I made the mistake of going with Manchild to.....

I'm sure I've said it before and I'll say it again, Manchild likes to have a scowly face. He looks like a cop enough anyway that he doesn't have to put on his mean face but I think he actually likes looking like an asshole meanie. I've learned that he's all bark and not bite, at least when it comes to me and the girls.

I have been riding him for over a month to get my daughter added to our phone plan and he's been putting it off. He tried to get me to do it (don't most husbands do that?) but I'm not authorized to change our plan so the onus was on him. One fine Saturday we were tooling around town and I was driving so he was my hostage. I drove right over to the phone store so we could get it taken care of once and for all.

This is how he views the phone company:

He thinks they're all out to screw us and I'll admit, they have us by the short hairs for sure. The cheap phone companies work fine around the big city but they don't have coverage around our little cabin in the woods so we're stuck using Mr. Big Bad Nazi Conglomerate Phone Company.

We entered the store and Mr. Man was immediately mad because the store was crowded. We found a service lady and I proceeded to tell her what we were trying to do. The lady was probably about 23 or 24 years old and when she saw Mr. Man and his big ugly scowling face, she sort of shrunk behind the counter. Besides needing to add a line to our service, we were also due for an upgrade so Mr. Man barks to the lady that he wants to see the free phones.

She pointed out the selection of "free" phones (all 3 of them)

 

and calmly explained that there were more "free" phones online - that their store didn't carry many and boy oh boy...that got him grumbling. I had finally had enough so I barked at him and told him not to take it out on the nice sales lady and that it wasn't her fault. Thankfully he backed off some. I dealt with the lady about the new phone line and then the next horror occurred. We were told that there would be a one time activation fee to add the new line.

Of course, my man was incensed since all we wanted to do was add a line to service that was already connected. I agreed that it sucked but what were we to do? I reminded him again, that it was not the poor little girl's fault. It was Big Brother Stick It To You And Yank Your Shorthair's fault. For once, Manchild's ranting paid off. He stated that he had been an excellent customer in good standing for many years and that he had never been late on a payment and it wasn't fair that he had to pay the fee. The lady offered to try and get it waived and immediately, Mr. Man calmed right down. He spoke to her in a respectable tone that it would be fantastic if she could do that.

As it turned out, the lady was able to get the charges waived and Mr. Man was happy. We completed our transaction and all went back to normal as if ranting and raving and scowling had never happened. I was very relieved to be done with that chore!

A day or so later, I wrote the nice lady an e-mail. Here's how it went...

Sofia,

I wanted to tell you thank you for all of your help when my husband (the grumpy guy in the orange t-shirt) and I came in to add a line to our service. He had been putting that task off for some time because he hates dealing with that kind of stuff and as you probably noticed...he was being a royal jerk-o-rama. You were so nice and calm and didn't seem to take offense. You made his day when you got the connection fee waived!

Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for your great attitude and customer service.

Regards,
 

Elizabeth

And here is her reply:

No problem at all! I was very happy to help! It was wonderful working with you, I completely understand how the activation fee sounds like a lot of money to pay and you guys have been great customers so I was happy to take care of the fee. Again just check in on the credit on the next bill to make sure it went through if not just drop me a line and I’ll take care of it.

If ya’ll have any more questions or any concerns feel free to contact me!

Have a great day!

Sofia

I guess she's had to deal with scary guys before and knows not to panic. All I know is that I was really embarrassed.