Quid Pro Quo

Wow, that is painful to listen too. It's funny, I've definitely had customer service conversations like that. At least the verizon people were;

a) Not an automated phone system that made you enter your account number 5 different times and never help you with anything or

b) Reading from a script. There is nothing worse that offering a detailed explanation of the problem and having the customer service person say something to the effect of "I'm very sorry you are having trouble sir, I will be happy to assist you to resolve this difficulty, sir, have you logged in correctly?" Which is insane because you just spent the last 5 minutes telling the person that you had logged in and tried this and tried that blah blah blah. Terrible.

Oh MY.

I truly did not realize how much it hurt to try stifling a belly laugh so nobody in the office hears me cracking up. I guess it reminded me as well of my first 'data' billing conversation with cingular, where I had a similar problem with their doc's claiming no charge for WiFi internet access on my 8125 PDA phone, but failing to note anywhere that if the signal fades even momentarily, the phone automatically calls up their charge-per-kb service and bills you massively in the background. You can guess what my bill looked like after having browsed poolside during a week vacation. I chalked it up to an expensive lesson learned...but I just WISH I'd had the foresight to record my call to customer service.

Sheesh. Now try giving the girl at the fast food place extra change with your $20 so she only has to give back an 'even' quarter with the dollars...you'll see head spinning, green soup spraying the walls, and likely a supervisor who has to take over with a calculator.

Gotta luv publik ejumicashun.

A good friend teaches Intermediate and Advanced Accounting courses at a private university in Cleveland, Ohio. During her 20+ years of teaching there, she's seen the quality of the students steadily decline to the point where it is simply not possible to teach them anything. I sat in on a few of her Advanced classes and just watched and listened. It was unbelievable. With the exception of one or two students, the rest sat there in a stupor, motionless, oblivious of everything around them.

At one point during class she announced that there would be a test covering Chapters 5, 6, and 7 on Friday. But just before class was over one of them said "It'd sure be nice if you'd tell us when the next test will be instead of springing it on us like the last time!" The rest concurred.
She and I just looked at each other and shook our heads in disbelief. It was plain to see that these kids weren't even conscious. It was as if they were all in a coma, but with eyes open.

Her Intermediate Accounting students would do all their figuring on a calculator, then enter the results into their Excel spreadsheets. A prerequisite for her course is that you must have taken (and passed) a course in using Microsoft Excel. Even so, these students were doing it on their calculators and typing in the results.

Finally, two boys were busted for possession of narcotics with intent to distribute. She went to their trial. At one point the prosecutor asked, "And what did the police do next?"

"They said put our hands on the hood."

"And did you comply?"

"NO SUH! We done what they said!!!"

Every time I think of her students I'm reminded once again of C. M. Kornbluth's famous short, The Marching Morons.

How'd he know?

-e

Listening to that recording is enough to make me NEVER do business with Verizon, and to encourage friends and aquaintances to do the same. I also am tempted to inform Verizon of this decision, with the reason for my choice. I think they need some people with intelligence and basic math skills in their employment.

That reminds me of dealings I had with Quest (with the commercials touting excellent customer service). I had a customer service representative call to inform me if I did not pay a $250 CREDIT I had on my bill my service would be canceled and legal action would be taken. After an hour of trying to explain that a CREDIT means that they owed me a refund (miss charge for FREE installation expenses for internet which took 5 months and countless hours of going through the same process because after they assured me it was taken care of would still be on the next months bill).

After about an hour, I had enough and hung up. Later that night after an hour of listening to music while I hold I got hold of another rep, and told her my situation, after which she gave me a lecture about how a Credit meant that I get a refund, and a Debit means I owe them, and I should look into it more before I go calling and complaining about finding a credit on my bill (exactly what I was telling the other rep and what I explained to her in the beginning, and that I just wanted to make sure everything was straightened out) Cancelled service and got phone calls for next year offering free service for a month if I switched back. Ok, enough of a rant for now.

Ok, not CR4 related at all, but thought it fit the blog. Definatly need more education for service reps.

Wow - I would have canceled too.

I can NOT believe what I was hearing on YOU TUBE! All I have to say is Verison reps need basic math understanding now! Thank TheLORD I went to school before calculators-I learned math!

Sadly it seems "units" are a lost art; since the calculator doesn't have an input for them.

Wow, I think someone needs to go back and get at least a Good Enough Diploma.

Like an elementary school diploma maybe??

If not an elementary-school diploma, one of those mail-order diplomas from Puerto Rico perhaps? Beats having to endure the rigors of a PhD thesis and the inevitable free-for-all of an oral defense. And you don't even need an Advisor!

-e

Years ago I worked as a janitor. One of our clients was a Wells Fargo bank in Texas. On the fridge in their break room read a sign: Soda's .50¢.

Firstly, the plural of soda is sodas, not soda's. There is no apostrophe.

Secondly, .50¢ is half a penny. So I took two Cokes and left them a penny.

Morons.

-e

hahah - well played. (Your response had my coworkers wondering what I was laughing at this morning. )

"cent (n) - one-hundredth of the value of the basic unit (dollar)

dollar (n) - the basic monetary unit in many countries; equal to 100 cents"

No problem. Just shift the decimal point two position or add/subtract two 0's.

Now the problem shifts to "Which way to move the 0's or decimal point and which one do you move.