Mr Veripst and the Cingular Guy

This is a story about two men -both with considerable tempers. One I know quite well because he happens to be my ex-husband. The other is a writer friend I've come to know through the Writerslife Gang and he's our group's resident redneck.

The Redneck Writer has a lot of health concerns and is frequently having "issues" with his insurance provider pertaining to a lot of the medications he has to take. Seems a short time ago the insurance company told him they were not going to cover some prescription he takes and he was calling around trying to get the problem resolved. In the course of his calls, as many of us have had similar experiences of this type, he was connected to a "customer service rep" who apparently works outside the good old U.S of A. and wasn't too good with the English language.

And, at times, neither is the Redneck Writer as he speaks a lot in the Redneck vernacular - the Tennessee version. At the close of his conversation with this particular rep - in which he apparently had threatened to commit hari-kari or some such if they didn't get his prescription problems corrected, he had told the Cust. Svc Rep that they would be hearing from him again and that he was "very pissed." The service rep had made a written note of this and given the files to someone else to handle and that rep called the Redneck Writer to clarify some things, including a name discrepancy because the name on the account didn't match the name Redneck Writer had given the first service rep. Then guy calling wanted to know who is "Mr. Veripst?"

And, companies wonder why things get all screwed up and discombobulated?

And then there is the "Cingular Guy" - my ex-husband - who is very well known by my kids, me, his siblings and just a few other friends and acquaintances too for his temper, which can at times, be quite formidable.

Seems CG ("Cingular Guy) was having issues with his cell phone and had taken it to Cingular to try to get it fixed and no one seemed to be able to figure out what the actual problem is/was with the phone. CG has little to no patience, and especially does not tolerate incompetence at all. He too had called Cingular, talked to a customer service rep and voicing his displeasure, had told the rep if they didn't get something done about this problem with his phone he was going to buy an old van of some type, paint it a blazing orange and spray paint on the sides of it in big, bold lettering "CINGULAR SUCKS" and he was going to take it and drive it all over Las Vegas to show his displeasure with the company.

The rep told him please, to not do that and immediately turned the call over to a supervisor. The supervisor then told CG to bring the phone to such-and-such Cingular store and they would replace the part believed to be the problem, etc.

CG said no, that he couldn't do that. The spvr said something else, again requesting that he bring the phone in and they would correct it.

And, once again CG said he couldn't do that and explained then why he couldn't do that.

It seems he had been to the Cingular store, had repairs made, they didn't work, he took it back, more repairs, still didn't work, he took it back and on that visit, his notorious temper took over and he pitched the phone against the wall at the store where it flew into several pieces! He had gathered the pieces up, taken the phone home, put it all back together again and it still didn't work! So, in CG's opinion, no point in dealing with this company and their phones any longer!

My daughters, when they heard him tell this story, were howling with laughter because they both knew their dad well enough that he is very, very capable of finding and fixing up an old van and painting it - including the lettering - and would have had no qualms whatsoever either of driving a vehicle like that all over Las Vegas either!

And the funny thing about "Mr. Veripst" and the "Cingular Guy" is that although they are not related (at least not to my knowledge anyway), if you were to see photos of them, you would swear they look enough alike to pass for brothers - or at the very least, cousins.

And, in temperment - well, you can judge that for yourself based on the above stories now, can't you?