Can you please get to the point?

It's not that I'm impatient.

I'm not always terribly rushed.

But if I have to waste my time listening to a customer service representative repeat the same phrase over and over again - I will seriously go postal soon.

You must know what I'm talking about.

Case in point: T-Mobile customer service.

I called to see if I could get on a new plan - that allowed for International calls.

Fortunately, the voice recognition menu connected me to a human in under a minute (are you listening, AT&T internet?).

But the time I saved in getting to a human was quickly gobbled up by the useless repetition of such hollow phrases as "I understand your concern, and we do value your business, but at this time....."

Ok - tell it to me once. I might take it at face value and think that the rep is sincere.

However, if you need to preface EACH AND EVERY REPLY TO MY QUESTIONS WITH "I understand your concern, and we do value your business, but at this time..."

Since when did true customer service become this time wasting, script reading, empty auto matron-like practice?

I'm a calm person. I'm patient.

But once I sense that I'm entering this twilight zone - where I journey from people who know how to help to the land of script-reading auto-matrons - I feel myself go tense...

This seething monster within me rises to the surface at which point I become some rude beast cutting off the poor quasi-human at the other end who is forced to speak this way to every caller. I'm sure the person at the phone bank at the other end is probably working part-time, minimum wage, with no health insurance, and no chance of rising far above the poverty line... truly depressing. It's not the rep's fault... But I cut them off anyways - I tell them to talk to me like a real person and STOP REPEATING THOSE MEANINGLESS LINES!!!

I can only imagine how mind numbing it must be to speak this way all day long. I can't bear to hear it during the 2-3 calls per week that I have to do.

Can't they just get to the point and take care of business?

*** only after mentioning that I may look for service elsewhere did I get transferred to a "supervisor" who was able to knock $100 off the bill.

Is the general population really that brain-dead that they can't be trusted with positions in which they make decisions or can think for themselves?

Perhaps if they had some sort of job security with health benefits & retirement packages, they could actually come to work focused on their jobs on a daily basis. But if they are all hired on a part-time basis only, with no chance for benefits, and forced to work a second job - how can they truly know their job at the company inside and out. Vicious cycle, eh?

Did I just go off on a tangent? Darn you Dennis Miller!