Holy mary mother of high! I guess I haven't had caffeine in awhile, but I was craving a Mountain Dew this afternoon at school, so I had one.
I didn't think much about it until about 15 minutes after I began sipping away at that sweet nectar of the gods, when everything, and I mean everything, just became utterly euphoric. We're talking high as a kite, my friends ... angels singing to me from the clouds, birds speaking to me in a private language of love, people walking down the hall became my best friends ...
What the hell do they put in that stuff? Is it crack? No, I think it's probably better than crack. And it's legal! For only 75 cents you can have your own can of mountainous glory, a little bit of dewey heaven. True love in a little green can.
What's frightening is that, back in Boston, I used to drink 24-48 ounces of this stuff a day. EVERY DAY. And I don't recall ever feeling like I did today. Which leads me to think that the calm, subdued personality that everyone says I embody is really just part of a 12-year sugar crash from drinking so much Mountain Dew in the past. One of these days, I'll finally come out of it and be back to my pre-San Francisco energetic self.
But until then, I will savor my not-too-frequent adventures into caffeineland where the colors are brighter, the people are happier and I can jump buildings in a single bound!
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
customer disservice
Is it me, or has customer service gotten worse at just about every company out there?
I could strangle about 50 people right now for wasting my time dealing with shit they screwed up. Since I returned from my trip I've had problems with SFSU, Amazon, Verizon Rebates, Speakeasy, the DPT (well, they have always been a pain in the ass), and my worker's comp insurance company. And though I can write emails and letters and make phone calls ... there is little I can do to avoid the incompetency other than choose not to use their service (which is just not possible in most of those cases).
So what is one to do? Go postal? Sit back and take it like a chump? Breathe in, breathe out? Start ninja training?
Most of these places you can't get someone on the phone to save your life. If you do, it's after waiting for 40 minutes on the phone just to be told to send an email to their customer service.
It really seems like this has all gotten worse lately. Most of the organizations I listed above do not outsource their CS to other countries, so I don't think it's a matter of globalization of industry .. or maybe it is a side effect of that trend since more people are being asked to do more work with less resources in order to compete with companies who have outsourced their labor.
I don't know what it is, but it sure makes those places with good customer service stand out like angels.
If there is one benefit from all this hassle, it's that it has re-awakened my drive to only buy products from companies I want to support and from companies who actually value their customers. I know there are many of these organizations out there and they are going to get as much of my business as possible. I'll take courtesy over convenience most days.
I could strangle about 50 people right now for wasting my time dealing with shit they screwed up. Since I returned from my trip I've had problems with SFSU, Amazon, Verizon Rebates, Speakeasy, the DPT (well, they have always been a pain in the ass), and my worker's comp insurance company. And though I can write emails and letters and make phone calls ... there is little I can do to avoid the incompetency other than choose not to use their service (which is just not possible in most of those cases).
So what is one to do? Go postal? Sit back and take it like a chump? Breathe in, breathe out? Start ninja training?
Most of these places you can't get someone on the phone to save your life. If you do, it's after waiting for 40 minutes on the phone just to be told to send an email to their customer service.
It really seems like this has all gotten worse lately. Most of the organizations I listed above do not outsource their CS to other countries, so I don't think it's a matter of globalization of industry .. or maybe it is a side effect of that trend since more people are being asked to do more work with less resources in order to compete with companies who have outsourced their labor.
I don't know what it is, but it sure makes those places with good customer service stand out like angels.
If there is one benefit from all this hassle, it's that it has re-awakened my drive to only buy products from companies I want to support and from companies who actually value their customers. I know there are many of these organizations out there and they are going to get as much of my business as possible. I'll take courtesy over convenience most days.
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