Thursday, June 05, 2008

Thursday Morning

Church? Been and gone. It is good. But at my new church, I will do this on Monday evening. It will not cut into my sleeping time. Which is good and not so good.

In the last few days, I have spent several hours on the phone with "customer service" people. If those calls truly were recorded for quality assurance purposes, the recordings of my calls will be used in training for years to come. Yesterday, I actually broke into tears I was so frustrated. I had just worked out a very complex deal with someone. She put me on hold. I was listening to crappy music, when suddenly, I get "This is Tiffany, how can I help you?" Tiffany? WTF? I told Tiffany I had just spent a half hour on the phone with someone else (whose name I didn't catch) and didn't want to start over. Well, Tiffany assured me that she would be happy to help me, she read me the bit about the call being recorded, etc., and we started over.

This crap makes me feel so old. I can barely hear these folks for all the background noise on their end. And they repeat the same phrases over and over, so that these phrases are no longer recognizable as the English language. I frequently have to say "I didn't understand one word you just said, will you repeat it please?" It is further complicated when they don't really SPEAK or UNDERSTAND English. I pray I don't have more interactions with these customer service lines in the immediate future, because I don't think I can take another one. And I have to say, that was one of the major selling points that got me to buy a Mac - I can go to a local store and talk to a live human being who speaks English.

I am going to go back to bed now. It is 47 degrees and pouring rain outside. I wish I could stay home all day. Unfortunately, I have requested an appointment with my boss - and I better be there. I am going to ask for a promotion. YIKES. There has never been a better time for me professionally to get what I want, so I better strike while the iron is hot... but I sure would rather he would sit around and think of this without me having to go and ask. And I could very well get turned down. But I will try anyway.

I can just put the effort forward and leave the results up to God. Thank God for that!

9 comments:

Pammie said...

Why can't customer service people just act plain ol' human! I wish one of them would just say "well, holy schmoley begoaly Pam-let's see if we can fix this for you darlin'"
I don't want a promotion, I want retirement!
I agree though after your recent victory at work-GO FOR IT.
Have a good thursday little assorted fruit cup.

dAAve said...

In the interests of practicing these principles in all my affairs, I won't add to your views on the customer service issues. You said it just fine.

Dharma Kelleher said...

I can appreciate your frustrations. And I am glad for your opportunity to ask for a promotion. Just keep turning it over like you're doing.

Peace out,
Dharma

Syd said...

I think that customer service is a misnomer. You were very smart to buy the Mac.

Zanejabbers said...

I worked in customer service at IBM in the early years of my emp. there. And that is what we gave. I have learned that if you ask for an on shore rep you can get one if you insist.

Scott W said...

I have never known anyone from India named Tiffany! Times, they are a changin'!

The Sober Alcoholic Soldier said...

Good luck with the promotion!! It takes alot of guts to ask for one.

The Sober Alcoholic Soldier said...

Thank you so much for the comment. It really means alot.

Kathy Lynne said...

Good luck with the promotion! I hear ya on the customer service thing. It sucks.