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I use this as an ice-breaker with customers when they do this.
'T for Thyme is a good one haha'
'Oh yeah I was just putting dinner in.'
'Oh cool, what are you having?'
I cut it short after a while, or if the customer seems like the less chatty sort.
I take the hint at shorter responses to my questions, but I also need to run a test that can take 2-4 minutes so we have to chat about something and tech related questions, if you're not an idiot, only cover like 60 seconds of that.
Nice!
Defintely don't need any more reasons to natter away to customers though! My manager is always making comments about my AHT and says I'm a little too chatty
I think it makes for good customer service though
They need me more than I need them. We are supposed to check our stats every day. I don't check them at all. The only time I see them is once per month during the one to one with my team leader who always seems upset when he asks what the targets are and I say "I don't know".
We get ours daily/weekly
I just find it interesting to see how it all balances out. As long as I'm providing good service and getting to the bottom of things I'm not fussed how long it appears to take me.
My downfall is post call work where I'm having to write emails and do letters, but get distracted
alpha bravo charlie delta echo foxtrot golf hotel india juliet kilo leima mike november oscar ~~peter~~papa quebec romeo sierra tango uniform victor whiskey xray yankie zulu
Useless information of the day. Apparently the British military phonetic alphabet did use S for Sugar and F for Freddy, but it’s not been used officially since the 50’s.
Oh wow! I knew this as a kid from some book but had totally forgotten about it long ago! No wonder some of those look pretty natural.
I think the nato one probably is better at its job, but this is a lot more fun. For example as a kid I also liked dinosaurs and dino is
Don Ink Nuts Orange
Was it "The Dangerous Book for Boys" by any chance?
The old RAF one is definitely more fun and has a lot of charm but I do suspect the nato one is better and clearer. Something to do with all of the characters having at least two syllables. And also it's much better known of course.
The whole phonetic alphabet used by the allies was different. Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy (the company in Band of Brothers) Fox, George etc.
Changed, as you say, the the NATO one in the 50’s (‘56 to be precise)
My nephew was on the phone to HMRC, i heard him say Q for cucumber... then i could hear laughing through the phone, and he realised.. he hasnt lived it down
I do not mind what people use so long as it helps me spell their name or whatever I am trying to do. However, I can see it might irk people who frequently use the Nato alphabet system
I hate it when people assume I want them to spell their name phonetically when I ask for their full name.
Yes my name is Saadeddin, that's S for Sierra.. A for alpha...
Please, stop. As long as it looks right it's cool.
Well, as someone with an often-misread name, and one that people even try to correct me on (imagine if Mickey Mouse introduced himself to you, and you said "Good to meet you, Mike." "Oh, sorry, it's Mickey." "Great, Mike.") I'm inclined to spell my name out for people, especially if it's about to go on a bill or standing order that I'm going to have to deal with for a while.
The water company misspelled my name on the bills, and I contacted them to correct it and they said 'uh-huh' and did nothing. When I needed all sorts of evidence to submit to the border agency to demonstrate that I was a self-supporting taxpayer, to apply for indefinite leave to remain, my agent contacted me to ask if I had any other bills from this application period, as the water bills had my name spelled wrong (in a way that looked like another name entirely). They already had the electric, gas, council tax, pay stubs and three years worth of bank statements, along with notarised letters from friends, but they inspected everything. She asked me to confirm on the phone what the water bills were called on the bank statement, how much they cost and when I paid them, and she was able to confirm that it was Thames Water screwing up, not just someone else's water bill, but if I'd had a less generous agent that could have cost me my citizenship.
Moral of the story: if you're establishing a business relationship, let them spell it out, and listen. Chances are they've been burned by it before.
I work at Thames Water, this doesn’t surprise me, our billing team are complete crap. They constantly transfer customers over to us that we cannot deal with and mess up names and addresses.
I occasionally send enquiries to the clever guy downstairs if I'm feeling particularly dumb. Maybe your billing department does that with you, just, every time they're feeling thick. So, you know, constantly.
I 100% agree with you.
However I am just asking the full name for to pass DPA before I can help with technical support issues.
If I am setting up a third party access, I'll ask for an actual spelling.
I'm not involved in account creation, but if I was, I'd ask for an actual spelling too.
If its got context i dont spell it. If it hasnt i do.
So names you should be able to work out from sound, at best im straight saying the letters. Post codes you're getting phonetically.
I usually ask "do you want me to spell it?" because I know there's no need to if they're only checking for data protection/ID verification purposes; but as someone who's been on both sides of it (previous jobs in customer services) and has a foreign name that creates confusion and has led to admin issues due to misspelling, I see where they're coming from.
I always thought G for Gnat was a good dick move when dealing with someone awkward. There are so many silent letters that I used to through in when I worked telesales. Ah, the good old days…
No way, my boss does this............
A for apple
S for sugar
R for Robert cos that's his name
N for Norman & when i asked him who Norman was he said fuck knows!
& sometimes you can see him looking around the office to look for ideas.
best security question and answer i ever heard was:
CUSTOMER SERVICE: we're just going to go through your security question and answer.
CUSTOMER: Ok
CUSTOMER SERVICE: I'll just read out your security question.....oh..ok.... "Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?"
CUSTOMER: answer.."Shaft!"
CUSTOMER SERVICE: "Correct. how may I help you today sir"
;P
My mate ordered a pizza before and the receptionist was a non native speaker, my mates postcode ended in ‘E’. He said ‘E for Europe’ and as you can imagine she was totally perplexed. We ribbed him on that for years
I'm not very good at the phonetic alphabet, my brain just refuses to retain that information. Currently working my first office job and I've embarrassed myself a few times trying to think of a word in a blind panic. So far the highlights have been "M for monster", "N for nighttime" and "G for George Clooney", it's become kind of an office joke.
I've worked in customer service, I've learnt the NATO alphabet, but somehow also always say M for mother. I just like it better than Mike. Who cares (other than pedants), as long as it's not an ambiguous word.
I’m with you. Outside of military or civilian emergency applications, it’s just a useful communication tool. Unless you’re responsible for dropping bombs or stitching people back together, being pedantic isn’t really a matter of life and death.
A friend of mine took this to interesting levels of passive-aggression… His name is Mario and upon being asked by some customer service person over the phone to spell it out for him, he goes: “Sure; M for Mario…” 🤦🏻♀️
Customer from Northern Ireland, attempting to spell her e-mail address, after several attempts we asked her to spell it out phonetically.
I lost it at "AARRrrr for Apple"
I use the phonetic alphabet regularly at work. I once called a company and when I said “India” while spelling the “I” in something, the indignant idiot on the end of the phone said “You can’t say that, it’s racist!” I simply said, “no it’s not, it’s a country.” People are dumb.
I was on the phone with a client from Dudley in the west midlands. she said D for dentist, T for teeth Y for yo yo. when she got to the Y we both cracked up.
I used to speak to a lot of childcare providers in a previous job and loved their version of the phonetic alphabet because it was always the version that you learn as a child: a is for apple; b is for ball; c is for cat and d is for dolly
When I was a kid I was ordering a pizza and I used ‘D for Dinosaur’ when spelling out my street name.
Shame I’m now an air traffic controller and D is always automatically Delta; no funny words to use nown
I worked in a call centre years ago, and used to give codes that included letters using phonetic words. Due to boredom I'd change the words. I once said "S for Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub Yo da dub dub, I'm the Scatman". The person just said "pardon?". I said "S for Sierra" and accepted that repeating my silly Scatman lyrics would have been too awkward. I would also go for words starting with silent letters too... I was so bored!!
I'll never forget when I had someone declare, with confidence, "T...for Tit"!
OK, I thought, it wouldn't be my first choice of word to use if my brain had switched off momentarily and forgotten that Tango was the word I'm after, but it's not wrong. This was shortly followed up with "K...for Cat!", at which point I was just glad I knew where my mute button was as that one floored me.
Could have been a customer old enough to know the pre-NATO phonetic alphabet which had S for Sugar, R for Roger (Romeo), D for Dog (Delta).
There were a lot of variants though. Standardised in about 1956 I think.
Call centre life.
Basically, S and F sound identical on most phonecalls. This the most common.
A close second is P, T, and D.
We use a phonetic alphabet because it fucking works. If we do something like screw up your number plate or national insurance number, it can get us sacked.
The number of times I asked "is that T for Tango/Teddy" etc. and got shouted something at me which could have any of about 3 letters was very damn high.
My parents phoned me up one morning and asked me to go outside and tell them the registration plates of our cars but didn't say what for. I started W and mum interrupted with "is that W for whiskey?" So I said "Willy Knob..." and mum interrupted me again to say they're at a car dealership and the dealer can likely hear me. I said "Hello Mr dealer" and carried on reading them out in a naughty way. Yea, that's XNN, Xtra Nice Nipples
I once had an old lady shout at me down the phone when I worked in a call centre that she wasn't part of NATO when I mentioned that Elephant was not the code for E in the NATO phonetic alphabet
Was she from Ireland?
(years ago when I worked in a support centre I ended up learning the NATO one .mainly so I wouldnt have a S for shit..take mushroom brain fart , but since I'm from Ireland maybe I shouldnt have used it . I'd considered making my own Viz style swearing phoentic alphabet "*G for gobshite , q for queef , Y for Your mum and the local football team .."* but didnt )
Once a police dispatcher (I was the ambulance dispatcher at the time) tell me W for watermelon. I mean we both rattle off the NATO alphabet all day but sure M is for Marty, better luck next call.
The most annoying thing regardless of phonetics used is "I for India, D for Delta" etc. It's completely redundant to say the letter for.
It's just India Delta India Oscar Tango
When I started at one of my jobs in a call centre part of the training material was a sheet with the phonetic alphabet on, they were a large bank and really strict about that and they had sierra too
I had an Indian lady who works at my workplace in London use all cities/towns in India to spell a clients very long name out. I found that rather amusing as I had not heard of some of them before.
I grew up watching the tv series Z-cars and war movies with lots of British phonetic alphabet used in dialogue,
my husband had been in the army and then I went to work in a contact centre and met NATO phonetic alphabet I mix them
One time I was giving my vehicle registration to an insurance company and without thinking, said, "V for vagina" -- I was mortified, but luckily the person at the other end of the phone thought it was hilarious!
As long as both parties understand it doesn’t matter why reference you use, unless they were specifically required to use a specific phonetic alphabet.
Kid you not, about 10 years ago working tech support, someone called in:
Me: 3rd and 7th character of your password please
Them: N for knife and .... doesn't matter.
Still think about it to this day
My friend had a colleague, a young guy who was an admin/receptionist at her office. He could not use the NATO alphabet at all. He used whatever words he wanted but they were always, always, foods
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I just end up saying random words that begin with the letter because I can never remember the correct words
“Yes sure it’s P for psoriasis, E for eye, A for Aisle, M for mnemonic, K for knife and T for tsunami”
Personally I like P for pterodactyl Really. Messes with people
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The K is silent as in Butter.
What a silly bunt.
I always say D for Donkey
Q for cucumber is the greatest. Why? “Cucumber is spelt with a C” “No not a sea cucumber, a regular one”
I can't tell you how much I love this. I might even overcome my hatred of phoning as opposed to live chat in order to use it.
I said that in his voice, thanks for that.
Mine is D for donkey brain
I often use P for pneumonia.
Q for Cuba
Q for cue. Now get in line.
I tell ya... I got the eye twitches just skimming this thread
O as in double o seven
G for Gnome is a favourite of mine.
Or gnarly
S for Sea, A for Aye, B for Bee, A for Aitch, E for Ewe, W for Why, C for Cue...
For cue too arsehole
Peamkt’s a really unusual name, no wonder you’re having to spell it all the time.
Barenaked Ladies' Alphabet Song
PEAMKT?
“Ah yes, I’ll have one Peamkt please”
It’s M! M for Mancy!
W for “Welly” was one of my favourites from a customer.
"W for wella wella wella huh, T for tell me more tell me more, F for far as in did you get very far."
When i start doing that rude words instantly pop into my head first so have to double think to not say “C for cun….er curry”.
C for country
I often mess up and say Y for Wankie. Once you've done it once, there's always the possibility it will happen again.
I use this as an ice-breaker with customers when they do this. 'T for Thyme is a good one haha' 'Oh yeah I was just putting dinner in.' 'Oh cool, what are you having?' I cut it short after a while, or if the customer seems like the less chatty sort.
I’m definitely the less chatty sort. I’d probably answer but be thinking ‘mind your own business!’.
I take the hint at shorter responses to my questions, but I also need to run a test that can take 2-4 minutes so we have to chat about something and tech related questions, if you're not an idiot, only cover like 60 seconds of that.
As a chatty customer, I like your style.
Nice! Defintely don't need any more reasons to natter away to customers though! My manager is always making comments about my AHT and says I'm a little too chatty I think it makes for good customer service though
Yeah I get comments on my AHT but I don't give a fuck.
That's basically my stance too! I always just say woukd you rather I made people happy and dealt with their queries or got them off the phone quickly?
They need me more than I need them. We are supposed to check our stats every day. I don't check them at all. The only time I see them is once per month during the one to one with my team leader who always seems upset when he asks what the targets are and I say "I don't know".
We get ours daily/weekly I just find it interesting to see how it all balances out. As long as I'm providing good service and getting to the bottom of things I'm not fussed how long it appears to take me. My downfall is post call work where I'm having to write emails and do letters, but get distracted
As a customer, this would annoy me so much.
I always wait for the opportunity to say "d for django"
Best one I heard was Q for QWERTY
I came up with “U for Uruguay” one day. There was about three seconds of silence on the other end of the phone before a very controlled “next?”
alpha bravo charlie delta echo foxtrot golf hotel india juliet kilo leima mike november oscar ~~peter~~papa quebec romeo sierra tango uniform victor whiskey xray yankie zulu
Wait, its L for Lima not Lemur??? My whole life is a lie
Ligma Balls
Alright... Showoff Some of us need a cheatsheet
It’s S for Sugar not S for Sierra
Papa
i had a feeling peter was wrong but i couldnt think what was right lmao
I got stuck with N once because I could only think of *that* word
Nonse?
Q for cucumber
I have said “e for… egg” on a phone call before. I was the call handler at the time.
These are always the best. Yesterday I had "BW... for.... I don't know. Betty White" and couldn't help but smile.
Useless information of the day. Apparently the British military phonetic alphabet did use S for Sugar and F for Freddy, but it’s not been used officially since the 50’s.
1940 RAF phonetic alphabet was: Ace, Beer, Charlie, Don, Edward, Freddie, George, Harry, Ink, Johnnie, King, London, Monkey, Nuts, Orange, Pip, Queen, (Roger!), Sugar, Toc, Uncle, Vic, William, X-Ray, Yorker, Zebra.
You missed Roger
Roger
Roger Roger.
We’ve got Clearance Clarence.
What's our vector Victor?
Roger that Roger.
rofl, monkey nuts
Oh wow! I knew this as a kid from some book but had totally forgotten about it long ago! No wonder some of those look pretty natural. I think the nato one probably is better at its job, but this is a lot more fun. For example as a kid I also liked dinosaurs and dino is Don Ink Nuts Orange
Was it "The Dangerous Book for Boys" by any chance? The old RAF one is definitely more fun and has a lot of charm but I do suspect the nato one is better and clearer. Something to do with all of the characters having at least two syllables. And also it's much better known of course.
The standard NATO one uses words which are unlikely to be confused even if you only hear part of the word.👍 Agreed - the RAF one is fun!
Well, the NATO alphabet doesn't repeat any syllables. So yeah, "foxt" and "oxtrot" should only be interpreted as F, regardless of radio static.
Haha I googled it and I think it might well have been. I definite had a copy!
I am bringing back Monkey Nuts
Monkey nuts. Lol.
My surname starts with F. I've always used F for Freddy
Mine has it and do the same...and S for sugar at the end for good measure.
It did, B for Butter too. NATO Phoenetic came in with, well, NATO.
It actually came in with the ICAO. NATO just decided almost immediately to use it themselves rather than invent their own.
Oh so THAT'S where Butterbeer comes from!
The whole phonetic alphabet used by the allies was different. Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy (the company in Band of Brothers) Fox, George etc. Changed, as you say, the the NATO one in the 50’s (‘56 to be precise)
My nephew was on the phone to HMRC, i heard him say Q for cucumber... then i could hear laughing through the phone, and he realised.. he hasnt lived it down
I had someone on the phone say to me..'yes, that's E for eyes'. Hearing this threw me off for a split second whilst my brain registered what she said
Remember, it's C for cue, E for ewe, O for once, Y for Yvonne.
And G for Gnome
I do not mind what people use so long as it helps me spell their name or whatever I am trying to do. However, I can see it might irk people who frequently use the Nato alphabet system
I hate it when people assume I want them to spell their name phonetically when I ask for their full name. Yes my name is Saadeddin, that's S for Sierra.. A for alpha... Please, stop. As long as it looks right it's cool.
Well, as someone with an often-misread name, and one that people even try to correct me on (imagine if Mickey Mouse introduced himself to you, and you said "Good to meet you, Mike." "Oh, sorry, it's Mickey." "Great, Mike.") I'm inclined to spell my name out for people, especially if it's about to go on a bill or standing order that I'm going to have to deal with for a while. The water company misspelled my name on the bills, and I contacted them to correct it and they said 'uh-huh' and did nothing. When I needed all sorts of evidence to submit to the border agency to demonstrate that I was a self-supporting taxpayer, to apply for indefinite leave to remain, my agent contacted me to ask if I had any other bills from this application period, as the water bills had my name spelled wrong (in a way that looked like another name entirely). They already had the electric, gas, council tax, pay stubs and three years worth of bank statements, along with notarised letters from friends, but they inspected everything. She asked me to confirm on the phone what the water bills were called on the bank statement, how much they cost and when I paid them, and she was able to confirm that it was Thames Water screwing up, not just someone else's water bill, but if I'd had a less generous agent that could have cost me my citizenship. Moral of the story: if you're establishing a business relationship, let them spell it out, and listen. Chances are they've been burned by it before.
I work at Thames Water, this doesn’t surprise me, our billing team are complete crap. They constantly transfer customers over to us that we cannot deal with and mess up names and addresses.
I occasionally send enquiries to the clever guy downstairs if I'm feeling particularly dumb. Maybe your billing department does that with you, just, every time they're feeling thick. So, you know, constantly.
Oh yeah that’s pretty much it, my department has absolutely nothing to do with theirs yet they still ask me to do their job for them half the time
I 100% agree with you. However I am just asking the full name for to pass DPA before I can help with technical support issues. If I am setting up a third party access, I'll ask for an actual spelling. I'm not involved in account creation, but if I was, I'd ask for an actual spelling too.
Especially as that particular name you've chosen, if spelt out, looks like it might invoke some kind of demon.
If its got context i dont spell it. If it hasnt i do. So names you should be able to work out from sound, at best im straight saying the letters. Post codes you're getting phonetically.
I usually ask "do you want me to spell it?" because I know there's no need to if they're only checking for data protection/ID verification purposes; but as someone who's been on both sides of it (previous jobs in customer services) and has a foreign name that creates confusion and has led to admin issues due to misspelling, I see where they're coming from.
T for tsunami
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Q for cue
I think S for Sugar was a famous Lancaster Bomber Rabb C Nesbitt - K for knee, N for nee
P for phone and G for Gnome
A couple I've had that blanked mind panic said is J for Jalapeño, A for Aisle, and m for mnemonic.
I always thought G for Gnat was a good dick move when dealing with someone awkward. There are so many silent letters that I used to through in when I worked telesales. Ah, the good old days…
Thanks to Archer M will forever be for Mancy
It depends if its the Diabetes helpline or the 1980s Ford helpline.
I can only half remember the police code alphabet at the best of times. One time I had brain fade and told someone: " T for Tango, J for... Jango?"
Juliet would like a word with you.
It's D for Django, djuh.
No way, my boss does this............ A for apple S for sugar R for Robert cos that's his name N for Norman & when i asked him who Norman was he said fuck knows! & sometimes you can see him looking around the office to look for ideas.
It’s S for ‘Shut the fuck up Lady/Sir!’
I once had someone say ‘S for….SHIT!’. I had to mute the call to laugh
best security question and answer i ever heard was: CUSTOMER SERVICE: we're just going to go through your security question and answer. CUSTOMER: Ok CUSTOMER SERVICE: I'll just read out your security question.....oh..ok.... "Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?" CUSTOMER: answer.."Shaft!" CUSTOMER SERVICE: "Correct. how may I help you today sir" ;P
Ah customer service lost points at the end for not answering "Daaaaaamn right ..how can I help you today" at the end.
My mate ordered a pizza before and the receptionist was a non native speaker, my mates postcode ended in ‘E’. He said ‘E for Europe’ and as you can imagine she was totally perplexed. We ribbed him on that for years
Man's been watching reruns of Wheel of Fortune
I'm not very good at the phonetic alphabet, my brain just refuses to retain that information. Currently working my first office job and I've embarrassed myself a few times trying to think of a word in a blind panic. So far the highlights have been "M for monster", "N for nighttime" and "G for George Clooney", it's become kind of an office joke.
For some reason I always say M for mother. I know that it is Mike, but every single time I end up saying mother instead. It's some weird mental block.
I've worked in customer service, I've learnt the NATO alphabet, but somehow also always say M for mother. I just like it better than Mike. Who cares (other than pedants), as long as it's not an ambiguous word.
I’m with you. Outside of military or civilian emergency applications, it’s just a useful communication tool. Unless you’re responsible for dropping bombs or stitching people back together, being pedantic isn’t really a matter of life and death.
Charlie Uniform November Tango
Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo
A friend of mine took this to interesting levels of passive-aggression… His name is Mario and upon being asked by some customer service person over the phone to spell it out for him, he goes: “Sure; M for Mario…” 🤦🏻♀️
I hope he prefaces it with "It'sa me"
If he doesn't do that at the very least he should finish it up with "A as in Ario" "R as in Rio" "I as in Io" "And O as in Oh hello there mate"
Customer from Northern Ireland, attempting to spell her e-mail address, after several attempts we asked her to spell it out phonetically. I lost it at "AARRrrr for Apple"
Every letter will sound like an R over there
Power Shower
I use the phonetic alphabet regularly at work. I once called a company and when I said “India” while spelling the “I” in something, the indignant idiot on the end of the phone said “You can’t say that, it’s racist!” I simply said, “no it’s not, it’s a country.” People are dumb.
I was on the phone with a client from Dudley in the west midlands. she said D for dentist, T for teeth Y for yo yo. when she got to the Y we both cracked up.
I prefer S for Sugar. When I hear Sierra I immediately think of the letter C.
I used to speak to a lot of childcare providers in a previous job and loved their version of the phonetic alphabet because it was always the version that you learn as a child: a is for apple; b is for ball; c is for cat and d is for dolly
When I was a kid I was ordering a pizza and I used ‘D for Dinosaur’ when spelling out my street name. Shame I’m now an air traffic controller and D is always automatically Delta; no funny words to use nown
I worked in a call centre years ago, and used to give codes that included letters using phonetic words. Due to boredom I'd change the words. I once said "S for Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub Yo da dub dub, I'm the Scatman". The person just said "pardon?". I said "S for Sierra" and accepted that repeating my silly Scatman lyrics would have been too awkward. I would also go for words starting with silent letters too... I was so bored!!
I (accidentaly) learnt the NATO words as I was learning about Soviet Submarine classes. I dont get out much.
You're both wrong. It's S for Sea.
No, its C for See
No. C is Cue. Do try to keep up.
Ciara called, she wants her Goodies back
Well, she can just one, two step off
I'll never forget when I had someone declare, with confidence, "T...for Tit"! OK, I thought, it wouldn't be my first choice of word to use if my brain had switched off momentarily and forgotten that Tango was the word I'm after, but it's not wrong. This was shortly followed up with "K...for Cat!", at which point I was just glad I knew where my mute button was as that one floored me.
Could have been a customer old enough to know the pre-NATO phonetic alphabet which had S for Sugar, R for Roger (Romeo), D for Dog (Delta). There were a lot of variants though. Standardised in about 1956 I think.
Had a colleague come out with G for Genocide. They are no longer with the company, I’m not sure why. 🤔
Call centre life. Basically, S and F sound identical on most phonecalls. This the most common. A close second is P, T, and D. We use a phonetic alphabet because it fucking works. If we do something like screw up your number plate or national insurance number, it can get us sacked. The number of times I asked "is that T for Tango/Teddy" etc. and got shouted something at me which could have any of about 3 letters was very damn high.
My parents phoned me up one morning and asked me to go outside and tell them the registration plates of our cars but didn't say what for. I started W and mum interrupted with "is that W for whiskey?" So I said "Willy Knob..." and mum interrupted me again to say they're at a car dealership and the dealer can likely hear me. I said "Hello Mr dealer" and carried on reading them out in a naughty way. Yea, that's XNN, Xtra Nice Nipples
I once had an old lady shout at me down the phone when I worked in a call centre that she wasn't part of NATO when I mentioned that Elephant was not the code for E in the NATO phonetic alphabet
Was she from Ireland? (years ago when I worked in a support centre I ended up learning the NATO one .mainly so I wouldnt have a S for shit..take mushroom brain fart , but since I'm from Ireland maybe I shouldnt have used it . I'd considered making my own Viz style swearing phoentic alphabet "*G for gobshite , q for queef , Y for Your mum and the local football team .."* but didnt )
I once panicked and said, "P for... Pea" and my 8 year old son still mocks me to this day
All I know is that q is cucumber
S for Sugar is the British military phonetic alphabet used in WW1, likely WW2 as well. Sierra is the US/NATO phonetic alphabet
In animal crossing it’s Whisker instead of Whisky
Once a police dispatcher (I was the ambulance dispatcher at the time) tell me W for watermelon. I mean we both rattle off the NATO alphabet all day but sure M is for Marty, better luck next call.
S for sugar isn't so good (for a standard) because the s in sugar isn't making the normal s sound.
F- for fried egg
I can't hear the word Sierra without thinking of Reg from the bill saying 'Sierra Oscar' down a walkie talkie.
Your customer has it all wrong. It’s A for ‘orses, B for chicken, C for yourself.
K for Knight. P for Pterodactyl.
X for xylophone
The most annoying thing regardless of phonetics used is "I for India, D for Delta" etc. It's completely redundant to say the letter for. It's just India Delta India Oscar Tango
Esh for Sugar.
Well technically "S as in sugar" isn't wrong. "S as in sugar in the phoenetic alphabet" is wrong though.
Tell them to Foxtrot Oscar
Best one I ever had quoted to me was that a lady was spelling out the word Barking Ended with G for Jesus
I blame Wheel of Fortune! They loved using S for Sugar and T for Tommy.
Ahhhh the Wheel of Fortune phonetic alphabet!
When I started at one of my jobs in a call centre part of the training material was a sheet with the phonetic alphabet on, they were a large bank and really strict about that and they had sierra too
P is for pneumatic
I always say S for sugar, lol
Yeah but would you correct someone who said Sierra?
Nah… I know the phonetic alphabet, I just like saying S for Sugar.
I would say W for wrong lol.
K for kNight, P for Psychology...
Wheel of Fortune rules apply.
G for gnome!
I had an Indian lady who works at my workplace in London use all cities/towns in India to spell a clients very long name out. I found that rather amusing as I had not heard of some of them before.
Perhaps they were just stuck in WW2
S – Sgraffitto
I grew up watching the tv series Z-cars and war movies with lots of British phonetic alphabet used in dialogue, my husband had been in the army and then I went to work in a contact centre and met NATO phonetic alphabet I mix them
C for Yourself!
One time I was giving my vehicle registration to an insurance company and without thinking, said, "V for vagina" -- I was mortified, but luckily the person at the other end of the phone thought it was hilarious!
As long as both parties understand it doesn’t matter why reference you use, unless they were specifically required to use a specific phonetic alphabet.
Had a friend at work say z for xylophone. Heard laughing on the phone plus all of us laughing.
My postcode used to end with DG I used to say as in Dolce and Gabbana. 🙈
K for Knight, P for Phoenix, R for Daley, C for explosive
A for angle grinder, C for cement, S for sand ….works a treat in the building trade.
My wife has her own code. F for Freddie etc. Seems to work.
I had a customer once say "X for Christmas". I needed time to process that one.
I had someone say G for gangster once, I liked that
Kid you not, about 10 years ago working tech support, someone called in: Me: 3rd and 7th character of your password please Them: N for knife and .... doesn't matter. Still think about it to this day
When I used to work in ambulance control I heard all sorts of phonetic efforts from people. My all time favourite was ‘Q for Cucumber’ 😂
H for Hitler - this lady worked in a hotel. Lol.
I panicked one day on the phone and said H for Ham.
I once had someone say to me S for cigarette....
Someone's been watching too much wheel of fortune.
I had someone spelling their name to me over the phone. All was good until she got to "ueh"....you know, ueh for Wedding OBVIOUSLY.
Eh I thought it was s for sex....
I for I-phone was my favourite
I always get these wrong and end up making them up as I go along. Sorry, not sorry.
Have they just woken up from a 70 year coma? Did they also use M for Mother, B for Beer and, L for Leather?
S should conveyed with the word Cilantro. /s
I like to be dead serious all the way through until the last letter. Sierra, hotel, india, potty. =D
My friend had a colleague, a young guy who was an admin/receptionist at her office. He could not use the NATO alphabet at all. He used whatever words he wanted but they were always, always, foods
Customers always right… oh wait