What Are Business Hours

Reasons we love online courses:

1. No driving, no parking, no need to get out of bed at all.

2. All quizzes are open-book.

3. No teacher to go off on tangents, distract you with their ill-fitting clothes, non-pedicured, Teva-clad feet and unkempt hairstyles circa 1997, or speak too slow, too fast or too incoherently.

4. No having to deal with avoiding the awkward attempts at conversation by classmates you have no intention of becoming friends with.

5. No chalk or overhead projectors. The dry-erase markers are kind of missed a little bit.

6. You can take them at any time and on any day of the week.

Right.

So let's focus on #6 for a moment, shall we?

I happen to be enrolled in real estate courses via Allied Schools. Mostly because, through their program, in a mere 54 days, I can complete the mandatory three courses in order to be eligible to take the Real Estate Salesperson exam.

What? I like to constantly expand my skill set.

Brief pause while I tune my guitar and finish up a French lesson.

So, back to my online courses. I was looking forward to this particular Saturday to sit down and knock out about 11 chapters and a final exam. Let's just say, I had a couple hours free. When I went online to access my courses, I found that the documents I needed to read and complete wouldn't load; instead, I received a 'Page Error' notification. I tried refreshing the page, switching browsers, restarting my computer, using a different computer, and of course the go-to of clicking every possible button slash word on the screen. At one point, I even attempted to right-click, 'Inspect Element' and try to understand ANYTHING that was on that page. (Translation: Unsuccessful.)

When I reached the point of berating the webpage with uncouth expletives and questioning the motive behind its obvious personal vendetta against me, I decided it was time to call the Educational Support line listed on the website.

They would be able to help me.

Correction: They will be able to help me. Anytime. As long as that time is Monday-Friday 8am-6pm.

Seriously?

Right.

Apparently, come Monday, I will be using my daytime minutes for the first time since the invention of the Blackberry. Until then, I will be leaving them a voicemail. And writing them an email. Possibly sending a fax. Because I'm passive-aggressive like that and I need somebody to blame.

Online course 24-hour access fail.