{ no middle seat please }

A couple of weeks ago I had to deal with customer service on multiple occasions. Like 4 different companies in the same week. Spent a lot of time on the phone that week. Sometime's I don't get it. How hard can it be to help out someone with a question. Sheesh. I will say that some were actually helpful. Here was one experience....

So I am leaving on my trip to Japan soon. I am nervous for the long flight. Not only will I be by myself for hours on end, I have a tendency to get motion sick. (Like I have to take Dramamine boating on a lake).

I usually can just deal with it on airplanes for 2 or 3 hours (sleeping usually is my go-to cure)...but 8 hours? Hmmm. I needed to make sure I had a good seat. I decided to use the new "chat with a representative" option. Bad idea. Not only could I not pronounce the agent's name (have yet to figure out if it was a he or she), but you could tell by their typing that they didn't speak English. The only correct English he/she used was canned messages like "One moment. Let me check on that for you."

That should've been my red flag right there. Giving him/her the benefit of the doubt I continued with my request.

I simply stated that since I get motion sick I wanted to request a seat as close to the front as possible, and in either an isle or window seat. Clear enough right???

After finally being convinced by him/her that they were talking to the correct person, he/she told me what seats I had been assigned (It took me 10 minutes to make sure they understood which flight and confirmation number I had). Frustrated I said thanks and quickly logged off. Phew. That took forever.

Oh wait. Apparently I wasn't clear enough. I was put in a middle seat!!! I couldn't believe it. Long story short...I got it figured out the next day when I called in an spent another 20 minutes requesting my seats. Wow. What a process.

So for all those customer service center all knowing boss' out there ... can we hire people who can help a poor girl out? It would make my life a lot easier and less stressful. Pretty please? Thanks.