Friday the 13th miscellany

Every now and again, I am super-impressed and inspired by the exhibits UCSB’s University Arts Museum  puts together.  (They totally should get a spiffier website though.)  I can’t wait to check out the exhibit that opened yesterday.

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It amuses me that the month in which the 13th falls on a Friday is the same month that holds the lucky 7 trifecta.

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The press is rolling and things are full steam ahead for this Sunday.  I better go out and get some chocolate.

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While brushing my teeth this morning, I remembered a snippet of conversation I had on Tuesday with Sofie’s PT, Gwen.  If I had a mirror in front of me, well, and if my skin was translucent, I’m sure I could’ve seen the wheels spinning in my head. Potentially interesting thesis material.  It went like this:

Gwen and I got to talking about how horrible United Airline’s phone customer service has become.  The whole outsourcing to India thing.  The folks attempt to assist you by literally reading from a script.  I HATE having to call them.  After an hour+ of getting no answers, I am invariably fuming.

Anyway, Gwen’s story was that she wanted to purchase gift cards to give to someone as a gift, so she called United to ask how and where.  (She saw nothing online.)  After she FINALLY got someone to understand what she was trying to do, and after many times of being put on hold so that the UA employee could locate the right script from which to read, he told her she had to call a different number. “(415)…”  Gwen wondered why she’d have to call a 415 number, and not be given a toll-free one.  “Well, ma’am, I’m looking at my screen right here, and it says you have to call this number.”  What else was Gwen to do?

Okay, so, Gwen calls the number, which rings and rings… no answer.  Finally frustrated and beyond, she decides to drive to the Santa Barbara Airport and speak with someone directly at the UA counter.  (After a gruelling 90 minutes on the phone, I did the EXACT SAME THING in May, only to find they were closed - at 3-in-the-friggin’-afternoon… and then again at 6:30!)

Luckily, Gwen found someone and explained her situation to him.  He pulled the info up on the computer, then shook his head and laughed.  It turns out the guy on the phone was, yes, LITERALLY reading from a script…  The phone number was that listed on an actual script. It featured a sample of a ticket for “John Smith” instructing him to call (415)…

(My blood started percolating when she told me the story, and it is again as I write this.)

Then I started thinking, becoming interested in the potential anthropological/sociological findings.  Most people (I hope) in the U.S. would have known that was a sample, if only based on the sample name, John Smith.  Someone in India wouldn’t necessarily know the use of this common Alias Smith (and Jones) in our culture.

I wonder how else this phenomenon of cultural hurdles within outsourcing will begin to show itself.

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It amuses me that I’ve irked someone to the point of them filing an Anonymous post to call me a right-winger.

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Pavlov’s Regina…  I used the word “percolating” above and now I want some coffee.  Catch y’all later.

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