Sunday, August 12, 2007

People are funny

I was talking to one of my pharmacists the other day and she was telling me of a complaint we once had from an elderly woman in her 80's. The woman said she had received a phone call from our pharmacy to let her know she had a prescription ready, and she told my boss the woman on the phone was very rude to her. She complained, "I was trying to talk to her, and she wouldn't say anything to me! I said, 'Hello?? Hello?!' and the lady wouldn't answer me!! She was very rude to me!!"

Little did the sweet old lady know that it wasn't someone from our pharmacy calling her..it was our somewhat impersonal automated system.

I just had to laugh... not to make fun of senility or elderly confusion, but because that'll probably be me in 50 years. Also, being a "Simpsons" junkie since 1987 (when they were roughly drawn shorts on "The Tracey Ullman Show"), I can picture this happening to poor ol' Grandpa. (Abe Simpson is my hero!!)

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

I hate it when those things call... they always seem to say "Hi..." then pause. I respond "Hi?" only for the rest of the message to play and for me to feel like a total idiot...

JennyWo said...

I hate to admit it, but I think I got fooled by it, too. A phone call from my own store. :)

Kevin Lowe said...

I particularly hate the automated voice-recognition systems. Talk to the machine. Talk to the machine. Ahhh . . . !

Jennifer said...

We have had problems with our phone line at work and Verizon has those voice recognition systems. They drive me crazy.... I guess a robot telling me "We are sorry you are experiencing difficulties" seems even less believable than a customer rep service saying the same thing.

Kevin Lowe said...

Hey, Just Jenny, it's time for another post.

We're all anxiously waiting :)