"Get the Message"

     It is 7:47 A.M. on Sunday, and my day has been very productive thus far.  Buddy and I had our thirty minute daily walk done by 6:30, after which I cleaned my living room windows, made my breakfast , checked my FB page, began composing a blog post, and I updated my personal info with my car insurance company. Which brings me to my point.  I am totally fed up with self service and automated service, be it by phone, internet, or even in stores.  For example, when I go to the grocery store, I absolutely refuse to utilize the self service check out.  Why should I?  Are they providing me with a discount by having me do the work myself?  God knows they are saving money in salaries and insurance costs by employing fewer people, but who reaps the profits?  Not the average working man, that's for sure. They do not pass a nickel of those savings on to us.  We are constantly compelled to pay higher prices for smaller quantities.  Then, to add insult to injury, they want us to weigh produce, check prices, then ring up and bag the groceries ourselves!  I watch with marked incredulity as one singular, solitary customer service rep "trains" the customers to utilize the half dozen or so self serve contraptions, at very little cost to the store, rather than the store employing a half dozen people who would be grateful to have a job.  What the fudge! 

     This morning, for instance, I spent about thirty minutes online with my insurance company, registering and updating my address and phone numbers.  If I had called to make the changes, I may have spoken with an actual person, after answering a mere thirty five questions from a computer generated attendant, and thereby utilizing a scant ten or twenty minutes of my precious time, rather than thirty.  Those automated phone systems are so annoying!  Don't you agree?  I become so angry in my futile attemps to gain access to a to a human being, that the anger is obvious in my curt responses, as if the recorded voice on the other end would get the point, and promptly transfer me to the ever elusive human.  Obviously, that is not the case because...it's automated!  So, all of these corporations are earning oodles of profits, while we are inconvenienced more than ever, and the unemployment lines grow ever longer...Oh, I almost forgot, that's automated too! 

     So, what is the solution?  Well, to begin with, I say, no more self check out.  It's not much, but it's a start.  If everyone stopped using them, we could have an impact.  Someone might actually get the message...