Dobrindts dot com...again

Oh for Christ’s sake, Delta, get it right. Your call center system is terrible. I have been traveling on the Delta Shuttle twice a week since June. Other than an occasional flight attendant that hates people, or at least Shuttle passengers, I love it. What I hate is your phone system. Because I travel so much and things always change, I probably call your Silver medallion 800 number 2 or 3 times a week. The number is 1-800-325-6330. I call it directly. When I finally get past the automated voice (I’m sorry, I didn’t get that, let me connect you to a person), the following happens. And trust me, it doesn’t happen every now and then, it doesn’t happen 50 or 90% of the time, it happens every…single…effing…time…I…call.

Some global resource person sitting in a run down office building on the coast of India answers. They are pleasant enough and I usually have to speak a little slower than I normally would or I will have to repeat myself.

Me: Hello. I am on the 5:30 shuttle from NY to Boston and would like to change it to 6:30.

Phone person than asks me for my confirmation number, ticket number, whatever after they repeat back my question.

Now, here is where the problem starts. For some reason I do not get to the Silver line. So I have to give the call center person all of my information and explain, slowly and in detail, my issue. After doing that, they realize I am a Silver medallion and tell me they have to transfer me to the Silver medallion desk. And guess what? When I get to the Silver medallion desk, I have to give all of my information again. My skymiles number, my ticket number, an explanation of my problem. It’s like a horrible version of Ground Hog’s Day.

One time I even confirmed the number. I said “What is the Silver number so I can dial it directly. I just dialed 800-325-6330. What is the number I should dial” and the response was “Please call 1-800-325-6330 next time.” Huh? What?? Why do you mock me?? Why not LISTEN to what I just told you. I DO dial that number directly, it’s on my one-touch call feature on my cell phone. Trust me. I dial it directly. How the (expletive deleted) do I get to the Silver line directly if I am ALREADY dialing the stupid number. I DO DIAL IT DIRECTLY…you bad bad person.

So anyway, for a while I just asked the person if they could take care of it without transferring me. They follow the rules and do not help me. So to take care of the Silver folks, they transfer, where I have to wait on hold, then go through the entire thing again. So I decided to just say, before anything is done, to just transfer me. I tell them that I know they are going to transfer me anyway, so please just do it so I only have to go through the experience once and save me the rectal exam. But do they? That’s right, no they don’t. They follow their operating procedure, which I cannot fault them for, and they force me to give them all of the information, usually a couple of times because of the language barrier, before they tell me they have to transfer me. And it’s kind of weird because it’s like they don’t remember me telling them to transfer me anyway. They never say sorry, or I was right, they simply thank me for calling or offer help with a rental car or hotel. Which is another thing. I might be an anomaly, but when I call Delta, it is usually about air travel. And airplane tickets. I will not suddenly realize I need help with a rental car or hotel. Delta is not a travel agent, so stick to your core competency. Why not offer roofing or aluminum siding?

So like I was saying, I try to just explain that they should transfer me. One time I called three times in one hour because I would give my information, and they would transfer me, and then I was on hold for at least 5 minutes. When on a cell phone, with a maximum amount of minutes per months before you start paying 15 bucks a second, 5 minutes on hold is forever.

Look, Delta has other things to worry about, I know that. Bankruptcy, funding their pension plan, high fuel costs, grumpy flight attendants. But I have to call at least 2 or 3 times a week and I go through this every single time. It’s annoying. Maybe I am doing something wrong and need to enter a magical combination of key strokes to actually get to the Silver desk, or maybe everyone goes through this and it’s their way of having fun. Who knows? It just bugs me.

Posted by David at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I know I bring this up a lot, but a conversation with a three year old is an amazing thing.

Emily: How do fish breathe?

Patti: There are tiny traces of oxygen in water. When fish swim, the water passes through their gills and blood vessels within the gill membranes absorb the oxygen into their blood stream.

Emily: Oh….how do fish sleep?

Me: They shut their eyes when their parents tell them to.

And in a sign that we really need to watch what we play on the radio while driving in the car, the other day she started singing…

“Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?”

I didn't even know that was a song. And Patti swears she doesnot play that kind of music. Right.

From now on it’s talk radio. Preferably sports, but political talk will do.

Posted by David at 02:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So far in Emily’s 3 years she has taken dance lessons and gymnastics. Gymnastics is more like a play session with gymnastic-type activities. Not sure about dance but I have a feeling it is more like a playgroup as well. For the most part 3-year olds can only handle so much structured learning. Both Patti and I want to have all of our kids try different things and one staple is swimming, so yesterday was day one of Emily’s 10-week indoor swimming lesson.

To start, Emily has been around the water since she was born. We belong to a pool during the summers plus she has been in the ocean, lakes and private pools. She is comfortable with the water and this past year we started to teach her how to float and hold her breath under water. So we looked around and found a program at Boston College that has multiple levels. Armed with her pink backpack with a towel and change of clothes, we set out on Sunday for her first lesson.

Overall it went very well. There are three different classes going on at the same time plus an open swim for adults. There were 5 kids in her class, all kids around the same age and skill level. They don’t like the parents being pool side so they have us site in the balcony spectator area. After about 5 minutes Emily looked around, saw me, and yelled “Hi daddy!”

The class is only 30 minutes which I think is about the attention span of most little kids. Emily kept looking over at the colorful floatation devices they use for other classes and kept asking the instructor if she could have one. It was actually pretty cute. The person who taught the class looked like a college age woman and she was helped out by the pool-side college age women who ran the program. Both were great with the little kids.

The class was pretty basic. She taught the kids to stick their face in the water, to float, and to kick the proper way. At one point near the end of the class the kids found out that the large pool area had a good echo and started to scream. I had to come down from the balcony and gave Emily the familiar vertical index finger in front of the lips signal to be quiet at which point she stopped yelling. Again, more cute than anything else. The only snag during the class was the end. The teacher let the kids jump from the edge of the pool into her arms and she let them do this twice. Emily wanted to do it more and got upset when I told her she could not. The frustrations of being a kid.

I wasn’t sure where I was going to change her out of her bathing suit because I didn’t really want to take her into the men’s changing room, but they have a family changing room so all anxiety was for nothing.

The class ends around dinner time so I was thinking of taking her to dinner after class next week. Maybe turn it into a little father-daughter activity.

So far week 1 of swimming lessons was a success.

Thought I’d share.

Posted by David at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Strange. Suddenly hundreds of NFL players have asked for a trade to the Minnesota Vikings.

Posted by David at 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Fiona Apple just came out with a new album. CD actually, I mean it might be available in vinyl but I doubt it. Anyway, she came out with a new album and for the first time in years I might buy a CD. I love Fiona Apple. I listened to clips on iTunes but it’s hard to gauge if the songs are any good because they play only a few seconds of each one. I saw Fiona Apple in concert years ago with Patti in a really small outdoor arena in a suburb in Fort Lauderdale. It was before we had kids and we used to go to Fort Lauderdale about once every other month for the weekend. We went out to dinner and then went to the concert. It poured the entire time and we bought ponchos and still got soaking wet and drank bottled beer and it was one of the happiest times of my life.

Just thought I’d share.

Posted by David at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I swear on my name this is not my buddy Jay. Jay wouldn’t be able to spell ‘believe’.

If you are not from Boston, this guy is the spitting image of Red Sox Nation. The sad thing is this was taken at a Kansas City game, in Kansas City, against the White Sox.

Thanks for the picture Dawn.

Posted by David at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)