I’m just glad it worked out
What a day. I finished my first week at the Maynard Multimedia Editing Program with a two-hour phone call with the customer service department of a communications company handling our Internet back at the apartments.
A little bit of background: The 14 Maynard fellows are staying in apartments a few miles away from campus. We each have wireless Internet access. That is, until last night. About four apartments lost their signal completely. I called the company’s customer service department today (call time 56 min.) to have a technician come to the complex and address each of our connection issues.
After spending one hour trying to explain my network problems to Jane Doe, I was transferred to another rep … and a couple more after that. Of course, like any service call, I was somehow disconnected while I was put on hold. Go figure. I called again. Call time: 36 min 34 sec. Not bad. They finally sent a technician out to the apartments and all was restored by 7 p.m. Problem? The modem reset itself to its original settings. How does that happen? Your guess is as good as mine.
The whole incident reminded me of the most awkward service call I’ve ever been on. I had recently bought a laptop that was on the fritz 10 days after I took it out of the box. I called customer care which ended up being some guy in call center in South India. The conversation went a little something like this:
Customer Care: “Hello, this is XXXX of [computer company], how may I help you?”
Me: “Yeah, hi, I recently purchased a laptop and the speakers aren’t working.”
Customer Care: “Sure thing, ma’am. Right away ma’am. We’ll hopefully be able to resolve the problem over the phone, ma’am. Can I have your first and last name please?”
Me: “Yeah. It’s Sona. S-o-n-a, Patel. P-a-t-e-l.”
Customer Care: “Thank you ma’am. [one minute pause]. Are you from India?”
Me: “Yes. But I live in the U.S.”
Customer Care: [laughing] “Ah, yes, I can tell.”
I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but I’m sure it had something to do with my “American” accent. He didn’t resolve my issue, by the way. He did however ask what part of India I was from, whether I had been back to India recently, and whether I had gone to college in the U.S. or in India. I’m usually the one asking most of the questions, but not this time.
Anyway, we got the Internet fixed and now I’m happily back to Tweeting and Facbeooking in the comfort of my living room.
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