Larry L wrote:
I'm a loner ... not "anti"-social, just non-social. I find many things
in life improved by the absence of humanity

BUT ... not everything


today I set out to buy a new digital camera, I had reseached and knew what
model I wanted, researched some more and found the best price.

I filled out the online order form with credit card number, shipping
address, etc and clicked "submit"

Unaware of the magnitude of my own stupidity, I tried to "multi-task" as the
next page loaded on my dial-up. After a minute, I clicked an X to close
a page and it proved to be the browser, by mistake :-( Now I had no
idea if the order had been processed or not, I hadn't seen a confirmation
page but was that because of my error? and my camera was on it's way, my
card billed?

So I tried the 1-800 number shown on the website for "customer service"
A FULL HOUR and 1/2 later I finally got to talk to a human, after being
disconnected a few times, getting busy signals many times, and getting left
on hold for at LEAST a total of an hour before some of the disconnects and
including 27 ( timed ) minutes the last long wait that was finally answered.


I have determined that "customer service" IS a good place to have humans
available to talk to in large numbers ....


Larry L ( who really doesn't find much of our modern high tech culture to be
an 'improvement' ... including phone trees and much of online life,
including shopping )

You only have yourself to blame, Larry. Don't **** around with the mouse
while you're waiting for something important. The way these outfits make
money is by cutting costs so they can sell cheap. That means, among
other things, having few people to answer the phones. If you don't mind
paying top dollar and you want your hand held, go to a store.

I find the Internet to be an incredibly useful tool for getting the
stuff I want.

--
Cut "to the chase" for my email address.