Although some of you (one of you) is probably waiting on part 2 of the iPhone review, I thought I might relate something else that’s been going on around here. Frankly, I’m experiencing iPhone overload and, well, this is sort of interesting.

My wife and I may be moving into a new house. We’re approaching the whole thing with more than a little bit of caution, and trying to weigh all the possible angles with definite consideration; who wants to get stuck in a terrible house that looked nice from the curb but is obviously haunted by pirate ghosts? In any case part of this process is looking at our current monthly expenses, trimming what we can and dropping what we don’t need. It also means doing the “pre-qualification dance”. This means calling various private and/or government institutions and asking for things, which never works out very well for me. I spend a few hours every month fighting with Sprint or Time Warner, and my wife spends about the same amount of time just with out current rental agency on random mammal invaders. These calls are normally stressful, long and unproductive. But this week I’ve discovered an untapped vein of karma and good will.

A few days ago I need a three year old W2 form. I called the IRS for a reprint and after a brief hold I spoke with a very pleasant IRS employee (oxy moron, if there ever was one) who not only was glad to fax me a copy, but would call me back when I was near my office fax machine and send it to me. She called me back at the very minute she’d promised to, and even explained the transcript to me. Then, last night I had to call Netflix to admit to them that a DVD had gone missing, swallowed up by the monster that is a wedding and a honeymoon. The rep congratulated me on my wedding, cheerfully forgave me the loss of the DVD and even told me how to easily combine my account and Shannon’s while saving me eight dollars. I was on a roll, so I called Time Warner Cable to argue my bill, like every month.

The vein of karma sputtered and coughed, as I was treated to possibly the rudest phone rep in the history of customer service. Finally, in shock, I simply hung up the phone and got myself a beer. Had the well finally run dry? Were the bad old days here again? I called Time Warner again, hoping for someone other then Eva Braun.

Unbelievably the next rep I spoke to was not only polite, but was apologetic on the previous one’s behalf. She expressed what seemed like genuine sympathy (even irritation) for Time Warner’s tendency to double- and over-bill us, fixed it and took my payment without a service charge. Before I hung up I told her, “You’ve just demonstrated one of the major principles of customer service: I would have given this money to any rep, but giving it to the nice rep made it hurt less.” And it kept my karma flow intact. So, what else should I do with all this good will the universe is pointing at me? Maybe this is the week to try fugu.