I go a couple of months without hearing from any of my customers from Quebec. I actually used to be very predjudiced to them in that non-specific way Americans tend to be. But I have met some very nice people who warmed my heart toward the Quebecois, that and the lovely accent that French women have just makes me sort of melt...

Jaques called asking me to help him with a service for one of his clients, and to help walk his customer Guy, through obtaining some services. So I had two clients in one. Jaques set up the service, and his company is paying me, and Guy is paying Jaques.

After I set everything up, I called Guy to explain how it would work, and he was not happy. "I was told there would not be such a high fee, and that you were supposed to handle this within 15 minutes." . Jaques had double-crossed me and promised things that he knew I could not deliver so he could still get the commission and blame my company for the screw up. I wasn't going to be a part of that."No Guy, I told Jaques 30 minutes to complete the service and he clearly knew what the service rate was, you need to discuss that with Jaques." He relented and hung up.

Ten minutes later, Jaques called complaining vehemently that I "had promised 10 minutes and a reduced rate based on Canadian funds." It was obvious he was using everything to his advantage. I firmly told him,"Look, you and I set it up very clearly in a straight forward way, would you like the timed and dated transcript of the conversation? Maybe I can have the monitor get you a tape?" All of a sudden we were "amis" again and he was blaming his bad English skills for the misunderstanding.

I know its basic human nature to define people and groups as good and bad, and he wasn't doing anything that someone from Georgia or New Jersey wouldn't also try.
It's just that there is something built into my Redneck American consciousness that makes an angry french accent push my buttons.

Can one of those nice Quebecois ladies call and flirt with me again?
I swear that all will be forgiven...

C'est la vie in Call Center Purgatory...