Becoming a sphynx

Photo of a sphynx cat

Exuviate: to shed or cast off a covering, such as hair, skin, feathers. A synonym for shedding.

I’m referring to the sphynx cat, not the sphynx of mythology. I love cats, but even I admit that the sphynx breed is not pretty. Its claim to fame is that it is the cat without hair. (It has a delightful personality to make up for its looks.) If you’ve never seen one, that’s one in the photo above.

As you can expect, the sphynx doesn’t shed hair. I feel like I’ve shed so much, I soon won’t have anything left to shed. So I’m on the road to becoming a sphynx.

More types of shedding

South Africans are used to load-shedding. So much so, that we’re excited when we don’t have load-shedding. The past week was a roller-coaster: I lost track of how many times the load-shedding stage changed. Now I measure it by how often I have to make a diesel run for the generator. (And there, right on time, our power went off again.)

If load-shedding wasn’t bad enough, parts of the country also have water-shedding.

And then there’s the increase in the cost of everything. We should call inflation money-shedding. That’s what it feels like every time I buy groceries.

And I’ve coined another term for the involuntary removal of a vital resource: time-shedding.

So much for CX

Last week I had to deal with the customer service centres of Amazon US and SARS. Both were time-shedding experiences.

My Amazon experience had a positive outcome. I am now the proud owner of a free Amazon Oasis! It was worth the 2-month delay and almost 60 minutes of online chat frustration.

I don’t know when “CX” became the hip new term for customer experience. It’s not a new concept, but it’s become more important as companies try to find and keep more customers. Amazon is clearly serious about CX.

I don’t need to tell you that my SARS experience didn’t have the same kind of result. Once again, I had problems with the badly-written and aging software that is e@syfile. The first consultant didn’t have a clue. The second consultant agreed that the program has problems, and could only suggest that I reinstall it. The third consultant logged and escalated the problem.

The SARS turn-around time for an escalated technical problem is 21 working days. That’s a month. That means:
1) Missing the deadline for submission.
2) Being charged penalty and interests, and spending days getting them reversed.
3) Having our tax clearance status turn red, which has the potential to affect business.

More time-shedding and money-shedding. On any CX scale, SARS scores 0.

A temporary solution

Thanks to Charles, I have discovered Windows Sandbox. It’s a quick way to create a temporary Windows virtual machine. And an easy way to test software.

I solved my SARS problem by installing e@syfile on a Windows Sandbox that had nothing else installed. No conflicts with Java versions or any other problems. I had to use a work-around for the data, but I’ve submitted the employer return on time.

I’m grateful for even a temporary solution to any kind of shedding. Because at this rate, I’ll soon be like a sphynx, but without the delightful personality.

Are you feeling exuviated too? Please share your comments so that I don’t feel alone.

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