After Hours Dispatch (oncall)

[ohlocator]

Has anyone else noticed that alot ,by no means all but alot of the after hours dispatchers act like you're asking for their firstborn if you ask for more information on a callout. It's not that big a deal when you can download a Locate Request but if you can't that information is critical. I realize in the middle of the night it can be hard to be cheerful, but it's their freakin job to give us this information. Maybe I'm talking out of my ass but I've been with 2 different companies in my 9+ year career and this has been pretty much the same at both.

[Lifer]

Has anyone else noticed that alot ,by no means all but alot of the after hours dispatchers act like you're asking for their firstborn if you ask for more information on a callout. It's not that big a deal when you can download a Locate Request but if you can't that information is critical. I realize in the middle of the night it can be hard to be cheerful, but it's their freakin job to give us this information. Maybe I'm talking out of my ass but I've been with 2 different companies in my 9+ year career and this has been pretty much the same at both.

quite a few of them act like that....and it's because they don't teach them HOW to read a locate request, so yeah to them it's frustrating.
for Gods sake, if you hire them, TEACH them to do their job and ensure they do it correctly.

everytime this happens, in my mind I see a room full of ppl on the phones that look like they were extra's in the movie "Ideocracy"

[Goldenboy]

Luckily all we need to do is refresh our computer and we have all the information.

But I do know what you mean. We used to get all the info from the dispatcher and it was like pulling teeth to get any additional information. The funny thing is they work third shift so they have no excuse to be tired. We as locators on-call are working 1st,2nd, and 3rd shift all at the same time the entire time we are on-call..

[Locator5000]

It's a never-ending battle it seems. They also seem irritated when I ask them to hold on for 2 minutes while I get clocked in to do a single ticket refresh so I can get the ticket number from them. There's quite a few dispatchers that know their job inside and out and do it great, but I had one call me not too long ago...

"I have a dig-up on your board...Old Russell and Maple St."

me: "There is no Old Russell St that crosses Maple, it must have been messed up at one-call, it's really just Russell St."

"No, It's Ol Russell St"

me; "ok, thanks...*click*"

Come to find out, she was pronouncing a zero as an "Oh", which made it sound like "Old"...it was 0 Russell St. (Street names were changed to protect the innocent). Here's the kicker, I had already gotten the call from the damage investigator from the gas company and was halfway there.

Wonder how this automated dispatch is going to work out...

[RD_Wrangler]

Wonder how this automated dispatch is going to work out...

Hmmm...nobody live to inform that the emergency request isn't actually IN your crew's area and belongs to another on-call person? Having to call some other poor schmuk to tell them THEY need to go out rather than you, because the dispatch tried sending you 200 miles out of your area? Getting the ticket traded to the right person will mean most locators will have to call and wake up their respective sups (good luck with that). All this while not on the clock because you don't have anything to record your time. That is if you can even find out who is on-call for that area...Yeah, this is gonna be a blast! *sarcasm*

[JMilbragen]

You guys actually get a valid ticket you can download for your after hours on call emergencies? Not us. We have to take down all the information by pen and paper including address and reason for excavation.

You guys are lucky. I still don't understand why they can't create a ticket for us, they have all the relevant information and they are all on computers. Make me a #@$#ing ticket, goddamn you!

[yahoo]

paper tickt for us too.........never enough info....one time i got the address from the dispatch and was told to mark 100 ft north of ped 8 in such and such town!!!! THAT"S IT?????? WTH????

[NINJA]

paper tickt for us too.........never enough info....one time i got the address from the dispatch and was told to mark 100 ft north of ped 8 in such and such town!!!! THAT"S IT?????? WTH????

Hey Yahoo, Aren't with U/Q ? if so Don't you guys have Qmanager anymore? When we were on call (most of the time) we would get a call from our sup. that we had an emergency then a dummy ticket would be generated and sent over to us via Qmanagment. Some times they would just get us the info but most of the time we had a comp. generated emergency ticket.........................

[beyond help]

Hmmm...nobody live to inform that the emergency request isn't actually IN your crew's area and belongs to another on-call person? Having to call some other poor schmuk to tell them THEY need to go out rather than you, because the dispatch tried sending you 200 miles out of your area? Getting the ticket traded to the right person will mean most locators will have to call and wake up their respective sups (good luck with that). All this while not on the clock because you don't have anything to record your time. That is if you can even find out who is on-call for that area...Yeah, this is gonna be a blast! *sarcasm*

Gotta love that wonderful system. Supposedly were going to be going to it after hours rather soon. The info still has to be loaded into the system by a "live" dispatcher at all times. There is always "A, one, singular" dispatcher at the office. Just not the handful there used to be. So, if you're not sure, you can still call back. After the computer tries to call you 2 times, then an actual person calls you. Plus it will only call you with a particular ticket number only once per day. So once you answer for that ticket, if it's called in as a restake; then a live dispatcher calls you. Them wonderfully asinine jackoffs in IT, can't figure out how to do that one yet.