UNITED STATES—As Americans we have become accustomed to getting things when we want them, not when we need them. Something I have learned in the past month is that I’m not a patient person. I think this has become quite common for me when I have to deal with seeking customer service for products or services that I buy.

This past week alone, I probably spent a good 10 hours on the phone dealing with being transferred and placed on hold by companies who could care less about providing their customers with quality service.

Yep, no one wants to be put on hold, but I feel like I get the punishment more than others and it just leaves me beyond frustrated. I literally had to call my phone provider 4-5 times this week because of technical issues with my phone. This was not something that was an easy fix as simple as unplugging the phone and restarting it. My phone wouldn’t allow me to dial out. I could receive incoming calls, but as soon as I would answer, the call would just drop. My frustration started nearly a week ago, when I first reported the problem. It was a tech support call that lasted close to 3 HOURS! Yes, if the problem wasn’t fixed at that point imagine the chaos I planned to unleash when I had to call back.

About 3 days later, the problem starts up once again. At this point, I’m peeved, my blood is boiling. I call my provider back reporting the problem and I’m getting the run around. First, I’m speaking with a representative who seems to sound like he can solve my problem, surprise, he can’t which means, I now have to be put on hold once again to be transferred to the technical support department. Why didn’t you just do this the first time around? I hate when companies put you on hold for minutes, which can turn into an hour or two, and then get upset, when you’re frustrated about a problem they informed you was fixed and that I shouldn’t have any more issues. I was more livid with the fact that the person that I was speaking to seemed to have an attitude about the fact that I was not interested in hearing him tell me something that I was already aware of. It only made things worse when he started to become slightly disrespectful to me. Like wait one second, I’m the reason you’re employed, granted I might have been slightly upset, but I was not being rude to you in any fashion. If I give respect I demand that respect is given back to me.

Behold I’m told that I should be receiving a new phone and the problem would be resolved. Guess what? Problem not resolved, the new phone doesn’t work, and I’m just dreading having to call the company back to get technical support on an issue that has now been 3 weeks in the making. People around me were well aware that my patience was quite short, so much to the point that they called me out on my temper. I always thought I was a patient person (I mean I worked in retail for close to 13 years), if I didn’t learn patience would I ever?

That was just the beginning of a stressful week because my Internet service went caput, but to tell you that story would take a lot longer than I imagine. Trust me you don’t have the patience to listen to that tale do you?