After our close friend, Marty Linville, crossed over that bridge, July 5, 2024, the remainder of the Order of Curmudgeons, Rod Stark, Peter Toennies, Jim Hileman, and i, met in Coronado.

The grand old group of golfers have been playing golf separately or with some of the others for a long time. In May 1991, Marty and i began playing on Fridays, mostly at the Sea ‘n Air golf course on the Naval Air Station, Coronado. The others in the group began to play with us, and we added and subtracted members. Currently, we have a dozen golfers. We reserve two tee times each week, now on Thursdays, and usually fill with eight golfers. Rod is the driver for the tee times and counting heads.

Of the orginal corp group that were labeled curmudgeons by the Sea ‘n Air staff, it’s the five of us. At that meeting two years ago, we voted who would take Marty’s place as the Grand Whiner of the Order of Curmudgeons. i was surprised the other four voted for me.

i take this job seriously.

For several years now, i have been known by folks that read my posts, here and on Facebook, for riding sport casters hard. They deserve it. Several things have occurred over the past several months that made me decide to expand my curmudgeon comments.

i began a post about some irritations when i realized it would be a never-ending post. So i decided i would only whine about one or two in a series using the title above. The first of the series is below:

Lately, have you attempted to call a business or a service? i have. It is a most infuriating experience.

A recorded voice (or perhaps an Artificial Intelligence generated voice) takes through an almost infinite number of steps to not reach what i sought: a real, live, human being. While doing so, this supposedly soothing voice that drives me insane, tells me many things i already know and takes his or her sweet time doing it before moving on to the next step. Often, i end up listening to a horrible quality tape of recorded music frequently interrupted with that voice telling me they value me as a client or customer before finally either disconnecting me or i choose to disconnect because i became tired of being on hold for half the morning.

Are these organizations really making more money by firing all of their basic staff? Has it ever occurred to them they might get more business, certainly mine, if they hired one person to answer the phone and direct the caller to the right person?

And why would i want to complete a survey after the call, a survey that doesn’t allow me to comment about how crappy my experience has been, including the survey?

It seems commercial America has decided customer service isn’t worth the time or cost. It seems they are focused on making me miserable.