Customer service can lead to a strange place

Calling a company for technical support can be daunting.

Some have electronic mazes to navigate before you get to speak

to a real person.

I expect voicemail after business hours, but during the day I

may need a human's help.

Calling a company for technical support can be daunting.

Some have electronic mazes to navigate before you get to speak to a real person.

I expect voicemail after business hours, but during the day I may need a human's help.

I prefer talking to a real person to help direct me in the right direction.

The ladies in the front office of the Columbia Basin Herald are wonderful to talk to and are a great help in connecting our customers to the right people.

Last week I purchased a new computer game for my wife. She loves the Civilization series and couldn't wait to start playing the latest edition. The game allows a player to direct the evolution of a country through technological discoveries, creating culture, economic growth, choosing a government type, developing religions and more. It can suck you in for hours.

I bought Civilization 5 for her to play while she was staying home, recovering from a mild illness. I was very eager to hear about how it kept her spirits up when she was limited to rest and plenty of fluids.

I installed the game, followed all the directions and found a problem. It didn't work.

Now I am getting back to my point about customer service.

I had to call the company to get help. It turns out my graphics card was released this year and the game was not ready for how powerful it is. I had to make a quick adjustment to get it to work.

But it was the call to 2k Games that surprised me.

At first I heard bad music. Then an English woman's voice began chanting, "Your call is important to us. All of our customer representatives are busy. Please wait for the next available representative to help you." Back to the bad music and waiting.

It took a little more than a half hour, but since it is a popular game and released last week, they were probably swamped with people asking questions just like me.

Anthony introduced himself and set about helping me. He was patient, understanding and more than capable to navigate me past the problem. He asked me to remove the game and reinstall it before making the small adjustment.

With all of the traffic to the company's computer servers, reloading the game took a few hours.

What surprised me was Anthony. He asked about my computer, then moved on to ask me where I was calling from. I told him about Moses Lake and he told me about Newcastle, U.K. Then we spoke of America and Great Britain.

Then we continued to talk about computers, video games, great authors, renewable energy sources, performance sports cars, movies and more. It was like talking to an old friend. Any topic was entertaining.

But at the three hours mark I started to feel bad about hogging all of his time. There were others that needed help. I apologized and mentioned my concern of his getting in trouble from his supervisor.

"If I scream, that would be the cattle prod telling me to move on," he joked.

I laughed and thanked him for all of this help and the enjoyable conversation.

When I started the phone call, I was braced for frustration, annoyance and a large amount of wasted time. I noticed the wasted time, but instead finding myself in a bad experience, I found a friend.

Nobody told me there would calls like this.

Bill Stevenson is the Columbia Basin Herald managing editor. He is a self-processed geek and enjoys working with PCs. He constantly reminds his coworkers how much he likes PCs while being forced to work on an Apple.