I was about to write a post on losing my temper with businesses, but then I got locked out of my WordPress account for no reason I could see.
Maybe the website is equipped with a calm-o-meter to ensure that one doesn’t post in haste and repent at leisure? In any event, I spent a fruitless half hour looking for passwords and getting frustrated at why it was never happy with either my password or indeed my email address, so I have bypassed the entire process by logging on using my iPad. System hacked! Hee hee.
Anyway, I’ve lost my temper twice (now three times) with businesses this week. Once was with my bank with a prolonged and painful interaction with several episodes of phone tag. It started simply with a long phone call last week about changing a bank account. Perhaps I should have been made suspicious by the very young sounding man (boy) who was helping me, and by the fact that he had to keep putting me on hold to check things with his supervisor. In any event, my phone app accounts didn’t look anything like I expected during the week. My attempts to contact the bank were an exercise in futility. With every phone call, I was put on hold for half an hour before even speaking to a human. There was an automated AI voice that asked me to state what I wanted but somehow it never matched the options I was given. In any event, it couldn’t understand “your call centre person screwed me around” so I was forced to remain on hold. When a human finally responded, they refused to do anything until I proved who I was. This involved saying “my voice confirms my identity” to the same AI as I’d had trouble with before. Needless to say, it refused to acknowledge me, having got the pip after our previous interaction. The human then tried to help by suggesting I use my PIN number instead, which sounded like a fine idea until the disembodied AI said my PIN didn’t have enough numbers. There was no way I could see to get back to the human to find out what was going on, and I ended by accidentally hanging up, rendering the whole interaction a complete waste of time. I tried ringing again but I was again faced with another half hour on hold so gave up. By this time I was so cross I looked seriously for a couple of days into switching banks. However, a little calm reflection on the enormous faff this would entail made me give up on the idea and in the end I emailed them instead, which I suppose is what they preferred in the first place. Don’t take on the banks is my advice! They don’t make their enormous profits by being soft.
I had more luck with the other business that annoyed me. At this time of year, I start ordering gifts for the various organisations I work with, as a thank you for the staff that make my life easier during the year. One of these companies that specialises in gift baskets, that I’ve used in the past, were advertising a promotion that you get a free gift if you order a certain value of baskets by this Friday. There was a little asterisk by the price amount, but I couldn’t see anywhere what this referred to. Presumably there were terms and conditions but surely it was pretty clear cut what was on offer?
Anyway, I made my orders, and requested my free gift. The reply came quickly:
Ah, OK, that’s what the asterisk was about! It was still frustrating, and I replied quickly:
OK, maybe a bit childish, but it made me feel better, and I gave it up as a bad job, and moved on with my life. Later that afternoon, however, I checked my emails again, and found this.
So, I’m pleased but also feeling a little sheepish. Have I been vindicated or have I just been rewarded for throwing my toys out of the cot? I hope I haven’t given the unfortunate Amy a bad day. In any event, I plan to order something else, just to show there are no hard feelings.
I’ve repeatedly said on these pages that I’m no Karen. Is it a case of the lady doth protest too much, methinks? Am I becoming a dreaded “I want to see the manager!” person as I get older?
I looked after a lovely older lady called Karen yesterday, she was very sweet and smiled an enormous amount, possibly excessively under the circumstances (that is, about to have a colonoscopy). She was very amiable, if a bit vague. Yes, it’s possible she was in the early stages of dementia, but you couldn’t imagine a less Karenesque person than this delightful woman. I hope the name loses this association soon, but I suspect not soon enough to save it from extinction.