• @shalafi
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    17 hours ago

    Always been a petty pet peeve of mine. When I was training customer service reps I’d hand out a sheet and suggest they nail it up in their cube.

    So much easier when everyone’s on the same page. The military uses the phonetic alphabet because it’s crystal clear, even over sketchy coms.

    Why would you make up some bullshit of your own, having to constantly stop and think about it, when the pros already have a working system?! FFS, you don’t even have to make the effort to memorize it, just use it a few times, done, it’s in your head forever. Now I’m getting mad. (Told you I was petty about this.)

    Anyone know why they use “niner”? Doesn’t seem to mix up with other numbers.

    EDIT: That’s 2 band names I came out with today.

    Petty Pet Peeve™

    Anal Rail Gun™

    • @A7thStone
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      15 hours ago

      Niner is because it’s the NATO phonetic alphabet, and they don’t want it to get mixed up with nein.

      • @shalafi
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        114 hours ago

        That simple?! FINALLY makes sense, and I’ve been wondering for years and years.

        • @Dogs_cant_look_up
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          312 hours ago

          No, the actual answer is that ‘Nine’ can sound like ‘Five’ on a bad line.

    • @Eheran
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      -116 hours ago

      What an odd take. Why should people memorize something they pretty much never need? Just because using a different word might inconvenience someone a tiny bit at some point in time?

      • @shalafi
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        16 hours ago

        If you talk to people on the phone for a living, yes, use a consistent and unambiguous system for reading out letters and numbers.

        It’s also beneficial for the customer to do so. Conversations go much faster when everyone is singing from the same sheet.

        As to need? Do you never call for customer or tech support? There’s always something that needs repeated or spelled out.

        • Mike D.
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          515 hours ago

          I worked at an IT call center and put the page on my cubicle wall. So much easier for reading off model/serial numbers.

          • @shalafi
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            114 hours ago

            Guessing you had it burned into your brain in a few days? Super simple stuff.