Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for April 28, 2020

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    BE THIS GUY  almost 4 years ago

    Goat appreciates the luxury of being cruel vicariously.

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    Sherlock Watson  almost 4 years ago

    Do you get to pick the song? If so, try “MacArthur Park”; that can make anyone beg for mercy.

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    B UTTONS  almost 4 years ago

    FINALLY, Rat did a little something for the betterment of society!

    Hopefully Rat also put the CEO in the endless Robo-Operator loop!

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    mr_sherman Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    I hope he included the static.

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    Concretionist  almost 4 years ago

    After the cable company that I won’t name, but it rhymes with “bombast” lied, boosted my rates, and lied again for the umty-millionth time, I hunted around and found a local company that provides “wifi-ish” service, so no cables, just an antenna on our house. Their price has been fixed, to the penny, for several years. When I call them (perhaps as often as once or twice per year) for tech support, I am ALWAYS greeted by an actual person. And about 25% of the time, that person is the one I actually need to talk to. And they play pleasant holding music IF I’m waiting… for a minute or two. Without commercial interruptions. It is true that their speed is lower than the cable company’s speed. But it is fast enough for the two of us to stream something at the same time, though not for interactive shooter games (which neither of us cares for). But that nice fixed price is about 50% of the the cable company’s actual cost.

    When I contacted them, they asked why I’d decided to call. I told them that I was sick unto death of the behavior of the cable company. Instant response: “Oh, sure. They’re our BEST sales group.”

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    wesleylscott1  almost 4 years ago

    In the words of Rage Against The Machine, " #%€# It!!! Cut the cord !!!

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    hammytech  almost 4 years ago

    Seems fair..lol

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    Liverlips McCracken Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    Voice prompt systems should crawl back through the hellhole they came out of, and seal it shut behind them.

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    Imagine  almost 4 years ago

    24 hours on hold. Expensive call. Doubt it was an 800 number.

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    Doug M  almost 4 years ago

    Everyone’s fantasy…

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    Troglodyte  almost 4 years ago

    Wish I could do that. “IVR” and “customer care” are two of the best smokescreens for shoddy service and dodging customers!

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    Cameron1988 Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    Do something similar to the C.E.O. who is currently running the Walt Disney francise. He’s nothing but another money monger. Creating a streaming service that you have to now pay to see any type of Disney and Pixar Movie. Also Marvel, National Geographic and whatever else that money hungry mongerer currently owns. He even has the control to refuse to show certain Disney movies in theaters that you’ll only be able to see it by subscribing to his streaming service. I mean it’s kind of understandable now because of the pandemic, but I’m still just trying to prove a point. So do something similar, or worse that guy who owns the Disney franchise, Rat. I will forever love you if you do ;)

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    Masterskrain Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    BLESS YOU, Rat!!!

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    Breadboard  almost 4 years ago

    Just let me talk to a human being ! … Croc Power !

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    Display  almost 4 years ago

    Nutley Brass, Ramones Songbook. Elevator music covers of Ramones songs. You can thank me later. https://youtu.be/MH0kHju79Ek

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    Zebrastripes  almost 4 years ago

    Play the “Manah manah do do do do do” song! The muppets….once you hear it it never leaves your head…..

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    PhilipHunrath  almost 4 years ago

    He should play Debbie Boone singing “You Light Up My Life” for 24 hours

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    NeedaChuckle Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    I hate to call, but I couldn’t get online to my credit card company. 2 hours to get a human. That is why I’m glad for the landline, I don’t know if my batteries on the cellphone would have made it thru. They did solve the problem quickly though.

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    NRHAWK Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    Takes our strategy to oust Presidente Noriega from that Panamanian church to a whole new level.

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    Ksandler4570  almost 4 years ago

    Don’t we ALL want to do this?

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    e.groves  almost 4 years ago

    It seems that most hold music is designed to get a person to hang up.

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    Steverino Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    True story: When we were living in Va, we has a mother racoon give birth on the smoke shelf of our fireplace. Called Animal Control, and they told us to get a radio, tune it to a heavy metal station, turn up the volume, and put in the fireplace. Then put some cushions around the fireplace opening so it will muffle the sound.

    The racoons were gone within 24hours. The neighbor across the street saw the mother racoon carry her babies out of the chimney.

    This should be a lession to all of us.

    P.S. We put a chimney cap on the chimney the next day.

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    Ellis97  almost 4 years ago

    I don’t think anybody is gonna get to sleep now.

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    LaurentVaillancourt  almost 4 years ago

    With my recent misery marathon on hold, it wasn’t which songs they played but the sound quality. It was like a badly tuned radio station being transmitted down a can-and-string arrangement. Hissing static and faint.

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    redback  almost 4 years ago

    come to think of it, wasn’t that the premise of MST3K?

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    Aladar30 Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    GO RAT!!!!!

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    JohnNeal  almost 4 years ago

    Rat the true GOAT of this strip

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    Cerabooge  almost 4 years ago

    Not a problem for me; I can’t get through to a human at all. I need to have my robot call their robot. But, yeah, I HATE hold “music”, and would happily join Rat in his service to humanity.

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    Ermine Notyours  almost 4 years ago

    My devices seem to be breaking in tandem again. I installed the PBS app (not Pearls Before Swine) on my Samsung smart TV, but I had to change my password. My Samsung smart phone demanded that I log into it again. I had to verify through text, but it wouldn’t accept the verification even after multiple attempts. I went to my landline to call for support, and my landline was dead. I knew it worked a week ago, because I tested it when my phone company internet went out then. (Side note, the internet was going out again.) So then I had to call support on my smart phone, and try to do things on it while talking on it. The good news is that I went through to help quickly. The bad news is that the phone the help was using was very noisy and chirpy. Must be sheltering in place with their own phone. In the middle of the procedure, the call cut out. So then I had to schedule a phone company representative to come out and restore my landline service. He came out the next day, but had to summon someone out the day after that to fix the problem from the pole box. Finally the day after that I prepared to call Samsung again, but I decided one more time to have them send me a verification by voice. When I looked up how to do that, I finally found a several-weeks-old issue that fixed the original bug. You were supposed to remove the “+1” international dialing code from your own phone number that automatically comes up to request where to send the verification text, even though the text was received just fine without this. This has been happening for weeks and Samsung never fixed it?! Aaaghh!!!!

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    Cozmik Cowboy  almost 4 years ago

    Speaking as a music lover and amateur musician, as well as a former professional sound engineer, it is my considered opinion that almost all hold “music” – including not only both the selection of notes and the shortness of the loop, but also and especially the sound quality, is carefully designed to make you hang up and go away.

    I have been known to answer the rep’s eventual “How are you today?” with “I was fine, but after 45 minutes of your vile hold noise, I’m in a really foul mood.”

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    Ermine Notyours  almost 4 years ago

    One time I gave my dad a ride to an art supply store so he could go shopping. After a while I noticed that the music playing over the loudspeakers was odd. It had a slower section, then raised to a crescendo, and then back to the slow section. There was no beginning and no end. The store was accidentally playing hold music over the speakers, unless they did it on purpose and they hate us.

    I know of a drive-in theater that played instrumental classic Hollywood music over the sound system so you could properly setup your radio before the movie. One time though they played a version of the outdated song “Wives and Lovers” sung by a woman. (Hey! Little girl. Comb your hair, fix your makeup. Soon he will open the door. Don’t think because there’s a ring on your finger. You needn’t try anymore…) And they just played that song over and over again, just to annoy us. Worse, it kept leaking through the audio of the movie after it started. This was the showing of Shanghai Noon where they swapped reels two and three. They just didn’t care.

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    the lost wizard  almost 4 years ago

    But, you said that my call was important and then directed me to your web site to look after the problem myself.

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    geckoman22  almost 4 years ago

    The music should be interspersed every 10-15 seconds with a recorded message saying “We are experiencing unusually high call volumes. We will be with you shortly. We appreciate your patience.” Over and Over and OVER again!

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    aerotica69  almost 4 years ago

    On the prison planet Justicia, they play “Toxic” over and over.

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    YorkGirl  Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    Some of the Hold Music is so loud and when someone finally answers you can’t hear them…. like commercials…..

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    Mentor397  almost 4 years ago

    NO WAIT!! Ahh, it’s too late. Now we have three channels of 24-hour hold music for easy listening. Siiiigh.

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    bucker39 Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    The late Whitney Houston: All my songs sound just the same; every one sounds like the last one.

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    ekke  almost 4 years ago

    Cruel, and all-too-usual, punishment.

    Or, from the Mikado: “My object all sublime, I will achieve in time, to make the punishment fit the crime, the punishment fit the crime! — And make each prisoner pent, unwillingly represent, a source of innocent merriment, of innocent merriment.”

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    jc  almost 4 years ago

    Loosen one of the speaker wires. It’s gotta be intermittent and crackly-buzzy.

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    bradwallace2000  almost 4 years ago

    This is my all time favorite Perls Before Swine comic!!! Made me laugh out loud.

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    falcon_370f  almost 4 years ago

    Oh how about the “silence” about retirement of 3G networks?

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    Font Lady Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    I did this after the “church” next door had a band that only knew one song, the bass player only knew 4 notes, and they “practiced” until after 3AM several nights running. They were having a tent meeting and had set up the tent no more than 20 ft from our house. I asked them to stop. They said our house was possessed. The police refused to do anything because they were supposedly a church. So, after a meeting with the rest of the neighborhood, we hung very large speakers out the kitchen window facing them and while I was home, I blasted them with Mozart and when I left for school, my husband would play heavy metal. Our kids stayed at my mother’s house. It took two weeks, but they finally moved. The whole neighborhood rejoiced.

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    Bruce388  almost 4 years ago

    When I’m on hold, the fact that my call is very important to them consoles me.

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    Mr. Snuffles' Accomplice Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    There should be an spinoff of this strip called “Better Call Rat”

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    dogday Premium Member almost 4 years ago

    At the 1964 World’s Fair in NYC they had the “It’s a Small World” ride. I was a teenager but one trip around was enough for me. The ride was cool but OH THAT SONG!!!!

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    Andrew Sleeth  almost 4 years ago

    Takes me back to the 1970s, when the arms race on campus was manifest in dormitories by ever-escalated speaker size.

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    SpongebobPatrickBackwards  almost 4 years ago

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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    Sisyphos  almost 4 years ago

    Go, Rat, go! I think you may need even more amplifiers!

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    RonYorgason  almost 4 years ago

    Hopefully the music was interrupted every 45 seconds by a recording that makes you think someone finally answered, but was instead just reminding you how important your call is to them.

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    AngoraRabbit13  over 3 years ago

    I appreciate rat too for that, goat!

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