Modulations

As McKenzie pondered what time she needed to leave the office a text alert caused her phone to vibrate in her purse. It was already Thursday and the deadline to submit the quarterly fiscal report loomed.

More focused on gathering her laptop, a sweater, and the stale iced coffee she ignored her device this time. One last scan of the late afternoon email blasts from the director and the work day was history.

Her company decided hybrid schedules worked better for everyone during the scary pandemic. As usual she adorned her face with two surgical masks outside the office. McKenzie was fortunate enough to work in a detached office space on site. She tried very hard to readjust to returning to the "norm" of everything but became accustomed to services being provided remotely.

The commute home had been pretty brutal but her driveway was now in plain view. She backed in her jeep and decided to finally look at her phone.

As she sat quietly reviewing text messages, McKenzie noticed her doorstep looked pretty dark. A timer had been set for it to come on anytime after 5pm. No light was on anywhere at her place. The lamp near her bedroom window also was something automatically set on a timer.

"What the hell?" she screamed while reading the callous and short text message. According to Lights On Corporation her power had been disconnected for non-payment. McKenzie hurriedly scrolled through a set of text payment confirmations.

"I Damn paid that bill last week so my lights better not be off!" she murmured to herself while preparing to call the company.

The company recently rolled out Droid Services for their customer care center. For two weeks of every month, all services would be managed and monitored by droid care agents only. The company claimed that market research showed allowing no "live agents" to respond to calls, complaints, and or set payment arrangements with their customers, it mitigated most of the "low morale" and "poor attendance" displayed by employees.

The specific feature the company tested and decided to implement was simply called Modulations 3.0. The software would detect if the caller was being rude, irate, extremely loud on a call. The droid service agent would then initiate "behavior modification" programs to either disconnect a seemingly loud and antagonistic caller by measuring the pitch, volume, and tone of the customer. The utilities would then be suspended for up to an hour unless the customer's tone and volume was adjusted in order to continue interacting with a droid service agent. McKenzie was not aware of this.

Along with more than 20,000 other customers of Lights On Corporation, her account had been flagged and selected for the social experiment and marketing research. Their accounts were high dollar amount accounts but always carried a balance into another month.

"Agent, I need a live agent," McKenzie loudly yelled at her phone. The hold music was blaring and an automated message alerted her that she was caller number twenty. The IVR also advised she would be on hold for at least five minutes.

While holding the phone she unlocked the front door and was met with total darkness. The alarm system that usually greeted her did not make a sound. The hum of the refrigerator was no longer a thing and the microwave was pitch black too.

"OH my God this is some unbelievable crap!" McKenzie yelled as she flopped down on her recliner. The drone like voice finally greeted her and asked why she was calling today. As the question annoyed her more, she began to should loudly about being totally in the dark at home.

"Animosity detected on call-Sound Level 7 on call...behavior modification initiated...caller will be disconnected in less than five seconds" was repeated more than once before McKenzie realized the call was over.

She went crazy in her living room and began to throw the toss pillows in the air and then kick them across the room. The darkness still enveloped her as she had not been successful on the phone with the droid agent.

As McKenzie called the company back, she poured herself a large glass of wine and breathed deeply before talking.

The same robotic tone greeted her and advised she was now caller number 15 and there was an approximate wait time of less than three minutes.

After gulping most of the wine, another droid agent came on the line to ask why she was calling the company today.

"No animosity detected on call-Sound Level 2...able to continue with caller's request...we received a payment today from you...your service will be restored in less than sixty minutes from now...thankyou for calling Lights On Corporation...Goodbye McKenzie..."

As a feeling of overwhelming emotion swept over her, she poured another large glass of wine and shed a tear.

-THE END