Make some other type of small talk, please

At work, I’m responsible for dealing with a large piece of office equipment manufactured by a company that I won’t name, but their company name begins and ends with the same letter. Anyway, when there’s a problem with the machine, I call the company’s (let’s just call them Company X) support line.

A little more than a year ago, Company X outsourced their support staff to somewhere in the Caribbean. I don’t remember exactly where, although I was told once and I do remember that it’s one of the places mentioned in the worst song ever.

Anyway, it’s pretty obvious that Company X’s customer service reps are still working on conversational English. During lulls in the call (when they have to wait for their computers to pull up records or whatever) they will often engage in a line of small talk:

-How are you?
-How is the weather?

Every time I call, they ask these questions. And not wanting to be rude, I engage them in conversation, and will often ask these very same questions back to them. Except the answer to question number two is always “Oh, sunny and in the 80s.” Usually, I don’t mind. But I had to call this week, and when my answer to that question is “cloudy and damn cold,” the very last thing I want to hear back is “Oh, here, it’s sunny and in the 80s.”

Someone should tell Company X to change the script.

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