November 15, 2012
-
Excellent Service
The dogs are bored.
One is lying in a lump behind my chair (the lump is well-placed in a patch of warm sun) and the other came in from outside. He appears to be headed for the Boring Couch, where old dogs and women with hip replacements lay.
the cat is curled up on the top of the tool box in the sun.
Earlier today we visited an old haunt, our cell phone service center. There was a time, many months ago, when my cell phone service and my Internet came from the same source. Except we were on the very edge of the service area and often my Internet service didn’t ‘come’ at all. It took me a long time to get that: that you really can appear on television as a kindly, avuncular man with the customer’s best interests at heart and still sell service in an area where you can’t provide the service. And seem surprised when the customer complains. And respond, essentially, with, “Well, YOU signed the contract…” I had 30 days to figure out the problem. Didn’t make it. The contract was for two years.
We broke it.
But we still have the erratic phone service. It turns out I have erratic phone service because my actual physical phone has issues. Nancy has erratic phone service because she can spin her battery like it’s a bottle (this means the battery is warped, apparently, and therefore not much good.) Our contract expires in a day and a half.
In the meantime the man who sold me the service for all of this stuff has moved on. The company has built a boatload of new towers, decommissioning the ones that no longer work, and I would be surprised by how much better my service either is or will be in the next few months.
I would, I agreed, but I have a lifetime limit for lies any one particular provider can tell me and this particular service has exceeded my limit.
They understand.
They’re nice guys trying to do a job. They told me stories. They charged Nancy’s battery. There’s nothing they can do for my phone, even for two days: the devise rejects revision.
My cell phone, when run on the diagnostic machine, gave them the first red dot they’ve ever seen. Orange means it doesn’t work very well. Nancy has excellent service.
Three days ago Nancy tried to return her hospital bed to the people who delivered it. She laid on her couch with her cell phone on her chest and waited for the pick-up/delivery guy to call her. He finally showed up at the door. She said, “I was right here–my phone never rang.”
He said, “it’s flashing red–that means you’re not getting service.”
I can only presume from that the service we are not getting is excellent.
