Mar 18, 2010 21:15
Miss Fay is a dear friend - and that is the only reason I didn't hang up the phone while ordering a gift for her birthday.
Mr. Fred had bound the catalog up in the recycling bundle, so I got on the catalog's website, found the item, and called the toll free number. After waiting 5 minutes while listening to earnest messages urging me to stay on the line because my call was so important to them, I finally got through to New Delhi. Upon hearing that I wanted to place an order (and here I thought pressing "1" told them that!) I was asked for my account number. I told the man I didn't have an account number, and the catalog was gone, but I had obtained the item information from their website. There was a lengthy pause and then he acknowledged that he could create an account for me. Whew, that's a relief! He then asked me for the key number. What's a key number, I asked. Another lengthy pause. I explained again that I had looked up the item on the website and had the item number; perhaps I could give that to him? Pause. Pause. He finally agreed (after paging through the manual, I suppose) that he could take the item number, which I proceeded to give him. We then both agreed that this was for the porcelain rosebud sheep figurines for $29.99. I was really ready to get this call over with, as I was afraid the satellite might be out of range if we didn't hurry up. After absorbing the shock of the shipping charges and trying to pin down a delivery date other than "sometime early next month," I got my order number and got the hell off the phone.
She'd better love those damn sheep.