When one is 111 or so, survival can be a matter of outsmarting the younger/quicker/more agile and especially, the machines! and now sometimes the rude ‘service providers’ (oxymoron!)
Therefore, I offer you (from time to time), NEWS FROM THE FRONT, a summary of experiences and observations about the on-going “survival war” we seniors (and the rest of society) fight every day, one battle at a time. Don’t stop fighting for your rights!
****************************
It’s All Automatic!
It’s 5 a.m. and yours truly is opening the mail. The electric service bill has come, automatically paid through bank draft. We’ve been in this house for 13 years and had the same bank account for longer than that.
I look at the bill—something is different about it I think. Retrieving the bills from the last few months I notice that this bill does not say “Do Not Pay. The Amount Will Automatically Be Deducted From Your Bank On May xx, 2014.” All the other bills say that.
I know it’s now just 6 a.m., but I call the electric company anyway. Somebody answers! (A plus for the electric company and I applaud them for good customer service! Imagine reaching a REAL PERSON at 6 a.m.) The gentleman explains that evidently the routing number for the bank has been changed. I respond that if it has, nobody has told us about it. We just got some new checks with the same old routing number.
He will investigate.
He calls back at about 8:30 and tells me there was an error made on their part. The amount will be automatically taken from the account on a certain date, just like it always has been done. They are sorry.
Well, I would have been sorry if I had not caught THEIR error and our electricity had been shut off for lack of payment.
Moral of the story: always check your bill statements, even if they are the routine kind and you THINK the system is automatically taking care of the charges. The machines are not necessarily our friends.
************************
1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3 and 4! At Your Service:
Apologies ahead of time for the length of this story.
The last time I purchased a new pair of pants was about 9 months ago. It is difficult for me to find a pair of pants which fit properly, but this one store generally has the correct size. Girlfriend agrees to help me in my search.
We go to the name-brand store and a sales woman offers help—actually, she insists!–in finding some pants for me to try on—but only after she’s tried to get me to buy some which I don’t want. Then she attempts to get me to look at their newest styles. I do not want newest style, I want plain pants in black, beige, or white. Please.
“The woman needs pants!” she announces in a very unfriendly-like tone. I am an uncooperative customer unwilling to consider HER suggestions. How annoying.
Off she goes to find some for me to try on, and tells me to look around. I notice a big sign by the front door which says, 50% off the second item if one spends $100. Oh! And I already have a $25 coupon which was mailed to me. This coupon is good if I spend $100 or more. Believe me, pants will cost $100 or more.
A rack of tops with a sale sign: $24. I like the quality of the tops and think I might buy one of these as well.
A while later, the sales woman brings several pants for me to try on. After a long wait for a dressing room, I try on all the pants, select two identical pair ($99 each)—one in black and one in beige. As I step out to show Girlfriend, another sales woman says to me, “I had a customer in that dressing room!” implying I had absconded with HER dressing room. I mildly reply, “The other sales woman told me to use it?” She goes off in a huff, obviously angry with either me or the other sales woman or both.
I go to the register. While waiting there, I decide I will buy one top for the $24 sale price, so I place it on the counter along with the two pair of pants.
The first sales woman, who is definitely overworked with too many customers, has paid almost no attention to me, but that is alright. I don’t need a lot of attention and don’t really expect it. I have made my selections. I do not care for shopping in retail stores, anyway, and often only go when I have a specific purchase to make, as I have done this day. She says, “You must buy two of these tops for the price to be $24 each.” Oh.
Well, alright, although I did not see that explanation (in small print) on the big sign. I select a second top and think it’s still a fairly good buy. We will be taking a vacation and I will be glad to have two new tops.
She rings up my purchases—now two tops and two pair of pants–and deducts the $25 coupon.
I ask about the 50% discount? Oh, she says. Well, she can’t take off both the 50% and the $25 coupon.
I say, “Well, obviously, I would like the higher discount. Please.”
She is now irritated. She voids the transaction, says she has voided it, but refuses to give me a receipt for either the original charge nor for the credit.
“It’s like it never happened,” she states, “You’ll never see it on your account.”* I disagree and tell her that it WILL appear and at least let me know what the amount was so I can be sure the credit comes through. I write down the amount, although I can tell she is very irritated with me now and absolutely will NOT give me a receipt of any kind.
She rings up my purchases again, which total $25.43 LESS than the first time. So I have saved myself $25.43 by simply requesting the higher discount. (Every sales person I’ve ever had would always offer the higher discount to a customer. This was a first.)
BUT She has charged me $28.29 for one top, and $25.38 for the other top. Both were on a rack with a large sign, “$24”. $94 for one pair of pants and $47.02 for the other. I was also ‘given’ a 5% discount for belonging to their “club” meaning I’ve spent some money there before, which was about 2 years previously. (As stated, I do not care for retail shopping.)
And they STILL overcharged me for the tops!
YOU MUST ASK FOR THE LARGER DISCOUNT or you won’t get it, either because the clerk is unknowledgeable and does not know how to apply it, or too greedy (can you say ‘commission’?) to offer it. It’s unclear which in this case.
Regardless, she is clearly eager to get me out of the store, but no more eager than I am to leave.
Yes, I should have complained at the overcharge a second time—but by then I was tired of being treated rudely. As she hands the package at me, she says nothing. No “Thank You” or “Come Back” or “We appreciate your business.” She just shoves the bag at me and turns to ring up someone else. I have spent over $200 in that store. Evidently that is a ‘minor’ purchase and I certainly do not feel like a ‘valued’ customer.
I go home. Deciding it is more trouble than it’s worth to get the $5 overcharge corrected, I’ve decided to just forget it. A couple hours later, I ask TMWLH to check our account online and see if the credit has been issued.
*My spouse tells me that I’ve been double charged for my purchases. One charge is $25.43 more than the other charge. Together, both charges are over $400. No credit has showed up in the account. So much for ‘It never happened and it won’t even show up in your statement.”
The cash register receipt has a website. They want me to take a survey, which I immediately do. I explain the entire shopping experience. It was not a pleasant one. I am now more than just displeased, I am angry. When one is angry, one needs to take action—you know the old statement, “Do not get mad, get even.” Well, I think, they owe me some money and I need to make this transaction EVEN!
I call the store and obtain the name and phone number of the district manager. I leave a message. My daughter, who has come for dinner, is furious on my behalf.
The saga continues, of course. When the Store manager calls, I talk with her and the District Manager has left me a message. Both are profoundly apologetic. I am told that there will be credits issued to my account. The Store Manager is so sorry—and she will speak with the sales woman about this transaction. She wants me to know she is so terribly terribly sorry.
It is now 6 days later and the credits finally appear on our account. A few hours later, they are removed. Then, the next day, the credits reappear! No compensation of any sort has been offered to me for my troubles. Just a lot of apologies and a brief hand-written note apologizing again, this from the District Manager. I think that if this type of behavior had happened in a restaurant, at least I likely would have been given a free dessert or a free meal. Not so with retail shopping. If I get what they owe me, that’s evidently all I’m going to get. What ever happened to trying to please the customer?
Oh—you want to know the store name? Well, I won’t tell you, but I will say it is a popular woman’s store all over the country. I’ll bet you can figure out which one it is. (Hint: See the heading above this article.)
The next time I buy any clothing with this brand name, it will be from a YARD SALE! At least there, the prices are very reasonable, discounts are negotiated on the spot, and the sales women are friendly.
*******************************
Guaranteed Arrival
Son-in-law has negotiated with his service provider for a new computer modem. Son-in-law is an I.T. specialist and knows the lingo and that the competition offers a faster, new modem for no additional charge. He is told that the installer and the modem will be there at 2 p.m. on Monday and agrees to meet the installer at that time at his home.
This requires Son-in-law to drive 30 minutes from work to his house in the middle of the day (and 30 minutes back to work), which he does, arriving a couple minutes past 2 where he sees the technician standing by the open door of the company vehicle.
Getting out of his car, Son-in-law greets the installer and says, “Come on in,” while walking to his front door.
The installer says, “You are late! I’ve already cancelled the installation.”
WHAT??????
No amount of arguing with the installer could influence him to go ahead with the installation. Son-in-law was told to call and reschedule the appointment.
I am not exaggerating here…..this actually happened this week and yes, Son-in-law was literally two minutes ‘late.’
Needless to say, Son-in-law will be changing service providers from Uverse. And yes, I mention the provider’s name this time.
Caveat Emptor!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveat_emptor
********************************