February  • March 2007 • Vol. XXV No. 3 • An Arnold Publication

From the Editor—

 If the service is so great. . .why am I so angry?

Here’s what happened.

I decided to change my service plan from one type to another, hopefully much faster. So, smiling and happy, I called the customer service number.

After punching my way through 9 different overly cheery recorded voices giving me menu options, I finally got through to the main overly cheerful recorded voice, which thanked me for choosing their service, apologized for making me wait, then spent the next 35 minutes telling me how great their
service was. You know, things like, you can reach us by calling customer service. You can reach us by going online, and if those don’t work, you can, blah, blah, blah! Meanwhile, I was thinking, if I had been calling because I couldn’t get online, how would I get online? The cheery voice didn’t bother to tell me how to do that.

Finally, an even more cheery voice with what I thought might be a foreign accent broke through my dark clouds, saying, “How may I help you, sir?”

Startled, I said, “Uh, is this a real person?”

“Oh, yes, sir, how may I help you?”

Stammering from the excitement of finally talking to a real person, I told this voice that I wanted to change my service to a different service. And then came the dreaded words, “Oh, I’m sorry, sir, you’ll have to talk to customer service about that.”

“But you’re customer service,” I said. “I punched all 9 buttons right. I know I did!”
“I’m sorry for the inconvenience, sir. Will you hold while I connect you?”

“No, don’t!” I screamed, but I was too late.

Suddenly I was listening to that same droning, cheerful voice again telling me how great their service was. Three days later, I’m still listening.

Now I just want to call someone and ask, “If your service is so damned great, why am I so angry?”

                                                                    C. H. Bush, Editor