If you have ever owned a computer, perhaps you can relate to my recent experience. Our laptop crashed over a month and a half ago and I am still, yep, without a computer!
After sending it off to the Dell plant, we went weeks without hearing a word, except that “it was delayed for reasons they were unsure of at the time.”
I immediately called Dell to give them a piece of my accelerated frustration and disappointment in the company.
After having waited on hold for a good 20 minutes, I was put through to what sounded like a young woman from India.
Within the first five minutes of our conversation we were having difficulty understanding one another due to language and pronunciation. And, she really had no idea of the status of my computer, she was simply reading the prescripted replies on paper in front of her.
As my frustration grew I suddenly realized the unethical reality that I was encountering.
Who was this woman? Maybe she was a young mother, who in order to pay bills, leaves her small children each night to tend to angry costumers; mostly from the United States.
Perhaps she was a promising young girl who had graduated from high school with hopes to become a doctor, but she was manipulated into starting this new job “that will make a few honest dollars,” way below minimum wage and without benefits.
My frustration turned into sympathy for this woman who was upset as I that she could not help me.
Who’s to blame? As I hung up the phone, I wanted to call the Dell exec, probably swinging his 5 iron out on the country club greens. I wanted to call him, probably a white man, and tell HIM of my angst and disgust at the dirty lengths he’ll go to make a buck.
That’s what I wanted to do.
So, I sit here finishing this blog from my husband’s tiny Blackberry, wishing I had a computer and wishing for humane treatment for all around our world today.
Anybody listening?
Lori Burgess blogs for Sparkfly.
