Yesterday morning, my wife noticed her car tire was losing air rapidly as she arrived at school. And being a teacher, she had no breaks to call AAA for service, so i did it for her. The first lady i spoke with took all my information on the car, etc and proceeded to tell me that i must add my wife to the membership so i could get her the help she needed. As i went on with the course of my day, AAA shows up at the parking lot 15mins early to assist my wife in her flat tire and proceeds to leave before she can meet them in the parking lot.

I was pulled out of a meeting to yell at AAA for their lack of competence in the way the matter was being handled. All to be told that the tow company would arrive "momentarily". What has happened in America is this, i hope, temporary lapse in service oriented people. This is laziness and complacency tied all into one. The word "momentarily" is so ambiguous i explained to the lady on the second call, that i wanted a definitive answer and that was not good enough for me. If i had said that in my real estate business, i would get holy hell for it and maybe see hell by the end of the day.

People in the service business must pay more attention to the consumer and being that my wife is 6 months pregnant, that had no bearing on whether the word "momentarily" would shift to "yes sir, i will send them right away". Such disregard for the human element, that i now find myself cancelling my wife's membership and having to argue this point after this blog. Therefore, in retrospect, if you are in a service oriented business, have patience for the consumer at hand. Yes, i realize that some consumers can be wacko, but does the whole world have to be labeled or bunched together to be wackos calling at the other end of the telephone.

Momentarily should be restated to say shortly, in 5 mins, or soon, after all, if you want to get into ambiguous wording, why not go all the way.