Praise

In a world full of tedious automated phone trees, cumbersome online help libraries and costly premiums for personal support, the help I have received from Blogger is a welcome and unexpected joy.

I've had a few minor issues with my other top-secret blog and I have received excellent attention from Blogger and Listenlab (the folks who run the audio blogging service). In each instance my problems were addressed and solved within a day.

Compare that with the help I received from Cingular when I tried to change to a local number. Contradictory information from multiple phone operators and b&m store employees resulted in an extended and frustrating ordeal.

Or compare it with my bank, whose rapid expansion and curious negotiations have made my account, since it was opened in California, autonomous and beyond the reach of my local branch here in Washington. What is their proposed way around this internal schism? Open a separate Washington account despite the fact that there is no consumer benefit and that it would require me to maintain sovereign online and offline records for each. Nonsense!

Granted, my blog is not as complex as cellular communications or interstate banking, but there have been issues. When there are I email the folks in charge. They explain. They fix.

And I love them for it.