Reason #2

2. Why am I the One Doing This?
In this section, author Lynne Truss says that in our society, we, as consumers, are required more and more to handle our own problems. I was talking to my brother and sister-in-law about this the other day. In the old days, you could call up the company, talk to a real person, state your problem, "I am calling because you've sent my bill to the wrong address three times now", and that person would apologize, and direct you to someone who would actually help you. I related an incident that happened to me, not too long ago, when I called our district office to speak to someone. I said, "May I speak to Cathy Clover (not her real name) please?" The secretary said, "She's not in today." Period. That was it. Simply, "She's not in today." No offer to take a message, no information regarding whether or not she might be in tomorrow, no nothing. There was not even a perfunctory, "I'm sorry." So then it was up to ME to extract this information from the sealed vault and then decide whether to email, call back, or leave a message. Another example: In lining up to take care of business, you discover you're in the WRONG line-you SHOULD be in the cash only line, or in the credit card only line. Or, you go somewhere to resolve an issue, and you are told that person is only there on the 3rd Tuesday of months which have a "b" in them, only if it is not raining, and, it is up to YOU to remember that. Truss says that in asking customers to perform more and more functions of a business (Online banking anyone? Self-check in? How about pulling your own tooth out?), businesses are actually considering us as "co-op employees". They tell us is for our convenience, but it's actually for theirs.

My primary care physician is in a rather large practice, with probably 15 or 20 other doctors. When you call his office, you wade through a phone menu that first separates the new patients from the existing patients. Then from there, you can select if you want an appointment, or if you want to call your physician-nurse team, or if you need to speak to the business office, etc etc, then from there, you select WHICH physician-nurse team, or WHICH business office, then you get to press whether you have an insurance claim pending or if you have medicare, etc., THEN you get to leave a message on somebody's voice mail. Yeah. This is for MY convenience. I think the ultimate, though, is that the city set up "satellite offices" for you to conduct your car tag/property tax business, with extended hours and actually maybe, close to where you might live or shop. Then they tack on a surcharge for this convenience. You have to PAY for the priviledge of customer service. If you don't choose to pay extra, you can take 1/2 day off work and park with the hundreds of others, wait in what you hope is the right line, and finally reach a station where the stars will have lined up just right and you can transact your business with a minimum of surliness from the clerk who hates her/his job and can't wait to get home to watch "Survivor".

We aren't living in Mayberry anymore. You can't stroll down the street past Floyd's barbershop and go into the sheriff's office to pay a parking ticket Barney gave you last week. (Speaking of paying tickets, you should try to navigate your way through City Hall to conduct buisness. Be sure to again, request at least 1/2 day off work.)

I realize as part of a large school district, that I'm one of those you reach after working your way through a menu of choices on the phone, and that I have inconvenient office hours as I work at three different schools and depending on what school your kid goes to, I may or may not be at your kid's school when you have a question. Believe me, I understand your frustration. But I at least, return calls and apologize for my crazy schedule, dictated by someone bigger than me. That's more than you'll get from AT & T.