Paying the Bills
A few weeks ago, I paid all but one of my monthly bills online. It was great. All I had to do was login to some places and submit the money from my bank account. Only the water bill has to be paid in person. "What a bother," I thought to myself. "Why don't they go online, too?"
I'd saved gas. I'd saved time. And I didn't even have to go anywhere or actually talk to anyone. But wait....is that how it really should be?
If my water company goes online, I'll be forever in a virtual world. A world full of lots of things - information, communication, online friends. But it will be lacking in one very important thing. Touchable, living, breathing people. Don't get me wrong. I've become cyber-acquainted with some really wonderful people and consider them as much of dear friends as anyone I've met.
In my mind, I traveled back in time to days when there was no internet and no online bill paying. The phone company was located downtown and in my childhood years, it had local women working as operators. You could pick up the phone and hear a familiar voice say, "Number, please?" If you wanted, you could actually just chat with the operator until she had another call coming through. Later, operators were replaced with recordings, but we still could go downtown to the phone company and pay our bill, visit with the workers, etc.
We could also go to the power company office and pay our electric bill right there in town. Same for the gas company. Now all the utilities have closed the local offices in this town of a little more than 50,000 people. There are pay stations in some convenience stores, but half the time they don't even work because the computer is down. Once, I drove over a hundred miles back and forth in my county just trying to pay my electric bill because I was looking for a location where the terminal was actually working. I was irritated, to say the least, that all the major utility companies think it's money saving to not have local payment offices. Considering I'm a minimum of 15 miles from any pay station, it certainly doesn't save me any money!
So, now, I pay online. But I really do miss the personal interaction with utility employees - people who have been local citizens and neighbors for all these many years. People who will ask, "How's your Mom doing these days?" "Have you talked to so-and-so lately?" People I grew up with. People I went to school with. People I might even go to church with. Real flesh and blood people who have a real interest in the local community.
I miss that. I miss stopping and chatting at those offices with workers or other customers. Because about the only reasonably priced place left to shop is Wal-Mart these days, I also miss having a conversation with the check-out lady who knew me growing up. I miss the days when a lady was a "Star Checker" not for how fast she could scan items, but for how her fingers on her right hand could fly over the keys on the cash register while she picked up your grocery items with her left hand and put them into PAPER sacks for you. I miss the days when a pimply-faced teen would push my basket to my car, and load the groceries in there for me, then smile and wish me a nice day when he was done.
I miss the days when I could pull into a service station and a gentleman would put in the gas and ask if I wanted him to check under the hood while he was at it. When he would inform me if it looked like a tire was low on air, and can he air it up for me? Why, yes!
I miss the days when a repair man could come to your home and you didn't have to worry if he was trustworthy, because he was my Daddy's friend. And if nothing was actually wrong with whatever he looked at, it was no charge to come out.
Maybe I have too many memories in black and white, like an old TV show - Ozzie and Harriet or I Love Lucy or Father Knows Best. But those are memories I choose not to give up, and hope springs eternal that one day Customer Service will really mean something again.
Prov 27:10
better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.
KJV
I'd saved gas. I'd saved time. And I didn't even have to go anywhere or actually talk to anyone. But wait....is that how it really should be?
If my water company goes online, I'll be forever in a virtual world. A world full of lots of things - information, communication, online friends. But it will be lacking in one very important thing. Touchable, living, breathing people. Don't get me wrong. I've become cyber-acquainted with some really wonderful people and consider them as much of dear friends as anyone I've met.
In my mind, I traveled back in time to days when there was no internet and no online bill paying. The phone company was located downtown and in my childhood years, it had local women working as operators. You could pick up the phone and hear a familiar voice say, "Number, please?" If you wanted, you could actually just chat with the operator until she had another call coming through. Later, operators were replaced with recordings, but we still could go downtown to the phone company and pay our bill, visit with the workers, etc.
We could also go to the power company office and pay our electric bill right there in town. Same for the gas company. Now all the utilities have closed the local offices in this town of a little more than 50,000 people. There are pay stations in some convenience stores, but half the time they don't even work because the computer is down. Once, I drove over a hundred miles back and forth in my county just trying to pay my electric bill because I was looking for a location where the terminal was actually working. I was irritated, to say the least, that all the major utility companies think it's money saving to not have local payment offices. Considering I'm a minimum of 15 miles from any pay station, it certainly doesn't save me any money!
So, now, I pay online. But I really do miss the personal interaction with utility employees - people who have been local citizens and neighbors for all these many years. People who will ask, "How's your Mom doing these days?" "Have you talked to so-and-so lately?" People I grew up with. People I went to school with. People I might even go to church with. Real flesh and blood people who have a real interest in the local community.
I miss that. I miss stopping and chatting at those offices with workers or other customers. Because about the only reasonably priced place left to shop is Wal-Mart these days, I also miss having a conversation with the check-out lady who knew me growing up. I miss the days when a lady was a "Star Checker" not for how fast she could scan items, but for how her fingers on her right hand could fly over the keys on the cash register while she picked up your grocery items with her left hand and put them into PAPER sacks for you. I miss the days when a pimply-faced teen would push my basket to my car, and load the groceries in there for me, then smile and wish me a nice day when he was done.
I miss the days when I could pull into a service station and a gentleman would put in the gas and ask if I wanted him to check under the hood while he was at it. When he would inform me if it looked like a tire was low on air, and can he air it up for me? Why, yes!
I miss the days when a repair man could come to your home and you didn't have to worry if he was trustworthy, because he was my Daddy's friend. And if nothing was actually wrong with whatever he looked at, it was no charge to come out.
Maybe I have too many memories in black and white, like an old TV show - Ozzie and Harriet or I Love Lucy or Father Knows Best. But those are memories I choose not to give up, and hope springs eternal that one day Customer Service will really mean something again.
Prov 27:10
better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.
KJV
Labels: Opinion
posted by Ann crum @ 11:57 PM
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