Laments of a Disgruntled Customer

We were nearing the end of a long trip home on Sunday evening and traffic flows and then it stopped altogether.  Rubber cones are forcing drivers into one lane, you creep along for several miles.  But, there are no workers.  There is no project.  The work will start tomorrow.  But, the crews put out those cones on Sunday so they wouldn’t have to come out very early on Monday morning to do it.

You inch along in stop and go traffic and you have a mental picture of the guys on the road crews at home watching a ball game on TV, a can of their favorite beverage in hand.

Don’t you wish that the people who inflict this on the rest of us would be required to get out there and drive past miles of rubber cones just like us common people?

Just once?

Recently, I was driving back to Chapel Hill from a Durham Bulls game on 15-501 Business at just about dusk on Sunday evening.  Intense flood lights aimed directly at the eyes of oncoming drivers blinded me as I approached Garrett Road.  This was someone’s attempt to bathe the road with light for a work project.  But, why are those lights aimed right at the eye of the driver?  Shouldn’t they be pointed down onto the road?  Don’t you wish that just once the fools who aim those lights be required to drive directly toward them like the rest of us who are trying to stay alive and not hit anyone?

This same principle applies for the automated telephone run-around.  State your problem in a few words, a recorded voice tells us.  Then, we try.  But, our problem isn’t on their list of what would trigger an automated response.  In too many cases, there is simply no way to get through to a real human being.  This is convenient for the company and no doubt it costs less.  But, it’s teeth grinding frustration for the customer.  It’s not about helping the customer.  The people who set up these maddening programs should be required to play customer and try to navigate them.  Maybe that would wake them up.  Maybe that’s too much to hope for.

 

— Raleigh Mann