Sometimes, like the shoelace that breaks at the end of the day, one teeny incident pushes me over the edge. I spend a lot of time trying to be honest, dependable, accurate and polite. Probably too much time. Anyway, life has been hectic but the daily ups and downs of my everyday existence are doable. It’s the continuous stream of ridiculous, non-committal, time-wasting glitches that makes my blood pressure rise and ugly words spew forth from my usually complacent mouth.
Like the conversations I’ve had at drive thru restaurants – specific, detailed orders that end up in the bag all wrong. How hard can it be to leave the pickles off the cheeseburger anyway? Or the junk mail in the mailbox, set carefully on the little sign that says “no junk mail please” placed there after filling out the post office form that said, in other words, “keep the crap out of my mailbox.” Or the no fat hazelnut latte that when first tasted ten minutes into a drive to the city, does not taste like hazelnut, does not taste like anything except milky coffee. Stuff like that.
Today, after a morning of running around, a relaxing coffee and some other stuff, I phoned the Epcor Centre to order tickets to the Allison Kraus and Union Station concert in July. Much anticipation – it promises to be good entertainment. However, I am not behind the 8-ball here – I should have been on the phone yesterday at when the tickets went on sale. Apparently this is a popular event and good tickets, especially 4 in a row, are becoming as scarce as hen’s teeth.
When the website doesn’t work, I call the box office number. A pleasant, female voice asks if she can help. “Yes,” I say. “I need 4 tickets to Allison Kraus – what are the best seats you have?” She asks for my name, address, phone number, email address, shoe size and if I’ve had a nose bleed lately (well not quite) and if I have tried ordering on line – general question to see how many people are using the website I guess. I tell her that a) it’s not working, and b) the handy little map that allowed me to choose seats in the past is gone.
No acknowledgement whatsoever. She tells me she has four seats quite a distance from where I was hoping but still good seats. I ask her if any of those seats are on the end of a row – she asks if I would like to check the map. “What map?” I ask when I should have said, “Can’t you check the map?” Whatever.
She directs me to the map and when I say I’ve got it, she says none of those seats are aisle seats. Arrgggghhh. So, because we are going with another couple, I ask her how long she can hold the seats, I need to make a call. Apparently she can’t hold the seats.
I hang up, call our friends, confirm that they still want to go, and redial the box office. “Can I help you?” says the same sweet voice. “Yes, yes you can,” I say. Those who know me will realize that I am getting a bit tense because I am talking like Phineous now. I ask her for four seats to Allison Kraus and by the way, are you the same person I was talking to about 3 minutes ago? “Perhaps,” she says. Perhaps???? Perhaps???? WTF?
sadly, it doesn't matter who you call now days, Good customer service is a thing of the past and people annoy me to!!..
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