all's well that ends well

1. Packout 2010 is over. In what was record time, the movers were out of the house at 2:30 this afternoon. I had pared down what we brought to SC because I wanted to live as minimally as possible so there wasn't a lot of "clutter stuff" to pack up, which sped things along enormously.

2. I called Time Warner Cable at 7:45am today, only to be told that the people who handle cancellations (called the Retention Department) don't come in until 8am. So I called back at 8:15am and talked with a woman who was full of attitude and low on expertise.

Her first suggestion was that I just pack up the converter and modem and mail them from wherever I was moving. I told her I was moving to Bogota, Colombia, which happens to be in South America. She said I could mail it back from there. I asked her if she was kidding me to which she quickly said "excuse me?". I asked her if she had any idea what it would cost to mail that heavy box back and no, that wasn't an option.

Her second suggestion was that since I said I would be at the house until 4:30 today, I could drop off the stuff at the local TWC office because they didn't close until 6:30pm. I was operating on principle at this point and absolutely refused to deliver this stuff anywhere since the guy was supposed to pick it up yesterday. So I might have stretched the truth and told her I was leaving for Bogota tomorrow and that I most certainly would not spend my last night here away from my family in order to deliver cable equipment. After all, I'd already lost my "next-to-last" night with family waiting for the guy who never came.

Her third suggestion involved actually checking the schedule to see the earliest that somebody could come out. That would be Monday. So I told her that the guy would find the equipment on the front porch in a plastic bag if it hadn't been stolen.

At this point, she told me she couldn't help me anymore, that Monday was the best she could do.

So I asked to speak to her supervisor.

She told me that the supervisors weren't in yet.

I asked when they'd be in. I told her that I realized she'd done everything in her power, but I obviously needed someone with more power.

She put me on hold.






It was a long hold.












Enter DORETHA.

If Doretha hasn't won the TWC Employee of the Year every year since she started working at TWC, then somebody isn't recognizing talent when they see it.

For starters, Doretha sounded older on the phone, not like the 19 year-olds with whom I had previously spoken. Doretha apologized genuinely for all my trouble (not like the aforementioned teenager apologies that sounded like they were reading off the script they'd been given in their TWC training class (which obviously isn't long enough). Doretha then called the local dispatch and came back on the phone to tell me that someone would be at my house in 15 minutes.

W-H-A-T????

I wasted more than a quarter of a day yesterday dealing with TWC and in 5 minutes, Doretha has taken care of business?

Put that woman up for Employee of the Millenium!

Doretha also stressed - repeatedly- to write down the serial numbers on a piece of paper and get the pick-up person to sign for receipt and to keep that document with me as proof in case the pick-up person ended up stealing the equipment and I guess re-selling?? Well the pick-up person (who arrived in record time) was dressed like the manager of the local office and not some unhappy worker who wanted to steal from TWC. He brought his own documentation so we signed each other's paper and away he went.

Just like that, the tension eased in my shoulders and I got back to enjoying my coffee, fattening blueberry scone, and delightful conversation with BFF on the front porch of the rental house.

Truly, all's well that ends well.