Paul J Penton – Songwriter

Argument – Daily Object Writing – Dec 30

Nobody wanted to give in yet, both parties were at it like chained tigers, big muscular paws lashing out occasionally, but the fury and emotional venom of the customer was being held in check for a counterpunch move. The customer service officer [CSO] had exhausted their list of appropriate responses and behaviours with the customer so now it had just about come to fisty-cuffs. They had chewed their way through points of difference as if it were a rubbery medium rare steak, gulped down smoky cuts of half chewed truths and had had trouble digesting them. The customer had bought in an arc welder of justifications with him for defence and now had it turned up full. Both were wearing sheilding face-plates for the battle and soon white hot sparks of outrage and counter accusations in oxy -acetyline yellow were being torched over the counter.

It seemed to the CSO that the customer had misused the product so was not willing to budge on a refund, the customer saying the unit had not done what he expected of it. Initially he had tried to be as clever as a science professor and had been grinding down the CSO with irrefutable logic, but then some crack had appeared and the CSO had got stuck into him about how this was not what the product was designed to do. The CSO had picked up an angle grinder of facts and began to slew them into the thin veneer of lies he perceived was coming from the customer, this is where the sparks began to fly; the orange showers spitting out the side of their mouths could have lit many bushfires. The air was filled with the smell of singed words and broken promises and in the end both parties had not won and felt somewhat defeated. He got his money back in the end, walked out feeling as if his soul had been remade.