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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To have laughed

161 replies

TellMeItsNotTrue · 09/02/2017 11:10

AIBU to have laughed at this and now be telling you?

I've spent the morning with my sister and while I was there she had to call and chase something up, they asked her for her order number and she read it out to them starting with S for Sea. That made me laugh so I walked out of the room so I didn't distract her, she gave me a dirty look. I walked back in after composing myself to hear her arguing about the order number being wrong, apparently it was too many digits. So the man on the other end of the phone read it back to her "S4C...." which started me off again looks like it wasn't just me that heard it that way! The S was the only letter in it as well so he couldn't have realised from her saying F for frog or whatever

Anyway, she is in a huff with me and the useless member of staff who works for that company, WIBU for telling her to lighten up when she was moaning about it?

Does anyone else have any S for Sea type mistakes they have made or heard someone else make? I could do with some more laughing

OP posts:

Kadena127 · 09/02/2017 17:44

One reason I don't want to take DP's name if we ever get married. It's a belgian/dutch name and its forever mis spelled when he tells it to anyone (and kind of hard to pronounce)
I feel like the phonetic alphabet will be very much used frequently!

wonders off muttering lima oscar oscar delta tango sierra

VioletWillow · 09/02/2017 17:51

I'm roaring at some of these! I do use the phonetic alphabet but I have worked in call centres and the Prison Service so it kinda got ingrained.
My funniest one was N for Knife... It did make me pause when someone said that to me! When someone used imaginative ones we always had to repeat them back using their substitution rather than the phonetic so that could be interesting on occasion 😃

AmpleRaspberries · 09/02/2017 17:56

A colleague once said wankee wankee for yy which had us all in fits. She also once came back from lunch complaining the traffic was deadlocked.

We also used to get calls asking for Dave all the time but there was no Dave in our team. We were all really confused until we overheard our geordie colleague Steve leaving his name for someone one day.

CoolCarrie · 09/02/2017 18:07

Not quite the same, but I remember at school, a teacher had put the words and notes of a song on the board, and a lad in the class said, " What's with the F and Cs Sir?" It all ran together! We all roared, including the teacher, but the lad couldn't see what was wrong, so asked again.

laurzj82 · 09/02/2017 18:10

My fave so far is t for tea!

Thanks for the

tricornel · 09/02/2017 18:13

Last part of my postcode used to be 0FU which always caused much hilarity when I had to give it on the phone

probablygrumpy · 09/02/2017 18:18

Tondelay I also have this in work and it's infuriating. I then ask them just to use letters and they continue. It's not helpful always!

Hissy · 09/02/2017 18:18

I used to live in Brazil, the phonetic alphabet is - understandably- different. I got my head around it eventually and all was fine

Until I came back home and tried to spell something out starting with C

C for Onion doesn't work in English 😂

PaulAnkaTheDog · 09/02/2017 18:20

You hear some blinders were you work in a call centre. Massive source of my amusement at work.

applesauce1 · 09/02/2017 18:24

When I worked I sales, I had someone tell me their Q postcode was, "Q for cucumber."
I was silent for a long time. Silently laughing.

ineedamoreadultieradult · 09/02/2017 18:24

I read a funny story about someone saying Y for wanky later that day at work I had to try very hard not to make the same mistake as the stupid reservation code had far too many Y's in it!

bonbonours · 09/02/2017 18:25

My dad was a teacher and a parent he had never met sent a note in addressed to Miss Tricks. His name was Mr Hicks but the way the child said it the parent thought he was a lady!

DaisyDaisydoo · 09/02/2017 18:27

I normally roll my eyes at people on here saying they are crying with laughter but I literally can't stop laughing at 'no my name is Darren' I have genuine tears! 😂

I remember my mum on the phone saying L for leather once and my parents rolling on the floor in fits of laughter trying to talk to the poor person on the other end!

cherrytree63 · 09/02/2017 18:30

I worked in a hospital lab, and when manning the blood results we had some howlers.
I was once asked to spell W...
Asked to spell ESR
(btw these were doctors, nurses, HCPs, not members of the public, who had actually requested the tests).
But my all time favourite was when I was struggling to understand a heavily accented doctor when locating a patient's results.
"Can you spell the surname please"
I thought he said C, U, N,A.
"I can't find anyone of that name, so can I just check that it's C, U,N,A"?
Doctor shouts it's T...
Before I could stop myself I said Cunt.
The name was Tuna.

Eminybob · 09/02/2017 18:44

When I meet a customer I bring up their account details and then go through verification with them, part of which is confirming their postcode.
The number of people who say sierra kilo, knowing full well I'm looking at their details on a screen so don't need it saying phonetically, and also that I'm sat in the same town as where they live them so all the bloody postcodes are SK!

BlessYourCottonSocks · 09/02/2017 21:20

This is the best one ever! Love Dara....

bertsdinner · 09/02/2017 21:48

I used to work in a bank call centre and my best phonetic was a customer who said C for cup of tea. I found police and military types used to like it when they heard the phonetic alphabet. I had one retired colonel bellow "I see you know your phonetic alphabet young lady!" at me, before rattling off a load of figures in numerical phonetics, like I was mission control.

aintnothinbutagstring · 09/02/2017 22:06

Had a colleague who was spelling something out over the phone, "q for cucumber"

Notanotherusernametoremember · 09/02/2017 22:24

My DH is Steven and has had a couple of Steven Willerby-surname letters

Doublemint · 09/02/2017 22:31

rugbyplayersarehot bless you! That actually made me lol.

Although I thought the same until I met DH and he pissed himself laughing enlightened me that "how they speak on The Bill is actually a thing

Sazbird · 09/02/2017 22:35

Not an alphabet fluff but a word twist when passing across details of a lift problem, I reported there was a lift "fluck at store 6"!!! Thank god for good colleague rapport

ColdFeetinWinter · 09/02/2017 22:45

A friend registered her newborn Róisín

Several days later she noticed the registrar had written Raisin.

SirMixAlott · 09/02/2017 22:50

My postcode ends PB so I always say peanut butter

Nellabutterfly · 09/02/2017 22:52

Another call centre worker here, well versed in the phonetic alphabet... my favourite story is of the customer who rang and asked to speak to "Ahmed, he was really helpful when I spoke to him before...". We didn't have anybody of that name in the office. We did, however, have Ed. Who was from Yorkshire, and ended his calls: "If you have any more problems, just ring and ask for me, ah'm Ed..."

Twofurrycats · 09/02/2017 22:53

Ringing a garage that needed the number plate: Sierra Romeo Charlie came back as CRC. And it was a ford garage.....

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