additional reasons for optimism
I got my electronic credit card statement in the mail yesterday. Seemed a bit off, so I checked out the charges online. Turns out, the check I put in the mail two weeks ago never showed up, so I had finance charges and a late fee. Plus, Hertz had charged me some questionable fee from the rental car in Phoenix. On top of this, I haven't been able to log onto my online checking account since just after setting it up in early December, so I couldn't quickly confirm whether my check to the credit card people had cleared.
In other words, I spend a lot of time on hold this morning, waiting to talk to customer service people. I can imagine that credit card companies and rental car companies deal with a lot of upset customers. I hoped I wouldn't become one of them, since the charges represented about $160 of stuff that wasn't my fault.
Wonderfully, all of the representatives I talked to on the phone were, well, wonderful. They were sincerely nice (not that phony-smile bullshit I can't handle, like the greeter at the restaurant the other day), and they were eager to make changes in my favor, and they all spoke the English. (Let me reveal my prejudice for a minute: I think that outsourcing customer service, of all possible opportunities to save a buck or two, is really, really stupid. I mean, the entire success of customer service depends upon two people clearly communicating with one another. That often fails to happen, even when two people are native speakers of the English and speaking face-to-face, so it seems incredible to me that companies have believed they could adequately serve customers with non-native speakers, over the phone.)
* * *
In other news, I used one of my new pots tonight, to make a delicious white-bean pumpkin soup. The pot did not warp, explode, discolor, or otherwise show any sign that it will be unable to carry out similar duties for the next few decades. Yeah.
In other words, I spend a lot of time on hold this morning, waiting to talk to customer service people. I can imagine that credit card companies and rental car companies deal with a lot of upset customers. I hoped I wouldn't become one of them, since the charges represented about $160 of stuff that wasn't my fault.
Wonderfully, all of the representatives I talked to on the phone were, well, wonderful. They were sincerely nice (not that phony-smile bullshit I can't handle, like the greeter at the restaurant the other day), and they were eager to make changes in my favor, and they all spoke the English. (Let me reveal my prejudice for a minute: I think that outsourcing customer service, of all possible opportunities to save a buck or two, is really, really stupid. I mean, the entire success of customer service depends upon two people clearly communicating with one another. That often fails to happen, even when two people are native speakers of the English and speaking face-to-face, so it seems incredible to me that companies have believed they could adequately serve customers with non-native speakers, over the phone.)
* * *
In other news, I used one of my new pots tonight, to make a delicious white-bean pumpkin soup. The pot did not warp, explode, discolor, or otherwise show any sign that it will be unable to carry out similar duties for the next few decades. Yeah.
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