Seven to Ten Days from Tuesday

Have you ever thought that you were, perhaps, an Invisible Person? Are you, like I seem to be, the Invisible Customer, the Invisible Patient, the Invisible Voice Crying in the Wilderness? I'd like to think I'm not the only person in the world who seems to be constantly overlooked.

An instance of this rather annoying condition -  my husband and I recently contributed to Maryland Public Television and requested a thank-you gift. Tom has been looking forward to listening to endless hours of 1950's pop music. I have not, but that's not really the issue. The issue is that it's been almost two months now and we have no music.

I called this morning to find out where the heck our CDs were. After being put on hold three times as the woman who answered tried to figure out just who I was and what I had requested, I was told that, oh dear, it seems that our little contribution was incorrectly entered into whatever database they use. Silence.

Silly question from me. When can I expect my music? Well, if they have one in the studio - about two weeks from next Tuesday. Is it me or is this rather odd? Perhaps, they only mail things on Tuesday.  At any rate, Invisible Person that I am, I got a rather vague apology and no promise of any particular help. I mentioned that this was not a great way to do business and got a pretty darned soggy, "Sorry."

And my husband just walked in the door and gave me a second Invisible Instance - just today. He'd been to the eye doctor. He has been seeing this doctor for several years now, in fact, ever since he opened the practice. The receptionist asked my husband a long list of questions which he answered (with a degree of irritability, not understanding why he was telling her things she must already know). When she came to the last one - "How did you hear about us?" - he realized that she thought he was a new patient. She hadn't found his file. Really!? Invisibility strikes again.

Anyhow, I find that this dread disease seems to attack me more and more often. I think I'm actually fading because it couldn't be that the current customer service mentality is not so much about service, as it is about getting you off the phone, could it? For any of you who also have this affliction, I wish you well and you'll receive the gift for your generous donation seven to ten days from next Tuesday.