Day 956

If you work in customer service, I apologize in advance. Probably the next time I talk with you, I'm going to be angry. Why? Because customer service can't seem to solve customer problems anymore. It doesn't matter if I'm talking to tech support about a website problem, or to my bank about an erroneous charge on my statement. Whatever the problem happens to be, it doesn't get solved. Today, I got a bill for $672 that was paid in full several months ago. I have the canceled checks from my bank that prove I paid the bill. The canceled checks don't seem to resolve anything though. I just keep getting billed again and again. Customer service agents probably don't even listen anymore. If I got screamed at eight hours a day for ineptness and broken promises, I probably wouldn't listen  either. What a horrible job being a customer service representative must be. You don't really have the authority to do anything, or fix anything, but you've still got to be friendly and keep saying "I understand" over and over again.

Janet had a similar problem last night making airline reservations. She got a brochure in the mail promising a special discount, but when she entered the promotion code on the airline website, it refused to take it. A friendly customer service representative said that the discount was real and that the promotion code should work.  Unfortunately, it didn't. I suggested just calling the airline and making reservations the old fashioned way. You know what was wrong with that plan?  The airline charges more for tickets if you talk to a real person. Catch-22. The extra charges for talking with a real live person would just about negate the discount anyway.

I'm increasingly convinced that the world is just broken. There is an election in Texas next Tuesday and as voting day approaches, there has been a relentless barrage of TV ads and robo-calls from all the candidates. The message is simple. All the candidates are essentially just saying "my opponent is a liar."  Enough already!  Maybe you're all liars, but after listening to all these negative commercials, I don't think I want to vote for any of you.

At least the dogs continue to bring pleasure.  Dot's visions isn't so good, and for the past several weeks she's been thinking that an old burned fireplace log in the neighbor's driveway is actually the neighbor's cat.  The log and the cat are about the same size and both are black, but that is the only resemblance. She has been so frantic to chase the log that I let her get up close to it today. She was so embarrassed to discover that the cat she wanted to chase was just a piece of wood that now she won't go anywhere near it.

We go to the dog park tomorrow. The sight of happy dogs playing brings a smile to my face as well.

Queenie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day