I'm hanging out my shingle these days as a freelance techie. Yesterday I installed a modem and wrangled with an ISP for my organic grocer in exchange for a couple bags of frozen meat.

Bloody hell.

I spent three hours yesterday banging my head against the wall that is Great Barrier Reef's customer service department. The actual tech support rep I spoke with was decent. Didn't have any serious problems there.

But the clerk who was charged with setting up accounts...y'know, call me crazy, but I would've thought that, for someone whose job it is to answer phones, being able to understand the caller would be a prerequisite.

I never really understood, back when I was working for the evil empire, why people were so surprised at being able to understand me over the Drive-Thru speaker. I mean, sure, the equipment was shit. But a little effort put into speaking distinctly -- as Kirk Douglas told his son Michael to do when they presented the Best Picture Oscar to Chicago -- goes a long way.

People who cannot effectively communicate do not belong in a phone-answering job.