I thought I’d bring to light a little problem that I’ll bet we’ve all had to deal with at one time or another. That of some company making a mistake and believing it’s our responsibility to fix their screw up. Otherwise, they hit us with penalties.
You know of which I speak. Here’s a good example. Te collection agency that has mistakenly jotted down your number instead of the person they’re looking for. This happened to me when I got my office number. Apparently, the person who had it prior, was a Hispanic woman, spoke no English and had a serious problem with paying her bills. So, as fate would have it, I ended up getting all the calls intended for her.
When I’d try to connect to a human being at the collection companies to tell them they had the wrong person, I ended up in a never-ending loop of frustration that got me nowhere. Then the calls increased, so much so, that the messages completely filled my answering machine, making it impossible for me to receive any legitimate work calls. On those messages, the companies stated that it was my responsibility to let them know if I wasn’t whom they sought.
My responsibility?! Since when did doing their job right become my responsibility?
I did finally get those calls to stop. But…about a week later, more calls came in to my same work number from the very same collection companies who where now looking for a male who had skipped out on paying his bills.
Hmmm…how ironic that the same companies would be looking for a completely different person at my number—again.
That little inconvenience was resolved when I pointed out to them that their trying to track down the individual they sought was not my problem, never had been, and that by calling me night and day, cluttering up my answering machine, they had crossed the line to harassing me.
How ironic that I never got another call after that was pointed out to them.
Or what about my daughter, who had a water delivery company try to charge her $90 for a single day’s water usage? She had to spend an inordinate amount of time being transferred from one number to another before she got a human being whom she was finally able to convince that, no, in fact, she wasn’t a camel and hadn’t used that much water. Due to the hassle they’d put her through, my daughter decided that drinking tap water was far less stressful and cancelled her service.
Good for her! Wish more would follow her lead.
Or what about utility companies who miscalculate your bill and make it a living nightmare for you to A. connect with a person to dispute such, and B. once you are graced with talking to that person, either you get disconnected or have to spend forever on the phone sorting out their mess, that they’re threatening to shut off your services for.
How special!
And here’s my all-time favorite. When you demonstrate the persistence necessary to actually make it through to a real live human being to dispute a charge, after having been transferred to various parts of the world and then placed on hold for anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes (probably in the hopes that you’ll hang up), that person comes on the line and gives you attitude about how you’re in a bad mood.
What, like you’re supposed to just roll over and let them kick you some more? Ugh!
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