2.27.2006

customer service etc

So I'm simulataneously grading student work, reheating food, watching the rain pour down outside, and sitting here listening to Blue Cross's awful fucking hold music borrowed from an elevator somewhere back in the 1970s. My estimated wait time to speak with a representative is 30 minutes. How is that acceptable? How can you even call that service? And the other thing that pisses me off is that when I dial the number, I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get put into the queue. Push 1 for member services, enter my date of birth, my policy number, push zero to talk to a breathing human being. After half the day passes and someone finally answers the phone, s/he asks me for the same damn information. Shouldn't all that crap just pop onto her screen or something? What was the point of my entering a gerjillion digits into my phone to begin with? Argh, anyways, that call is done now. I've confirmed that they canceled one of my insurance plans (even though they sent me all this mail about how my premium would go up by $40 as a reward for turning 30, asses).

Anyways, I was chatting with Egan the other day on IM. He got on my list after sending a sympathetic IM in response to my post about all the hate mail I was getting for trying to get Spencer Gifts to pull their shirts with the racist Asian caricature. I got to asking him who on his blogroll he actually knows in real life (IRL). I don't converse in real time, online or off, with any other bloggers I don't know IRL. More than 3/4 of my blogroll are strangers IRL but we read each others blogs regularly. So I'm curious, have you ever met up with someone IRL, after knowing him/her only from reading his/her blogs? If so, how many times have you done this? Was s/he what you expected based on reading his/her blogs? Was it weird?

** addition to this post **

Would YOUR blog accurately reflect you IRL? For me, I use this as a space to unload all my bitching and complaining. You know, stuff that people don't like to listen to but, for some reason, is funny when read rather than heard. So IRL, I'm really not this negative and hostile. Okay, well I am a little. Most of you get it, but from reading some comments ("oh the world's not so bad Vanessa bla bla bla") from a couple people who don't know me well, I've learned that not all of you realize I'm being sarcastic/facetious. I think a blog that looks at the world through rose coloured glasses is boring and, for me, induces a violent fit of projectile vomiting.

8 comments:

Syndromes said...

I've met up somewhere around 10 or so bloggers that I didn't know beforehand. Happy to say, in almost all cases I was glad I did it, but I wouldn't say that blogs always accurately reflect the reality of that person. It wasn't all that weird for me, other than the normal jitters of meeting someone for the first time, but then again i've been meeting up with random strangers from the internet since 1994.

I wouldn't expect them to necessarily be the same in person as from their blog, but in my experience if you get along with them on their blog you likely will in person as well. There are horror stories out there, and i've got at least one of my own to tell, but it didn't involve a blogger technically, just someone I met on the internet.

Syndromes said...

** addition to this comment **

Eh, it might, and it might not :) I am all the things of my blog, but it's certainly not the entirety of me. Actually was talking about it a bit this weekend and a friend said that when they met me, I was much less spastic than they thought I was going to be. I have my spastic moments though, so don't be fooled ;)

Ben said...

Oh, you hit a good point: I hate when the phone system asks you for all your info, and then you have to repeat it again to the person you get connected to. It's like, what was the point of the first one? Or, better yet, what's the point of the SECOND one, since you wouldn't have gotten through there if your first one wasn't already checked!

As for knowing bloggers IRL, I would say that most of the people who frequent my blog I already know IRL. A few don't, and they likely have quiet a different view of me than people who already did and just have impressions from my blog to complete the picture.

David Tellez said...

Which is why I always punch "0" a gazillion times...it's the only way. That or the # button...saying "representative" works, but only sometimes.

As for the IRL, I've actually had people, email me, asking me if I would be in town during a certian length in time, asking if I would be their escort around town. I guess it's to see if I'm as real in life as I am in my blog. The answer would be yes, but I guess some just gotta see it for themselves to believe.

egan said...

As a follow-up to the meeting of bloggers in real life. It seems like it's only common courtesy to meet a blogger if they're in town for work or pleasure. It doesn't have to be much, coffee, lunch, a beer, etc. Does anyone else feel this way? I love showing off my hometown and hearing what people's impressions.

Fumbling said...

hmmm, i think meeting up with strangers is a little more of a small favour than a common courtesy. But it is something that I would likely do for a blogger I'm familiar with. What about bloggers who already live in your neck of the woods? Have you ever met up with them?

egan said...

God = Egan

Syndromes said...

This shirt made me think of you ;)