If You Ask Then Listen

Written by David Odell on .

I know you think you understand what you thought I said but what you heard is not really what I meant.

Last night I was listening to a telephone phoning about technical subjects and a person called in with a problem they were having with a smartphone. The question was pretty straightforward and the expert had a straightforward answer to it but every time he tried to answer but caller interrupted and you could hear the frustration in the experts voice as he wanted to get onto another call. What would normally have been a 2 minute call lasted about 10 minutes as we heard all about the coolers problems, and these problems were not relevant to the call.

However this kind of problem happens in all walks of life because people are so keen to reply that they don’t listen to everything that’s being said and they pick up on a trigger word and start composing a reply while the other person is still talking. This causes some answers to be totally irrelevant and even nonsensical.

This way of conducting a conversation can be quite amusing if you know the person you are talking to does this kind of thing as a matter of habit as you can phrase what you’re saying so that the most important point comes right at the end.

Even though I am a United Utilities customer I have just received a letter stating that the forthcoming hosepipe ban will not apply to me as I am classed as a priority customer.

I knew the ban would not apply to me before I got the letter for 3 main reasons; I do not have a garden to water, a car to wash, or even a hosepipe.

This made think about the people who would normally use a hosepipe at this time of year, especially if they have a water meter, as they are paying for water they are not using even though they will get a rebate at the end of the year or a lower bill next year.

But there is a problem here, because if people use less water profits will be down so bonuses and dividends will be down; and this will never do will it!!

So what will happen, well this year we will be charged for water we have not used and next year we will be charged extra because we did not use enough water the year before.