Thank You for Calling PA Governor Ed Rendell's Office … Now Go F#*K Yourself

How Edward G. Rendell Personally Wastes Your Time; by Craig Friebolin

So I decide to call the Governor and show him the error of his ways with regard to the Pennsylvania Cigarette Tax (Governor Edward G. Rendell's Office: (717) 787-2500) A woman answers the phone with a bad attitude and a long-story-short I state my case to the woman and I’m told that “my comment will be passed on”. I follow up by asking “will someone be calling me back to discuss this further?” and I’m once again told “my comment will be passed on”. When the call is over I feel like I was just brushed off as being insignificant. I stew over it for a minute or two and get increasingly angry and decide to call back with the intent of insisting that I speak to someone. Another woman with a bad-attitude answers the phone, I state my case again, and again I’m told “my comment will be passed on”. And once again I ask “will someone be calling me back?” to which she replies “What do you mean?” …. Oooooh … now I’m just mad. I take a moment to explain the difficult question of “will someone be calling me back?” to the confused young woman with the chip on her shoulder and she tells me I need to put my comments in writing. “And THEN someone will contact me back?” I ask. I hear her sigh in frustration at my question and now I’m really getting irritated … “I don’t want to waste my time putting it in writing if it’s not going to go anywhere because I have other s*#t to do” once I said that she seemed almost excited to say “we don’t tolerate that kind of language” and she hung up on me because she’s not smart enough to answer simple questions and obviously not smart enough to know I’ll be calling right back … which I did … and the conversation continued like so; “Why did you hang up on me?!” … “Because we don’t tolora… ::click click click ring :::” and I realize I’m being transferred. A man answers the phone and I fumble through saying something to the effect of “Where am I? I think I was transferred but I’m not sure why … do you do something with the cigarette tax?” he says “I can help you” and for the third time now I state my case but this time emphasizing that I would like to speak to someone about the matter. The reasonable man gives me honest answers “It is the Governor’s policy that if it’s not in writing … ‘it never happened’”. I explain to the man that this is my third time calling and the first 2 women I spoke to told me my comment would be passed on. He responds with silence. “So what you’re telling me is those 2 phone calls were a complete waste of time” he responds in an empathetic tone, “It is the Governor’s policy that if it’s not in writing … ‘it never happened’”. I’m taking the hint so I too am now speaking in an empathetic but confused manor “Do you have a pen? Or a computer? Why not just write what I’m saying down?” he tells me “honestly … it’s what the Governor wants. He’s the chief and we’re just the little Indians”.

So here it is Eddy … all written down … it took about 7 hours to get all my facts straight and type this up for you … and now that I’m this invested I’m not letting it go. I didn’t get paid for this time and as I stated to your office earlier “I have other s**t to do” so hopefully your office will correct this common sense mistake and not make any more so I don’t have to put my life on hold to spell them out for you because you refuse to empower your staff with a God damn pen. Maybe you could gouge the smokers of Pennsylvania a bit more to donate some of its $613,000,000.00 in annual tax revenue to buy them computers?