I’ve finally found some free time. Only a bit though. Like, literally, 30 minutes. Then it’s off to do “family day” stuff. Today is my only day that I can spend all day with Lil’lady, but she’s not here right now so I can sneak some blog time.
I was doing a little reading today and followed a Balloon Juice commenter’s link back to her blog. She had this post up about how she cancelled her Comcast service and some poor schlup had the job of calling her to ask for a bill payment. Unfortunately for him she’d cancelled her service and didn’t owe any money. She told how she cussed the dude out and the wrote that she would’ve felt bad for mistreating him except, you know, he works for Comcast.
Because, you know, job options are so plentiful right now, if one chooses to work for one of the worst companies in America, well, one would be a piece of shit who deserved verbal abuse.
Here’s the facts about this poor guy’s job:
He applied for some other teleservices company because he probably needed to pay his rent. I know, that’s shocking and god knows he should’ve been more vigilant. I mean, he really should’ve opted for homelessness instead of that kind of job. So anyway, he gets hired at this other company and, guess, what? Comcast has a contract with that particular company for customer service/tech support/billing/sales/collections. This guy didn’t apply to and get hired by Comcast. He applied to and got hired by a company to which Comcast outsources.
This chick is happily relating a tale of cussing out this Devil who dared to work for a company she disliked. Except he really doesn’t work for that company. And he if he didn’t need the fucking money he most assuredly wouldn’t be doing a job that put him in direct contact with bitches like her.
I do a similar job to this guy. I was damned lucky to find the job I have, but we are contracted with a major media company to do their teleservices. My job is tech support. I remove viruses and do network troubleshooting. What I do is not free support for the media company’s regular subscribers. When they call me looking for free support, I have to tell them to pay for the support. Sorry, but that’s my job. And assholes like the woman who was so proud that she cussed out a Comcast “employee” think if they are abusive to me, I’ll bend to the pressure. I’m lucky insofar as I can say “No”. And I’m at the point now where I take a little bit of pleasure of being able to say “I’m sorry but I’m not going to help you unless you pay” because of people who treat other people like she treated the guy whose suck-ass job requires him to collect on payments due (or supposedly due).
Just the other day I had some woman call up and tell me “You will help me or I’ll cancel my service.” I was almost giddy when I replied “I will NOT help you unless you pay the extra fee”. We went back and forth for a good 10 minutes like that. She thought if she bullied me I’d just give in to her. I’m lucky in that the company for which I work doesn’t require me to put up with verbal abuse. When people start cussing, I hang up. Too bad too sad, asshole.
With this particular company, every single department is outsourced to a separate company. Each company has their own policies and their own bunch of folks who are only looking to pay their bills. Each department receives a different amount of money and is expected to had a different amount of calls. Even the in-home service people, the ones that come out to fix shit, are contractors1. We don’t sign up to actually work for these mega-corporations that piss you off so much– sometimes it just works out that the companies we do work for contract with those evil empires.
I appreciate the people that understand that I have rules to follow and I’m doing a job for someone else who makes the decisions. I will bend over backwards to help them in any way I can (without risking said job). The first time someone becomes aggressive with me, though, they get shut down. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if that guy she cussed out put her down for a callback at a later time. Why? To irritate her. Because he’s not the piece of shit in that scenario, she is. So, she’s annoyed that she got a call. Well, she could’ve very easily have said “Sorry. I cancelled the service and I’m not paying” and hung up. No, she had to take out her frustration with Comcast on some poor guy who didn’t deserve it (and from her version of events, he was polite to her). Folks like him don’t have a whole lot of tools in their arsenal to get back at assholes like her. God knows most of the time, the company doesn’t give a flying fuck how their employees get treated by the public at large (mine does and that’s what makes it awesome).
I have a friend who works for a company like that. It just happens that when people call that company they have to wait a long time to get a live person. If she senses that the person on the other end of the phone is going to start going off on her, she’ll disconnect the call. That quick. Oops. They’re forced to call back and wait on hold a little while longer. That might not be fair to the next customer service person who gets the call, but it irritates the rude customer to no end. That’s how she handles assholes and, really, who can blame her? Why should she have to listen to someone going off on her for something she has no control over?
I’m a little different when it comes to people like that because I’m allowed to tell the other person “I would appreciate it if you don’t cuss at me” and then disconnect if the abuse continues. I’m also allowed to explain that I will lose my job if I do any kind of service for free. Most people understand that and will calm down. Some folks don’t give a flying fuck and those are the people who tend to be abusive to the voice on the other end of the line. I guess for those people it doesn’t matter that they’re talking to people just trying to do a job to pay the bills.
On that note, I like my job. I like being able to do a job in my field (though a low-level job) and it’s shown me that I’ve been a little bit snobby in thinking that most people know how to use the intertoobz2. I’ve gotten really good at losing the jargon and explaining things in really elementary terms. I think it’s hilarious when people get me and then say “I was supposed to be transferred to a technician” and I get to say “I am the technician”. That cracks me up every single time3. It makes me laugh when people call for help and then assume that they know more than me. And I love talking to people who are chatty and just want to be friends (those folks are awesome). The people like the one that got me to writing though? Pfft. They can fuck off.
It’s a good thing she can afford to work for The Most Awesomest Corporation Evar. Some of us are stuck doing what we can to get the mortgage paid. Sadly, that includes interacting with assholes like her.
nuPUMA
I’m irritated by Obama supporters right now. Not all Obama supporters, of course, but those that have decided that Obama can absolutely do no wrong. And by pointing out something that he has done wrong, or has failed to do, you are somehow a “professional left” or “emprog”– whatever the fuck that means1. I seriously cannot roll my eyes hard enough at these people. I was thinking about it today, reading my Twitter feed, and have come to a conclusion.
They are no different than the PUMAs were with Clinton back in ’08.
Sure, they’re smarter and don’t use so many exclamation points. But they behave the same when someone dares write anything negative about Obama. The same refusal to believe that he can be at all fallible. He’s no more than a rock star to them and damned anyone for saying otherwise.
This is illustrated best by the most recent event– the failure of the Super Committee to
kill Medicarecome to a compromise. Previous to the final decision, some of the nuPUMA2 kept reminding people that Obama couldn’t work with the Congress he has. They were hamstringing him and there was nothing he could do. He was powerless against them. Some were saying that Obama was staying out of the Super Committee workings; keeping hands off. He is, afterall, at the mercy of Congress and has no influence over them.Then the Super Committee failed. No compromises on killing Medicaid/Medicare/Social Security and making the Bush tax cuts permanent. No accepting GOP extortion, in my opinion. Suddenly, the nuPUMA are celebrating Obama’s victory. He put pressure on them, you see, it was all his doing.
Good grief, make up my fucking mind. Either he has no influence and can get nothing done, or he can twist arms and get his way.
Well, see, if you ask this question then the issue becomes “Are you going to vote?” I don’t know why. I don’t understand the way that works. Ask an honest question and get that shit back. Of course, PUMA didn’t make sense to me either.
Another example is the police violence on Occupiers. I am a staunch supporter of the Occupy Movement. I truly believe that this country is fucked because politicians are bought and paid for by the banks and their lackeys. I understand the movement and get their point. I roll my eyes heavily when someone says “What do they want?” It’s a leaderless, nonpolitical movement. There is no Heritage Foundation to make the message palatable. You have to actively discuss the issues with occupiers and pay attention. Even if you don’t agree with the movement, the violence against the Occupiers is uncalled for. It’s extreme, ugly and is obviously an attempt to suppress the message. Tear gas, rubber bullets, arresting the press, confiscating equipment, using billy clubs against student, pepper spray on elderly ladies, ramming people with horses. If you watch what is happening you’d think it was happening somewhere else3.
I was one person that questioned why Obama will make a statement in support of Egyptian protesters, but ignore the violence perpetrated against American citizens. We wondered why he didn’t issue a statement against the violence. He is, afterall, a Constitutional scholar and the leader of this country. Was a simple statement too much to ask?
Apparently it was. The nuPUMAs were up in arms. Why hadn’t we spoken out against police violence before? Why would we think the President would have any influence over the local law enforcement agencies4? Why would he want to get involved? He has no responsibility, you see, to the people of this country. That responsibility lies solely with the mayors and police chiefs. Or something. It’s crazy to expect the President of the United States to have any kind of influence over local politics or to be able to issue a simple statement against the use of force on the Occupiers. He is just the President. Only one man. No one important. I mean, not even he mentioned the police violence against Black folks in this country.
Until someone came across an article from May that said the U.S. was going to investigate cities for civil rights violations (police brutality5 and what have you). Well, there you go! That should be enough! That action back in May was actually Obama’s action against violence used on the protesters. Of course, it also shows that Obama didn’t ignore police brutality against People of Color, but that is not the point. I’m such a negative nelly. Forgive me.
I think the nuPUMAs do more damage to Obama than we do. The teabaggers are out for blood, but nuPUMAs excuse his worst offenses and his weakest policy with “He’s got no power.” How is that possible? I actually saw a nuPUMA say that if someone is accused of terrorism they don’t deserve due process. Remember who else said that? I do and his name was Cheney. Assasination lists are ok, as long as Obama is in charge; keeping someone imprisoned without a trial is ok, as long as Obama is in charge; rendition is ok, as long as Obama is in charge; etc etc. Remember when Bush used his Executive office to give himself unprecedented presidential powers? I do too. Obama, gods love him, has helped himself to those same powers.
I’ve also recently seen “Inside Job”. I’ve got to say, the fact that Obama kept many of Bush’s financial advisers makes me ill. But I really expected him to be another Clinton, so that’s not too surprising. What’s surprising is that his Bush-like policies are getting lauded by some of the same people who want Bush in jail6.
I don’t like the nuPUMA and that’s who this post is about. I know in 2012 I’ll cast a vote for Obama because I’ll have no other choice. I’m pretty sure he’s already won the election considering the candidates that have been chosen to run for the GOP side7. I don’t like nuPUMAs because I didn’t like old PUMAs. They bug the shit out of me. Always twisting and turning and putting aside their previously held beliefs. Honestly, I think I’m going to start just copying and pasting their silly contradictions just so I can keep them bookmarked while pointing and laughing at the same time.