WHAT I’M THINKING is an infrequent feature of my blog. In it, I shall feel free (I hope) to share my opinion about any number of topics that matter to me and may matter to my readers, whether they be regular subscribers or those who stop along the way to somewhere else. Would love to hear your comments!
Our household utilizes at least five online services or applications on a regular basis. I’ll name them. Grubhub, for one. Ken and I began using Grubhub during the pandemic and have never stopped. Another app is . . . my gosh, they’re such a great part of our lives . . . oh, yes . . . Uber. Ken, who doesn’t drive for the moment (there’s always hope), takes an Uber I order for him to his weekly massage therapy session.
As convenient as Grubhub may be, there exist some problems with the service. Whoever fulfills the order, probably a restaurant employee, doesn’t always get the order right, for one thing. Fries when we asked for chips or vice versa. One time, the participating restaurant (no longer connected with GH) cancelled our order entirely, even though they made the very best egg rolls we ever had. Probably.
Moreover, we have “unmarked” the box that requests plastic (eek) utensils, but nearly every restaurant delivers little bags of white or black flatware with tiny little sacks of salt and pepper, all gratuitous, not asked for (La Madeleine being the fine exception). Maybe we’re in the minority; perhaps most people, even the Gen Zers and Millennials, who purportedly are so conscious of the environment, don’t mind stuffing the landfill with yet more material that won’t degrade for at least a hundred years.
I began tipping drivers 25% because why not—they can’t make that much from GH. For the most part, drivers follow our directions to a T. Come to door under CARPORT. Please ring doorbell. Thank you. Why ring the doorbell when they’re going to text me that they’ve arrived? I’m not sure. Sometimes, a driver does NOT text and our food sits there for fifteen minutes, or once, this is funny, the driver left our bag at a house across the street, a house that was empty at the time. I was already feeling lousy from being sick, but I schlepped over and retrieved the bag of life-saving gruel, whatever it was. Now that we have the app trained, so to speak, ordering food is better than it was in the beginning, but not, as the young often say . . . perfect.
Such problems don’t end with online (phone) apps. There is also good old American Telephone and Telegraph (nearly 150 years, that’s how old). Our Homeaglow worker unplugged the power strip that connected our TV, our ATT box, our DVD player and several other appliances to electricity (Homeaglow is another modren story, another day, if you please). The ATT receiver which was installed in 2009 (so says the info on the back), went dead. It would not reboot. Our gateway would not revive it either. I tried several times . . . stupidly thinking my will alone might make a difference.
I finally called ATT customer service, sensing the exchange I knew would take place. The young woman with (I believed) a Spanish accent (but turned out being Filipino) and some difficulty expressing herself by way of standard English syntax but who insisted on using the vernacular like . . . and I don’t mean as a simile . . . put me through my paces.
Have you . . .?
Yes.
Try . . .
I’ve done that already, I snapped.
Go to the other TV in your house and unplug . . .
No, I’m not doing that. I want a new receiver. This one is dead.
Finally . . . oh, and she kept putting me on hold to consult her great supervisor in the ATT sky. But yes, finally, she agreed to send us a new receiver the very next day! Yay!
Now, this transaction may sound as if it were easy, but when I checked my phone, the entire exchange took fifty-five minutes!
There were times when I had to say (taking the blame), Um, I’m old and a bit hard of hearing, could you please repeat what you said? Oh, oh. I see what you mean now (even if I wasn’t sure).
I can’t tell you how many times I asked her to repeat herself. I know she was trying as hard as she could. Later, when I asked O Great Google where such ATT employees might be stationed, the answer that came back was the Philippines. Ahhh, that made such good sense.
But there is a problem, dear American Telephone and Telegraph, with engaging employees whom customers cannot understand in the linguistic sense. Such a situation is not acceptable, especially given that last month’s bill (bundling four services) was over $700! I want to repeat, I do not blame the young woman. I thanked her for her help, profusely, I believe, and if I’d been asked to “review” our exchange, I would not have flunked her. But come on, corporate America! Why can’t you hire English speakers (of any accent) who can communicate properly with their customers? I can’t help but think of that statement that sometimes pops up on your app screen: “Oops, Something Went Wrong.”
Boy, I’ll say.
As convenient as Grubhub may be, there exist some problems with the service. Whoever fulfills the order, probably a restaurant employee, doesn’t always get the order right, for one thing. Fries when we asked for chips or vice versa. One time, the participating restaurant (no longer connected with GH) cancelled our order entirely, even though they made the very best egg rolls we ever had. Probably.
Moreover, we have “unmarked” the box that requests plastic (eek) utensils, but nearly every restaurant delivers little bags of white or black flatware with tiny little sacks of salt and pepper, all gratuitous, not asked for (La Madeleine being the fine exception). Maybe we’re in the minority; perhaps most people, even the Gen Zers and Millennials, who purportedly are so conscious of the environment, don’t mind stuffing the landfill with yet more material that won’t degrade for at least a hundred years.
I began tipping drivers 25% because why not—they can’t make that much from GH. For the most part, drivers follow our directions to a T. Come to door under CARPORT. Please ring doorbell. Thank you. Why ring the doorbell when they’re going to text me that they’ve arrived? I’m not sure. Sometimes, a driver does NOT text and our food sits there for fifteen minutes, or once, this is funny, the driver left our bag at a house across the street, a house that was empty at the time. I was already feeling lousy from being sick, but I schlepped over and retrieved the bag of life-saving gruel, whatever it was. Now that we have the app trained, so to speak, ordering food is better than it was in the beginning, but not, as the young often say . . . perfect.
Such problems don’t end with online (phone) apps. There is also good old American Telephone and Telegraph (nearly 150 years, that’s how old). Our Homeaglow worker unplugged the power strip that connected our TV, our ATT box, our DVD player and several other appliances to electricity (Homeaglow is another modren story, another day, if you please). The ATT receiver which was installed in 2009 (so says the info on the back), went dead. It would not reboot. Our gateway would not revive it either. I tried several times . . . stupidly thinking my will alone might make a difference.
I finally called ATT customer service, sensing the exchange I knew would take place. The young woman with (I believed) a Spanish accent (but turned out being Filipino) and some difficulty expressing herself by way of standard English syntax but who insisted on using the vernacular like . . . and I don’t mean as a simile . . . put me through my paces.
Have you . . .?
Yes.
Try . . .
I’ve done that already, I snapped.
Go to the other TV in your house and unplug . . .
No, I’m not doing that. I want a new receiver. This one is dead.
Finally . . . oh, and she kept putting me on hold to consult her great supervisor in the ATT sky. But yes, finally, she agreed to send us a new receiver the very next day! Yay!
Now, this transaction may sound as if it were easy, but when I checked my phone, the entire exchange took fifty-five minutes!
There were times when I had to say (taking the blame), Um, I’m old and a bit hard of hearing, could you please repeat what you said? Oh, oh. I see what you mean now (even if I wasn’t sure).
I can’t tell you how many times I asked her to repeat herself. I know she was trying as hard as she could. Later, when I asked O Great Google where such ATT employees might be stationed, the answer that came back was the Philippines. Ahhh, that made such good sense.
But there is a problem, dear American Telephone and Telegraph, with engaging employees whom customers cannot understand in the linguistic sense. Such a situation is not acceptable, especially given that last month’s bill (bundling four services) was over $700! I want to repeat, I do not blame the young woman. I thanked her for her help, profusely, I believe, and if I’d been asked to “review” our exchange, I would not have flunked her. But come on, corporate America! Why can’t you hire English speakers (of any accent) who can communicate properly with their customers? I can’t help but think of that statement that sometimes pops up on your app screen: “Oops, Something Went Wrong.”
Boy, I’ll say.
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