Inside Chris’s Head

The warrantee on my PT Cruiser is apparently about to expire. I know this because Chrysler has called me both on my cell phone and on my home phone. A machine generated voice explained to me that this was a “courtesy” call and that my warrantee would expire soon. I appreciate them informing me that it was a “courtesy” call because I might easily have mistaken it for something else when they called me the 5th or 6th time.

I believe the definition of courtesy that they are applying to this call would be:

consideration, cooperation, and generosity in providing something

My problem is that I keep thinking that they mean courteous behavior:

marked by respect for and consideration of others

Frankly a machine calling me at its convenience never ever passes for courteous behavior. Have we so lost touch with the meaning of courteous? How about a little honesty. Why don’t they at least call me and say:

“Mr Christensen, we are seriously concerned that you may not pay us more money. We are so concerned that we though we would call you call you again and again and again and again until you just can’t stand the notion of future calls and relent. With any luck we have called you while you were in the shower, or on the toilet or perhaps in the throws of passion. If you don’t pay us money soon we will start calling all your relatives to apply collective pressure.”

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