When you dial a phone number it is just natural to expect to be connected with the person that you called. Sure, every now and again you dial the number wrong and get connected with someone else but that is really not the norm.
I am no different. When I dial a phone number, I expect to get connected to the person or place that I am calling. Well, I used to expect this. But now, my phone dialing expectations will never be the same.
During one of my shifts at work, a couple of the monitors that we use to keep tract of patient’s vital signs weren’t working properly. After switching the patients to different monitors, I got the phone number to call our customer service rep to try and fit the problem.
I dialed her number which led me to her voice mail. It stated that she would be on vacation for the next week. Well, this problem couldn’t wait that long. So I called the person that she said was covering for her. The number once again led to voice mail.
This was a time sensitive matter so waiting for this woman to check her voice mail and get back to me wasn’t an option. In her message, she thankfully left a number to a customer service center which could be used when she wasn’t available. I listened carefully and wrote down the number.
I hung up the phone and dialed the 1-888 number she left. I waited for the automatic system to pick up the line. But when it did, I was really confused by the response.
“To speak with a live person and chat, call 1-886-XXX-XXXX.”
Totally didn’t expect that but I wrote the number down, hung up the phone and dialed the new number. Again, I waited for the automatic options to be told to me.
“Welcome to Live Chat. There are hot, sexy girls waiting to chat with you. Press 1 to chat with Monica. Press 2 to chat with Tiffany. Press…..”
I sat there in shock as the message played on. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I hung up the phone and tried to figure out what was going on.
“Maybe, I dialed wrong? Maybe I wrote the number down wrong?” I thought as I picked up the phone and dialed the first number again. I listened to each of the voice mail messages again and verified that I had indeed written down the correct number.
Then I once again dialed the customer service center. I once again got the message to call the ‘live chat’ number. I once again dialed the number.
“Welcome to Live Chat. There are hot, sexy girls waiting to chat with you. Press 1 to chat with Monica. Press 2 to chat with Tiffany. Press…..”
I hung up the phone completely dumbfounded by the whole situation. Now, I had two problems on my hands. I still had to figure out how to get the patient monitors fixed but now I also had to try and explain to my boss why there are people calling live sex chat hot lines from the nursing unit.
