Customer Service? Does ANYONE know what that means anymore? (Yes, I AM aware that I’m sounding like a grumpy ninety-year-old.)
1. I have been trying ALL DAY (since about 9:00 this morning) to get through to the federal government’s 1-800 number for the child tax benefit (’cause I’m an idiot and forgot to apply for it back when Maddie was born FOUR AND A HALF YEARS AGO). All day I’ve heard that annoying “beep, beep, beep” which means that either everyone else in Canada is desperate to know when their child tax benefit cheque is arriving (so that they can spend it on beer and popcorn, according to one of our classy politicians), OR everyone at the office is lying on a beach somewhere, with their phone receivers lying abandoned on their desks. And THAT’S what they get the big government bucks for. (Yes, I can say that now, since I’m no longer a government employee.)
2. I went to MTS (the local phone company) at lunch time to make some changes to our account, and the customer service agent behind the desk led me to a little kiosk, handed me the phone receiver, quick-dialed the number for me and said “you’ll have to talk to our customer service agent for that”. Huh? Did I miss something? You have a whole store in the mall just so you can send me to a phone to make the call myself? What are all those fancy computers behind your desk for – SOLITAIRE? To add insult to injury, I was put on hold for 10 minutes. So I sat in this stupid little kiosk while Mr. Customer Service Agent played Solitaire (or something like that). Gee thanks Mister. Why don’t you just go join all those other customer service representatives at the beach?