evans * School of Geography * UNSW * PO Box 1 Kensington 2033 Aust.|
| allane@earth.gas.unsw.OZ.AU  Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Systems |

Newsgroups: alt.peeves