nitty gritty chitchat

I have spent a few hours this past week doing something I do not care to do, talk on the telephone to companies. Two things we no longer can live without needed to be activated; a mobile phone and a credit card. The companies involved were Sprint and Citibank. It took a total of four calls, three to Sprint and one to Citibank. In all four of the calls I was connected to a call center in India. The Indian woman at the Citibank call center spoke much clearer English than any of the Sprint ladies. After the ordeal I was totally furious at Sprint and somewhat dismayed by the persistence of the Citibank customer service rep who morphed into a sales rep on Red Bull.
From what I have learned this week my advice when calling any customer service number would be to expect to be connected with India. Before you get into the nitty-gritty, chitchat. If you don't understand at least 75% of what the woman is saying, say namaste, hang up and redial; chitchat, say namaste, hang up and redial; chitchat, say namaste, hang up and forget it. Have plenty of time, do not do this on an empty stomach, have two Tylenol at the ready.
As I was writing this, the plastic headband on my Bose headphones broke. This is the second time. The first time they replaced them. Time to call customer service.