Technology Fails
What do you do when technology fails you?
I’ve talked before about being the default IT Director for our house. I don’t know why the job falls to me – probably because, as moms, we just handle all the things.
This week, I have spent several hours on the phone with various really nice IT people trying to solve a couple of small issues that don’t necessarily impact my daily life, but just needed to get taken care of.
I am really good at taking on all the things that come my way, handling all the logistics around our house, and keeping up with the day-to-day. I am also really good at procrastinating. Doing Email Triage or life triage and putting the rest off until later when I have more time. Do we ever have more time?
So, I spent the better part of two hours on the phone with tech support trying to figure out why my new Apple Watch doesn’t want to connect to cellular. And since then I have reset the thing like 5 times.
I buy Apple products because they all connect to one another and sync data really well. Plus, they have great security. However, sometimes getting it all set up to do all that for us doesn’t always go as planned.
In the meantime, I also added a service to a current account with another vendor this week, and for some reason the new service won’t connect to my current account in the online profile.
Why? I have no idea. The reality is that sometimes, technology fails us. What do we do when this happens? Spend lots of time with tech support and hope for the best person on the other end of the phone to figure out the issue.
For both of my issues this week, the person(s) on the other end of the phone were really helpful. They truly wanted to figure it out and help me find the solution to fix my problems, and they also appreciated the value of my time.
Even when we are dealing with frustrating things – especially technology fails – it is so nice to have other people there to help, who also appreciate that we are all busy and time is valuable.
Last weekend, I managed to do something really stupid. I went into a store for supplies for a bar-b-que that we had planned during the middle of a baseball tournament an hour away from our house. I was busy. I was trying to hurry and get the things I needed, and get back in time to watch my son play ball. And I wasn’t paying attention. Which is how I ended up outside the store, hands full of bags, locked out of my car.
Yep. Not an awesome event.
My husband had already left our house (an hour away) to go meet me at the games, and he did not have the extra car key with him. The key had been in my pocket when I left home, but of course I didn’t check to make sure it was still there when I used the handy keypad on my door to lock the car when I got to the store.
Another example of great technology, but a failure in using it. I love the feature that allows us to lock the car with the keypad. My fail? I don’t know the code for this new car – I haven’t taken the time to get in to a dealer and have them scan for it, since we bought it used.
Luckily – oh, so lucky for me – a very nice man in the next row over asked me if I was locked out, and happened to have a lockout kit in his car. My husband had turned around to go get the other key, but I caught him and he continued on his way, the Good Samaritan managed to help me get into the car, and my key was in fact under the driver’s seat where it had fallen out of my pocket.
I am so thankful for this kind person who did an amazing good deed for me this week!
Between the kind man who helped me in the parking lot the other day, and the several IT people I have talked to trying to resolve the other issues, I continue to be thankful for the technology we have. And super thankful that it works most of the time!
For those times when technology fails us, remember that there is always a solution out there. It might take us longer to solve than we’d like, or some frustrations along the way while we figure it all out, but most of the time, we get to the solutions and move along on our way.
Thanks to all the good people who have helped me this week, and good luck to all of my friends dealing with those pesky times when technology fails. One way or another, take it all as it comes, and remember that there are good people out there who can and do make a difference for all of us!
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