Get My Name Right!

Get My Name Right!

My name is Ira…I…r…a.  Not Era or Eara or whatever. My last name is Berkowitz….B…e…r…k…o you get the picture. It’s not Ber-cow-itz like the animal. It’s not Berko-vitz, even though Siri thinks it is.  Oh, and it’s Mr. not Miss or Mrs. or Ms, although I am fond of saying Mr. Berkowitz leaves in Florida.

With a name like Ira Berkowitz, I’ve gotten used to folks mispronouncing my name and sometimes even getting my gender wrong but when I keep telling you that it’s Eye-ra and you keep calling me Ear-a, that’s just an assault on my senses (get it…eye…ear).  Oh never mind.

The other day I got a call from a woman asking me to take a “short survey” about my phone and internet usage. Despite the fact that she got both my first name and last name wrong, I must have been in a generous mood and said yes. Not that the smartest move I made that day.

After about 10 minutes, this “short survey” did not seem so short and the repetitive questions were starting to get on my nerves. Not to mention the fact that she was asking all kinds of technical questions about my phone lines, connectivity, blah blah blah. My standard answer became “I have no idea.” After another few minutes, I decided I had enough and told the woman asking the questions that I had to get off the phone, and that 15 minutes was not really a “short survey.”

Earlier this morning the phone rang and there was the same woman asking to speak to Ear-a Berko-vitz. I recognized her voice and told her that it was me. She asked me if I would just finish the last few questions of her “short survey.” Now there 2 things that pissed me off about this conversation. First, she kept referring to it as a “short survey,” when I made it very clear to her during the first Q&A session that the survey was anything but short. Second, she got my name wrong again…first name…last name…wrong. I very nicely (really…I was very nice…and I know that me being nice can be hard to believe sometimes) told her no thanks. She insisted that there was only a few questions left to answer. I very very nicely (again, still be nice) replied that she needed to go back to her the folks who made up this “short survey” and tell them that they need to realize that a 15+ minute survey was not so short. I said thank you and hung up the phone.

In the end, what I was really thinking was just get my name right. Say it wrong the first time, I can forgive you. Say it wrong again and the next sound you hear in your ear-a is “click.”