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A French-Inspired Garden and Home by Judith Stringham

4 Lessons of Spirit of Christmas in my Heart

Sunday, May 15, 2016

This Spring a large technology company has truly been testing my patience... and goodwill... and understanding... and pleasantness... 

New purchases from the company came with promises of a good time in the year. The upgrades will make your life a movie life where parking places always appear right in front of where you are going.

No circling the block.

Your new services will be faster, better, C H E A P E R.

Yes, just a perfect movie life is coming my way.
However, the promised good time has been dampened by a series of mistakes by the company's employees. Was there a script rewrite in my movie life? 

What have I learned from this? 

4 Lessons of the Spirit of Christmas 
In My Heart 

I have questioned if this company were not composed of another race of creatures bound on their journeys...

Sent to this earth to conquer earthlings by wearing us down with a ... 


A multitude of billing errors... 

L E S S O N  1... be forgiving of the multiple errors... 

All four of the company's agents were apologetic, with assurances all is well now. They sounded like they believed it in their hearts.... each of the four times I had to call after receiving another bill with a mistake. 

Surely the company will be forgiving of my payment errors in the future... 

Wearing us down with wait times... due to an unexpected volume of callers... listening to the same melody over and over...

I think I can play it on the piano by heart now. Free music lessons!

L E S S O N  2 ... be charitable to the agent who put you on hold for 45 minutes, then upon coming back to you immediately transferred you to another agent because this is not the billing department...
even though the option selected was B I L L I N G.

Be charitable... just think how many irritated customers the agent has had to transfer to another agent.


Wearing us down with erroneous O V E R D U E statements.

L E S S O N  3 ... be kind to the agent supervisor who promised your credit rating is not affected by the company erroneously reporting that your account had been cancelled due to nonpayment of $4.83 when in fact it had been cancelled because of a change in services required by the company.

Be kind... bless their hearts; you are on a first-name basis with many people, including supervisors,  in the company now.



Wearing us down with yet another billing mistake...

Has any billing statement been correct yet... in the past eight weeks?

Do you suppose they are checking my math skills? Did someone tell them I am a retired math teacher who has taught calculus? Is this race of creatures searching for intelligent life on earth capable of doing the math?

L E S S O N  4... be pleasant with each new agent. She isn't the same person you have spoken with about the same issues for the past eight weeks.

Be pleasant... you can do the math by heart; no calculator needed.


Yes, I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it ALL the year.

Even when exasperated with another race of creatures bound on their journeys...


From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 

Let me open my shut-up heart freely. Being pleasant is so hard sometimes.

I must think of this company's agents as fellow-passengers to the grave...

Fred to Scrooge in A Christmas Carol
But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come around - apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that - as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.
~~~~  ~~~~ 

Please join me at these inspiring places for more joy of living. 

SUNDAY
Dishing It and Digging It @ Rustic and Refined

MONDAY

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