Do you hate calling the cable company as much as Dennis does?!

One of the most dreaded phone calls you have to make is when you try and explain to a person on another continent, whose English you can't clearly understand, why your TV isn't working right. Right?

Well this weekend I tried like hell to figure it out on my on with the remote, then online, before I called. I braced myself, took a deep breath and dialed. After a maze of prompts from the automated voice on the other end and incessantly pressing the pound key to get a live person, I heard the most beautiful words I could imagine.

"Hi thank you for calling Verizon, this is Nick in New Jersey. How can I help you?"

I almost dropped the phone! Should I run out and buy a lottery ticket? This is my lucky day. I explained the problem. Nick pushed a few buttons on his end and after about a minute my remote was changing the channels like it's supposed to and I was a happy customer again.

I realize that outsourcing customer service saves companies money but kudos to Verizon for hiring New Jerseyans to help folks with issues they're having with their service. I have nothing against people with accents.

My fondest memories are of my grandparents with their barely understandable English speaking to me as a kid. I do speak another language fairly well, but I'll be damned if I would try to help someone from Italy figure out what their technical issue was with their cable service.

I'm glad some companies are hiring local people and I'm glad I got Nick on Sunday morning. The channel was stuck on Animal Planet and football was about to start in less than an hour. Whew!

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Dennis & Judi are on the air weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tweet them @DennisandJudi or @NJ1015.