I'm from an artsy town. Or at least, a small town that has a rather strong collection of artistic-type people. We haven't produced a Meryl Streep or a Al Pacino; Dustin Hoffman has never dropped by. We've got musicians that you may or may not have heard of, but really, my town is always going to be small. The local University has influenced enough of us to be able to dissect a performance to the bone, and most have enough of a critical theory background to use some really big words about the last play mounted, but in the end, I sometimes wish people would just let things be, instead of tear it all to pieces, good intentions or not.
The last courses of summer school have just begun, and there are a lot more moving trucks around. People are getting prepared for a fall full of learning, and there's a hint of excitement in the air. There's going to be cuter, and younger boys about, which isn't all bad, I guess. But, gone is my regret at not being in residence this year. I could die a thousand deaths before really getting upset about not sharing a house with five of my best friends.
I look around at work, and hardly recognize the faces. Our industry is a fast-turning one. People come and go likethat. I'm old-school, if you can believe it, and I'm both resigned, and contented. I never thought I'd be working 8 hours a day, sitting in front of computer, talking endlessly to people not even in my own country. I'm a solid worker; not the best, but reliable, dependable, and steady. I do my job, and while I know I'm not going to be at the company for my entire life, the stability is calming.
I'm at a personal lull which is hopefully not the calm before the storm. I'm taking a few needed days off, but already I'm bored and while not anxious to get back to work, know that there are things to do there, and I'd rather make sure that I'm doing it right, than leaving it up in the hands of just anyone. Just to let you know, if you ever call into to customer care, and was frustrated because someone dropped the ball, a lot of the times it's not their fault. It's all because of the damned computer system.
For instance, I schedule follow-ups if I can't solve someone's problem immediately. If you've called in because you've sent us back your old phone and have gotten a new phone in exchange, but you've just been hit up with a restocking fee that cost 3 times the original price of the phone that was determined defective, but you know you've sent back the phone as instructed, I swear that I understand your frustration. What I'll do, because I know what you're going through is apply a temporary credit to your account, as per policy, file a form to alert our exchange team and they'll try tracing your order through your tracking number. If you've done everything exactly as instructed, we should be able to find your returned form immediately. No problems there.
But if you did honestly send it too late, and just won't fess up, it's going to take longer to find it. That temporary credit that I've applied to your account will probably expire, and you're just going to get all pissed off again, because you're without service because the 195.00 was just applied to your account again.
Now the way that things are supposed to work is that when your temporary credit expires, I'm the one who removed it. First, I'll re-enter your account because the follow-up that I've scheduled will alert me to do so, and I'll go over the notes that I've left for myself. My perfectly detailed notes, that I remember to write, every single bloody time. Or, I'll come across one like this: FUP/rest. 3days. My detailed notes will remind me about our exact conversation, and I'll probably remember if you've been an ass during the call or not. If you were a jerk, then I'll probably just follow the handset team's advice to remove the credit because they have no clue where it is. If you were nice, I'd go further and call you back, and maybe hint for you to escalate to a supervisor. Because if you talk to my supervisor and STATE EMPHATICALLY YET NICELY, you might get a credit for the phone, even though it couldn't be located. I mean, hell, we get over 3,000 handset returns a day. We might have missed yours, we're giving you the benefit of the doubt. But if you were a jerk, we're going to assume that you still have the phone. Or just not care if your thieving neighbor stole it out of your mailbox. Because like it or not, you agreed verbally to be responsible for returning it. The terms and conditions are put out so that you are basically SCREWED if you disagree with us. You can't even sue us, and YOU AGREED to that.
But the clincher is, there are ways to help you, but if the computer systems go down at some point, or if I miss a day and my follow-ups go elsewhere there's no one to go that extra mile for you. Or, if I come across a follow-up that was assigned to me, and it reads like: remove temp crdt I will.
So sorry.