This
morning I spent at least half an hour with a phone plugged into my ear.
I had to
call the Transit Authority about a reduced fare Metrocard I lost a couple of
weeks ago, and which I had reported lost a couple of weeks ago. I looked up the
number online and dialed what I thought was the right number.
Of course,
I first had to go through the routine recording “as our menus have recently
changed,” until I got to the part where I could say “representative” and get
into the hold queue. The music wasn’t bad, at first, interrupted maybe every 15
seconds by the recording apologizing for the wait time, but after a while I
realized it was only a two-bar riff, repeated endlessly, and it became boring
quickly.
Fortunately,
with a cellphone, it’s possible to be on hold and do other things, so I spent
this 15 minutes doing necessary stretches. However, when I finally reached a
human being, explained my problem (had my replacement Metrocard been mailed?),
and learned I wasn’t in her system, it turned out I had called the wrong
number. I should have called a city number: 511.
Dialing
511, however, got me a recording saying it wasn’t a valid number. WTF?!
Next I
tried the all-purpose 311. The recording here misunderstood the reason for my
call and sent me to a lost and found person. (Not too long a wait on hold.) She
started to tell me how I could go to the website, and when I said I’d rather
speak to a human, she laughed and said she was supposed to tell me all my
options. She successfully switched me to the 511 number.
After a
brief hold here, I learned that there’d been a “backlog” in replacement cards
and mine wasn’t even ready to be mailed yet. (Internal scream of exasperation.
With reduced fare, I can only get one round-trip card at a time when showing my
Medicare card. This is beyond annoying.)
Well, if it
hasn’t been mailed yet, where is it mailed from? I ask. From lower Manhattan,
he says. Can I come pick it up then? Yes, he says. He’ll put a hold so it won’t
be mailed out, and I will be called and left a voicemail when it is ready. That
should save a couple of days in the Post Office.
All of this
took only half an hour, but it disarrayed my whole morning.
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Slice of Life Tuesday over at Two
Writing Teachers. Check out this encouraging and
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