So, I call my bank and get put on hold. Music plays while I wait. Pretty good music. In fact, it is gorgeous and mood-setting. I begin to bliss out, reaching that state where I am glad to pay my bills on time, online. In fact, I am in a generous mood - in the mood to pay them all twice.
What is that lovely music? That is the problem. The operator who wants to know how she can assist me today can't hear the music and even if she could, she couldn't identify it. It is undoubtedly not her kind of music. I am not pleased to have my concert interrupted by this clearly tired youngster. It would be fine if the two of us just quietly listened to the excellent composition played by world-class musicians and forgot about dollars and cents and bills and debts.
I don't have a smartphone but if I did, I would like to have a setting on it that lists the music I want to hear. I don't want forlorn love songs and certainly not heavy metal or even middleweight metal. Choirs would be nice.
When I call Great Courses, they play one of the course lectures while I wait. It seems like a dumb arrangement, since it is always about something I can't understand and gets cut off before I can learn anything much. Again, there is no way for me to find out what was playing. If I call back and ask, they might be able to track down the playlist being used, cross-check the time of my previous call but all that seems crude in this day of electronic convenience.
Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Baroque Horn Concertos played by Bruce Tugwell, Luciano Pavarotti - that is the sort of music that puts me in a good mood. But I want to warn my bank to be careful. You put that sort of music in my ear and follow it up with a harsh announcement played for the 10,000th time that my call may be recorded for training [or legal] purposes and then an overly soft voice in a heavy accent and you won't have a happy customer. I will have to ask her what she said after every pause and they won't have a happy employee.
I recommend their option menu include pressing "30" to terminate the concert and listen to the name of the piece. After I have heard that, I will be ready to listen to her and explain how she can help me.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
