Small Tasks Become A Big Deal

With technology taking over our lives, come some unintended consequences.  Every computer, printer ,IPad, Smart Phone and other device, breaks down.  This means you will spend hours of your valuable time on a help line.  My mom calls me almost weekly to tell me about another frustrating morning on the phone.  It's often a computer malfunction, but it could also be her cable TV service, her new TV (which she couldn't operate), her phone system, which failed because she changed cable service, or something as simple as a question about her water bill. I have had many of these experiences too, and the bottom line is that most phone calls lead to endless frustration.

I was driving to lunch with Regina not long ago, and she told me a story so similar to mine and my mom's, that I had to laugh.  Her story involved a printer which broke down, and the purchase of a new printer, which came without all the parts.  That led to phone calls to the store where the printer was purchased, where she was told that SHE should repack the printer and return it to the store.  Their mistake, but she was faced with getting the printer back in the box, back to the store and wasting a lot of time!  Regina wondered, is it just her age that makes all these events so difficult to deal with, or is it that  customer service and quality of product is not what it used to be?  My answer was, it's a little bit of both.

Hardly a week goes by that I don't face one of these phone calls.  I dread them.  They always last longer than anticipated, and rarely have a positive outcome on the first call.  Take my call to Sirius radio last week.  I  was cancelling service on one car, and getting six months of free service on our new car.  I wanted to make sure I was getting the credit I was entitled to.   I finally got it sorted out, but it took two phone calls, several transfers to various departments, and 45 minutes on the phone.

Stress is a killer, so next time you have a difficult phone call, try to take it in stride.  I think about my kids.  If they had a problem with their cable company, they would simply pay the bill and not worry about it.  They don't have time to have long phone conversations with these companies.  They just pay the bill and move on.  I wish I could do that, but I can't, so I, and probably you, face weekly phone calls to various vendors that make you crazy.  Isn't the 21st century great?