You said -

“I think I’ve had this actual conversation–more than once.”

Don’t get me started again. I have ones like this more often than not.

I feel sorry for the people on the other end.but it is so irritating. Especially when I see the unemployment figures on CNBC go up and up.

I love your optimistic attitude.

From your mouth to God’s ears!

You know I am a big fan of yours.

Funny. That is also my pet peeve. You are talking to a salesperson and the phone rings and they answer it.

I was THERE FIRST!

And you know what? I walk too. And if I am in a really bad mood and have the time, I get the manager and complain.

Birney Summerss last blog post..DRIVE SLOW SAVE MONEY

I agree that there are ups and down in everything. The down just means that the up is around the corner.

Just about every call I make these days to reduce costs: like the damnable AT&T, Comcast, etc) presents on the other end, an American human being who is basically afraid of losing his job and so is sucking up because he knows he’s being monitored (the damnable Big Brother). Nice as pie and surprisingly accomodating. Shocking, but welcome.

If I walk into a restaurant or a retail shop these days, the employees literally fall all over me with service. Today for example, I thought the waiter was going to offer to do my windows!!!

So refreshing but here’s the sad part – if you need service or help, the big companies are still going to send you offshore to speak to a “Bob” with that godawful time lag -and while I don’t begrudge anyone a job – I really believe we must take care of our own first.

I once spent three and a half insane hours with a “Harry” – yes, it was about the internet.

We are in such a mess now. I think this is the biggest and worst one yet. No, “they” are not telling us the truth – if we knew the truth – we’d be jumping out of more windows. “They” are even covering up that mess. I know that one for sure!!!

I’ll tell you another thing that I know for sure. People do want “face time”. They want community and camaraderie… and a hug. Why do you think so many of these lost souls are sitting home all alone and trying to make some contact in either a chat room or a blog? Why aren’t they sitting around sharing great food and wine and a hug and the sheer joy of conversations with wonderful friends or family.

They are bloody lonely. Do you know just how many people never hav any physical human contact?

They are starved for Face time… and a hug.

Someone I know put an ad in a local paper asking for volunteers for a group to get together just to have “conversation”. Remember that word? He was blown away with the response he got and had to hire a bigger venue just to accomodate the crowd. These people were so grateful for this opportunity to meet others in person.

Why don’t you blog readers put and ad in your local paper and see if you can do the same – before we completely lose the art of conversaton … duh. Y’know!!! Like totally!!!

I really liked this piece. I have had experiences, not in the financial area, that led me to question why companies go outside of the U.S. to facilitate help to its customers. I am not knocking the people who are in foreign lands doing this for a living. I do question how frustrating it is for me as a customer to have to communicate with someone who does not know English well enough to help me.

I also identified with your CFP guy. I have the same kind of person who helps me–and it is real help. He is available within minutes after I call him. I really appreciate that. I told him so and sent your article to him.

In terms of the economy if we all stick together, we won’t hang separately–and it is nice to have someone to at least hear and understand our problems

best,

bernie