You ever have one of those Murphy weeks? You know, "anything that can go wrong will go wrong". Man I had a doozy of a one last week which is why I have not posted in my blog for quite a few days. I really don’t want to rehash my week from hell but the gist of it was dealing with customer service and trying to get problem(s) resolved. A few highlights for you.
Example: The April mortgage payment which cleared our bank on March 25. By April 7-8th we’re hearing we haven’t made our mortgage payment. Huh?? It already cleared our local bank you idiots. After much going back and forth it was discovered that some person credited the mortgage payment to the escrow account, thus showing that we had not made the payment. Once the mistake was discovered it was not a simple matter to correct. I think it’s finally going to be straightened out next week.
Another customer service issue that literally took days and many many hours to straighten out. Can’t tell you how many times I asked to speak to a manager, and that manager hit the proverbial stone wall saying, "there is nothing I can do to resolve this," and I reply," then put me through to someone that can". This went on for days! Once I finally got through to the Corporate office the issue was resolved, with apologies and egg on their face.
What else? One morning get up to 34° and no heat in the house. Forget what day from hell this was. Luckily nothing wrong with the furnace, just the gas company. Seems there was a problem in our area with the gas getting through.
My Ameritech (DSL) email quit working. Apparently they switched a lot of servers to newer ones and failed to tell us. So I get the pleasure of talking to technical help and you all know what a trip from hell that is! Another one of these ….. "that is all I can do, this will have to be escalated to someone higher". Put on hold for another 30 minutes waiting for the "higher technical person" to fix the problem. I finally hung up and called my cable company and made the switch, something I’ve thought about doing for a long time but the thought of changing email addy’s was always a detriment. The change was made yesterday and even that did not go smoothly nor is it working correctly!
And today I wake up to SNOW!!!
I’m hopeful next week will be better.
Ugh! Will it ever be warm?
Gahhhhhhhhh! Poor darling … I had been wondering when you’d post again. Sorry it was the week from H-E-doublehockeysticks. Customer “service” … riiiiiiiight. We all know what that means … so now that you’ve put the egg on a few faces, hunny, go back and rub it in. Here’s hoping next week will be much more better!
Oh, Elaine, I’m so sorry! I know how those weeks can be. It seems like when it rains it pours. As for the bank mistake… I’ve been there in situations like that. I think sometimes we are so technologically advanced that we have made simple things hard. How hard is it to just say, “OOOPS, we messed up. Here, we’ll fix it”. No, they have so much computer crap that sometimes they can’t fix what should be simple. And if the mistake was on YOUR end, they would expect you to pay up immediately. When its them, we have to just wait it out (Which usually takes a long time!) I feel for you. As for the switch to cable, I have yet to make that switch. I’m in my dsl comfort zone, so I’m curious to hear how you like cable (After it gets working correctly). Hang in there, hopefully this week will be so much better!
Hope everything’s gonna be fine with you. What happened to you is really a disaster.
Not pleasant, I don’t think we read about why you had that customer service issue, the one that “took days and many many hours to straighten out”. Was it over a product or service? Anyway you probably don’t want to relive or even think about it… We all sometimes have such days or weeks, thankfully not often. Times when things seem out of our control leaving one feeling helpless and at the mercy of a complex system which nobody wishes to be accountable for.
I wish you a better week ahead…
Firstly, sorry about the snow! I’m sure you’ll have a beautiful spring once it arrives. Secondly, did you know that Murphy’s Law was started as a result of issues typically generated by stupers (short, as you know, for interminably stupid persons)? I’ve had similar problems and learned to cut to the chase and call company headquarters. Then I ask for consumer/investor relations. That’s worked successfully for me!
When Keli speaks, people listen … she kicks butt and takes names, is why.
Laoch – eventually, maybe in June
Jennifer – thanks! you have a very special week with a new addition to the family, enjoy.
Julie – yes you’re right, so many programs in place it takes away the ability for someone to say “we made a mistake and it’s easily correctable”, because nowadays it’s simply not.
Martin – thanks, after last week only room for improvement.
Otto – no I don’t want to relive it because I’m not sure it’s over, nor do I want to say company name. However it’s nice to have a Civil Court Judge in the family to ask questions which of course I did.
Keli – Good advice! And believe me I tried about damn near everything. I always ask for names when dealing with any customer service department. The problem was on their end and no one wanted to take ownership or had the foggiest idea how to correct this “potential screw up” that could effect thousands of orders. When it finally did get to corporate they realized they have a mess to fix quickly since this went out in an April catalog – order something for Mother’s day, with guaranteed prices through the month of April. We’re not talking about a small ticket item either.
Jennifer – Yes, always take names is rule number one starting point.
Elaine, I worked in Customer Service for a while (CS and tech support) and I heard my coworkers say some pretty dumb things. On the other hand, we had customers calling in, complaining that we had billed their debit card, but our e-mail said we billed their credit card. With technical issues, 99.9% of the time it was the customers fault that something went wrong and we resolved the issue after some wrestling. After enough calls, it’s easy to slip into the mindset that “we’re never to blame”. So I sympathize with you. I avoid calling CS if at all possible!
Snow?
My God!
Here’s wishing you many flowering plants soon and lots of chirping from the nearby trees. I love, love, love one particular birdhouse we have on our property. Each morning the “two lovers” are sitting outside the hole entrance looking around and perhaps waiting and catching their breath before starting their work day of flying around looking for twigs and stuff to enhance “their house”.
Hope all is well with you, Elaine.
~Nooner~
yeah, i hope you get better now
Elaine,
We have been dealing with similar difficulties, and I don’t know if it is peculiar to small towns, or just how it has become. You get a great deal of excuses, things put back on YOU, even though you have done your part, and then the rules change all of a sudden, and their excuse changes. Very maddening!
There were about a weeks worth of “springlike” days and then we went back to snow and cold here… so I can well relate to that.
Hoping you are headed into a better week ahead!
Love and hugs,
Beth
Oh, so I’m not alone. Thank God today it’s weekend today.
Elaine, I worked in Customer Service for a while (CS and tech support) and I heard my coworkers say some pretty dumb things. On the other hand, we had customers calling in, complaining that we had billed their debit card, but our e-mail said we billed their credit card. With technical issues, 99.9% of the time it was the customers fault that something went wrong and we resolved the issue after some wrestling. After enough calls, it’s easy to slip into the mindset that “we’re never to blame”. So I sympathize with you. I avoid calling CS if at all possible!