Customer service and Feedback
Woke up this morning and discovered my satellite provider had arbitrarily shut off my NFL package. Baseball was still on, everything else was still on. No football.
You don't just shut off football on a Sunday. This is America, damnit. I'll figure out a way to live with three-dollar gas, but not without football.
So I call my satellite provider, wander through their maze of menu options, and finally get to what was supposed to be an operator. Then they hung up on me.
Tried again. Same result.
Called again and just started hitting zeros until I got a live operator. The operator was named Tanisha. Satellite provider customer service representative Tanisha told me there was nothing she could do to help me with my satellite package service issue. She gave me a different number to call. I protested, but Tanisha insisted there was nothing she could do, and hung up on me.
I called the new number, and got the same menu of push-button options as the first number. Started pressing zeros again, and this time I got Sue. Sue asked for our secret password. I don't know the secret password. I got my roommate. My roommate also doesn't know the magical password. We're the only two people in the house. This led to about another 15 minutes of jumping through hoops.
(Interruption: the color commentator in the Pats-Pittsburgh game just declared "what caused the interception was the penalty on the play before." Um, no, what caused the interception was a tipped pass that caused the ball to ricochet into an area in which three Steelers were hanging out. The penalty had no bearing on the Steeler tipping the ball. But I digress).
Finally, about an hour after I made my initial call, I got to explain my situation. Sue said "we have no record of you purchasing the football package." I said "well, yeah, I ordered it, got the confirmation record, got messages from you pretty much every day reminding me I would be billed monthly, and I don't think I was imagining I was watching all these games the past two weeks." Sue then went right back to her script and kept rephrasing her original claim to try to get me to say I really didn't order the football package, rather than simply admit they screwed up something on their end and fix it. Really, if there was any justice in this world, whomever was the marketing/focus group/personnel weasel who came up with the notion that customer service departments have to treat customers like small children needs to be taken out into a town square and tarred and feathered, or maybe pelted with eggs.
Anyway, Sue magnanimously offered to turn on the football package, without apologizing for shutting off my service or getting me to take any blame. I considered it a draw, so I accepted, and football's back on. Of course, I'm about 99.8 percent sure the postscript on this story is that I'll get billed twice by my provider for the football package.
On to this week's feedback:
Dispatches from Iraq
Martha in Alaska writes: I just discovered your blog. My son is being redeployed to Iraq again from Fairbanks, Alaska to Mosul and I'm terrified. Even though it's painful to learn what it's like day to day over there for our soldiers, I feel driven to know. I want to know what they're feeling, seeing, thinking, experiencing because to stick my head in the sand while he's there feels like a betrayal and abandonment. Thank you to you and Matt for this honesty. I'm so grateful for the new Strykers which are better armored and are protecting Matt, my son and all the soldiers.
Ashley in Texas writes: My friend is in Iraq right now. He has been out on a mission since August, 2005 and is still not back. He told me he was going to be gone for 5 days up North. He's stationed at Camp Victory in Baghdad. Could you tell me how I could find out if he is wounded or something? Or is it normal for a mission to last this long? Thanks for your help if you can give any.
(Let me throw this out to the readers -- do you guys know of a decent site for anyone looking to find friends and family in Iraq? I've been lucky enough to have a friend with a laptop over there. Any input would be helpful.)
Football Thursday
Mister C quibbles: I don't really think the Colts' schedule is that easy. Look at what the Browns did at Lambeau Field. They're not such a terrible team. Plus, since the Browns were reinstated, the Colts have played three games at Cleveland and just barely won all three of them. Thus, one might consider the idea that the fact that the games were close and that they have yet to lose to them, the Browns might sneak in and grab a win. I'm a Colts fan originally from Indy, so I wouldn't say these things for the hell of it.
Tom in San Diego offers: Love your football picks.... and if you really want some fish tacos let me know where to Fed-Ex some.
(Just address the package to Dave's World, West Seattle. They'll know where to send them).
Shocker and his midget gorilla
Christopher Warren exacerbates: So nothing I've read on your blog had made me want to watch CMLL wrestling ... until today. I chuckled at the mere mention of a midget in a gorilla suit, but when I saw the picture I damn near lost it. I haven't even read another line yet. Just going to fire this off and go back to see what else I'm missing.
(I got two similar emails on this subject. See, when it comes to topics like Mexican wrestling, as long as I know I made a few people spit out their coffee laughing while sitting at their desk, then I could care less if everyone else is wondering what the hell I'm writing about.
Youppi, un Canadien
Clark E. intones: I likened it to a long-lost love coming back to town, only to shack up with the jerk next door.
Simon F. of Reichstag, Idaho froths: I think taking away Youppi's exclamation point was a bit harsh.
Benjamin Anomaly melodramatically overwrites: How can anyone with experience as a freelancer knock Youppi's decision? Have a heart man, the guy's just trying to make a buck. Not every mascot has a Jerry Remy to keep them on the payroll past retirement.
(C'mon, Ben. If Youppi needed the cash, all he had to do was hit the road and head down to Ottawa. He could have become Senator Youppi and led a distinguished life. I was going to say, "he could have come down to Boston and worked for the Bruins," but they probably would have signed him to a one-year deal, then not re-signed him and recruited the Brockton Rox mascot for half the price the following season. Either way, nope, Youppi went ahead hooked up with the Canadiens. Unforgivable.)
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