Call Me Crazy!

"Your call is very important to us. Please remain on the line for the next available operator." Trying to accomplish a few things at my desk while waiting on the line for some assistance from AT&T allowed me to think back to the olden days, or at least what were the olden days for me. Good old Ma Belle. It seems to me not all that long ago that you could contact the phone company, or any utility company for that matter, and speak to a real live person. Usually you were assisted in a timely manner and given the answers you needed. They may not always have been the answer you wanted, but it certainly answered the question you had.


Fast forward to our fast paced world where we get to hurry up and wait. Every utility company starts out with the same recording that your call is important, but due to the unusually high call volume you may be waiting on hold for an undetermined amount of time. If you'd like you can visit their website to take care of some of your requests but otherwise you may hold. So we wait. We really want to talk to a person in hopes of getting clarity, resolution and satisfaction. That's quite a wish list, isn't it??


As I tap my pen waiting for the next available operator I glance at the timer on my phone. Gee, five minutes have passed. Finally a male answers the phone and thanks me profusely for my business and wants to know how he can help me. I tell him that I'd like to get a detailed call history for my bill and wonder why I can't find it on the website. He doesn't know how to do that and will give me to the department that will help me get the pages that I want, but asks me if he's answered all my questions today. Not really, I think but go ahead and pass me on. Please hold on and thanks again, he says, for my business! I'm put into the next queue. Why is it that you can't be connected immediately to someone when you've already done your time in the prior holding pattern? I've never understood that. It just seems more confusing than ever.

Do you really think they're scrambling to answer all the incoming calls like we do at our smaller business? Are they concerned that someone may be left on hold for an inordinate amount of time? Or is it a smoke or coffee break time? Hmmmm...

Operator number two answers and begins her speel by thanking me for calling and asks how she can help me. I explain that I am trying to find or receive a detailed call history for my phone bill. It doesn't come with the bill automatically any longer and I am trying to determine if there is a way I can cut down on the cost of my phone. She clicks around while I sit quietly waiting. Next she asks me to please hold while she checks on this for me. Tick, tick, tick. The counter on my phone says I've been on this call a total of 12 minutes now. The operator comes back on the line, apologizes for the wait and says she's trying to find out how I can get the information I seek. She will be right back.

Humming some little tune to keep myself relaxed, I continue to wait. She is back to say that she will connect me to another person who will take my information so they can send me the pages I want and that it will cost me $5.00 per page. Huh??? I have to pay for this information? Yes, I do. I ask again as to why I can't find out this information on their website. "Please wait, I'll check again." Humm, humm, humm.

The third time I speak to the operator she says that they in fact, do have a department that will help walk me through the internet website so I can find my call history. Like the original customer service representative, she doesn't know how to help me with that either. I wonder why this is a secret on the website? Have I overlooked a simple direction? Evidently not, as there is a whole deparment waiting to walk me through this passage. She offers to transfer me yet again and I explain to her that the time has passed (it's now been 20 minutes) for me to move on and is there a direct number that I can call. She gives me that number which I will use as soon as I have another 20 minutes to kill.

Ain't progress wonderful?