Customer "Service" My A$$

Gah!  I have this aversion to dealing with phone call-customer service.  I cannot stand it.  I avoid it like the plague.  I shudder at the thought.  The problem is, once in awhile, you have to call in to get something changed.  Today, I decided to finally call my cable/phone/internet provider and have them merge my billing with my cell phone.  It's all with the same company, but because we ordered the cell afterwards, they never put it on the same bill.  I've been wanting to call for about 6 months, but have put it off, over and over again.  I seriously would rather pull my eyeballs out with a pair of tweezers than call them, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

I made myself sit down with my bills and pick up the phone and call.  I listened to Sally the automated voice ask me question after question, knowing the end result would just be talking to a customer service person, but knowing that if I just hit "0" she would tell me that that was not an option and start over.  I finally got through to a rep and to my surprise he was nice.  Not only was he nice, he actually sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and was able to help right away!  You could have knocked me over with a feather!

It soon became apparent that I was right the first time.  Although this guy was nice, and seemed to want to help, he was having computer problems, resulting in me being put on hold five times while he sorted things out.  At one point I glanced at my phone and saw that I'd been on the phone over 20 minutes!  Good Lord!  I could do a full sink of dishes, switch the laundry, change a diaper and feed my dogs with time to spare in 20 minutes!  No flippin wonder I hate making these calls!  They take forever!  When we moved last year, by the time I'd gotten done with switching all of our services I wanted to take my life, or at least eat a giant tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream to soothe the frustration!

The guy today tried to put me on hold a final time and I told him that I didn't have much more time.  He then offered to call me back when the system was working again.  I said okay, but had no intention of actually answering the phone.  When it rang less than a minute later I did answer and was pleased to be told the changes were made. Of course I couldn't just say thank you and hang up...I was thanked for calling and asked if there was anything else they could do for me.  I know they need to do this, but seriously, by this point I just want to hang up and not feel held hostage any longer, but my polite Canadian upbringing prevents that!  So I sat through it, answered his questions and waited to be dismissed.  Gah!  I guess it could have been much worse!