Customer Service needs a funeral!

What the hell happened to the world.  I just made 5 phone calls, one to Mexico, to try and buy a bus ticket for my daughter.  I wanted to purchase it and have it waiting for her at the bus station.  Turned into a 45 minute affair.  I was ready to drive 300 miles just to strangle somebody, anybody.

I have done this before with no problems.  But today that was all changed.  I called the 800 number listed for the Bus company.  I survived the phone menu with my patience still going strong.  The very nice lady gave me a phone number to the terminal of origin.  Ok that made sense.  I call the terminal and get Gomer from Mayberry.  He tells me that he can't help me because Greyhound doesn't allow him to sell tickets over the phone.  Odd, I could have sworn I called Trailways but ok.  I ask who do I call to get someone who can.  He says call Greyhound.  Ok, I guess that's what I'll do.  So I call Greyhound.  I get soemone with a very thick spanish accent.  Oh no!  Not the outsourced customer service call! Yup sure is.  That means I have to pretend to be deaf in order to get through the conversation.

 Here's a trick I learned about this situation.  Tell them you are hard of hearing.  You hearing aid doesn't work well with your new cell phone.  It forces them to talk slowly and loudly, over-enunciating every word.

Back to my morning.  So he tells me that the bus I am trying to get a bus ticket for is not a Greyhound Bus and they can't sell it to me.  Duh!  I tell them  I know that but was told to call them.  They insist they cannot sell it to me.  I ask once again if the know who I should call to get this resolved.  The guy tells me to drive to the bus station and buy one.  Seriously as if that never occurred to me.  I try to explain if I were to do that I might as well just pick my daughter up.  It is 300 miles away.  I think I would have tried that before making three phones calls if I could.  After hanging up on Barnytez from the Mexican Mayberry Terminal, I go back to where I started.

The really nice lady answers again.  My patience is blown but I am glad to be talking to someone I can understand.  I explain my little journey and she says she will call me back with someone who can help me.

Mike form Great Falls Mt calls me back and we get it done with no problem.  He even explained the whole that some agents stopped selling tickets over the phone.  He explained that they are Trailways which is a small subdivision of Greyhound.  He explained they just outsourced their entire customer service department.
After we were done, my faith in customer service was restored a little bit.

What happened America.  I have two main theories here.

1) Technology has made us anitsocial to the point that we can no longer communicate with decency and kindness anymore.  It's not "talk to the hand", it's "use the internet".  Companies would rather you use their websites than deal with you.  The man in Mexico told me to just go online and deal with it. No lie!  I  can't.  You can't have the ticket at the terminal of origin if you buy it online.  You have to print it, then overnight it

2) Technolgy had made us lazy.   Remember if you had a question and needed help with a problem, you called customer service.  You explained your issue and they responded with "Let's see what we can do about that."  Together you found either a solution or compromise.  You hung up satisfied even if they couldn't help you.  At least they tried.  Now you are told more often than not, "I can't help you."  click done over.  That is the end of the conversation.  They have done their job, goodbye.


Gallagher the comedian did a bit about twenty years ago and it still hold true.

Gas stations.  Gas was 39.99 cents per gallon.  You pulled up into the station.  I nice young industrious man comes to your window.  He asks "What can I do for you today."  You say fill it up  or even two dollars worth.  He happily puts your gas in, washes your windshield, checks your oil, offers to fill it if neccesary, and says "Thank You and Have a great day."  All for 39.99 cents a gallon.

Gas is now $3.99 per gallon.  You either have to have a credit card to prepay so you can pump your own, or make the journey into the supermarket convenience store.  Face an overworked irritated clerk and pay;
After waiting for the guy in front you to finish buying his 50 scratch off's.  Which he is scratching as she is ringing him up.  He usually wins another 10 dollars and needs another 10.

You try to clean your own windshield but no one filled the bucket again.  The spongy thing looks like someone dipped it oil anyways.  All that service for $3.99 per gallon.


 

Newly Released Parents.

Well it's been awhile so here we go.  My youngest is about to leave home.  My husband and I are soon to be on our own.  Alone, together, without the guidance of our children.  They are afraid for us.  They are convinced we will either die from some careless accident or suffer ill health without them.  WE are sad to have my son leaving us, but we have plans.  We have plans without them.  WE were so broken up about it, we booked a cruise and plan on buying a Harley.  We plan on riding all kinds of places, Grand Canyon,  Yellow Stone, all kinds of places.  I think this shocked the kids.  They expected us to sit around a grow old and feeble.  My daughter worries about us being unsupervised.  She feels we will die of boredom.  but when we shows signs of life, they get so upset with us.
      The other day, we were all at Wallymart.  We were perusing the isles with no real plan.   My husband was leading the way.  He is good these kinds of trips.  No plan, no direction.  He stops in front of the KY display with all kinds of products.  I stop to see what he is looking at.  WE turn to see the back of our daughter running away.  My son has exited the situation so quickly, we didn't see where he went.  I did hear someone groan "Oh God!".  Might have been him, not sure though.   Apparently we aren't supposed to learn new things either.
       After years of worrying about kids, teaching kids, and fighting with kids; we are ready to be empty nesters.  We prefer the title of  "newly released parents".    You see, the teen years was  a kind of probationary period for us.  They left us alone for short periods of time to see if we could take care of ourselves.  They added to our responsibilities (extra car insurance, later curfews resulting in later bedtimes for us) to see how we handled it.  They allowed us to make our own dietary decisions (stopped coming home for dinner).  Seems we passed cause they are comfortable leaving now.  My daughter still calls everyday to make we are ok.  My son has far more confidence in us.  He said he might visit in a couple of months.
      So when we exhibit behavior contrary to what they expect, they get upset with us.  The more they worry, the more we act out.  It's great!