[Today’s run: rest day]<\/p>\n
I talked to someone at a call center today.\u00a0 They were able to answer my question.\u00a0 The answer was not the most favorable one I could have wished for, but it was ok.<\/p>\n
People at call centers don’t know how to say “goodbye”.\u00a0 They say, “Is there anything else I can help you with today?<\/em>”<\/p>\n For some reason that question just pushes my frustration button.\u00a0 Even if the call has gone well I don’t want to hear something so inane.\u00a0 Of course there are lots of things you can help me with.\u00a0 Send me some cash!\u00a0 Erase the balance on my account! Give me a free vacation to Italy!\u00a0 If that is too much, how about wishing me a nice day?<\/p>\n I don’t know if my reaction is a pet peeve or widely experienced.\u00a0 It sure works for me.<\/p>\n So my call-center guy today, after telling me that my giftcard had expired and I could no longer access the $2.60 balance, said the dreaded ITAEICHYWT? and I got off the phone before I did anything overly stupid.<\/p>\n Do they make them say that? \u00a0 Is it a method for trying to plumb the depths of the customer’s exasperation?\u00a0 [Note on account: this customer scored 7 on the exaspo-rating:\u00a0 stupid comeback to the AE query.\u00a0 A second AEQ resulted in impolite call termination]<\/p>\n Your balance is negative two hundred and thirty five dollars.\u00a0 Is there anything else I can help you with today?<\/em><\/p>\n I’m sorry Mr. Prime Minister, I can’t let you speak to the President.\u00a0 Is there anything else I can help you with today?<\/em><\/p>\n Your bail has been denied.\u00a0 Is there anything else I can help you with today?<\/em><\/p>\n The mortuary is closed and I can’t release the body.\u00a0 Is there anything else I can help you with today?<\/em><\/p>\n Things aren’t the way you want them to be and it is beyond my capacity to do much about it.\u00a0 Is there anything else I can help you with today?<\/em><\/p>\n Having written that, I feel like I’m starting to understand.\u00a0 They aren’t saying “else” meaning “in addition to”.\u00a0 They are saying “else” meaning “alternate to”.\u00a0\u00a0 I can’t do this, but is there some different<\/strong> thing I can help you with today?\u00a0 Having failed at the only task for which you have called upon my professional assistance, maybe now your boots need shined?\u00a0 something?\u00a0 anything?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [Today’s run: rest day] I talked to someone at a call center today.\u00a0 They were able to answer my question.\u00a0 The answer was not the most favorable one I could have wished for, but it was ok. People at call centers don’t know how to say “goodbye”.\u00a0 They say, “Is there anything else I can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2031,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions\/2031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}