Knock, Knock...
Who has the smartest employees? Microsoft? Google? Netflix? When I was a kid, I thought the smartest companies were IBM and Bell Telephone. Bell seemed like the coolest place to work. They had a network across the country before people knew what networks were.
Today I had to call the phone company because they messed up my bill. Just by calling them, they had my phone number, right? So what's the first thing their computerized voice asks me when it picks up the phone? It wanted to know my phone number. Why? I'd like to know. I punch in my number, and get connected to a service representative, and what's the first thing she asks me? You got it. She wanted my phone number.
If the phone company is so smart, so technologically advanced, why does it need my number three times? Maybe they don't trust me. Like Alice in Wonderland: "What I tell you three times is true."
I no longer want to work for the phone company.
Blog Tag: Chatter
Posted 6/20/2005 10:29:00 PM
L
On 6/20/2005 11:49 PM, 
Melissa said...
On 6/20/2005 11:59 PM, dkgoodman said...
On 6/21/2005 3:20 AM, Michelle said...
On 6/21/2005 10:56 AM, Melissa said...
On 6/21/2005 11:23 AM, dkgoodman said...
On 6/21/2005 11:47 AM, Melissa said...
On 6/21/2005 1:12 PM, dkgoodman said...
On 6/21/2005 1:50 PM, Melissa said...
8 Comments:
I can't speak for the phone company, but in the hospital, I'm the fourth person to ask patients the same set of questions if they come in through ER. It's not my fault, I have to ask the questions and patients are so angry by the time I get my turn.
I can understand their frustration. I'm frustrated too, but sometimes we get different answers each time a question is asked. Or perhaps someone recorded the answers wrong. Asking the same questions by different people sometimes reveals significant information, like allergies that someone forgot about.
It also occasionally happens that a consent is for surgery on, say, the right leg, but it's actually the left leg that needs fixing. Sometimes it's not until the fourth nurse asks "Why are you here?" that a mistake is discovered. This question, by the way, scares the patients because they think that we don't know what we are doing. But, it is a required question. What would happen if we just guessed and were sometimes wrong?
Please be patient with the poor people who work for the phone company. Maybe people sometimes call them from friend's homes or businesses, and they can't be sure whose bill is being questioned unless they ask. Maybe some idiot in charge came up with stupid rules that everyone must follow. Who knows?
Didn't you use to have to ask people with computer problems if their computer was plugged in? Remember the response? Please take pity on us. :)
If I'm going to have my leg operated on, you can ask me six times which leg it is! I'll even write on the legs with magic marker: This one! and Don't you be touching this one!
But the phone company? If Jack in the Box asked me three times what my order was, I'd go someplace else. And they'd probably still get my order wrong. :)
If I asked a co-worker out on a date three times, I could be fired for sexual harassment. Not to mention divorced. :)
Four times? Really? I guess it beats cutting the wrong thing. That would be bad.
So Dave, did you end up speaking to someone in India, or is it only in Australia we outsource all the phone company jobs to India!
Every once in awhile, I'll come across someone who has NO NO NO written in black magic marker on the knee or hip that is not being operated on. I always compliment them on their smart thinking. Someday when I have my hips replaced, I'm going to do the same thing. In a hospital, you can't be too careful.
By the way, patients get asked the same questions more than four times. I'm just fourth in line. After me comes the surgeon, then anesthesia, perhaps consulting doctors and OR nurses.
Sometimes patients will ask why we can't just look at the chart and see what other people have written. We can't do this because we can't read each other's handwriting. Sometimes in frustration I'll open the chart for the patient and say, "Can you read this?" After a little grumbling they will start answering questions again.
Surprisingly, Michelle, my telco's phone reps all seem to be based in the U.S. Not necessarily in the same state I live in, but at least in the same country.
Melissa, I hope I never have to go to a hospital. Stuff like that drives me crazy. Health care reform. Now. That's what we need. :)
We do need health care reform along with universal health insurance, but I'll save that rant for another day. :)
By the way, your header says that today is Monday. Hitting the refresh key does not help. Is the problem with my computer or are you trying to confuse us? It doesn't take much to confuse me, incidently, given my hair color and all :)
The header tells you what day the posts under it were written. :)
Silly me. I'm having a blonde day. :)
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