You Never Know Who Is Going To Call
Quarter to 10am on Thursday morning and I’m packing my classical Greek and Latin textbooks into my bag when the phone rings. It’s a customer service representative for the domain registration/web-hosting company through which I am helping Jim set up Witness and Hope, a website in the spirit of the October 27th Autism and Advocacy: Witness and Hope conference. I have bought a package of services I do not need; would I like to take down one service and transfer the credited funds to something else?.
I look at the clock; eleven minutes to go before Greek class. “That sounds fine.”
“All right then. Now, I see that you have two other domains registered with an expiration date of 2011 while the witnessandhope domain expires in 2008 and generally it’s a good idea to have all of your domains with the same expiration date.”
“Yes,” I say, shutting down my computer.
“So would you like to transfer the credits to extend the expiration date of witnessandhope?”
I say yes and wish I were not on my office phone, as then I could walk to get my coat and start walking to class.
“All right then. You are going to cancel one service as it overlaps with another service, receive credits for that, transfer the credits to extend the expiration date of one domain, which will then expire in 2011, the same as your other domains. I notice that you have PayPal and/or a credit/debit card, which would you like to use?”
My mind is on my Greek class. I say, “I really can’t tell you that now.”
Silence.
Silence.
What if……..
I say: “What’s the advantage of paying now or just waiting to the domain expires and then paying?”
Silence.
I repeat my questions. I know I am broadcasting nervousness and haste. The person over the phone says, “You are going to cancel one service as it overlaps with another service, and receive credits for that, and transfer the credits to extend the expiration date of one domain so it will expire in 2011, the same as your other domains.”
I try to think of the simpest question to ask. “If I pay now, it costs less?”
(It is possible that the customer service representative is on the autism spectrum?)
Pause. “Yes.” Pause. “Yes, it will cost less to do it now.” I am already reaching for my credit card.
After I read out the card number and expiration date, I say “thank you very much. I really appreciate it.”
“Thank you,” is the answer. I run off; I am late for class.
I say to myself, you never know who is going to call, but you’ve always got to listen.
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