Though a glass darkly

The most exciting thing that happened today was, I called the place where I purchased my eyeglasses a week and a half ago, because they’d said the frames would take 7-10 days on order…and moreover that they would call me when they came in. Seeing as that was a week and a half ago and no call had come through…

Anyway, the first person I reached led off, before I’d even had a chance to say a word, with a long spiel of “thank you for calling” and blah-blah-blah — half a minute, at least, that, only after I’d asked her to repeat herself, did I realize ended in offering to set me up for an appointment with their eye doctor. Um, no thanks, I was just calling to check on frames and lenses I purchased a week ago last Friday?

She transferred me to someone else, who took my name, phone number, and the identifying number on my receipt. Then she went away for a minute, came back, and asked if she could call me back in just a few minutes more. Either because they had to check something there, or because they were with a customer, or…it wasn’t entirely clear. But okay, sure.

She didn’t call back in a few minutes. So I went to lunch. I had my cell phone with me, and that’s the number they had.

An hour later, I’m back from lunch, and still no phone call. Another hour, still nothing.

So I call back, and go through the same song-and-dance — though no breathless opening spiel this time — and get connected to a different salesperson. Who also wants to call me back in a few minutes. I sigh. That’s what the other person I spoke with two hours ago said, I tell her. And she never called back. Don’t worry, sir, this woman tells me. She’ll definitely call me right back. She takes my phone number — my work number, since I’m sitting at my desk — and tells me her name, I guess so I’ll feel like I have someone to complain to if she doesn’t call back.

But she does, first to my cell phone, which I let go to voicemail, and then my work number. My eyeglasses are ready to be picked up at any time. Hopefully, I’ll go pick them up on Friday, the last of my half-days at work for the summer.

Seriously, though, the local LensCrafters needs to invest in a better phone system. If it’s seriously just going to be a few minutes — because you have to check in the back, or talk with the optometrist, or something — just put me on hold.

It should tell you something about my day that this was the most exciting part of it.