Day of Cancel: Rescheduling Edition
Jun. 18th, 2021 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutYesterday, Waste Management, which picks up our trash / recycling on a weekly basis, rescheduled to today. Today, Waste Management rescheduled to next Thursday. Yes, you read that correctly. The paragraph informing me was gemlike in its forthright failure to acknowledge the fact they were canceling.
“Your waste service for 6/17/2021 has been rescheduled. We will return for service on 6/24/2021. Please make sure your container is accessible. We apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate your patience and commitment to safety. Thank you for trusting Waste Management as your environmental solutions partner. We truly appreciate your business.”
I went to the website to see if I had somehow misunderstood. No, no I had not. Here are the two notifications in website form (the above was in email):
All customers residential waste service for 6/17/2021 has been rescheduled in ACTON, STOW. We will return for service on 6/18/2021. Please make sure your container is accessible for service.
All customers residential waste service for 6/17/2021 has been rescheduled in ACTON, BOXBOROUGH. We will return for service on 6/24/2021. Please make sure your container is accessible for service.
I would like to make a few observations. First, in the email form, they frame a cancelation as a reschedule, and then immediately hit you with a request. I guess they want to make sure I don’t feel like I am in a position to complain? And then, in case I somehow still felt like there might be a basis for saying, Wait A Minute, You Just Canceled My Weekly Service, What Do You Mean Reschedule, they followed up with: “your patience and commitment to safety.” Mmm hmmm.
I encourage everyone to adopt this strategy. Don’t feel like working on Friday? Call and reschedule to Monday. Extra hard getting the kid to wake up and get ready for school? Call and reschedule to the next school day. Maybe the next school week. Maybe the next school year. Heck, maybe the 17th of Never.
The next step in this path is something along the lines of, ‘“We’ll pencil you in for next week,” followed by, “We’ll get back to you,” “When we feel like it,” and eventually, “Don’t call us; we’ll call you.”
“Your waste service for 6/17/2021 has been rescheduled. We will return for service on 6/24/2021. Please make sure your container is accessible. We apologize for any inconvenience, and appreciate your patience and commitment to safety. Thank you for trusting Waste Management as your environmental solutions partner. We truly appreciate your business.”
I went to the website to see if I had somehow misunderstood. No, no I had not. Here are the two notifications in website form (the above was in email):
All customers residential waste service for 6/17/2021 has been rescheduled in ACTON, STOW. We will return for service on 6/18/2021. Please make sure your container is accessible for service.
All customers residential waste service for 6/17/2021 has been rescheduled in ACTON, BOXBOROUGH. We will return for service on 6/24/2021. Please make sure your container is accessible for service.
I would like to make a few observations. First, in the email form, they frame a cancelation as a reschedule, and then immediately hit you with a request. I guess they want to make sure I don’t feel like I am in a position to complain? And then, in case I somehow still felt like there might be a basis for saying, Wait A Minute, You Just Canceled My Weekly Service, What Do You Mean Reschedule, they followed up with: “your patience and commitment to safety.” Mmm hmmm.
I encourage everyone to adopt this strategy. Don’t feel like working on Friday? Call and reschedule to Monday. Extra hard getting the kid to wake up and get ready for school? Call and reschedule to the next school day. Maybe the next school week. Maybe the next school year. Heck, maybe the 17th of Never.
The next step in this path is something along the lines of, ‘“We’ll pencil you in for next week,” followed by, “We’ll get back to you,” “When we feel like it,” and eventually, “Don’t call us; we’ll call you.”