For anyone who’s ever had a hellish customer service experience, this is a story for you. You can think of it as a mini tribute to the overworked customer. We’ve all been there at one time or another. We get a product as a gift or sign up for a service. Everything seems to go great at first. Then, disaster strikes. The product fails, the service isn’t what’s expected, or some completely unrelated event renders our purchase unusable. You’re forlorn, left adrift. There’s nowhere to turn. Then it dawns on you that there are people – a whole group of them – who’s sole purpose of existing is helping you navigate the very type of predicament you find yourself in now. They are customer service. You reach out to them, and boy does it not go well.

Benoît Duteurtre plumbs the maddeningly terrible depths of customer service failures in this crisp, hilarious yarn. Our hero in this tale is a decidedly technophobic individual who briefly overcomes his technophobia to embrace his parents’ gift of a smartphone. He is rewarded for his bravery and tolerance with the unfortunate luck of losing his new phone. From there, his life becomes consumed with battling the corporate minions that appear determined to place every obstacle possible between him and accomplishing the goal of replacing his phone. From hold music to internet cafés to waiting rooms to plane trips, the runaround by customer service has him running all over.

This book is more rant than rumination, but it’s fun and relatable. Read this story and it probably won’t change your life. It won’t change your opinion about customer service or the role of tech gadgets in modern life. But I can guarantee you one thing: you will never forget the name Leslie Delmare.