Friday, July 14, 2006

Be Afraid...Be Very Afraid

After what I just went through in the last half-hour and in similar calls over the last several weeks, I am seriously concerned that someday - it may be tomorrow or it may be years from now when I am old(er) and gray - I will find myself walking down the street or sitting in the park or otherwise minding my own business when, all of a sudden, it will happen.

I will hear a voice that has the misfortune of too closely approximating that computer-generated one used by Big Business and Big Health Care and all the other Big's to keep from having to have any personal contact with the people whom they serve. The one that makes us wait on the line, speak our 10-digit member number, says "sorry, but I think you said..." when you know you spoke perfectly clearly, and never gives you the option you needed in the first place. The one that never gives you even the opportunity to press something to be connected with a real live person unless you can generate the willpower to not press anything while Little Miss Computer says things like, "Sorry, I didn't get that" or "Remember, you need to press either 1 or 2 to indicate you choice" or something like that. And is it just me, or does her voice tone change ever so slightly to indicate increasing annoyance on her part? Like she's the one who should be annoyed in that scenario.

When I do someday come across that poor unsuspecting individual who sounds a little too much like this computer lady, I can only imagine the ire that will rise up in me. I can only imagine the strength of character and peace of God that will need to come over me to keep me from taking out on her all the bitterness that for me has become attached to that voice. It is like nails on a chalkboard (the ancestor of the white board for the younger generations out there).

Sometimes I swear I was born in the wrong time. It's time like these I wonder what it would have been like to live in the 1940's or 50's. I know I would have a very different lifestyle, but I think I look pretty good in high heels and pearls :)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen! Amen amen amen!

sheplaysamartin said...

you seem to spend a lot of time on the phone with customer service people... (i think this the second post of yours that i've read on this topic. :)

you do look cute in heels and pearls, though. :)

Lucid Magazine said...

we did not have whiteboards or chalkboards growing up. we scribbled in the sand. oops I am dating myself.

we als owalked barefeeet to school, 10 miles inthe snow, uphill both ways...

sigh, I have had a hard life.

Anonymous said...

I understand your frustration!!

And I agree with Candyce, you would look sweet in heels and pearls and an Audrey Hepburn hairdo!