Well, perhaps not but they certainly should be. The other day I got home from work and my phone was dead. No reason for it. It was fine in the morning. But this isn’t all that unusual. Normally, I unplug it for a bit and then it’s fine. No luck.
When that doesn’t work, I call the phone company, they push whatever magic button they have and then it comes back to life. So I used my cell to report it, cursing in my mind because I had a whole slew of online things planned. The first woman I spoke with was funny once I told her how having no functional phone line was interfering with my ramble about seasick fish. She agreed that they were airsick, by the way.
Unfortunately, it was after five and the technicians were finished for the day. The earliest she had available for them to come out was Friday, maybe. I kept begging for her to push the magic button, which made her laugh. Too bad she didn’t know which one it was.
She forwarded me to a supervisor who didn’t understand why I was with her at first. I went through my list of reasons again as to why Friday was unacceptable to which she was sympathetic even though she couldn’t help me either. She couldn’t even make the line test they normally do go through. We left it with me insisting the problem be fixed on Thursday for sure, not Friday maybe and her promising to try after a long explanation of budget cuts and a reduced tech staff with no overtime. I do understand that. Really I do. Didn’t make me any less insistent. Hey, it worked in the morning, it should work at night. Right? She assured me she’d give it her all to get a tech to my area and have it fixed.
The snag was that my little gray box is in the basement, not outside so I was required to be there when the tech came. Which meant I would need to go into work, explain to my employer why I would have to run out with absolutely no notice at some point during the day. Yeah, not exactly good for keeping a job in this day and age, is it? Thank goodness I am five minutes from work so it’s not quite as bad as people who drive an hour because it’s the only job they could get.
Fortunately for me, my lovely phone line took pity on me and healed itself in a few hours. How? I checked it yet again. Oh come on, you know you would check it repeatedly too, just to make sure it hadn’t miraculously started working again. Admit it. Anyway, nope, still dead. So I decided to call myself and see if that fixed it. Ha! It did! No idea why but I’m not questioning it further. A gift is a gift, thank you very much.
Yes, my phone was working again but it brought up a lot of thoughts about that whole leaving work at the drop of a hat thing. You think, in a time when everyone, everywhere is cutting back, service industries would go out of their way to accommodate longtime customers. Why have techs who only work until 5, same as a big chunk of the rest of the workforce does? Instead, why not have them work split shifts so that people who actually pay their bills can continue to without fear of losing their jobs in a time when little things can make management choose one employee over another when faced with a difficult decision of who to let go and who to keep? I seriously believe it’s high time for them to rethink how they conduct their business.
In the morning, I called to cancel my service call. The man I spoke with had absolutely no sense of humor. He didn’t quite understand when I said it healed itself. Nor did he appreciate it when I contradicted him after he stated to call back anytime if I had more trouble since they’re there twenty-four hours a day to help.
When that doesn’t work, I call the phone company, they push whatever magic button they have and then it comes back to life. So I used my cell to report it, cursing in my mind because I had a whole slew of online things planned. The first woman I spoke with was funny once I told her how having no functional phone line was interfering with my ramble about seasick fish. She agreed that they were airsick, by the way.
Unfortunately, it was after five and the technicians were finished for the day. The earliest she had available for them to come out was Friday, maybe. I kept begging for her to push the magic button, which made her laugh. Too bad she didn’t know which one it was.
She forwarded me to a supervisor who didn’t understand why I was with her at first. I went through my list of reasons again as to why Friday was unacceptable to which she was sympathetic even though she couldn’t help me either. She couldn’t even make the line test they normally do go through. We left it with me insisting the problem be fixed on Thursday for sure, not Friday maybe and her promising to try after a long explanation of budget cuts and a reduced tech staff with no overtime. I do understand that. Really I do. Didn’t make me any less insistent. Hey, it worked in the morning, it should work at night. Right? She assured me she’d give it her all to get a tech to my area and have it fixed.
The snag was that my little gray box is in the basement, not outside so I was required to be there when the tech came. Which meant I would need to go into work, explain to my employer why I would have to run out with absolutely no notice at some point during the day. Yeah, not exactly good for keeping a job in this day and age, is it? Thank goodness I am five minutes from work so it’s not quite as bad as people who drive an hour because it’s the only job they could get.
Fortunately for me, my lovely phone line took pity on me and healed itself in a few hours. How? I checked it yet again. Oh come on, you know you would check it repeatedly too, just to make sure it hadn’t miraculously started working again. Admit it. Anyway, nope, still dead. So I decided to call myself and see if that fixed it. Ha! It did! No idea why but I’m not questioning it further. A gift is a gift, thank you very much.
Yes, my phone was working again but it brought up a lot of thoughts about that whole leaving work at the drop of a hat thing. You think, in a time when everyone, everywhere is cutting back, service industries would go out of their way to accommodate longtime customers. Why have techs who only work until 5, same as a big chunk of the rest of the workforce does? Instead, why not have them work split shifts so that people who actually pay their bills can continue to without fear of losing their jobs in a time when little things can make management choose one employee over another when faced with a difficult decision of who to let go and who to keep? I seriously believe it’s high time for them to rethink how they conduct their business.
In the morning, I called to cancel my service call. The man I spoke with had absolutely no sense of humor. He didn’t quite understand when I said it healed itself. Nor did he appreciate it when I contradicted him after he stated to call back anytime if I had more trouble since they’re there twenty-four hours a day to help.
3 comments:
B, you so crack me up!
I'd go crazy with checking the wires, but I don't think I'd have the brains to actually call myself.
Yes, it's insane what cable and phone companies expect of their customers.
Spot on, my girl.
HA. So funny.
That's very weird. They usually DO have a night crew. Huh. The house hunk works for the phone company and they're required to have night coverage here.
Glad you fixed it!
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