Friday, June 29, 2007

Customer Service Woes

I am getting ready to leave on our youth mission trip to Kingston, TN this weekend. There are a lot of last minute details I am trying take care of before leaving. Tonight, I was checking my bank account online, making sure that bills had been paid and checking to see if a deposit had registered. To be honest, I have addiction issues with checking my bank account online. I check it probably twice a day, sometimes three times…just because I can.

Tonight, I noticed a charge from amazon.com for $5.95 that came out of my checking account. The thing is, I haven’t bought anything from amazon.com in a few weeks—but admittedly, I am a frequent amazon shopper. I went and checked my amazon.com account to see what that charge was from, and there was nothing in my account information that explained the charge. My computerized bank statement actually had a contact number that went with the charge, so I decided to call. Apparently, I am so desperate for $6 that I am willing to spend my Friday night on the phone with a customer service representative. Really, though, I was just worried that other unauthorized charges might start popping up on my checking account and I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen.

So, I call. The person who answers the phone is from India…seriously. She can barely pronounce the questions that her script tells her to ask. I am pretty good at understanding people with accents, but not tonight. I kept saying, “Could you say that again?” I felt like such a jerk! She seemed like a nice lady and was trying really hard, but the whole interaction was frustrating. It took 3 minutes just to clarify the spelling of my last name (granted, my last name is not that user friendly, but still…). Then she put me on hold for 12 minutes to “research the situation further”…yes, I sat on the phone, holding for an obscene amount of time, just for my $6. When you make 20 cents an hour, $6 is a big deal! Seriously, though, my real question was: why am I being charged for things that I did not purchase or authorize?

After being on hold forever, she came back and asked for more information…like my blood type, my favorite movie, and my deepest fears and desires…actually, the questions were somewhat more closely related to the topic at hand, but it felt like the conversation was headed in a completely unrelated direction. Seriously, how much information do you need to find out why I am paying $6 for nothing?

At the end of all this, she tells me that I will get an email in the next 1-2 business days from someone who has researched this further. I ask: “So, this email will tell me why that money was taken out of my account and assure me that it won’t happen again?” She simply repeats: “You will get an email in the next 1-2 business days from someone who has researched this further”. Then she added, “ok?” I think she said “ok” about 567.2 times during our 24 minute (and 20 second) conversation. That’s right. I was on the phone close to a half an hour over $6. I promise it was the principle of the thing that kept me going. And yet, after all that time, I know nothing more than I did before. Such is the state of customer service in the year 2007.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Christian Beauty Tips

I was surfing the Reynoldsburg Emmaus website tonight and read their latest newsletter. In that newletter was the following article, which I thought was cute...so here it is...

REAL BEAUTY - submitted by Kimberley Scott
We live in a beauty-obsessed culture, where we long for perfection--doing whatever we must do, buying whatever we must buy and spending whatever must be spent--to find perfection in this less-than-beautiful, imperfect world.

As important as physical beauty is, so much more so to God is our inward heart beauty. To be truly chic and glamorous, consider the following Christian "Beauty Tips":
1) For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
2) For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others.
3) To improve your ears, listen to the Word of God.
4) Rather than focusing on the thorns of life, stop to smell the roses and count your blessings, giving thanks for each one of them.
5) To strengthen your arms, hug someone and touch them with your love.
6) To strengthen your heart, forgive yourself and others.
7) Wondering what to wear? For the ultimate in business, casual or evening attire, put on the robe of Christ--it fits like a glove, but allows plenty of room for growth. Best of all, it never goes out of style and is appropriate for any occasion!

Dogs, treats, and the grace of God...

As I type this, I am sitting in an oversized chair with two dogs curled up on the top of the chair. It is like having a giant, fury headrest. I mention this because I am going to talk about my dogs…again.

We went out for a walk this morning: Ariel, Pepper, and I. Our usual routine is to go for a walk, come back in and take off the leashes, and then get a “treat”. The dogs usually stalk me until they get their treat. They act as if they’ve been stranded on a desert island without any food for days. This morning, as I went into the kitchen to get the treats, only Pepper followed me. I called to Ariel and she didn’t come, which was odd, especially since food was involved. I walked into the living room and found her sitting on the couch (the WHITE couch, mind you), looking as cute as ever. I threw the treat toward her and it landed on the floor, a couple feet in front of the couch. Ariel just sat on the couch, looking at the treat. I thought it was odd, but figured that she was just being independent. So, I ran upstairs to collect laundry and once I finished with that, Ariel was still on the couch. I realized something must be wrong, because normally she and Pepper both follow me around like I am a world-famous movie star and they are the paparazzi (it makes me think I am way more important than I actually am!).

I went over to Ariel on the couch and started touching her to see if she had any sore spots. I lifted her little bottom up from her sitting position and realized the problem. DISCLAIMER: something disgusting is about to be said!!! Turns out, it was a poop issue…a little stuck and dangling (did I mention that I have a white couch?!). So, being a good dog-mom, I went to get some toilet paper and we did a little “procedure” to free Ariel from her discomfort. She instantly ran to get her treat and commenced with stalking me all over the house.

I felt pretty bad that I made her sit there for about ten minutes before even checking to see if she was ok. She did a number of strange things, all of which should have alerted me that something wasn’t right. It made me think about God and how He takes care of us in a very different way than we take care of things. He knows instantly what the problem is; He knows even before we do. He doesn’t leave us to sit in our own poop, proverbially speaking. God rushes to our aid, to do for us what we are unable to do for ourselves. That means a lot to me and is a great reassurance, especially during the poopy seasons of life.

It also makes me think of a song, of which I only know a few lines (and am not even sure who wrote it). But I offer it to you today as a message of comfort and hope:

He didn't bring us this far just to leave us.
He didn't teach us to swim to let us drown.
He didn't build His home in us just to move away.
He didn't pick us up to let us down.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Nerdishness

It has been a while, blogophiles. I apologize. Things will be hit and miss this summer, but I will be a little more regular and definitely back in full swing by the fall. For today, I offer you the results of my "nerd test"...not that I needed a test to prove the implicit nerdiness of my being, but it isn't quite as bad as I suspected.

I am nerdier than 57% of all people. Are you a nerd? Click here to find out!