Pro Business Advice
By John Cole December 10th, 2010
I have now been on hold for 42 minutes with a business, trying to resolve an issue with a product, and I am not going to complain about the length of the hold, because I have them on speaker phone and I can work while waiting, and I understand at certain times of the year, businesses are really busy.
On the other hand, requiring me to listen to Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime four times in 42 minutes amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Don’t do it.
Posted in Open Thread
Forcing you to listen to that song once in 24 hours should be grounds for a criminal charge.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
once got stuck on hold with virgin media (they do my broadband) for an hour.
An hour of listening to pachelbel’s cannon on a loop.
I feel your pain.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I like that song. Reminds me of Christmases with my mother who I miss dearly.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Bah-humbug.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
it’s much more entertaining to listen to Bernie Sanders pull off a Real filibuster … he’s still going
At 7:30 AM PST, Bernie Sanders began a filibuster of the tax compromise. The longer he goes, the better he gets. You can watch the stream on CSPAN2.
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN2.aspx
December 10th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Worst Christmas song eveh!!
December 10th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
The least they could do is alternate it with Keith Richards’ version of “Run, Run Rudolph” to help counteract the sugar-shock.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
Yeah, what Cliff said. Good stuff.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
@Major Mel: This, 1000 times this!
December 10th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
After that brief respite in the “We Should All Be Thankful For Something Thread”, Tunch returns you to the Real World of John Cole.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
I’m sure you’re mistaken. Fox News assures me that it is illegal to say “Christmas”.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Don’t you especially love it when they make you hang there o the line forever and three days, then they tell you “Your call is important to us?” Your call is important, but apparently your time is not.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
It would be so much better if they simply said, hey, it’ll be an hour and a half before anybody can talk to you, how about we call you back then.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Ba-woing-woing-woing-woing-woing-woing-woing!
Ba-woing-woing-woing-woing-woing-woing-woing!
It makes me happy the first time I hear that song during the holiday season. I feel nothing the second time. My shoulders start clenching the third.
Ba-woing-woing-woing-woing-woing-woing-woing!
December 10th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Simply! Having! A wonderful Christmastime!!
Hey, it’s better than that “Feed The Squirrels” song by Band Aid from the 80’s. Isn’t it?
December 10th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
I won’t put Christmas music on the call center hold music at work because it isn’t fair to anyone that has ever worked in retail.
Frankly, by the time Christmas is over, I’m glad they killed Jesus.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
On an internal conference call service our work uses, when we are on hold waiting for the call to begin we get a recorded message.
“Thank you for holding. Your call has not begun yet. Music will play while you wait.” (Or WTTE)
1) No music ever plays
2) The message repeats about every 30 seconds, like Chinese Water Torture
December 10th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
@Amir_Khalid: Your call is so important that they want to make it last as long as possible.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
@neil:
I’m 460 pages into Keith’s autobiography and he hasn’t mentioned that one yet. I wonder if he will.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
@Cliff: I want to move back to Vermont just so Bernie can be my senator (rather than these 2 Texas idiots I’ve got now). Credit my years at Middlebury College in Vermont for making me a flaming lefty.
ETA: Bernie is on Fire!
December 10th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
@Just Some Fuckhead:
They don’t call it Good Friday for nothin’.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
thanks. Now I have a new earworm to replace Gladys Knight from the last thread.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
@Boudica:
This speech is a big fucking deal. Go Bernie Go!
December 10th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
@Sue: Cool! Does he mention working with Tom Waits? I’d love to know what that session was like.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
@JenJen: Hey, “Feed the World” is a solid New Wave-ish song.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
In other news, I’m told that C-SPAN is airing Bernie Sanders’ fillibuster. He’s apparently doing it old-school, “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” style.
GOP only have to pretend to do their filibusters. How is that possible?
December 10th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
I’ve been on hold with music that didn’t come in very well, like a station that wasn’t quite tuned in properly. Now that’s torture.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Best thing I get to do is fill in the Bernie Sanders bubble every six years. (Used to be every two of course.)
And if they play The Christmas Shoes I believe you are allowed to destroy your phone and the company that put you on hold must buy you a new one.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
@Gus:
Not yet, I think. It seems he mentions everyone else, though. His comments on the people he admires are wonderful, frank admiration coming from someone who’s really famous in his own right. His writing about how he finds his way around music (like discussion of how he found various sounds) is really interesting and probably moreso if you know music at all, which I don’t.
I really recommend the book. Get past the first 100 pages and you won’t be able to put it down.
And I’m not even a fan.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Since I celebrate Isaac Newton’s birthday on the 25th December
as the savior of mankind who saved us from ignorance.
I wish I could get a plastic apple tree to decorate instead of freakin firs.
It’s not even winter in my part of the world.
I want a midsummer apple-tree.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
I guess you could be thankful they haven’t played the dogs barking Jingle Bells?
December 10th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
@Southern Beale: Bernie doesn’t have to filibuster this way; he’s chosen to.
Senator Merkley is proposing, among other reforms, that all filibusters have to be conducted this way: http://voices.washingtonpost.c.....20Memo.pdf
December 10th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Toshiba?
December 10th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
@Southern Beale:
The rules changed. It used to be that you could pass cloture with a vote of 2/3 of the members present. That meant the group that was mounting the filibuster either all had to be present to defeat the motion or had to maintain the floor for long enough to get the whole group back. If they weren’t there and lost the floor, the other party could quickly motion for cloture.
Now, a cloture motion requires 3/5 the total membership, not just of the Senators present. So as long as the other side only has 59 votes for cloture, you only need one Senator present at any time- and he or she doesn’t need to hold the floor- to deny unanimous consent to prevent a vote.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
@eemom:
I had this stuck in my head for about thirty years the third week of November.
Here’s lookin’ at you, kid!
(Here’s lookin’ at you, kid!)
December 10th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
@Sue:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6FoP6m4tWM
December 10th, 2010 at 3:25 pm
So I see that Sanders is filibustering (although I read he’s technically not) but Landrieu and brown have joined in and I think that kind of spoils the whole thing as I think the latter two are full of shit.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Ick…get your mind off it. Here, check out this most recent and highly embarrassing release from Wikileaks:
http://www.ding.net/wikileaks/234867.txt
December 10th, 2010 at 3:30 pm
@Suck It Up!: You know it was Sherrod Brown, right, not Scott?
December 10th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Get yourself onto this link and listen to Bernie Sanders (along with Sherrod Brown and Mary Landrieu[!]) doing us all proud by showing us what a real filibuster is. It is fucking awesome. Bernie Sanders is fucking awesome.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.....hp?ref=fpa
December 10th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
@TooManyJens:
Seriously. Sherrod Brown is awesome.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
@TooManyJens:
oh ok. still Landrieu spoils it.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
@FlipYrWhig: Actually, I love that song. I was just joshin’. :-)
(I’m a Midge Ure fangirl forever!)
@TooManyJens: Thinking back to Cole’s “best thing that ever happened to you” thread, while he’s not the bestest thing evuh, I can’t express how proud I am that Sherrod Brown is my Senator. He’s probably the best (most recent) thing that ever happened to Ohio, that’s for sure.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
The only Christmas songs worth a damn are Sinatra’s.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
@THE:
Dude, are you me? I’ve been telling people that for years!
December 10th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Sanders is doing this on Friday. The vote on the deal is Monday. That should tell you how this is going to go down.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
@JenJen: DAAAN-cing!... With tears in my eyes!
December 10th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
I am calling bullshit.
Everyone knows that the Free Market is efficient and responsive to the consumer; John is making it sound like he is dealing with a gummint agency or something.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
@Mike Goetz:
Yeah, while Sanders is making a great speech, this might end up as progressive catharsis more than anything to prevent a vote.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
@Suck It Up!: Who the hell does Mary Landrieu think she’s kidding?
December 10th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
I’ve been wondering. Is this the first time Democrats have been mad and stood up for something or are they getting all this attention because they are mad at Obama?
December 10th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
@Mike Goetz: I’ve got a Bela Fleck xmas album that’s good. And while I don’t care for the first cut, the new Saint Etienne effort, A Glimpse of Stocking, is ok.
The other rat packers also did decent christmas stuff. Also don’t overlook Carla Thomas Gee Whiz it’s Christmas and All I Want for Christmas is You. Aw hell, that reminds me, the whole Phil Spector Christmas album.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I recommend some James Brown to the earworm sufferers. Always works for me.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
@BR:
From Think Progress:
December 10th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
@Suck It Up!:
I think this was a pretty central plank of Obama’s campaign platform that he’s given up here.
I was looking at Obama’s promises from 2007-2008, and he really has delivered on almost everything he promised. But one of those things was expiring the Bush tax cuts.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
@Suck It Up!:
Exactly. I hope he does continue it on Monday…
December 10th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
@neil:
I am now officially in the Christmas spirit.
Pass the Jack Daniels.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:44 pm
“Merry Christmas, Darling” by The Carpenters is many times worse. You need an insulin injection midway through it.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
@FlipYrWhig:
If she does this next session I might buy this act.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Bernie Sanders seconds ago (I’m paraphrasing here):
I love this guy.
Fuck yeah.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
@Cliff:
Bernie just said ‘if’ Obama is the democratic candidate for President in 2012. oops.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
@BR:
Yup. I hope Bernie never yields the floor.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
@BR:
yeah, but he promised not to raise taxes on the middle class and the Republicans would have slammed with it. And I’m not only concerned with Republicans but the NYT even called it a raise in taxes. He broke his promise but I think voters will appreciate that he got up on live tv and said, ‘yeah I broke my promise, but here’s why’.
Honestly I’m not upset about it because I don’t expect politicians or people in general to keep all their promises. Like you said, he’s kept a lot of them.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Here’s something to do while you are on hold (on speakerphone). As the lady says, it will change your life!
Also, be thankful they didn’t also play Wham!’s “Last Christmas.”
December 10th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
@freelancer: I wish the Democrats would talk like that. Plain speech that speaks the truth is the only thing that can cut through the media bullshit.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
@JenJen:
I’m glad Sherrod finally came around and had a come to Jeebus moment with his progressive roots. He sent me a fairly milquetoast response to my complaint that the Dems didn’t deal with taxes before the election. I was pretty depressed about it. Relieved that maybe there is one OH representative in office who isn’t batsh*t crazy TP wingnut. Kasich is going to strike the final blow on the stake that Taft and his group drove into the heart of this state.
progressive dems may lose on this but at least someone is getting the real info about our objections on the record first.
the permanent extension thing… I have been saying that since they put it in place. No such thing as a temporary extension.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Could be worse. I had to listen to Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer while eating at a restaurant on Dec 1.
December 10th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
@BR: You know, that’s cool; I would love to see the Congress attempting to be an independent body of the government rather than the gauntlet the president’s proposals have to run. But if they really want to be that, they have to get their fucking act together and figure out how to get things done. No more of this boohoohoo about how they totally would have done it better if only they’d been asked nicely.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
@FlipYrWhig: Oh, hell to the yes!
I always knew I liked you.
@artem1s: More than any one person, or blogger, or commenter, Senator Sherrod Brown has made me reevaluate my own feelings about this “deal.” It’s a work in progress, but you know what? Maybe I was wrong. I’m open to that possibility.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
@Nutella:
it’s worse, I had to listen to that tape, yes, tape play looped for several days in a row one year….
December 10th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Interesting:
Proverbial Wallet/When Your Wallet Says No
http://andrewsullivan.theatlan.....ys-no.html
December 10th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
@BR:
Well, with no deal he’d (most likely) have presided over raising taxes on income under $250K, the absolute antithesis of a much more central plank to the platform.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
They should put Bernie Sanders on.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
You guys are lucky to get real music. I remember when Musak was what you heard on hold. Either that or “beautiful music” stuff with piano and strings, or silence.
Bad memories.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Best Christmas song evar!
(Dogs barking “Jingle Bells”)
December 10th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I’d like to say that whoever invented those Christmas light strings that play tinny computerized Christmas songs should be condemned to listen to them forever in purgatory. I also cannot stand the blinking lights. They should just shine on, steady and proud, like crazy diamonds.
That is all.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I can’t even get an email through to Bernie Sanders’ office. Maybe a fax will work…
December 10th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Sanders is just going off on GE’s hypocrisy, and I have to say: I love the guy, but I’m a bit worried about him. I hope he doesn’t collapse on the floor of the Senate.
Not even joking. He’s really mad.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
@Culture of Truth:
Nuhguhhappen.
Though it would seem this country needs a LOT more Bernie than fucking stupid ass Christmas songs. I don’t care if I never hear another one again.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
@Comrade Luke:
And now he’s going off on Sysco.
Damn, wonder if he’ll marry me?
Edited to add: Calling out Tom Donohue and CofC.
If Bernie won’t marry me, I’m open to a one night stand.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
@geg6: Watching Bernie right now is essentially progressive pr0n
December 10th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Bernie is teh awesome. Can we clone him?
December 10th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
@MikeTheZ:
It’s about goddamn time we liberals got us some pron. I’d take Bernie over Glenn Beck or Limpballs any day.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Have those two guys been sitting behind him stone-faced the whole time? I wonder who they are.
Edit: yay, my fax went through. (202) 228-0776. Just FYI.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Oooooo, Bernie is previewing his next remarks about Citizens United and K Street with more CEOs dissing US citizens as too stupid to hire compared to Indians and Chinese.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Off topic, but relevant to the reactionaries versus science salon BJ has been having today:
’ Or as [Bachmann] puts it, cutting taxes shouldn’t be defined as part of a deficit, and only spending should be viewed through this lens.
“I don’t agree with that definition,” Bachmann told Meredith Viera on the Today Show. “When people keep their own money, that’s considered a deficit to government, but it’s not a deficit to your pocket or mine, so I think it’s important that people can keep their money.” ’
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.....hp?ref=fpb
So, I guess we have to work on arithmetic and basic logic before we get to science with these people.
To be fair, Bachmann goes on to say only spending should count as a deficit.
But on second thought, I am not sure what I mean by ‘To be fair’ since by Bachmann’s line of thinking, I guess there should be no government at all. I guess then her argument is logical. Crazy, but logically consistent.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Good on Bernie. He should get more Dems to help him out here, not because I think the tax deal is unacceptable, but with an honest-to-god filibuster effort, making the case for, and supporting filibuster reform will get quite a bit more traction among the caucus. And IMO that’s going to be more useful over the next 2 years than anything we gain or lose out of the tax deal.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
@jl:
Her head will explode if the Dems start rolling out the notion that taxes lost to deductions are ‘spending’.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:27 pm
@Culture of Truth: Oh, shit, that would be awesome – swap out all Muzac with Bernie’s filibuster. Any hacker volunteers in the house?
December 10th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
So while Bernie is making my Democratic Socialist heart warm, what does this accomplish?
Do we really think he can shame the Republicans into voting only for a tax cut for the middle class or an extension of UI?
December 10th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
@kdaug:
That? Would be fucking amazing. i can haz hacker plez?
December 10th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
@jl:
I’m telling you, I think a lot of people think “the deficit” is something like the total amount of money all Americans owe to their creditors, rather than anything having to do with the government at all.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
He is STILL going!! Go Bernie Go
December 10th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
@geg6:
“...your call is important to us. Please hold.”
“We MUST break up the too-big-to-fail banks! Right now four institutions own 62% of GDP! The very companies that came to us for bailouts are now shipping your jobs overseas!...”
Just awesomeness.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
In conversation just the other day, I mentioned that McCartney Christmas tune as the perfect example of how once people reach a certain level of super-stardom they can produce absolute dreck and it won’t affect their reputation. That song really puts the “X” in Xmas.
December 10th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
@Cliff:
CNN, they’ll show him talking, but they’ll TALK about what he’s TALKING about.
MSNBC, Nothing
Fox, Nothing
Ugh.
Where’s the media?
December 10th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
All I had to do was read this post and now I have the fucking song stuck in my head.
Thanks a lot, John.
December 10th, 2010 at 5:07 pm
Sad to say, the only Senator who is doing the work of Democrats is….an Independent.
December 10th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Sad to say, the only Senator who is doing the work of Democrats is….an Independent.
December 10th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
Sad to say, the only Senator who is doing the work of Democrats is….an Independent.
December 10th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
@Mnemosyne:
Thankfully I can’t place it, and there is no way in hell I’m googleing it.
December 10th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
For something a little different from the “popular” Christmas tunes, check out Sufjan Stevens.
December 10th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
@FlipYrWhig:
Awesome – another Newtonmas celebrator. Woo!!
Dawkins mentioned it once and I thought it was the best thing ever.
Some Newtonmas resources.
December 10th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Damn you, Cole, now you’ve got that song in my head.
For some reason, my wife doesn’t hate that song, but has fuzzy warm memories of crappy Paul McCartney music from her childhood. I wonder if it sounds better when one is drunk.
I should ask her. ... blahblahblah Christmastime!
December 10th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
One company I deal with lets you press 1 to turn off the hold music.
I like that company a lot.
December 10th, 2010 at 10:00 pm