Three-Letter Acronyms & Four-Letter Words

I called back on the land-line and proceeded to sit on hold for a while more.

When an operator finally answered I asked if they could help me with U-Verse, she proceeded to tell me that she could not and that I would need to be transferred.

I informed her that the last time they tried that I was disconnected.

She told me that there was a notice about the U-Verse's call center having phone problems. That must be where the "Due to an emergency condition we are unable to answer your call, please hang-up and try again later." came from.

Jeremy and I joked around about the "Emergency" and tried to figure out why they would use the word "Emergency" vs say "Technical Difficulties" or something like that.

The best that we could come up with was that someone was in the call center running amok. Another notion was that maybe they had run out of coffee.

Regardless, it was a BS afternoon. I got some work done at least, and I was able to do a couple of loads of laundry.

The thing that aggravates me the most is that now I am going to have to re-arrange my schedule again to meet up with the install guys, whenever that comes about.

I left them a note on the porch to call my cell.

I have plenty more I could gripe about this whole thing.

But I will close out with the fact that the automated hold announcements did inform me that their call center is typically not that busy between Wednesday and Friday, recommending that I call back then.

Ummmm, yeah ok. So you know your call center has increased load on Mondays & Tuesdays. Wouldn't that make you think to bring in MORE agents on those days to field the increased number of phone calls?

Now, they might be doing that, but given that I was hold for a good chunk of the afternoon between 2 and 5:30pm, I think they could stand to train a few of the operators that answered the phone that couldn't help me.

Oh yeah, ok last thing!

The last round of waiting on hold that I did, I called in was greeted by an operator that couldn't help me. I asked her to transfer me. I am on hold for maybe like 20 minutes or so, then the music cuts out and I hear someone asking if they could help me.

SCORE!!! SWEET!!! EXCELLENT!!!

Ben: "Can you help me with U-Verse Service?"

Operator: "No sir, sorry I will have to transfer you to the U-Verse department."

Ben: "But I've been waiting for the U-Verse department."

Operator: "....."

So did the operator steal me out of the U-Verse queue and thus give away my spot to someone else?

Or was it that I was never properly transferred before and rather just put on hold?

I will never know, because I hung-up at 5:30 to get ready to go to the SXSW mixer, which was kind of fun. I will post a little bit about that later.

Laterz.

Ummmm, yeah, that was the automated prompt said to me as I waited on hold for someone over at AT&T to answer the phone and give me some answers about why the install folks that were supposed to be here between 12 and 2pm central haven't shown up yet (notably, it is 4:38pm central).

I have sat on hold a few times now with their staff.

Now, I think I might have some sort of major issue with my install request. As their automated system is unable to find any status related to my phone number.

My cell phone ran out of juice while waiting on hold, which unfortunately I at first interpreted as a good thing, because all I had heard was the hold music stop (mind you it is better than average hold music).

So I began to say 'Hello, Hello?'

Then I looked down and saw that my phone was displaying a low power alert message.

Shoot!

Well, I am supposed to be going to a SXSW mixer at 7pm downtown, similar to the one I went to last year.

However, if these guys don't show up soon, that won't be happening.

Bummer!

Ok, I need to get back to editing a Statement of Work.

Laterz