ss_blog_claim=184bd2836e28b33d25afef8250a42552

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

And now we are possessed... just in time for the full moon. Which obviously has been in effect today.

It seems that the phone line, without even being within ten feet of the cord that would connect it to a phone capable of dialing, has been making 911 calls all morning. This perturbs me.

Not as perturbed as I was when I was rudely jolted out of my almost-nap this morning. I am pleased to report the local cops are very nice, kinda laid-back in this particular situation, and are all-around nice individuals. They believed me when I told them I had no knowledge of how this happened. They also did not issue me a citation.

If they had, I would have cried.

Calling the phone company was an exercise in frustration. What happened to having the call centers staffed by local people who both knew the area, could connect with you on a human level, and didn't make you jump through touchtone menus and interactive ones. The touch tone menus I can cope with. I even like them, in a wierd way. They are the creepy cousin that you run into about once every ten years; harmless but creepy and they're still Family. Interactive menus that fake being humans? That just raises my blood pressure and makes me want to have sharp words with the human that I eventually insist on being connected to.

I do appreciate these things in some ways. When I actually have the sort of simple problem that they are made to handle. But they are NOT made to handle the complicated problem of a demonically possessed phone line. I was routed through all sorts of strange and unknown tele-systems to finally be connect back to the local office and repair facility, which I knew was the one I had to talk to in any case (so why can't I just be able to call them direct to deal with the problem? Why do I have to wade through a tele-spiel of menus and buttons and fake people that takes at least twice as long as talking to the local human who can fix the problem?)

End result: I made her laugh. Demonically possessed equipment of this magnitude is a whole brand new problem that she has not seen in more than twenty years of working that desk. She understands my problem. We both laughed and swapped funny quips and short anecdotes. My blood pressure went down and I felt listened to and taken care of.

People. I'd be willing to pay the extra nickel on my bill to get rid of the stupid runaround. And you know what? It would cost the companies less in hate mail, provide jobs that pay a living wage, and keep those jobs in the communities that need them. It's a simple concept, but I know it will never catch on.

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