Aurghh

I have to vent....for those of you who have ever sat on hold waiting for customer service help or dealt with a long intricate pattern of automated number pushing to get to speak to a representative, you will relate to this! I have spent three days listening to the same 15 second cycle of lovely music waiting to speak to someone at the City of Richmond utilities. I am trying to confirm that we will have gas service in our house next week when we move in. That waiting was after pushing lots of numbers to finally get to the correct line to wait. And this continued for about 20 minutes each day until I wanted to scream. Finally, on the third day I tried a different tactic of just talking to anyone that would listen as I racked up my list of complaints(very nicely of course) such as the fact that this was a long distance call and I have a one year old, therefore I am limited in number of minutes I can spend waiting on the telephone. When I finally got through to the correct person, I know she must have thought I was nuts for cheering a little. She actually did laugh, b/c I said something to the effect "Yeah, I get to talk to someone!!!". She did put me on hold to call my agent and confirm my closing, but I think the promise of her returning gave me hope through enduring a few more minutes of bad music. And you can bet I wasn't going to lose her...when she came back and said she couldn't get an answer from my agent, I was very persistent that I needed to stay on the line and let her try again! And sure enough it worked....We have gas! Not something I usually put an exclimation point after, but in this case, it is fitting. Scott's answer to my problem was (you must use a sarcastic voice while reading this) "What, the government is not very efficient? nooooo!" HA!
So, the moral of the story is....If you can't get through, try, try again. And if that doesn't work, tears might!

btw: I need to brag on another customer service that I have always been pleased with and that is my friends at USAA. They are wonderfull and are always helpful. I give them an A+ for efficiancy and effort! Richmond Government gets a failling grade(but this doesn't change my budding love for Virginia and our new city in general)! High scores in plenty of other areas!