CALLNG THE COMPANY
If anyone was to look back at what happened to the American economy from the year 2020, they will no doubt immediately realize that the principal problem with sales in this country was caused by companies who were not really wanting to sell anything to you. While that may seem contradictory, think about it: when was the last time you ever called a major company to buy a product and actually got to talk to a real person who really wanted to sell you something at all?
More often than not don't you get the feeling that if you do manage to actually talk to a real human being , they act more like you are interrupting them, than a person who actually might be helping to pay their saleries ?
( I wrote this 13 years ago and it actually seems to have gotton worse , despite millions of dollers in Customer Service programs , most of us are learning to accept poor service and a persistant drumbeat of " its not my department " )
So now I make the call , it went something like this: Ring Ring Ring Ring "Hello. Welcome to Zeos, a division of Meos. In an effort to better help you, we would like you to listen carefully to the following menu, in order to better serve our customers this call may be monitored... "If you are using a touch tone phone, please press *1*. If you are NOT using a touch tone phone, forget it." (I Press *1*) "Welcome to Zeos. For our mail order catalogue, press *1*. For our Customer Service, press *2*. For accounts payable, press *3*. For Mindy, press *4*. For Sales, press *5*." (I Press *5* while wondering who Mindy is.) "Welcome to Zeos sales. If you are an institutional buyer, press *1*. For office computer needs, press *2*. For home sales needs, press *3*." (I Press *3*) "Welcome to Zeos home computer sales. For computers, press *1*. For monitors, press *2*. For software, press *3*. For accessories, press *4*." (I Press *4*) "Hello. You have reached Zeos accessories. If you are calling from the Eastern Time zone, press *1*. From the Midwest, press *2*. From the Rocky Mountain time zone, press *3*. From Pacific Time zone, press *4*." (I Press *4*) "Hello. You have reached Zeos Pacific Time zone accessory salesman Bob Bumble. I'm not at my desk at the moment, but if you care to leave a message no my voice mail, please press *1*...." This goes on for the next week, at least. Bob, I suspect, is also lost in the elevator (Press *2*), and I eventually have to pretend I'm a huge institutional buyer just wanting to sample a modem. FINALLY, it's on its way to me.
NOTE: I think a great business could be founded on just contacting these companies that thought it was good business to get rid of the person we used to call a receptionist who knew everyone - and where everyone was, you know, the person back in the cave days of early American business who could put you in touch with real people who were sincerely interested in talking to you and finding out what you needed and helping you get it. What I would do is this for those companies who have modernized in such a Fashion I would go into a meeting with these people and hand them a cellular phone, pass it to the chairman, or CEO, and say, "OK. You call and order something from your company on your advertised number." Of course, the executives all have a private number that is unavailable to us. My prayer is that when some of these decision-makers lose their jobs to falling sales and loss of revenue, they start their job search by calling the job placement agency and get, "Hello, and welcome to Acme Personnel. If you are using a touch tone phone, please press *1* now...."
OK. Now, the modem is on its way. Life is still good and the local store has restocked Marie Calendar. I bond briefly with the FedEx guy, exchange a few pleasantries, and stare at my new modem.
It needs to be installed.
( yes another note in the old days ...Computer Modems were add-ons and about the size of a small suitcase )
Now, next to the phone systems I think SAR (some assembly required) is the next worst blight on American industry. I mean, everyone is complaining about not having enough work for his or her employees to do. OK, then, have them assemble the darn things - I'm kinda funny. I like to take things out of a box, plug them in, and see them work IMMEDIATELY
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Interlude
This may or not be a good time to do this ...of course as usual im not really sure what I am doing. if you have read the first two posts on this blog you should kinda sorta understand that this is a project I started about Thirteen years ago...so I am finding it very interesting as I edit the older manuscript ( that which I can find ) I am realizing just how much has happened to me in the past 13 years ...some good , some great , some not so great ... There is this song that says " I wouldn't take nothing for my Journey now " and I agree with that ..but I am pretty sure I wouldn't take it again if I had the choice to.
The great parts , my marriage to Lori, watching my daughter walk to the alter for her wedding, trips to San Fransisco , and the Oregon Coast , the overwheling excitment of landing a dream job in a dream location ...exchanging ourt ten year wedding vows with an Oregon Sunset as a backdrop ...I could put those on program and relive them day after day.
But there are other days , days that if I knew I was going to have to go through I would not know where to claim the strenght to relive them...its a good thing this is only an " academic " excercise , and God in His wisdom has withdrawn from us the gift of seeing into the future , to be honest for most of us it would be no gift at all.
I guess the point of all this is that as I write about the past few years and the years that came before the book started to find its way into print. All the days and all the years just push forward regardless of how they will turn out. we don't get to pick good days and keep them and throw away the bad days ...we live each according to His will.
Yet I sincerly beleive that each day no matter how painfull , no matter how dark , is a gift from God. The Scriptures say to be " Thankful for all things " That " all things " embraces a very large universe.
Its not easy to say Im thankful when you are curled up with a Kidney stone that feels its as large as a kiwi fruit, its not easy to say goodby to your mother in a hospital room knowing you will not see her alive again. Its not easy to be thankful when you have been arrested and find you are just one miracle away from being led to jail with your wife , Its not easy to be thankful when you watch on your Ten Year Anniversery trip a plane being flown into the world trade center.
But God in His wisdom asks us to be just that.
He says life will hurt , and we will have troubles and then He asks us to be thankful for them...and He His love for us is everlasting. His mercies are new every day ...
Lori and I often try to look back at the past 13 years and fit the pieces all together , sometimes there just doesn't seem to be enough time to account for the times we have had...
The phone is ringing I am calling the Computer Company for that modem ..
The great parts , my marriage to Lori, watching my daughter walk to the alter for her wedding, trips to San Fransisco , and the Oregon Coast , the overwheling excitment of landing a dream job in a dream location ...exchanging ourt ten year wedding vows with an Oregon Sunset as a backdrop ...I could put those on program and relive them day after day.
But there are other days , days that if I knew I was going to have to go through I would not know where to claim the strenght to relive them...its a good thing this is only an " academic " excercise , and God in His wisdom has withdrawn from us the gift of seeing into the future , to be honest for most of us it would be no gift at all.
I guess the point of all this is that as I write about the past few years and the years that came before the book started to find its way into print. All the days and all the years just push forward regardless of how they will turn out. we don't get to pick good days and keep them and throw away the bad days ...we live each according to His will.
Yet I sincerly beleive that each day no matter how painfull , no matter how dark , is a gift from God. The Scriptures say to be " Thankful for all things " That " all things " embraces a very large universe.
Its not easy to say Im thankful when you are curled up with a Kidney stone that feels its as large as a kiwi fruit, its not easy to say goodby to your mother in a hospital room knowing you will not see her alive again. Its not easy to be thankful when you have been arrested and find you are just one miracle away from being led to jail with your wife , Its not easy to be thankful when you watch on your Ten Year Anniversery trip a plane being flown into the world trade center.
But God in His wisdom asks us to be just that.
He says life will hurt , and we will have troubles and then He asks us to be thankful for them...and He His love for us is everlasting. His mercies are new every day ...
Lori and I often try to look back at the past 13 years and fit the pieces all together , sometimes there just doesn't seem to be enough time to account for the times we have had...
The phone is ringing I am calling the Computer Company for that modem ..
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The Book Gets underway 13 years ago
Like all Books, this has a beginning. This book really began with the Purchase of a Zeos Pantera Computer , a compnay that I don't even know is in buisness now, Since I began this book over 13 years have passed , and a lot of High Tech Companies have now become extinct. Some of the comments I make may sound odd by the standards of today ( 2008 ) but I have reason to believe that todays standards will soon join the list of extinct standards , practices , and companies. Anyway ... The purchase of a new computer began with an ending - after fifteen years, my wife and I separated and divorced. The sum of our relationship was: a wonderful daughter, a large house, a car of the Toyota variety, and a store with bills that were rapidly filling up that Zeos Pantera's disk space. After the separation, I took the store, the debt, and the computer. Karen took the rest.
At first it did not seem like the best of trades - moving from the large house to the back of the store did not seem quite fair. But, there was no other way, looking on the bright side I found myself with a very short commute.
The store was located in a small resort town in the West - so small that there were only two single women in my age group in the entire town and they were booked until 1999. There are no movie theaters. There are a couple of taverns that specialize in customers hooting at the various sporting events on the television.
I remember feeling that I would need something to fill my time and take my mind off the separation. It's funny how your mind lets you sometimes inch into tragedy - at first it, it seemed like camping. Being now single and alone, I decided on a clever course of action: I would drive 150 miles to the town of Eugene and get some computer games to go with my Zeos Pantera. After all, it had a CD-ROM and a 256-color monitor - it made sense to me.
Looking back, this may seem a little pathetic: 47 years old, living in the back of a store. I, with what I thought was good reason, decided that Sim City, Return to Zork, and Leisure Suit Larry would provide me with the companionship I craved for the rest of my life. These were computer games in the early years of gaming no serious blood was shed and most of the action happened as I typed instructions to the Characters in the role playing games.
I remember that night snuggling up in the sleeping bag, the heady aroma of a Marie Callendar's roast beef dinner hanging in the air, and the Leisure Suit Larry manual in my hand and a smile on my face. Life could be bliss - who needed relationships?
This phase of my life lasted about two days. The Sim City needed more RAM, Zork wouldn't configure to my system, and Leisure Suit Larry never seemed to get the girl. Cable was still a week away, and I was bored, lonely, and out of Marie Callendar's roast beef dinners. bliss had bailed out.
It was time for a little introspective look at my life, this was my second marriage I was beginning to wonder if marriage was such a good idea. A line from the play Our Town kept running through my mind something about going through life two by two. This time it felt more like a 2x 4. If I was going to get into another relationship it had to be special, what I really wanted was someone who would love me for who I was who would delight in me and yet encourage me to be better, someone who was always there for me and knew my every need, but I was old enough to recognize fantasy and just left my self content with finding a few good friends
It was at this time that providence entered my life. While searching for answers to the RAM problem I stumbled across the computer magazine with an AMERICAN ONLINE start up disk in it. AOL had been thrust into my life. Vaguely, I remembered an article I had read about cybersex and with trembling fingers I installed the disk. I was ready for whatever came my way. I had my life back. America Online was just what I needed...
Almost, seems like I needed a modem.
Life is way too complicated. Why can't you just run down to your local grocery store - the same place you buy the Marie Callendar's dinners - and throw a modem into your cart? Instead, you have to go to a place that sells modems.
If you remember the town was very small. Modem outlets were nonexistent. In fact, I suspect we just got outlets last year. Anyway...I stumbled across the information from Zeos that they had sent me with the computer and remembered that I could call them and they could FedEx the modem to me. Life went back to being simple - or so I thought...
At first it did not seem like the best of trades - moving from the large house to the back of the store did not seem quite fair. But, there was no other way, looking on the bright side I found myself with a very short commute.
The store was located in a small resort town in the West - so small that there were only two single women in my age group in the entire town and they were booked until 1999. There are no movie theaters. There are a couple of taverns that specialize in customers hooting at the various sporting events on the television.
I remember feeling that I would need something to fill my time and take my mind off the separation. It's funny how your mind lets you sometimes inch into tragedy - at first it, it seemed like camping. Being now single and alone, I decided on a clever course of action: I would drive 150 miles to the town of Eugene and get some computer games to go with my Zeos Pantera. After all, it had a CD-ROM and a 256-color monitor - it made sense to me.
Looking back, this may seem a little pathetic: 47 years old, living in the back of a store. I, with what I thought was good reason, decided that Sim City, Return to Zork, and Leisure Suit Larry would provide me with the companionship I craved for the rest of my life. These were computer games in the early years of gaming no serious blood was shed and most of the action happened as I typed instructions to the Characters in the role playing games.
I remember that night snuggling up in the sleeping bag, the heady aroma of a Marie Callendar's roast beef dinner hanging in the air, and the Leisure Suit Larry manual in my hand and a smile on my face. Life could be bliss - who needed relationships?
This phase of my life lasted about two days. The Sim City needed more RAM, Zork wouldn't configure to my system, and Leisure Suit Larry never seemed to get the girl. Cable was still a week away, and I was bored, lonely, and out of Marie Callendar's roast beef dinners. bliss had bailed out.
It was time for a little introspective look at my life, this was my second marriage I was beginning to wonder if marriage was such a good idea. A line from the play Our Town kept running through my mind something about going through life two by two. This time it felt more like a 2x 4. If I was going to get into another relationship it had to be special, what I really wanted was someone who would love me for who I was who would delight in me and yet encourage me to be better, someone who was always there for me and knew my every need, but I was old enough to recognize fantasy and just left my self content with finding a few good friends
It was at this time that providence entered my life. While searching for answers to the RAM problem I stumbled across the computer magazine with an AMERICAN ONLINE start up disk in it. AOL had been thrust into my life. Vaguely, I remembered an article I had read about cybersex and with trembling fingers I installed the disk. I was ready for whatever came my way. I had my life back. America Online was just what I needed...
Almost, seems like I needed a modem.
Life is way too complicated. Why can't you just run down to your local grocery store - the same place you buy the Marie Callendar's dinners - and throw a modem into your cart? Instead, you have to go to a place that sells modems.
If you remember the town was very small. Modem outlets were nonexistent. In fact, I suspect we just got outlets last year. Anyway...I stumbled across the information from Zeos that they had sent me with the computer and remembered that I could call them and they could FedEx the modem to me. Life went back to being simple - or so I thought...
Monday, July 28, 2008
Prolouge
Several years ago , almost so long ago that word several seems severely stretched I started a book project about how I had come to Christ after 47 odd years of wandering in what I thought was a spiritual wilderness. After a promising start the "Book " was shelved. MY wife Lori has always encouraged me to finish the thing , but something has kept me from it ..I had several good excuses , and a few irrational ones ...but now it seems as if the best reason and the true reason was it wasn't time yet.
I believe its time ..I believe its time because I believe that it is in Gods time that it be revived ..I have no rational reason for this decision , I just know that the decision is right and that God is involved , and when God is involved , well God is totally involved.
I am going to start writing this book again based not on my own well formulated plan but on the faith that God will take what I have bottled up in my head and heart and let it pour out. It may also spill out and at times it may more closely resemble the actions of a warm soda bottle kicked across a ninety foot lawn , then hurriedly opened.
Realistically for a while this last scenario seems more realistic.
For awhile the story may look like one of those 1200 piece Jig Saw puzzles you find at the Lake house you just rented for the Summer , and like the puzzle at the lake house there may be some pieces missing ..at least for a while.
I am so disorganized in my flesh that I don't even know if I am going to work on the edges, corners , or specific form or color...I simply know its time to both start and finish.
I do know that all these pieces are a gift from God ...and that as the Scriptures say He has plans for me , and He has prepared me for these plans .
And as the scripture also says He has prepared me for these plans ...and as well Gods ways are not our ways ..He has given me this puzzle and will reveal it , its not alphabetical, nor is it Chronological .. it is waiting to be reveled .
Psalm 139:13
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I believe its time ..I believe its time because I believe that it is in Gods time that it be revived ..I have no rational reason for this decision , I just know that the decision is right and that God is involved , and when God is involved , well God is totally involved.
I am going to start writing this book again based not on my own well formulated plan but on the faith that God will take what I have bottled up in my head and heart and let it pour out. It may also spill out and at times it may more closely resemble the actions of a warm soda bottle kicked across a ninety foot lawn , then hurriedly opened.
Realistically for a while this last scenario seems more realistic.
For awhile the story may look like one of those 1200 piece Jig Saw puzzles you find at the Lake house you just rented for the Summer , and like the puzzle at the lake house there may be some pieces missing ..at least for a while.
I am so disorganized in my flesh that I don't even know if I am going to work on the edges, corners , or specific form or color...I simply know its time to both start and finish.
I do know that all these pieces are a gift from God ...and that as the Scriptures say He has plans for me , and He has prepared me for these plans .
And as the scripture also says He has prepared me for these plans ...and as well Gods ways are not our ways ..He has given me this puzzle and will reveal it , its not alphabetical, nor is it Chronological .. it is waiting to be reveled .
Psalm 139:13
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
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