I am seldom satisfied with the default. When I get a new gadget, which is not often, I am inclined to read the accompanying manual and to explore all the bells and whistles with which the manufacturer/provider has embellished the gadget/widget. Therein lies de fault of my approach. You see, in most cases, the manufacturer/provider does not intend the customer to do anything as silly as to read the manual and to test the embellishments.
A few years ago, we purchased telephone service in our new location, and, of course, we opted for a standard voice messaging upgrade. We are not cave dwellers, after all. As I settled in for an evening of phone messaging setups and experiments, I encountered what appeared to be a flaw in the system's functionality, as described by the manual. I dutifully called the appropriate toll-free number and reported the flaw to a person who was simply a data gatherer. She assured me that a technical representative would contact me during normal working hours.
A few days later, I was startled by a phone call from a Hawaii area code (we had Caller ID too), which was far from our own area code. With some hesitation, I answered the call. It was the phone company's tech responding about the flaw I had reported, and which I never expected would be followed up. He acknowledged that what I had encountered was indeed a flaw in their system. But what he really wanted to know was how I had found it. "We have many millions of customers, and you are the only one who has ever reported this flaw," he told me. You can ask Wifey for corroboration.
My own personality flaw is such that the above described incident is merely one of many similar occurrences I have experienced. I think it not inappropriate to assign my personality flaw an original designation in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV). Call it: "TheBigHenry inability to accept that the world is not perfect, and that it (i.e., the world) is meant to be experienced at the default (defaulty?) configuration, in the best of circumstances, or not at all". Catchy, no?
A few years ago, we purchased telephone service in our new location, and, of course, we opted for a standard voice messaging upgrade. We are not cave dwellers, after all. As I settled in for an evening of phone messaging setups and experiments, I encountered what appeared to be a flaw in the system's functionality, as described by the manual. I dutifully called the appropriate toll-free number and reported the flaw to a person who was simply a data gatherer. She assured me that a technical representative would contact me during normal working hours.
A few days later, I was startled by a phone call from a Hawaii area code (we had Caller ID too), which was far from our own area code. With some hesitation, I answered the call. It was the phone company's tech responding about the flaw I had reported, and which I never expected would be followed up. He acknowledged that what I had encountered was indeed a flaw in their system. But what he really wanted to know was how I had found it. "We have many millions of customers, and you are the only one who has ever reported this flaw," he told me. You can ask Wifey for corroboration.
My own personality flaw is such that the above described incident is merely one of many similar occurrences I have experienced. I think it not inappropriate to assign my personality flaw an original designation in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV). Call it: "TheBigHenry inability to accept that the world is not perfect, and that it (i.e., the world) is meant to be experienced at the default (defaulty?) configuration, in the best of circumstances, or not at all". Catchy, no?
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