Stupid woman rings 999 about ice cream problem

[CumberCookie]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-27687763

Aside from the fact that it was a bloody sstupid thing to do, AIBU to think the operator should have cut her off sooner and made her fully aware of the problem with doing this? I.e There could have been a potentially life and death situation on the other line that couldn't get through. The operator just lets her ramble on for ages and then is really polite and directs her to customer advice bureau?

[jacks365]

The operator handled the call very well. Incidents like that have been known to turn into genuine 999 calls if it gets out of hand, the operator waits long enough to ascertain that hasn't happened here.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

OMG. Someone could be burning to death or have a child who's missing and she ties up the line over sprinkles?

What's wrong with people

[Birdsgottafly]

I live in a high crime area, in Liverpool.

I have had people die infront of me.

Recently, I had to call 999, for a armed attack on my neighbours house, I rambled at the start.

So I can see why the operator allowed the call to go on for so long.

They also have regular callers who have LD's/MH/Addiction issues.

[Birdsgottafly]

(Waits for someone else to pick up on Vodkas use of insult)

[CumberCookie]

Yes but then at the end of the rambling story she still doesn't cut her off? Only eventually explaining this is for a life and death situation? I don't understand it.

[SmashleyHop]

This happens all the time- There was a case of a woman calling 911 because her order from Burger King was incorrect and she claimed they wouldn't return her money.

Working in A&E in the states I used to handle ridiculous phone calls from people. "Is our blood really blue?" "Is my pancreas on my right or left side- settle this argument with my husband." "Can flashing lights really cause seizures?" Seriously people? This is what Google is for. The best part was how indignant they got when you suggested they were clogging up an emergency line.

[EduCated]

I can see why they let it go on, as Birds said a lot of people will ramble! she might have been about to burst into 'and now he's locked me in the shop/punched me/is threatening me', though admittedly unlikely over ice cream sprinkles

I'd also wonder at the likelihood of some additional needs, be it LDs or MH related.

[EduCated]

Ah, missed the recording was on there, so haven't listened to it.

[Ioethe]

I've worked on 999 - although I haven't listened to this call (no speakers!), I'm familiar with the kind of situation.

Part of the training is that you don't cut people off or lecture them on what idiots they're being (however tempting it may be), simply because that's likely to get them calling back and taking up more valuable time. Killing them with kindness is usually the quickest way to get rid of them.

It is massively annoying, though - I used to find this kind of call more upsetting than the actual emergency ones because I used to imagine what awful calls weren't getting through.

[HayDayQueen]

I think the operators can tell if there are lots of calls waiting, can't they? So perhaps it was a quiet period, where there are more operators than calls?

[ReallyTired]

Recently I was a victim of a crime because I made the mistake of dialing 101 instead of 999. I am still suffering the aftermath. The police told me that they prefer someone to make the mistake of dialing 999 when they should have phoned 101.

I feel that 999 and 101 operators need a way of triaging calls and transfering the person to the right service. The Ice cream sprinkles lady should have called the 101 number, but I feel its forgivable that she got it wrong.

[CumberCookie]

Thanks Ioethe for clarifying, that hadn't occurred to me.

for doing such a stressful job

[Ioethe]

I once had someone whose neighbour was feeding their cat.

They were repoting it because they thought the neighbour was going to steal the cat.

It was not helped by the fact that the cat was called Mr Winkie.

[OwlCapone]

The Ice cream sprinkles lady should have called the 101 number, but I feel its forgivable that she got it wrong.

I don't think it is at all forgivable for a grown adult to call 999 because she hasn't got enough sprinkles on her ice cream.

[ComposHat]

The Ice cream sprinkles lady should have called the 101 number, but I feel its forgivable that she got it wrong.

And how exactly is unevenly distributed sprinkles on an ice cream a matter that requires Police (or indeed anyone's) attention?

[Redcliff]

Mr Winkle - now that is funny. I thought the operator handled it well. What did the women think was going to happen - they would send a police car out and the ice cream dude would get arrested?

[enormouse]

My cousin used to work as a 999 operator and she hated certain shifts like Friday nights as the number of genuine emergencies were higher but so were the number of drunk idiots. I remember her talking about a man who rang up because he had shampoo in his eyes and a woman with an ingrown toenail.

All she could do was politely direct them to the non emergency line or the nhs direct website.

[JerseySpud]

Cretin

Not exactly a nice way to phrase something even if you are trying to be insulting.

[TwinkleTwinkleStarlight]

I saw a list a few weeks ago on the types of calls that are received. I was shocked by some of them.

[PleaseJustShootMeNow]

So this is why it took me 5 minutes to get through when calling for an ambulance when I was in labour.

[limitedperiodonly]

I think the operator handled it really well too. It took a minute to get her off the line. As pp have said, the strangest stories could turn out to be really serious.

[Ioethe]

I had a woman who rambled on for ages about her husband having a slight cold, and who was going to look after him? It eventually emerged that she had crushing chest pains radiating out to the arm at half hourly intervals and was hoping we could send someone out to treat her quickly so she could get his dinner when they subsided again.

[trufflesnout]

Technically a normal, uncomplicated start of labor is also not an emergency and you were also just another clogger-upper