"The good Lord must know when
I'm out of my comfort zone," says Marlene Creech who lives on a pension,
"because that's when interesting things happen!" One day Marlene could not get
on line. Her computer kept flashing the message that her dial-up server was
down. After two or three tries, Marlene quit. (Don't we all know how she felt?)
The "server is down" message continued for another few days, and finally Marlene
called the company. "The automated phone systems are not easy for me at my age,"
she says (and don't we all know how she felt?) "but finally I reached a person,
and told him the problem." After checking, the man told her that her dial-up
phone number was bad, and she needed to get a new one.
"The problem here is that there are no more local numbers available," he told
Marlene. "You'll have to choose one of three long distance numbers." Marlene
never thought to ask if there would be a change in cost for this. She chose a
number, and used it for a month. And when she received her phone bill she almost
fainted. The bill was $257.
How could this bill be so much higher than usual? "With my budget being so
tight, I had to call them again, get myself through the automated system again,
and tell my story to two or three people before reaching an employee who
understood what I was asking," she says.
"Your town only has one local number to get on line, and it's perfectly fine,"
he told her.
"Then why did that other man tell me that my line was bad?" She asked. This
employee had no answer, just the suggestion that she return to the local number,
which she did. (And don't we all know how she felt?)
"The next day I called the phone company again, this time to see if I could set
up payments on this large bill, as my pension was already stretched to the
limit," Marlene says. By now she was a pro at navigating the automated phone
system, and she ended up with yet a third employee, to whom she repeated the
entire story. "Let me look up your account," he suggested. A few moments later
he came back to the phone, a bit puzzled. "A deduction to your account was made
yesterday," he told her. "You have a balance of $85, not $257."
It was the exact amount of the long distance overcharge, Marlene realized.
Although she had not gotten angry or even complained, someone (maybe an Earth
Angel?) Had taken pity on her and removed the charges. "The encounter left me so
thankful," Marlene says. "Many times we receive blessings, and don't even know
it."
And don't we all know how she felt?
Joan Anderson Copyrighted by Joan Wester Anderson, used with permission. Originally appeared on the Where Angels Walk website, http://joanwanderson.com
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