Friday, May 25, 2012

Promises? Follow Through

Matthew 5:37 says, "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."

(Sorry, but this is another rant)

This has been a rough week. I have spent a great deal of the week just plain annoyed. Why? Because I've spent this week dealing with customer service at Grand Canyon University and while much of it has been terrific, some of it has stunk and has nearly sent me over the edge with frustration.  To be honest, if it were cleared up right now, I'd have finally let it go and moved on, but since Monday morning, the same issue exists and I can't get a straight answer or resolution to the problem.

The problem itself wasn't that big of a deal - or so I thought, but every time I tried to get it fixed, I was hamstrung.  The people that I was to rely on to manage this problem for me (since I'm an online student and obviously can't get into their faces) failed me and when I pushed, got downright insulting.

When I finally got to the highest level of management and began getting more information and hopeful about solutions, I held on; but even they couldn't move the juggernaut of tech support and simply close the issue satisfactorily.

Though I can be good at it when necessary, there is nothing I hate more than finding myself in a situation where my claws have to come out and my large vocabulary (filled with condescension when needed) comes into play to destroy a person's day.

A little bit of communication and follow through would have assured me that things were in process and that I wouldn't approach the first day of class with no way to access the classroom.

This type of behavior is one of those things that just makes me nuts.  If you say you are going to do something, do it.  If you don't know whether you are going to be able to follow-through, please do not tell the world (or me) that you are going to do so.  If you promise to call me - call me.  If you promise to text me - text me.  If you promise to send me an email, or give me information, or take care of something - just do it.

I learned years ago that shallow or vacant promises end up causing mis-trust in others.  The more of them that you offer, the less people trust your word.  When I owned Insty-Prints, we had a couple of service technicians who would promise to show up in an hour, and then the next morning when I called to find out what was going on, would make yet another promise.  I would sometimes have to make two or three calls before they showed up and then they were upset because I hadn't been patient with them.  Ummm, what?  Do not tell me you are going to be here and then make me have to call you because you aren't.

I go through Facebook pages where people publish all these grand plans to do things, promise that it will be done and it never happens. Not just grand dreams, plans ... that they never follow through on.

If you promise to do something - follow through.  If you say yes, then mean it.  If you say no, then mean it.  If you can't follow through, keep your mouth shut and figure out how to manage your life.

There.  I've voiced my frustration here, but I'm afraid that GCU isn't finished hearing from me.

UPDATE Friday evening: Things are better. Not fixed, but better. Fixing will come at some point and I'll manage, but I finally had someone walk me through the entirety of the situation (communication) and tell me how I can manage this once the weekend hits.  Whew.  That's all I needed.

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