Public Service and Responsibility

Wow! It happened again just yesterday . . . I had to block my credit card, and in addition to that, I spent 5 hours going through the Comcast process which requires me to wait, wait, and wait some more—intense toleration. I suppose it’s all in a days work for big business, but to us human beings it’s torture!

After processing the credit card from the day before, I had the task of updating all of the relevant accounts affected.

I did all I could think of, and as I was settling in to do my writing the idea hit me to check the internet/cable account. There was a pending charge of $96. This was set up as an auto-pay. I had spoken to someone a week earlier to set me up with an unspecified service and this changed my cost from $44 to $96 a month.

I went through everything on their site trying to find specifics.

I used “chat” to get an answer to my question: ”Are you charging me for cable?”, but they couldn’t give me an answer.

After an hour or so of struggle and learning, I began to realize I was talking to a computer program that was made to make me think there was a real person on the other end.

I spent another hour or so going through their website and learning as much as I could. I searched everywhere for a phone number so that I could talk to an actual person, but I couldn’t find one. Finally, I called downstairs and was fortunate to get Mandy who is the person on staff who manages the Hotel’s cable.

I could almost see her eyes roll when I told her what was happening. Mandy has tended to the residents cable services for many years— she’s a veteran of problem solving . She explained that when she would call she’d be put on hold and given automated information. She would wait and insist that she talk to a real person. She gave me the phone number and inferred that I should expect to sit on hold for a while.

I followed Mandy’s instructions. I waited for two hours, all the while listening to a loop of a recorded message informing me that “No one is available at the moment, please stay on the line”, followed by the haunting repetition of the most atrocious music.

Finally after more than an hour I hear a real voice saying, “How can I help you?”

I was having to hold myself together—I was frustrated. I started to excitedly explain my circumstances. When I finished there was only silence. I said, “Hello”, and then I waited—there was no one on the line. A couple of minutes later the recording began looping. I didn’t want to hang up and start from scratch, so I decided to ride it out.

After another 15 minutes I got a person online again. I responded differently this time. I had time to think about my frustration and decided I should separate my feelings from the task at hand, and so I spoke to him courteously about my problem. I greeted him humbly and let go of the frustration. 

I explained to him that my cable service had been cut off. He asked me to wait while he looked up what I was unable to find online. After asking questions for about 40 minutes or so he canceled my present account and set me up with a new one. He realigned my cable with the Hotel’s.

We had to wait for some routing to be completed. While we waited he asked me, “Do you think we will get through this?” It was clear he was talking about the coronavirus and all the chaos going on around us. The question was outside the “business thing”.

I felt like I was being served. He was the person that I needed—he was empathetic to my circumstances.

He then stated, “It’s going to be ok.” I responded by telling him that I had my doubts, knowing that the coronavirus has not been brought under control, there are going to be a lot of people who will go without food and housing.

He asked me if I had kids, grandkids, and I said yes and that overall it was a good experience, though I worried about what was coming, what will happen in the near future. 

He said he would like to have a big family. I replied by saying something about the present circumstances in the world making that difficult. There seemed to be an idealistic innocence about him. He stated again that it would all turn out ok.

I said that there will be millions of people who will have nothing—the data isn’t promising. Did you know that since humans started living with agriculture that their population has been increasing exponentially? We used to count human population in thousands, we are now counting in the billions—8 billion currently. There are now 360,000 children born everyday on the planet. He gasped. 

I then said I would like it all to get over soon, but we have to be realistic about what is known.

He agreed with this but wasn’t going to let go of his optimism.

It took another few minutes of waiting and then he said, “Ok, you’re all set”.  

The setup process was complete. I felt like we had made a human connection. I told him how grateful I was for his help.

I learned something about controlling my feelings when there is reason to be disrupted. I think of the millions of citizens who cannot afford $96 a month for cable services. Many are not just in crisis, but are also isolated from news and information. This whole experience felt like a “1984″-style scheme by the telecommunications industry. The unrelenting abuse of their customers—they hide their malfeasance behind a complexity of technical knowledge that the average consumer has no understanding of. It sure feels like these tech companies have no regard, concern, or respect for the very people they are supposed to be serving. People are hurting. Big Tech is using our current dilemma to boost profits. What’s wrong with this picture?