Losing My Edge
I think I’m losing my edge. I called up AAA to cancel my membership.
It did not go well.
- I don’t do well with phone-mazes. This amounts to a game of pick the least irrelevant of all the following irrelevant options. For hub-cap polishing advice, press or say 1; For information about where you put your keys, press or say 2; If you own a pre-1940 automobile in any color other than black, please press or say 3; If you wish to add family members, please press or say 4. (Incidentally, I’m not sure I want AAA involved with any “begetting” that might happen–seems irrelevant unless you own a Nash).
- Wait times. It’s never a good sign when the phone-maze tells you: “We are experiencing higher-than-usual call volume. Your wait will be more than 10 minutes, and less than 12 years.”
- Hold-messages. “We’re more than just automobiles. We’re also cruise vacations, and overseas travel experts.” Yeah. If I had the money to go to any of those places, do you really think I’d be calling you from Minnesota during a snowstorm?
With all of that happening, you can usually add an obnoxious customer service person to that list. Not this time. Much to my surprise, she was quite helpful and courteous. As I hung up, I realized that I went in “loaded for bear,” but instead, I think I might have actually been polite.
How unusual.