I subscribe to The Atlantic , but it took an episode of the podcast 99% Invisible , “Your Call Is Important to Us,” for me to notice this June 2025 newsletter piece by Chris Colin: “That Dropped Call with Customer Service? It Was on Purpose.”
The word for everything that makes customer service difficult for us customers, coined by Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler: sludge.
Here’s a brief account of my trial by sludge in managing my mom’s long-term care insurance. I never begrudged a minute of it, but gosh, was it a lot of minutes.
And don’t get me started on United Healthcare.
[Steps away from the keyboard.]
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Sludge
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comments: 2
I don't have a clue what to do; maybe I would keep a binder listing all my attempts with names and times, and then if they wanted to be told all over again what my issue was I would read it all off to use up their time, "As I was telling Pamela..."
But don't be surprised if you're taking up so much time that you're somehow accidentally, mysteriously disconnected. :) I've had it happen to me several times.
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