Posted On: Monday - June 3rd 2024 6:37PM MST
In Topics: Curmudgeonry Big-Biz Stupidity Customer Care
It's hard to start off the blogging week many times due to the confusion on what's coming after a day or day and a half, off the editing window. There are required follow-up posts from recent or long ago others. There is new stuff I read over the weekend*. There are ideas for posts that have been in my head for a while, some with links and pictures already saved.
When I don't know which way to go, usually some stupidity gets foisted upon me before I can even sit down to write. This is the usual Customer Care/Curmudgeonry/ Big Biz stupidity, but I may have a bigger point here.
It could have been very simple to deal with the dentist had I my Dental Plan card. I just couldn't find it. It shouldn't be so hard to get the numbers off of it from my company, the health care plan company, or just the website. "OK, I'll get this and call you back in 1/2 an hour."
Well, it took every bit of that 1/2 hour. There were no company direct numbers, as they offload this stuff. The company website just sent me straight over to the "Benefits"** site. Because of the Hippo Laws, I think, one must provide some special long-lost login to the website. I tried various ways. 5-10 minutes went by, though this was overlapping with the "customer care" calls.
First I made 2 different phone calls to 2 different "800" numbers, mashing as many "0"'s as it took to get live people. From the names, both of these were Black! women, the 1st with a more hard-core Black! name and the service to match. At least I was told that, though the dental plan name was the same, there was a separate company dealing with this. The 3rd number, more directly to the dental people, should have been the charm. It took 3 calls though:
1) After being asked to type dos for Espanol , I mashed enough zeros to get to Virtual Alex. I don't talk to Virtual Anybody, so I kept going with the zeros. I ended up with about 6 zeros showing when I got told, pertly, as usual, "OK, I'll get you to someone who can help." First, though, I was told I could do a survey afterwards - that'd have been lit - and then the call was answered but with nobody, no music, no nothing, going on for 2 minutes. I had to bail on that one.
2) This time I dialed zeros to get to and through Virtual Alex, but non-Virtual Someone Else in marketing or IT had previously decided that that was too quick, and I couldn't be trusted. I was told "Goodbye" fairly nicely by the software and hung up on.
3) The same thing, but with a little more care put into my zero-mashing, got me to a girl in the Philippines. (I asked.) Her accent was unusually tough at one point, so I had to ask her to say each word slowly. Still, after telling her nicely (she sounded sweet) that "No, I don't have that Member #, or I wouldn't have had to call here", and her getting other info. from me, I got what I needed, which is the numbers that are on that card that will probably turn up in the next few days.
There was no time for the survey. How could I do a survey anyway, when I hadn't see her legs?
I checked when I called the dentist back. Yep, 1/2 hour had been wasted. Now, I know that the idea of all these attempts at making me deal only with software is to reduce the number of employees everywhere, or at least American ones. That the whole process is much more stressful than dealing with one individual, say, the company, that could just look up what was on that card doesn't bother these Big Biz honchos.
There's something more to this, whether part of the Globalist programme or just a happy side effect. Personal local contact is being blocked as much as possible. Someone from my company is someone whose name I could remember. I could remember whether he is knowledgable or helpful. Nope, you are forced to deal with software, or at the best, someone on the far side of the world whom you'll never meet nor talk to again. I don't like any of this!
* Yes, I should stay off the internet completely, but "should" ain't "do", unfortunately.
** Long ago "benefits" started to mean health care plans alone.
Comments:
The Alarmist
Tuesday - June 4th 2024 3:20AM MST
PS
Talk about putting the hot in hotline.
Nice try. I don’t think I have ever had a girl answer on a call center hotline.
Talk about putting the hot in hotline.
Nice try. I don’t think I have ever had a girl answer on a call center hotline.
Anyway, after getting past the accent - it was good enough until she started talking just a little faster - then I lost the whole thread - she was able to help with this most simplest of problems.
It beat hell out of talking to Shenequa. As I wrote, the 1st one had a black name, but it was pretty reasonable. The 2nd one's name was out there... I don't even make any effort to remember those kinds, even for the duration of one phone call. Then, some of these girls may, or may want to consider, shorting it up to make it easier.