Moderately Confused by Jeff Stahler for July 20, 2021

Sorry to break it to you, but the odds of getting struck by lightning are better than winning the lottery.

Are you kidding? You’ve used up all your luck for the week. if not for the month.

too late…….

Mark it on the calendar. It’s an historic moment. Almost no online company includes a contact number for a human. Most just foist ‘help’ calls off to an AI which will first reply I don’t understand your problem. Please restate. Most actual phone recipients use the our call volume . . . parry, then connect one with actual humans But who usually demonstrate barely adequate use of language.

Example: our once very fine newspaper was sold up the line several times to conglomerates. Home delivery was still on, but getting the billing straight was a hassle. Finally realized the ‘call center’ was half way across the country and had no real application to local situation. Plus the quality of the output fell into a dumpster. No longer subscribe to either paper or electronic delivery.

Hated to have to dump it, as I worked on that paper 60 years ago, when it was considered one of the best of its line. Was a high quality journalistic medium with many awards, but no longer and not the only one to go that way. Sad.

I am the local technical expert in the family, so I get calls from family members and even neighbors to help set up their computers, etc. I am by no means an expert, but I am better than the average person.

So I was helping a friend with her computer which her brother bought for her. Her brother must hate her: the first computer he bought her had Windows Millennium installed. I refused to work with it and installed XP instead. Her second computer was Vista – I decided that I could work with that.

So I called the number for internet support on her cable bill. I got the TV side of the house. So then I called the TV number and got IT support. I talked to Apu (yes, that was the name he gave me).

It’s a good thing that I knew what to expect (I just needed specifics) so when he told me to “Kligh star and sealit.” I knew he meant “click start and select.”

My service provider answers the phone. They might not always be able to help, but they do answer the phone.

I tried to call the Kohler Company yesterday. The phone number that is listed on their website under “Contact us” had a recording that said something to the effect of ‘We’re too busy to answer this line. Please send us an email.’ :-(

Your call is important to us. (Just not important enough to answer the phone).

If you are banking with a large bank, you will have a hard time getting personal service. I worked in smaller community banks for over 40 years and none ever had the punch numbers kind of service. We also knew 95% of our customers by name and knew the family

Was on hold for a couple of hours trying to get myself set up for social security after I retired. Finally got to talk to a person. She agreed that I could start to receive payments, then asked if I wanted to get payment from the time when I could first receive them. I said yes and got several thousand dollars. Definitely worth the wait that time.

Back in the day (I was still in high school!), the Baltimore Transit had a number to call to ask how to get from Point A to Point B. It was frequently busy – you wondered if there was only one person in the office – but the info was always correct, with line numbers, transfer points, and times.

The lady would tell you to take the 15 car line to Howard and Saratoga Streets, and wait for the 22, which will be there at 3:15 – or whatever. Try to find that sort of service today. I dare you!

I feel that way when I get a Lyft ride.

My bank is about the only place it’s easy to get an “English as their 1st language” live person.

I didn’t know fantasy was allowed here. Next there’ll be a strip about getting straight through to a call centre