Patience

I really had my patience tested yesterday. I live out in the sticks, where we don't have the luxury of DSL or cable tv as of yet. The company I work for offered a wireless Internet card at a discounted monthly rate, so we jumped on it. Unfortunately, we don't live in a zone that has 3G, wi-fi, the Edge network, or anything else that our cellular provider offers. Our cell phone doesn't even work there. As such, the new laptop Internet card didn't work, so I called to cancel it.

I spoke with a tech support guy first, who asked if I'd rather cancel right away, or try to troubleshoot it first, as it could have been a technical issue. I replied that I'd like to try troubleshooting first, because my experience in the telecom industry has taught me that it could always be something very simple I'm just overlooking. After following all his instructions, about 45 minutes later we agreed it was in fact not going to work. He advised me he would transfer me to the department that would handle the service cancellation. That is where the real fun began.

Next I spoke to someone in billing, who asked me for my name, number, and personal info. I gave it again, then explained what happened. The guy told me he'd be happy to help, if I understood that I'd be paying for 4 days of service. I explained that I had only had the product less than a day, having just gotten it. I ordered it online, which is why the service date showed up as May 1. I told him that I would not pay for 4 days of service, especially when it has not even worked for one day! So he transfers me to another department. Oh boy, this is fun.

The next person I talked to waned to know my name, phone number, personal info, and the capital of Texas. I went through the whole story again, and told this person that I was not paying pro-rated fees or an early disconnect fee since my product was under the 30-day warranty. It hasn't worked one day, and all I want is to cancel service and send the junk, I mean product, back. He advised me that was not his department, and that he'd be transferring me to another department to handle the cancellation. Oh, joy, you mean I get to wait in que for another customer service rep?

So I wait, and about 35 minutes later I'm on the line with a technician whose name is every consonant with no vowels. He wants to know my name, number, personal info, the number of pores in my skin, and the fastest land animal. I told him the whole story, and I just want to cancel service, and send the product back that I ordered on the Premium web site. "Premium web site", he asks, "Oh, that's another department", and he promptly transferred me.

Now I wait nearly an hour, enjoying the Best of Elevator Music. Finally, I got a guy who asks me my name, number, problem, personal info, and who wrote the National Anthem. I go through all that, then he says (you might want to sit down)..."I'm going to transfer you now to the appropriate party and.."

At that moment, Bruce Banner would have cowered from me. Customer service people, you listening? Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.

I snapped. I raised my voice and said, "No, no. You are not going to TRANSFER ME TO ANOTHER DEPARTMENT. You are like, the 10th person who I was told could help me cancel my service, only to pass me on to some other person! This stops now, you are gonna cancel my service, I am not going to pay an early termination, and I'm going to send you this product back, free of charge! How freaking hard is that to understand? I just...want... to CANCEL. I have been on the line an hour and a half waiting to talk to the right person, and getting passed around is very frustrating!"

Then, like magic, I heard a keyboard clicking, and the tech said, "OK, sir, I cancelled your service, and you will not be charged an early termination fee. Is there anything else I can help you with?"

No, I told him. Then that was that. I don't understand why there was so much difficulty in solving my issue. It wasn't a broken product, it was simply not going to work because of where I live. That should have been easy to solve with a quick cancellation. I suppose anyone in customer service who handles a cancellation has to report why, and maybe it counts against their record? Dunno.

So it wasn't my shining moment, to be sure. I later at work went to the Bible during my break, to see what it says about patience. Turns out, a lot of information is in there about it. I'll share one scripture. It's from Ecclesiastes 7: 8, 9. It goes:

8: The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.
9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.

Wow. There's more, but that one stands out the most for me. I don't think I was quickly provoked, I was on the phone all evening before really losing it. But still, I felt a guilty pang and had to share my experience here. I hope my little story teaches you that the Good Book is full of information that is relevant today as it was when it was inspired, and also if you work in customer service, do me a favor. Just listen to the customer.