No Love Lost

When Rudolf was born, he was the only one among the litter that had bright pink nose. Johan christened him “Rudolf” in reference to the reindeer. Consequently, Rudolf was the only one that remained with us, as Johan refused to have him sold. Already,  Rudolf belonged to Johan.

Being a labrador, the 7-month old Rudolf was humongous, at least for Johan who was still 6 years old at the time.  Once in an obedience training session, Johan had a not-so-pleasant experience with his pet.   Johan confidently took hold of his leash and Rudolf dragged  him a few yards as the pup chased a stray dog that was just passing by.

Johan sustained very minor scratches, but wouldn’t come near Rudolf ever again. The affection that they once shared seemed lost.

Last Kalilangan  2011 brought a miracle.  Father-son bonding led them to watch the Dog Show at the MSU Grounds.  Upon returning home, Johan became participative again to Rudolf’s continued training.  He now holds the leash and walks Rudolf around the front yard. When time permits, he takes time to comb or brush Rudolf’s fur.  When asked what made him care for Rudolf again, he said, “One day, me and Rudolf will be in a Dog Show too.  And we will win!”

Email Santa

My son Johan Matthew is in Grade 1 and isn’t very fond of writing.  By writing, I mean school “pencil and paper” stuff.  He gets frustrated when he lags behind his classmates’ pencil pushing skills.

So one day he asked his teacher, “Teacher, can I bring a netbook to class?”

“What for?”  asked the perplexed teacher.

“I don’t like to write with a pencil, its so slow.”

“But, if you don’t write how will you send Santa your wishlist for Christmas?”

“Duh, I email him, of course!”

Stupid SUN has clouded my day!

Okay fine. Our Sun Cellular (Group Plan (990) got redirected. But that’s inevitable. What is really upsetting is their veeerrryyyy slow response.

I also maintain a postpaid account with Smart Telecom. There are times when I get redirected with that line too. But as soon as I made my payment, my connection gets restored. I have not even exited the mall yet!

But with SUN? Gosh! *sigh
When I asked how long it would take before the redirection would be lifted, I was told within the next hour or two. Ok, I can be patient for that long.

The two hours wait stretched until morning. More than 12 hours already. Naturally, I called their Customer Service Hotline. And I waited some more! I stayed on the line for 10 minutes before I was able to talk to  an agent. We went through the usual Q&A, then he said, “Yes, ma’am. I can see that your payment was already posted, but not yet advised for lifting.”

What? Why?

“Ah, ma’am, this is systems generated that 24 hours upon payment was made, the system will automatically lift the redirection. Our payment centers are only authorized to accept and post the payment of the customer. But it is the system that will lift the redirection.”

WHAT???? Ok fine, your system sucks.

Now, it is more than 24 hours since payment was made.  I called again to ask why, even after patiently waiting for more than the promised period, the system still has not restored our connection.  The agent who took the call said,”  Yes, ma’am.  We are really sorry for that, ma’am.  Can you hold for 3 minutes while I check with our technical group?”

“Well, miss, your company already had me on hold for more than 24 hours, what difference would 3 minutes make?”

Silence…….. hhhmmm, I think she did not get that sarcasm.  “Yes, miss. go ahead.  I’ll wait.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”   After a while, she came back.  “Thank you for waiting, ma’am.”

“Which one are you thanking me for?  The 24 hours or the three minutes?  I hope you have some good news for me?”

“Aahh, yes ma’am.  We are so sorry about that, ma’am.  But our technical team has to look into the system to determine why your connection is still not restored.  We advise that you continue to monitor for the next few hours, ma’am.”

“Thank you, miss. That will be all.”

Goodness gracious!  How stupid do you think your clients are?

We know the translation of your spiel!  We know that when you guys say “hold on for a minute while I check with our technical group”  you are actually saying,”I need to get off the air for a while, without dropping your call, because I need to ask my seatmate/shiftmate what to do.”

In reality, you don’t have a technical group/team and you don’t have an automatic time-lapse redirection lifting system.  It is easier for you to blame something that is non-existent rather than admit that you have absolutely no idea how to resolve the issue at your level.  You are simple trying to appease the client  and irritating us in the process.

A piece of advice:  Tell the truth.  Don’t give us some idiotic stories.  With the advancement in technology, your clients are better informed than you suppose.