"It just fucking IS, O.K.???"
Years ago I used to work as an admin assistant at this company where the receptionist was never at her fucking desk, so I used to end up doing her job as well as mine (this continued even after I got promoted to internal sales, because the new admin assistant also got pissed off with doing 2 people's jobs, and sensibly used any excuse she could to not be at her desk).

One day this call came in. "Good morning, could I speak to Wendy please?"

"Certainly. Can I ask who's calling, please?"

"It's Sarah from P.M.T."

"Er, P.M.T.?" I asked, incredulous. I wanted to make sure I got this absolutely right, as I thought that just couldn't be it. I mean, there was a shop near where I lived with that name (it stood for Pro Music Tech and sold a fantastic range of guitars, amps, etc.)...but Wendy was in charge of all our shipping; not the sort of woman you'd picture running around a stage shredding like a motherfucker.

"Yes, that's right."

"Sarah from P.M.T.?"

"Yes, P.M.T., that's right."

"O.K., I won't keep you a second *puts on hold*. Wendy, I've got Sarah from...P.M.T.???...on the phone. She's asking for you."

"P.M.T.???"

"Yeah, I've double-checked - P.M.T."

So I put the call through to Wendy, and it turns out that Sarah was in fact calling from T.N.T., the rather well-known delivery company. In my defence, 99% of the time we used U.P.S. or Amtrak, and I very rarely spoke to other couriers.

I tried not to look as embarrassed as I felt...after all, I did check that I wasn't just hearing things - plus, Sarah confirmed and so I tried to justify my being retarded on this particular occasion. I've never, before or since, had any other experience of two people mis-hearing each other in the same conversation.

One of my other colleagues overheard all this, and asked me if Sarah had been irate when she spoke to me.

Yeah, I suppose you really had to be there.
(TheAmazingMeatMan ™ can't sing, but he's got soul, Sun 31 Aug 2014, 6:41, 2 replies)

If only there was some sort of alphabet that had been devised to enable people to check individual letters

(Bonzodog29 is an unemployed sponge of the worst kind, Mon 1 Sep 2014, 10:20, closed)

Silly me, I should've realised that checking twice wasn't enough.
If I'd have got all Papa Mike Tango on her arse, would that really have cleared the confusion rather than added to it?

Foxtrot Oscar.
(TheAmazingMeatMan ™ can't sing, but he's got soul, Mon 1 Sep 2014, 12:58, closed)