Peggy and I

Have any of you seen the commercial that has a caller trying to access a service representative and he reaches a very disheveled man in a totally trashed looking office who claims to be, "Peggy". He is a little thrown off when the obviously male voice identifies himself as ,"Peggy" "Peggy"?he responds and the voice says "Yes". He says he would like to talk about his account, Peggy says, "Yes?" He asks one question and Peggy says, "Yes" When he asks if this means she/he knows about his account, Peggy says, "Yes." He tries to continue on but Peggy chooses to just hang up. He did not ask if Peggy was in India, but I'm sure she/he was!

Well, in the last two days I have encountered a Peggy or two and have become so frustrated, stressed out , angry,and defeated that I am exhausted.

I am having some problems with my e-mail. I changed companies so my address changed. Seems like a simple thing to me to make this change. I e-mailed all of the friends on my list and they handled it perfectly. They continued e-mailing me but used my new address. It's not like I changed the whole address I just changed the supplier. However, the companies that I depend on for services of one kind or another can't seem to adjust to the change.

I thought it would be a simple thing to call and bring them up to speed on my change. I failed to take into account that human beings are no longer in vogue. We are in the automated era. I was given choices of numbers to press to get the help I was seeking. None of the choices were even slightly related to the information that I wished to impart to them. I've been advised to sit quietly and wait and eventually someone will answer. Not so! A recording answers and tells me that I have not responded in the amount of time given and I will have to hang up and try again or press some number to return to the main menu.

This is when my invective language begins. I do try again but the outcome is the same. I dial the phone number that they suggest that you call and guess what? Automation rears its ugly head again. WELCOME! (We are so glad that you are stupid enough to call us again)Please press...
My head is beginning to hurt at this point but never say never, Right? I persist and try every trick in the books and try to reach someone . I would even settle for Peggy!

The 'machine' no longer asks me to press numbers they pull out the big guns now and say,"Are you calling from your home phone?" "Say ,"Yes" if you are and "No" if you are not. (Me) "Yes", She ,"I'm sorry, it sounded like you said, "Lass." I will try again, "Are you calling from your home phone?" I shout, "YES!" "Is this a private home or a business? Answer, Private if it is private and business if it is business." Is this a private home or is this a business?" " I say, Private!" " I'm sorry,.. I don't wait this time, I don't shout, I scream, "PRIVATE! PRIVATE ! P-R-I-V-A-T-E" Now not only my head hurts but my throat ,too. I hang up, take an Advil and go lie down.

Today, I have another go at it. I have two companies that I have issues with. We again start off on the same foot as I started on yesterday. Please key in your identification number. Where will I find it? Let's see is it my social, my birthday and date, my customer #, or my ten digit phone number, or some obscure number that is filled with zero's? I struggle through and for a change I encounter a human. I knew he was human because, I'm taking no chances, I asked, "Are you a human being?" He admitted to being one so we went on from there. When he asked for my current e-mail address I proceeded to give it to him. I kid you not he said I didn't get that last part could you repeat it, please? I said, It is; a-t-t-dot n-e-t- He was very polite, but again said, "I'm sorry, but I still can't get it." I was also very polite, no shouting or screaming today, I said, "You know, BIG company ATT.net" He laughed aloud, and said, "Duh!" I laughed also and said, "Now, do you get it?" He said, "Yeah, I have it now!" We ironed out our difficulties and all was well. What a difference a human makes!

I still had one more to go. It was pretty hairy but I had no need to shout, I just needed all the patience I could muster up. I was finished for the day finally and decided to take my wounded spirit outside with my book and a glass of wine and sit on the deck and becalm myself. The weather is perfect, sunny, cool a slight breeze, and the birds were enjoying the feeder food and swooping around over head. I pulled a chair up close to the one I was sitting in so I could prop my feet up. (that's always therapeutic) and I sat back and started reading my book. Ah, peace at last. I looked up just in time to see a kamikaze fly swoop down into my glass of wine!!!

Is there no rest for the for the ...Ciao