Comm 101

The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. -- Heinlein

OK, so yet another moron from the local cable company interrupts my evening to try to sell me on a subscription to their over-priced service. (As a side note, I can't wait until EPB gets their fiber-to-home service going. If I have any money, I just might subscribe. Partly to encourage them, and partly to stick a finger in the eye of the other guys.) Anyway, I look out the peephole and I know instantly what's up. So, I open the door, and before the guy can even speak, I give him an earful and close the door.

Then I call the management office, hoping to get a recording that will tell me the phone number for the on-site security guy. No luck. I get an answering "service". So I ask for the number for the security guy.

And this is where things go south.

Instead of saying the intelligent thing ("We're not allowed to give that out, but I can have him call you."), the idiot moron half-wit person on the other end asks my name.

What the...? What does that have to do with anything?

Ignoring that, I ask again for the guy's phone number. Now she finally tells me they're not allowed to give that out. Yeah, that helps a lot.

It's a good thing it wasn't an emergency.

(Fortunately, I know I've got that number around here somewhere. It used to be in my phone. I'll have to dig it out and program it back in.)


This whole thing reminds me of an incident years ago when I had to call some company and got their answering "service". After several minutes of me explaining the situation, the idiot moron half-wit person on the other end finally deigns to tell me that I've reached the answering service for the business. Followed by an impromptu lesson from me on how to use the phone. After that, any time I had to call that business, I would begin with "Is this ________ company, or have I reached the answering service?". If it wasn't the company, I'd hang up.

UPDATE: (13 Dec 09)
I finally found the little refrigerator magnet with the Security phone number on it. No more answering service for me.