I
believe that our society has become too automated. Just about every one of our monthly bills can
be paid without lifting a pen. Yes it
saves time, but god forbid you have a discrepancy. If you do, you will need an act of said god
to get it corrected. It seems that once
you go into the automated world you’ve given up your right to talk to a person,
at least one that has a pulse. “Oh you
have a complaint? We’ll connect you
right away with a service representative – our current wait time is 72 hours, would
you like to hold?” Alternately, you can
press one to speak to an agent about buying something new and get connected
with Carmelann right away. There is some
satisfaction to be had as you hear Carmelann struggling when she realizes that
she’s been had.
Next
area where we’ve let computers take over way too much is JIT. JIT stands for “Just In Time” as in inventory
systems. The idea behind JIT is that
with the rise of “Big Data” computer systems, they have collected enough
knowledge about our buying habits that they can anticipate how much inventory
should be on the selves at just the right time - saving Ba-Zillions of
dollars. Well I think we all know that
computer systems are not infallible.
Case in point, the Matthew Broderick movie, “War Games.” And to reinforce this point, my daughter this
past week went into a local ice cream shop where they can mix up
multiple ice cream flavor concoctions.
My daughter wanted Peanut Butter and Chocolate. They were out of Peanut Butter. I get that.
How many people want peanut butter flavored ice cream. But then she asked for Chocolate and they
told her they were out of Chocolate too.
I’m sorry, but in my humble opinion that’s not acceptable. You want to run out of lima bean or broccoli
flavored ice cream, fine. But you can’t
call yourself an ice cream shop and not have on hand, one of the original two
ice cream flavors that’s been around since biblical times. It’s like going into McDonalds and having
them tell you, “We don’t have hamburgers today.”
But the Piece of Resistance happened
yesterday. I went to the United States
Post Office to take care of two tasks.
First, I needed to have my Dad’s temporary change of address
renewed. He received a letter about it,
so I figured the people at the post office could help. No luck.
A very pleasant postal worker told me that it would be best if I called
a 1-800 number listed on a form she handed me.
(Sure, I’ve got 72 hours to kill.) Okay, I understand. If you’re not sure, don’t take a chance and
screw up someone’s mail delivery. But
then I asked her for two books of stamps.
Again, with a pleasant smile on her face, she tells me, “We don’t have
any stamps.” I hesitated but then smiled
and gave a laugh, as I’ve never known this person to joke around with me. But this time she really got me. I said, “That’s very funny, but really, I’d
like two books of stamps.” She’s still
smiling at me, even laughing a bit too.
She reiterates, “We’ve run out of stamps.” Now I’m thinking, “Okay lady, the joke’s
over. Hand over those stamps, I need to
be on my way.” Then it finally sinks in,
she isn’t joking, she has no stamps. The
United States Post Office has no stamps.
The mightiest country on the face of the earth and - No Stamps! I was incredulous and at the same time burst
out laughing asking her, “But you’re the Post Office, how can you not have any
stamps?” She said, “I don’t know what to
tell you.” In my mind, the Post Office
not having stamps is like Santa Claus sailing down your chimney, opening up his
sack and saying, “Snag, No Presents!”
No comments:
Post a Comment