What’s worse is when I’m in the middle of working on something I have a deadline for, and get interrupted by some survey call from such-n-such-a-company who are asking me questions that I can’t honestly answer because I haven’t been a customer with them long enough to know what the hell they’re talking about! “Can I just say 10 for the rest of these questions because I’m busy and hate taking surveys?” To which then...because I’m annoyed and frustrated in knowing that said person had no account information on me and thus asked me a bunch of stupid questions she could have answered herself if she just opened my file…I have to completely stop what I’m doing, piss, moan, and rant to myself while I pace throughout the house until I get completely fed up with it all…and wait until I can calm myself down again before picking up the brush and continuing with the project at hand.
And people wonder why I don’t like deadlines…or talking on the phone for that matter! It’s enough to make me determined never to sign up with and Bell/BellSouth related phone landlines ever again! Why? Because every week they’d call wanting me to change my plan…saying that this new and improved one with all these features I have no need or use for is so much better, for just a couple dollars more than what I’m paying now. “I don’t need long distance. I have a cell phone for that.” or the ever popular “Why would I need to make international calls? I don’t know anyone outside of the country. Are you going to give me your number so I can call you when it’s most inconvenient?” One night, after having put up with the calls for a month, I tiredly consented to whatever plan the guy from India was trying to sell to me…granted, I couldn’t understand a word he was saying because the only two relatives I have from India speak far better English than any operator I’ve spoken to. I thought it was done and over with…whatever long distance or international calls would generally be free since neither I or my roommates would be making such calls…I hung up the phone, and hoped to move on with my evening. Not even a minute later the guy calls back. “You didn’t pick which country y-“…to which I went ballistic on him. In between a variety of cuss words un-creatively used as nouns, verbs, and adjectives, I told him that all I wanted was a landline for local calls and the security system. I didn’t need voicemail, caller ID, long distance or international calls, and wished that the phone company would get it through their thick skulls that every time they call about changing my plan, that it’s a form of HARRASSMENT, and I was about ready to quit my service with them and sue their asses if this kept up. Poor guy…I think I shook him up some, because his broken English wavered as he profusely apologized and promised to never call the number ever again.
I know I should have been more civil…but even during the times I had been more so, they still called back. Is really blowing up the only way of getting operators to leave you alone? I think it would have been nice if they had reimbursed me on my bill for the inconvenience, but a part of me believes that those phone calls really aren’t being recorded for customer satisfaction. If they were, then they would have surely stopped calling after the first time around.
So what project was I working on that got so needlessly interrupted? A call for artists to submit paintings of anything historic concerning Chambersburg, PA. My interest in this project: Zilch. Dad took me around the historic areas he knew about the city, and I occasionally stopped him when I thought I had an interesting shot. I chose a photo out of five or six, and started on the preliminary work for it. And the more I looked at it, and the more I inked in the lines and with more frustrations that kept on piling up throughout the week started cluttering my head…I tore the paper from the block and stormed out of the house to clear my head. Took some nice pictures along a road that heads out into the farm land…but I’m still frustrated, and still have no interest in painting anything. Sorry Dad, it’s just not happening this time around. You just can’t feel good about doing something you were never thrilled about doing to begin with, and trying to force yourself to make something good out of that negative feeling only adds more to the frustration. Not a good idea considering how I’m trying to stay positive and upbeat!
But after some careful consideration, talking with a friend over another project for my CafePress shops, and doing some major price comparisons, I found that my first shop…is robbing me of any possible profits I could be making, and robbing my customers of money that they could be saving. Did that make any sense to you? Basically, after comparing some prices for specific items that are available in the first shop, I realized that I could sell them in my second shop at a cheaper price than the first…and still make a fair profit. So, I started out with the mugs, bags…other little accessories and such, pulling out the cheaper versions of one or two items, and putting them up for sale in my second shop. Over time, I’ll be adding more to the second shop, including a wider variety of shirts (there’s so much more than what they’re offering in the first shop) at the prices I am able to lower for you. And once I get these specific commissions done for the shop, I’ll be adding another section for people to find their requested image in, amongst a variety of products I thought they’d look good on.
So go check out the changes! Maybe now there’s something you’ve been meaning to buy, but didn’t want to pay for at the first shop’s prices!
http://www.cafepress.com/CerynitisD
Oh, and to add some more randomness to this entry…along with something actually visual to look at ( I would have had some videos up, but they were too fuzzy to see what anything really was), I was given the pleasure seeing my friendly neighborhood spider play with one of his late evening meals. The area is apparently SWARMING with spiders, and I’ve got too many for comfort residing within the walls of my house. Luckily, the one who was spinning his stinkbug dinner around is on the outside of my hall window, and so I wasn’t getting the willies when I was capturing him on video. Just watch…the spider is all like “I spin you right round, baby, right round. Like a record, baby, right round round round…” And Mr. Stinkbug is still kicking and wriggling and all like “Nooooo! I don’t want to be spun right round round round!”
But then the spider was all “Ok, I’m bored with this, and some freaky looking chick won’t stop watching me while I play with my food, so I’m gonna go over here and ignore you for a bit.” And I was all sad. Every so often I checked back to see how things were going. Either he was playing with his food again, or ignoring it completely.
Come morning, though…Mr. Stinkbug was decapitated…
I feel the same way about talking on the phone, which I have to do all the time at work...go figure! Neat story about the spiders. Hope your shops improve.
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