I must really be out of touch

[VintageMusclecar]

with the way businesses are run these days.

I just called a parts house to place an order for a part for my Suburban. After innumerable button-pushing prompts I <span style="font-style: italic">finally</span> managed to contact an actual living, breathing human being on the other end of the line.

&quot;Can I help you?&quot; the young lady asked.

&quot;Yes, I'd like to place an order please&quot; I replied.

&quot;You can do that online on our website, I'd be happy to walk you through it&quot; she replied.

&quot;Thank you, but I prefer to speak with a person when I'm placing an order, I don't care to place orders online.&quot;

*Insert the sound of crickets chirping here*

&quot;Well sir, may I ask why you don't want to place your order online?&quot; she replied, with a clear hint of agitation in her voice now.

&quot;I just prefer to interact with a human being when I spend my money. I don't even use those self-checkout lines at the supermarket, I prefer to interact with a cashier.&quot;

&quot;Well sir, we're phasing out our phone ordering system, they plan to eliminate it completely by the end of the year, so you'll have to place your order on the website. Again, I'll be happy to walk you through it.&quot;

&quot;Thank you, but that's OK, I can do that myself. Good bye.&quot;

Call me old-fashioned, whatever, but dammit, if I'm going to spend my money somewhere like that I want to deal with a friggin' human being! This may be hard to believe, but I have <span style="font-weight: bold">never</span>, not even once in my life purchased anything online from a website shopping cart, and I have no intentions of doing so anytime soon.

I am sad to say this company has just lost me as a customer, and I've done quite a bit of business with them too. But if I am going to be denied the simple privilege of speaking to a human being when I want to order something then I will just have to take my business elsewhere.

I know someone's probably going to say I'm being curmudgeonly, but I don't care, that just bothers the hell out of me. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/mad.gif[/img]

If this is the present/future business model of America, I'm screwed.

[x Baldwin Motion]

I would have told her your intention to shop elsewhere with human interaction, it may save a few jobs. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/dunno.gif[/img]

[SS427]

The sad thing is, this is the way of the future. We were just talking about it the other day. Future generations will have no idea how to communicate with each other and what to do when they are face to face as everything will be done on line. Very sad. It will give new meaning to the phrase cyber sex as this will likely be the way couples have sex in the future as they will not know how to interact in person. At least it will decrease STD's. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[firez]

Its crazy do these people not realize computers are replacing them. I was at the bank yesterday waiting my turn. When i reached a bank teller she said to me she can not believe people line up for tellers when as she said our bank machines can do as much as she could . I am thinking when shes laid off she will rethink her comments

[John Brown]

I worked close to 35 years behind a counter and as a warehouse sales rep. No computer can have as much stored information as there is in a stack of obsolete parts books and in the brain of a really good parts guy. Why you say....? A whole lot of information, obsoleted part numbers, pictures, plus real world experience isn't catalogued into a &quot;pick one from each column&quot; computer program. I have no problem using a computer, as long as I have that stack of obsolete printed information to refer to when the computer leads me down the garden path to oblivion. The computer is just fine doing what it does best, and that is pricing and printing invoices.

[olredalert]

----Same as you but maybe worse. I wont even go thru the drive thru at the bank or Mickey Ds for that matter.....Bill S

[WILMASBOYL78]

My auto dealer clients think the internet is the &quot;magic bullet&quot;..the cheap solution to all marketing and sales. I have to occasionally remind them that no one has figured out yet how to &quot;e-mail a car&quot; to the customer...this is a reality check they don't like to hear.

wilma [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/scholar.gif[/img]

[MrsBillyBobcat]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: VintageMusclecar</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Call me old-fashioned, whatever, but dammit, if I'm going to spend my money somewhere like that I want to deal with a friggin' human being! This may be hard to believe, but I have <span style="font-weight: bold">never</span>, not even once in my life purchased anything online from a website shopping cart, and I have no intentions of doing so anytime soon. </div></div>

You are not alone there Eric [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/wink.gif[/img] I know people who don't even have a computer, and some that do, but don't want anything to do with putting their financial info out there in cyber space.

Who I really feel sorry for is the elderly. What are they suppose to do if they don't even &quot;have a line&quot;? [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/dunno.gif[/img] (as my mother would say [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img] )


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: wilmasboyL78</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have to occasionally remind them that no one has figured out yet how to &quot;e-mail a car&quot; to the customer...this is a reality check they don't like to hear.</div></div> That's a good one Wilma! [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[427TJ]

As stated earlier, this is the wave of the future. Actual human employees cost money so automation (add to cart, automated checkout at the supermarket, self-serve gas etc.) takes the place of that costly human voice on the other end of the phone.

[rubbinisracing]

We've done it to ourselves. Price has become the driving force for the vast majority. Service doesn't sell to the masses, they would prefer it cheap and to complain about it later. It's a cycle that will swing back the other way. If you ride the roller coaster up, you have to ride it back down. Best thing we can do is to adapt and find ways to make it work for us.