TALES OF AN “A” STUDENT

“You are an excellent learner”, said the voice on the phone. “You did a fantastic job.”  Was I accepting this lofty praise from an instructor from whom I was taking an in-person craft course? An online professor from whom I was taking a creative writing course? A teacher from whom I was taking a brush-up course on word processing? No. None of these. I was being complimented on my learning skills by……………..a Comcast Agent. As I was extricating myself from my pretzel-like position on the floor underneath my desk with 3 different cords in my hands, how could I not be proud of his gushing compliments?

If you have ever called a Comcast agent in desperate need of assistance to get one or more pieces of their equipment to work, you fully understand the fear and intimidation struck into your heart when you hear the question…………Are you able to reach the cord connecting the …………………it doesn’t matter what the next words are. The answer is always NO, and if I knew which cord was which, did what, and could reach it, I wouldn’t need YOU.

However, in this particular case, the phrase………..If we have to send someone out to do this, we will charge you, spurred me on to listen as carefully as I was able; ask for multiple repetitions of the instructions in small segments that I could recall, and repeat his instructions back to him so he could verify them.  

Let me give you some background information here. The problem started when my landline phone would not work. Yes, I am one of those dinosaurs who still have a landline phone hooked in with all my other Comcast equipment. After much discussion with the agent and countless attempts by me to hook up different cords into different jacks into my modem, it was determined that my kitchen jack, where my main phone unit was plugged,  was faulty. It was also determined that a faulty house jack was the “house’s” fault, not Comcast’s fault, and the “house” was going to have to pay to fix it. That would be me. So, against my better judgment, having failed miserably to follow Comcast phone instructions many times previously, I gallantly gave it a shot, truly not expecting anything remotely positive to occur.

After 30 minutes of following his instructions that involved multiple cords being switched and plugged into different jacks and finally bypassing everything to go straight into the modem, my phone worked! Which is how I ended up the recipient of glorious praising by the agent, who said he had never spoken to a customer who followed instructions as well as I did, and he was very proud of me.

Yes, my desk now looks like a throwback to the early 1990’s when wires crisscrossed under, over, and around every piece of electronic equipment owned, but my phone works, I did not have to pay extra to achieve that feat, AND my knees, back, and shoulders survived the acrobatic ordeal.

Since Mr. Comcast Agent was so pleased with my skills, I think he should send me a Certificate of Accomplishment that I can proudly display on my office wall above all of the wires and cords. Don’t you agree?