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FacebookTrue story: I learned how to tell time on an analog clock. I remember they taught us that in kindergarten or preschool or something like that. I was quite proud of myself. I understood all the numbers; I knew terms like “half-past” and “quarter till.” I knew that you had to look at the hands and multiple by five. Math was always easy for me and even at five years old, I had no problem looking at a clock and knowing exactly what time it was. I remember being quite proud of my accomplishment. It was the 80s and pretty much everyone told time by looking at a clock with a face. But the day I was really thrown off was when my mother asked me to find out what time it was and the only source I had was a digital clock. There I was, staring at a set of numbers that meant nothing to me. No little hand. No big hand. Not ever that pesky second hand that raced around the clock with alarming speed. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t read it. The numbers made no sense. I return to my mother and told her the problem: I found a clock but I had no idea how to read it.
And somehow I still ended up in the gifted classes at my grade school.
I totally forgot to talk about my Verizon experience last week. I called the evil conglomerate on Friday because my DSL bill went up unexpectedly. The bill said since my contract was up, I would be moved to a higher rate plan unless I went to their website. As expected, the site was down the first couple of times I tried it. But when I was finally able to access my account, it said nothing about the rate hike and offered little assistance (typical). So I had no choice but to call them up.
It was a call I was dreading because I knew what I was getting myself into. I would face numerous voice prompts “to assist (my) call”–none of which would pertain to my problem. How come every time I gotta call a company, the voice prompts never answer my questions or help with my problems? Either I never have a routine problem or the majority of customers calling for help are idiots. Who needs a voice prompt to tell you the mailing address or how much your most recent bill is? Doesn’t everybody do everything online nowadays?
Anywhos, this experience wasn’t bad. Instead of the usual 20 minutes on hold, someone actually picked up within 30 seconds–it caught me off-guard. And even more shocking, the first person I spoke to was actually able to help with my problem. Instead of having to be transferred to a different department, I actually was talking to the right person on the first person. Not only that, the person was actually intelligent. I spoke to someone who actually spoke English. An individual who actually possessed the know-how and desire to explain my bill and correct it. At the end of the call, he asked me to rate the experience.
“I can honestly, unequivalently say this has been hands-down the most easy and pleasant experience I have ever had dealing with Verizon,” I told him.
What can I say: miracles happen every day.