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I'm an accountant. I love what I do. Numbers are perfect, predictable. There aren't any surprises with numbers. Sometimes there are puzzles, but they are always solvable (that's a word, right?). There are deadlines in accounting. Month-end is always a little crazy. Year end? Chaos sums it up well. The only thing worse than year end is an audit.
I work for a company whose fiscal year coincides with the calendar year which means we are smack dab in the middle of hell week. Saying I am busy would be an understatement. Everyone knows accounting is crazy this time of year so they just stay on their side of the building and throw coffee at us on occasion. Everyone except IT.
Yesterday we get an email from the IT department. It says:
IT is going to take down the server that hosts the accounting software, in the middle of the busiest work day of the year, and hope it comes back up by 1 PM?? This should be fun.
Yesterday was the day that the deer damage on the Cavalier was to be addressed. As it turned out, husband offered to do the headlight replacement (I know ... I know ... this week's Sunday Secret indicated what an ass he is, yet he offers up helpful things like this. It confuses me too). I ordered the parts, paid for them, and dropped the car off at husband's house at lunch yesterday.
All went well. The headlight replacement took about 25 minutes from start to finish but there was an issue with the running light that sits next to the headlight.
So what is my rant? There are still a few industries where men believe that all women are clueless. The automotive industry seems to be one of those. Now, I'm not an automotive genius, but I know a dipstick when I see one. I could tell that Charlie, the Chevy dealer parts guy, was going to be one of those guys.
When I told him what I needed - giving him the year, make and model of the car, he said, "Do you have the VIN ... you do know what the VIN is, right?" I quietly rolled my eyes on the other end of the phone and assured him I knew what the VIN was and gave him the number. Experience has taught me that these guys aren't usually receptive to being told they are nothing more thanshort dicked chauvinistic idiots. It's usually better to just get through the conversation.
I gave him the list of the parts I needed. I was very specific about the location of the light assemblies as I didn't have a schematic with names of the parts. I was a little concerned about the running light assembly as it seemed the cost was way out of line. When Charlie said, "You know, if you aren't sure what you need you might want to have your husband call. These parts are not returnable." I wanted to jump through the phone andcastrate him by hand shake him violently, but instead asked him if he was certain the part number he gave me was, indeed, the light assembly that sits adjacent to the headlight assembly. He assured me it was.
When I picked up the parts, I opened the running light assembly box to make sure it was what I needed. It didn't look right AT.ALL. I had the Cavalier with me so asked Charlie if he would go out and take a look to make sure this was the light I needed. He poo-poo'ed my questioning of his automotive prowess and told me again he was certain. I took the parts and threw them in the back seat.
I'm rambling, but I'm getting there ...
Husband goes to put the parts on the car yesterday. Guess what? The running light assembly? It was the wrong part. Now here is where I get a little perturbed.
My options were twofold. I could call Charlie and tell him I was right and he was wrong, that a woman *gasp* knew more about her car than he did, neener-neener-neener, and hope that he would take the part back with a full refund, or I could have husband call and do the grunting male bonding moment and know for certain Charlie would take the part back for a full refund. I just wasn't in the mood to deal with misogynistic Charlie, sobegged asked husband to call.
Charlie actually apologized to husband and offered to expedite the part in today and offered a full refund on the special order part. What do you suppose the chances were that Charlie would have done the same thing for me?
I'm an accountant. I love what I do. Numbers are perfect, predictable. There aren't any surprises with numbers. Sometimes there are puzzles, but they are always solvable (that's a word, right?). There are deadlines in accounting. Month-end is always a little crazy. Year end? Chaos sums it up well. The only thing worse than year end is an audit.I work for a company whose fiscal year coincides with the calendar year which means we are smack dab in the middle of hell week. Saying I am busy would be an understatement. Everyone knows accounting is crazy this time of year so they just stay on their side of the building and throw coffee at us on occasion. Everyone except IT.
Yesterday we get an email from the IT department. It says:
This Thursday, December 31st, we will be taking down a few servers for maintenance from noon to 1 PM Central Standard Time.
The servers that will be down are:
[insert list of servers which includes the server than has our accounting software on it]
You will not be able to access files stored on the network. For some users this includes files located in your My Documents folder. This will also affect some network printing.
The servers may be back up before 1 PM, but please don’t count on it.
IT is going to take down the server that hosts the accounting software, in the middle of the busiest work day of the year, and hope it comes back up by 1 PM?? This should be fun.
~*~
Yesterday was the day that the deer damage on the Cavalier was to be addressed. As it turned out, husband offered to do the headlight replacement (I know ... I know ... this week's Sunday Secret indicated what an ass he is, yet he offers up helpful things like this. It confuses me too). I ordered the parts, paid for them, and dropped the car off at husband's house at lunch yesterday.
All went well. The headlight replacement took about 25 minutes from start to finish but there was an issue with the running light that sits next to the headlight.
So what is my rant? There are still a few industries where men believe that all women are clueless. The automotive industry seems to be one of those. Now, I'm not an automotive genius, but I know a dipstick when I see one. I could tell that Charlie, the Chevy dealer parts guy, was going to be one of those guys.When I told him what I needed - giving him the year, make and model of the car, he said, "Do you have the VIN ... you do know what the VIN is, right?" I quietly rolled my eyes on the other end of the phone and assured him I knew what the VIN was and gave him the number. Experience has taught me that these guys aren't usually receptive to being told they are nothing more than
I gave him the list of the parts I needed. I was very specific about the location of the light assemblies as I didn't have a schematic with names of the parts. I was a little concerned about the running light assembly as it seemed the cost was way out of line. When Charlie said, "You know, if you aren't sure what you need you might want to have your husband call. These parts are not returnable." I wanted to jump through the phone and
When I picked up the parts, I opened the running light assembly box to make sure it was what I needed. It didn't look right AT.ALL. I had the Cavalier with me so asked Charlie if he would go out and take a look to make sure this was the light I needed. He poo-poo'ed my questioning of his automotive prowess and told me again he was certain. I took the parts and threw them in the back seat.
I'm rambling, but I'm getting there ...
Husband goes to put the parts on the car yesterday. Guess what? The running light assembly? It was the wrong part. Now here is where I get a little perturbed.
My options were twofold. I could call Charlie and tell him I was right and he was wrong, that a woman *gasp* knew more about her car than he did, neener-neener-neener, and hope that he would take the part back with a full refund, or I could have husband call and do the grunting male bonding moment and know for certain Charlie would take the part back for a full refund. I just wasn't in the mood to deal with misogynistic Charlie, so
Charlie actually apologized to husband and offered to expedite the part in today and offered a full refund on the special order part. What do you suppose the chances were that Charlie would have done the same thing for me?
~*~*~
18 comments:
I've dealt with "those guys" many times. When my husband was in Desert Storm I was in an accident on the interstate in Louisianna. The car was still driveable so I waited until i got to Ft. Bragg to get it fixed. It took a MONTH and every time I went in this old guy was leaned back in his chair, feet on the desk, with a cigar in his mouth, looking at me and talking like I was his "lil darlin'". I went off on him, called the head guy and told him they were treating me like I was a delicate woman who didn't my ass from a hole in the ground. (Those were my days before medicine!). But guess what. Not only was my car fixed by the end of that week, but they fixed EVERY THING else that was wrong that had nothing to do with the accident.
I hate numbers. They make my brain hurt. Thank God for Excel.
My brother is a corporate accountant as well. I understand second hand the hell you are going through.
Anybody ask the IT (info-tard) folks if they can wait with their maintenance? Seems to me a maintenance outage is much less critical than getting the corporate accounting wrapped up on time. I'll bet not cleaning your server fan filters doesn't come with a cushy two year federal imprisonment if you miss the deadline! Maybe your corp president of VP could step in? All you gotta do is ask - the worst they can do is laugh at you.
Hope work lightens up soon enough for ya!
And yay! your car is fixed!
Kim
You were wise, mama, but damn I still would have gone in there for the pure satisfaction of it all. I can be a little undisciplined and shortsighted that way. lol.
Bina, welcome back to blogger land! I could have called Charlie and taken my chances. Who knows? Maybe he would have surprised me.
Brian, ohhhh ... trust me! I immediately replied to the email copying the CFO questioning the decision. The resolution? IT will make bringing up the server with the accounting software a priority. I still don't like it!
Kim, it will lighten up some time in February. Until then? I'll just be a bit (more) crazed!
Hope, I so wanted to call dear Charlie and tell him what I thought, but the need to have my car fixed in the least expensive manner won out over my angst!
IT bringing down servers during the busiest time of the year...? Do you work for the government? It sounds suspiciously like what we had to deal with in the Navy.
I got the same treatment from NAPA many years back. I still won't buy anything from them.
I completely don't understand one word of the accounting stuff. LOL. I fail at knowing numbers and things!
I worked for a construction company once and it was my job to order tires for all of our trucks. Well while calling to check some prices I was given the number for Skip (yes, his real name). When I reached Skip and told him I needed a price quote on some tires he seriously said to me "well, hon, I think somebody must have given you my number by mistake because I only sell really big tires for really big trucks". I replied by telling him I needed some really big R25's for my 2 really big articulating dump trucks. He very promptly appologized and gave me a better deal than anyone else I had called.
Amber
I say you should have let your killer instincts take over with Charlie. But getting your car fixed timely WAS more important.
Note to Charlie: Don't eff with Dana anymore.
What are those people in IT smoking? My money is on the fact that the server won't be up and running shitty till next Wednesday. Short dicked? Is that what you ladies say behind our back? QCTM
You know what, Dana, I bow to you. because seriously, I would have made my best attempt at pulling Car Man's a-hole through his nostril, in person.
If you ever are in a similar situation with that again, I'd suggest that you tell them that you really don't believe it's right, your "husband" doesn't know dick about cars, and if the person helping you doesn't want to actually help you get the *correct* part, you'll go elsewhere.
And if/when you do this....please have your videocam on and running. Please? :)
I'm with Lilly. LOL I'm not sure I could have sucked it up to ask your husband to do it for you. It would have killed me to do it.
What an ass. Grrr...
GL tomorrow with the servers!
I do hope the IT folk reconsider. And you showed admirable restraint.
I would have either ripped him a new one or reported him to the regional manager for being rude.
Dipsticks like that really chap my ass. So annoying. My dad is a mechanic (heavy equip but I still know a thing or two about cars) I always find it funny when they start with that crap and I give them some real info and a few technical terms. They tend to back peddle fairly quickly.
Luckily, the Dodge dealer and the general mechanic I go to is mostly nice guys who don't act like that.
He would of sone the same. they make stupid errors all the time. i am woman, get a grip.
Nice post & nice blog. I love both.
That didn't make sense for the IT department to do maintenance on the servers during the busiest time of the year.
My hats off to you for being able to figure out numbers and such. That's too hard for me...something I wish though that I was better at.
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