Yesterday Was a Day Spent On Hold - Sigh

Chickie is in New York, disappointed that she's not allowed to wear her new hat to the taping of :"The View". (I'm sure she'll survive the disappointment - LOL.) I, on the other hand, had the "lovely" opportunity of staying "On Hold" on my cell phone for over SIX HOURS yesterday to finally reach customer service and get a functional credit card terminal. OY! What a mishpocha! 

Normally, it's pretty darned simple to handle a credit card 
transaction. But there was a software update - a major one - and 
a LOT of us were unable to do CC transactions after the 
update. It was NOT a good thing! 

Apparently there had been a major upload of new software on Monday. I had some problem with the machine on Monday, had to ask people to go to the local ATM machines for cash. On Tuesday, I made sure I got to the shop early after my swim, and the machine still wasn't working. So I gathered all of my paperwork. They were doing a software download and I followed their instructions to get that done, Still no terminal. 

Even though I ended up on hold with Customer Service 
for almost sic-and-one-half hours, I really had to feel 
sorry for the Customer Service reps who, I'm sure, were 
getting yelled at, cursed at, and screamed at. I've worked 
Customer Service in my time and it's NOT easy. I had 
a lovely young lady when I finally got to speak to a human 
being. She ended by wishing that all of her customers 
were as kind as I was. I didn't feel especially kind, but 
why take a software glitch out on her? She was very 
helpful, and we seem to be up and operational once 
again. Maybe ... today will be the text for that - LOL. 

I tried and tried and tried. I was on hold on the land line for more than an hour, still no go. I had to get the store open, so I determined that I couldn't stay on the landline any longer. I left my place in the digital line, hung up, and phoned again on my cell phone. I got the store open, helped a few customers (holding my cellphone at ALL times and apologizing for how rude it was), but finally it worked. After more than SIX AND ONE-HALF HOURS, I was finally connected with a live person at Customer Service. 

You would think a large company like Chase would 
have their act together after a major sofrware upgrade. 
But no, they most certainly did NOT. 

Now, I've worked customer service in my time. You can get good ones, you can get bad ones. I had a rather delightful, frazzled young pregnant woman (yes, you can find out all sorts of things if you're just friendly on a long day of frustrated customers). By the end of our session, in which I went through the process of a test sale TWICE to make sure I would NEVER have to stay on hold for six-and-a-half hours again. But it finally worked. Poor people at Chase Payment Tech. Big company, big problem. If everything continues to work properly today, I'll breathe a big sigh of relief. 

It is my hope to live to write another day, and I'm probably, 
possibly, going to survive the vote this week. The poll 
closes on Thursday, so really, EVERY VOTE COUNTS. 
If you haven't voted for my tale (and you liked it), I'm 
asking for your vote. A single vote can make a big 
difference with this talented group of writers. 

It's looking like I'll survive to write again, but voting is still open until Thursday late afternoon, and a lot can happen in that time. If you haven't voted for my story, I'd really appreciate it if you did. It's getting tighter and tighter, and EVERY vote counts. I think this is the right link - https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=31921 - and I'm straddling the fence for being able to stay and write again, or being homebound and doomed to just read and vote from this point onward. Every vote counts and is appreciated. I'm off to the pool. I need to work out some of yesterday's stressful day. LOL Have an excellent Wednesday while I work (and Chickie plays in NYC ). I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.