Jen and I moved from Virginia Beach back to Louisiana in June 2012 to be closer to our kids and grandees during our dotage. Moving was an extended chapter of disaster which left me convinced that the word 'service' has no place in modern English and should be expunged from Webster's otherwise excellent publications. "Your call is EXTREMELY important to us" Should be followed by "So hold on like a pratt for 25 minutes while we demonstrate the extent of our sincerity by mixing annoying music and repetitive ads for services you will surely, by then, have no intention of using" "Vell, Sah, I can MOST definitely assist you vid dat , today, isn't it" Is an apparently essential precursor to an extended demonstration of insincere platitudes, incompetence and inaction. "Reaching out" is an overused and obfuscatory euphemism for sending an email requesting or providing information to someone else, prompted by your request, then doing absolutely naff all until either the third party responds (unlikely after only one email apparently) or, you the originator become so severely pissed off that you re-establish contact and launch a university level course in Profane! "We'll see you at 8am" means "We'll bowl up after lunch as it suits us" in the process porking up your day and that of others you had arranged to interact with. I sincerely hope that the latest manifestation of humanity does a better job with its progeny than its own parents have done with it! Angry older men of the world unite! What's wrong with providing a service? Basically, there's no quantifiable reward (money) in it. However, if those who have substituted smoke and mirrors for service were to return to basics, might not their customers' needs be assuaged if someone knowledgeable were to respond? Might not this translate into future sales rather than pissed off ex customers? More to the point, does anyone really give a crap after the sale? I bet there's a bunch (first order of American collective nouns there; the other two are 'whole bunch' and 'shitload' is ascending order of magnitude) of 'olds' out there who could not only provide customer service but also do it with knowledge and compassion.

PRS

Right - well I don't know if this is going to work but, if it does, we Howeites can claim a justified position in the 'also rans' - what's new?