Last night I called Verizon, our cell phone service, to add my new Kindle Fire to our phone service. Did I tell you I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas? No? Well, I did. My Darling B put one in my stocking so I would have books to read or movies to watch while I was traveling to the farthest reaches of our great state, where they don’t have libraries or tee-vee. I think she likes me.

Of course I got the phone robot, who wanted me to chose from five options: 1 for billing, 2 for help troubleshooting my phone service, 3 for technical support, 4 for something and 5 for something else. 3 seemed like the option that fit my question, so I chose that.

There was a long pause. When the robot finally came back on the line, it said, “Please describe your request. Say something like, ‘I want help with my telephone service.’” I babbled something about adding my Kindle to my service plan, and again there was a long pause before the robot said, “You would like technical help from a service technician, correct?” I thought that was needlessly repetitive but said yes anyway, because what else are you going to do?

“To help you with your phone service, you will have to call from another phone. Your phone has been flagged and an e-mail has been sent to you with a phone number to call. Good-bye!”

Yes. That’s just what I wanted. Thank you, Verizon. Nicely done.