Paradise Part 15

While composing a letter one day, RB’s phone rang.  The name William Dawson appeared on the phone display.  RB didn’t recognize the name but answered it anyway.  It if was a number from outside the company, he wouldn’t have answered it.  He learned early in his time in The Bad Place to never answer calls he didn’t recognize.  The only time he did, he was caught on the phone for over an hour.  If a customer was calling him back, he left the number for the switchboard who connected him with the customer. 

RB put his headset on and lifted the receiver saying, “Hello, this is Robert Baxter.  How can I help you? 

“Robert, Bill Dawson, manager of Equipment Scheduling.  You submitted a bid for a job and I’d like to set up a time for you to come in for an interview.”

RB’s mind was blank for a moment.  He didn’t remember bidding on this job.  The only one he remembered bidding for in the last few months was filled by a coworker.  Still, he wasn’t going to let an opportunity go to waste.  He and Bill Dawson agreed upon a date and time.  Dawson followed up with an email confirming the interview which RB forwarded to his manager.  Matt replied immediately with a short reply: “Congratulations!  I know you’ll do great.”

An ember, a small spark of hope flared in RB’s soul.  Instead of focusing on another thought of hope, which always resulted in disappointment, RB returned to typing his letter.  He wrote what he always wrote.  He told the customer how sorry he was they were disappointed with their travel experience.  The situations they described were not what they want for their customers.  He would forward their letter to the appropriate areas for review. 

He did mean it for each customer but it seemed trite after saying it after a few thousand times.  He genuinely hoped things would improve to a point he could do something else.  How nice would it be that the company would one day see they have too many people to handle the number of complaints received?  Maybe the CEO would want RB to do other work for him.  Oh, to finally escape from The Bad Place!

The next letter was an interesting one.  A father and daughter were returning from Caracas, Venezuela in first class.  The flight attendant served salads and the father noted a mushroom on his salad.  Since he didn’t like mushrooms, he set it off to the side.  After finishing her salad, the daughter remembered she didn’t receive a mushroom on hers.  With her fork, she began investigating her father’s mushroom only to learn it was a frog.

The conversation with the million miler father was pleasant.  RB related a story from his early airline career when he used to clean airplanes.  He worked in New York City and they found a live tree frog in the passenger cabin on a plane that flew in from Florida.  This was in the dead of winter.  The customer understood things happen and didn’t really want compensation but felt the airline should be aware.  RB thanked him for the letter and loyalty.  Why can’t all customers be like this man?