| Call Center |
February 12, 2018
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| I received a notice letter about payment into the national pension system. It was a collection letter stating that I didn't pay from June to August, and I had until December 22nd to pay. It was December 10th. It wasn't the first time that my payment had been late. I worked as self-employed, and had to pay basically every month. Sometimes, I would forget. But, I would always pay. About one month ago, when I was cleaning my room, I found an unopened envelop from the National Pension Agency, which had a series of 15 payment forms enclosed. The letter had passed several months. There was another piece of paper that was an automatic withdrawal form. I decided to send the automatic withdrawal form. I should have done this earlier. But, I received the collection letter this time. The letter also mentioned that if I couldn't pay, I could apply for the exemption. If I exempted, I would receive less in the future. So I didn't choose to be exempted. I went to a convenience store and showed the shop clerk a yearly payment form. The clerk said that the form was overdue. I was going to give up, but got an idea. I paid from November to March, which due date hadn't come yet. That night, I had a dream. I was calling the pension office. A male clerk said, "Pensions are now outdated. We  have new types of investments. If you transfer from ... " I shouted, "Wait, wait! I don't want any investments. I just want to pay my overdue account." The clerk insisted on them. I said, "I've been paying for this for more than 30 years. Transfer me to your boss!" After a while, an older male voice came on the line, "I am BOF1423. I'm sorry for my subordinate's inexperience ..." I felt some unnaturalness in what he said. I asked, "Are you a human?" He said, "I can understand your concern, but we have more knowledge than humans..." "No, no! I don't want to talk to a robot about my future. Transfer me to your superintendent!" The voice was transferred to a female voice, "My name is AZ1OWK026. I'm the supervisor. You don't need to worry about our quality ..." "NOOOOO!" I woke up. I read the collection letter again. There was a phone number and a company name. It read that they were outsourced from the National Pension Agency. They were open 365 days a year from 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. It reminded me of a company that had started a call center business, and its reputation was good for their quick response and quality. I called. Soon an automatic voice was heard: "We are under contract with the National Pension Agency. This phone call will cost 10 yen for 25 seconds. We'll record your voice in order to better develop our services." Then, there were several ring tones, then another automatic voice. In the background music sounded. "Now the line is very busy. Please hold on or call again after a certain period of time." I sighed. I remembered it was on Saturday. I decided to wait. I didn't like to push the 10 digit phone number again and listen to the long pre-notification sentences again. The time on my phone machine's screen read that 5 minutes had passed. The recording voice 'line is busy' had been repeated 5 or 6 times. Now I placed the phone receiver on the table, and was reading a newspaper. Suddenly a woman's voice sounded. I hurriedly picked up the receiver and managed to hear the end of her talking, "Y..yes. I'm calling because I received a collection letter and I wanted to pay at a convenience store, but the shop girl said that the due date was expired." The woman said, "I see. Could I have your registration number which is on your letter?" I read it. She asked my birthday and address, and I told them to her. She said, "You paid until May. Your unpaid months are from June to September, correct?" I replied, "To August. And I paid from November to March yesterday at a convenience store. And, one more thing, I sent an automatic withdrawal application form to the agency." She asked me when I sent the form. I said it was in the middle of November, one month ago. She said, "I'm sorry to say this, but automatic withdrawal transactions need two months. And, did you say you tried to pay using the yearly payment form?" I agreed. She said, "I see. But you can use monthly forms after the expiration for two years." I said, "Really? But why didn't I notice this?" I asked her to hold on and checked the one for August. There was an expiration date 'September 30th' and in red small letters 'Check the back of the sheet for details.' I checked and it read 'In case that the expiration date has passed, you can pay using this form within two years from the expiration date.' "Oh," I said. "In that case, I'm going to pay the rest at a convenient store today or tomorrow." She added, "In that case, the automatic withdrawal will start to work after that." I thanked her and she said she was glad that she could help me. I hung up. I liked her way of speaking, her saying was crisp but not mechanical; skillful and, at the same time, somehow warm. She seemed to be a trained professional. I am not against that some public works will be privatized and the services will improve. I don't think robots can manage this complicated thing suitably. And even if they could, I don't want robots to do this kind of thing. |
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*notice :お知らせ
*collection :取り立て、集金
*state :述べる
*self-employed :自営業
*enclose :同封する
*withdrawal :引き落とし
*exemption :免除
*yearly :年の
*outdated :時代遅れの
*overdue :期限の切れた
*superintendent :監督者
*privatize :民営化する