Everyone Gets There Eventually

Be Nice

My husband Gary and I are in our sixties. We were not raised with computers or cell phones so mainly we feel as if we are always slightly behind the eight ball. Although I’ve had use of computers with my employment, Gary has not. So, he is in even worse shape than I am. He abhors usernames and passwords. I’m not crazy about them myself.

Self-Employment

Gary being self-employed with his lawn mowing business needs to pay sales tax. He spoke to someone on the phone about it and the guy told him the website and told him it would take him about five minutes.

Let Me Do It Please

Three hours later Gary is on the phone with a woman who has a less than pleasant attitude. I’m standing across from him cutting up a watermelon. I can see the defeated look on his face and can tell he’s ready to throw in the towel. So, taking the phone from him I started to enter in his username and password and the million other things they needed to know. She overheard me talking to Gary and said, “I need the person who is actually going to pay the sales tax present in the room.” Telling her I was his wife, and he was standing next to me seemed to quiet her down. She continued to give me instructions in a loud stern voice. We made it through the process up until the part where Gary had to add his total earnings for two months. Gary asked her if she needed a ballpark figure or exact amount. She told him she needed the exact amount right down to the pennies. He told her that would take a while. She sighed loudly and said in a loud voice, “I cannot stay on the phone for that long with you while you add that up.” She was talk-yelling at us-if that makes sense. Me being me, I wanted to ask her if perhaps they could put a nicer person on the phone to speak with us; but I bit my tongue. Instead, I had her give me instructions for the remaining parts we needed to fill in. She did so, Gary thanked her, she told us to have a nice day and hung up. I didn’t say a word. There was a survey we could have taken afterward but my blood pressure was most likely high, and I was stressed out, so we declined. 

Having A Bad Day?

My thoughts were that she must have been having a bad day and took it out on us. Or most likely thought Gary and I were a couple of idiots who couldn’t find our way out of a paper bag. Either way, she was a very unpleasant person we do not care to deal with again. I told Gary he was never getting my help again (just kidding.), then went out for a run to run off the frustration stemming from dealing with her over the phone.

Grandkids are Brilliant

Our grandkids show us things on our phones, and how to use them. We realize we are not the most phone savvy people in the world. That being said, there is such a thing as phone etiquette and the lady that assisted us left hers at home. 

Karma Sucks

We all grow old, so karma, it goes around and comes back around. Enough said about that. My belief is always to be agreeable and friendly. Things go much better that way, everyone is happy, nobody gets stressed out and the job gets done. There is no reason to be irksome and irritating. It makes the entire process slow and uncomfortable. Too much time spent on the phone when we would really rather be doing something else.

Shout out to all the youngsters out there, I know you all don’t think of it now but someday you will be our age.

‍

Don’t let our experience become your own.

‍

Always and forever be kind.

‍