So at work today I was shipping some broken electronics to our service center. Our company recently changed policy on how this done and it now involves a different shipping service. This used to be an easy process, I’d call 1-800 and then answer some computer posed questions. Schedule a pickup, yes, yes, 2 pounds, yes, and it was done. Easy. Easy.

However the new shipper’s computer was having difficulty understanding I had a prepaid label and kept wanting to use the destination address as the pickup, so mercifully it very quickly gave up and transfered me to a human.

Anyway the human and I get to the end of the transaction and she prepares to give me a confirmation number. I ready to jot a long string of alphanumeric gibberish down on my stub of the shipping label. I actually do keep track of these things due to a rather long email chain of “hey you never sent us that thing” I had to endure a few months back.

“Your confirmation number is.. three.”

There is then a longer than expected pause.

I wait.

Okay, maybe she wants me to read it back to her as it’s given to me.

“Three…” I reply expectantly.

There is another longer pause. No other numbers seem to be coming, just silence.

“Is.. that it?” I finally venture.

“Yes,” she answers evenly.

“My confirmation number is just… three?”

Short pause.

“Yep.” She sounds tired, so I don’t want to push it.

“Oookay then… three. Well, uh, thank you for your help” I finish.

“Thank you sir.” The call ends.

Three.

Okay.