Automatic Telephone Systems, Outsourcing & Your Mental Health

Does outsourcing to foreign countries and automatic telephone systems that make you push inane buttons drive Americans nuts, increase medical costs and decrease mental health? Have you experienced OUTSOURCING DISEASE?

 

When I returned from a peaceful vacation of doing nothing I found a letter in my mail telling me I was late on my mortgage payment. How is that possible, I bank online and the payment is scheduled to be sent five days before the due date to allow processing (just as instructed)? 

 

Well, you know the routine: Call the 800 number and go through at least 10 minutes of pushing buttons because they certainly don’t have a button that says, “IF FOR ANY REMOTE POSSIBLITY WE HAVE MADE A MISTAKE, PUSH THIS BUTTON FOR AN APOLOGY AND WE WILL CORRECT IT IMMEDIATELY.”

 

Phones with these stupid systems are set with messages from only their perspective. “Do you want to hear how we are making your life and the world better? Do you want more Credit?” Etc. I feel like I am an expert in button pushing since my husband died and I learned there was no button for death. I couldn’t cancel one account because they had to speak to him! Well I said, “Will you let him know I want to speak with him too and tell me how you contacted him.”  Another time I was told, “Miami is not on our map, so you must not live there, you must live somewhere else.” 

 

I have low blood pressure and a low boiling point but after 10 minutes of button pushing my stress level increases exponentially. Finally, I get a person in India and I am not in a good mood. To his credit, he is kind; maybe, that is because he is accustomed to getting people on the verge of killing him…is that why we outsource to India so the distance is too great for us to commit an act of violence?

 

I explain that they have made a mistake crediting my mortgage payment to reducing my principal and ask why? The amount due to my escrow account was not correct by a few dollars so they don’t contact me they automatically add a late payment fee of $59 and sent a letter to the credit rating companies. Oh brother. Well, after 50 minutes on the phone, using a lot of deep breathing and positive visualization, hopefully this problem has been corrected but wait until next month when I get the next statement and pray I don’t have to go through this same drill.

 

What do outsourcing, computers, and telephone systems have to do with drugs and alcohol? I believe there is a strong case to be made that these faceless decisions are driving us nuts. Is this a correlation or causation? I don’t know!   But, I hope someone gets a major NIH research grant real soon to measure the connections between business decisions and health outcomes. And, while being a bit facetious I’m not kidding. When you experience this problem, please don’t use drugs and alcohol to dull the pain, as it will only make you sicker. Call Informed Families; a human will answer the phone and we actually want to help you stay safe, healthy, and drug free.

 

Until next time,

Peggy