The trouble with bots

"Honey !...." Mike shouts from the spacious walk in closet. "What's burning ?"

"Mike!..." Gina shouts from the front hallway, with one foot out the door. "Check the 2190 unit, it might be stuck again. I gotta go, call me later ...love you...bye!"

Great! I'm late already. I can't find my tie. Now I have to wrestle with the auto vacum thingy. It's bad enough I have to take it apart every weekend to grease the gears, add transmission fluid, and refill the hydo power cell.

Mike made his way down the large oak stare case in the center of the domicile. The hallway running through the house was flat white. Sun light refracted off the small chandalered light fixture in the center of the hall splashing a rainbow of collor against the far wall. Mike could hear chirping and beeping sound of the Maytag 2190 vacum cleaner unit coming from the family entertainment area. A light smokey smell filled the room as the brush on the bottom of the 2190 spun, burning a hole in the brand new tan carpet. Mike moved past the audio entertainment equipment quikley knocking over ancient hi fi system, which landed softly on the styro-rubber bounce floor just installed in that corner of the room. Mike reached the robot and in a second had it on it's back and powered off. Checking the vacum bot over and over he could find no physical reason for the malfunction.

"Dang machine..." I'll have to get a repair man out here to look at this.

Mike walks over to the vid phone.

"Vid phone on... dial, maytag repair man."

Th video screen comes to life showing a commerical with a family sitting comfortably in their house. Children busily playing quietly, parents reading the latest titles from their favorite genres. Service robots buzzing around them, cleaning, polishing, and straighting.

Click..Click

A female robot apears on the vid phone. In a soft electronic voice she says,

"Maytag repair, how may I assist you with perfect service today?"

"Yes, I'd like to speak to a person."

"Sir, I am a CS1000 unit with all avialable software upgrades and enhance..."

"I'm sure you are better then sliced maccaroni honey, but I'm in a hurry and I need to speak to a person."

"Of, course. To better serve you, may I have some basic information so that I may pass your inquiry to the correct party?"

"If it get's me off this call quicker...fire away."

"Please state the nature of the problem."

"M2190 malfunction."

"Address?"

"543 Atlas Rd, Empire Village, New Denver"

"I'm sorry sir, the remote repair service for that sector is off line. I do not have and etimated repair completion time. My recomendation is to bring the unit into the local repair shop. The location of closest Maytag repair shop to you is..."

"Thank you, I know where it is. I've been there 3 times in the last three months."

Dang machines! It's the end of the 21st century and robot technology has been around for ages. You'd think they could get one of these robots to work right. They can't even get the robots that are supposed to fix the other robots to work.