JUST when I thought the day couldn't get any more surreal...

[telophase]

...I get home to find a large box from Dish Network sitting on my front doorstep with big letters on the side admonishing me to send my Dish Network equipment back immediately.

Small problem. I don't have Dish Network equipment. I get cable and internet access through Ygnition Networks, which gives me Dish Network channels, but through an Ygnition cable box.*

So I call them and end up spending a very, very long time on hold while the very nice tech on the other end** sat on hold for a very long time until he got through to the Dish Network techs and worked out why I'd been sent it.

Apparently some Dish Networks tech had another customer on the line, but my account up for God only knows what reason*** and mistakenly put the order to return the equipment on mine. He says that it's all taken care of now and off my account, and I don't have to do a thing. *crosses fingers*

On the bright side, I got chomiji's package with volume 1 of Hoshin Engi and a nifty card that features a crow walking through a field in boots. Thank you! At least one bright spot in the day! ETA: http://www.art.com/asp/display_artist-asp/_/crid--24726/Rudi_Hurzlmeier.htm


* This is the only option here if I want high-speed Internet. No DSL companies offer service here. I hate these monopoly things. I WILL BE VERY HAPPY TO LEAVE HERE IN THE SPRING.

** who was very apologetic about the hold times, but I think was quite surprised at how I wasn't getting angry and yelling at him, but was perfectly happy to hold. He didn't understand that as long as someone was doing his job in a competent manner I was perfectly happy to sit back and let him do it.

*** Probably mistyping the telephone number. When I worked at AT&T it was really easy to get someone else's account by doing that. I think that's the real reason they ask you security questions at companies nowadays - to confirm they have the correct account.

Comments

[chomiji]

Yays! Glad you liked the card - it was from our funky local gift shop, Now and Then.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

It's totally awesome! :D

[madspark.livejournal.com]

I normally use a wireless headset telephone (at home at least, at work I don't get calls) so I don't care about hold... it doesn't stick me down in one place, and it doesn't take my hands.

Otherwise I hate it.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

My cellphone had a headset until the wire inside broke and I haven't gotten around to getting a new one yet. Naturally, I have had to do many things that involve me staying on hold.

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

I have to verify everything in an account before I go in and do anything, and I do too.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

And thank you very much for that!

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Being asked those questions over and over again i the course of one tech-support call is extremely annoying, but less annoying than dealing with the mistakes they help to prevent. When you are in some kind of business that involves thousands upon thousands of separate accounts or orders or what have you, mistakes will happen, and no amount of foot-stamping, saying that they shouldn't happen, will change that, as the universe is imperfect and there is entrophy, and chance.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yeah. When I was at AT&T, I wasn't on the phones, but I still had to get into accounts to adjust billing and just mistyping one number would often bring up someone else's account entirely.

I did that once, and brought up someone named "Nick Carnivale," which I joked to the tech sitting next to me sounded like a James Bond-type character.

Then I noticed that his billing address was the Pentagon.

[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Dude. Whoa.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I memorized the number and looked it up every so often, just to look at it. Forgotten it by now, of course, since it's been over a decade since that job, but still...