One of my stock classroom jokes is "God put me on this earth for a reason, but it was not to teach math." I tend to screw up simple math, even though I can write out geometry proofs. Go figure. I got the vocabulary, but my sister got my grandmother's steel-trap mind for numbers.
That steel-trap mind would have come in handy tonight. I just spent the last hour on the phone arguing with my credit card company. Apparently they sent some boneheaded credit information letter back in September--which I never got, BTW--that basically said that unless I wanted to opt out of this new policy and keep my fixed rate, the next time I charged anything to card, they'd jack up my interest rate into the stratosphere.
Okay, two flaws. One, no one in their right mind, including someone who has number issues, will agree to tripling their credit card interest rate. Normal people like to slash their rates, not hike them. Second, what's with the Columbia Record and Tape Club "send the card back or else" threat marketing? CR&TC (now BMG Music Service) doesn't even do that anymore because it's such a colossal headache, and it pisses people off, to boot. Apparently, though, now credit card companies do it.
Long story short: I haven't charged anything on this card for well over a year because I'm being a good Do-Bee and paying off the balance. I had to write a cash advance check for like NEW GLASSES FOR MY KIDS, and suddenly my interest rate bounces from a manageable 7.9% up to 19.98%. I'm on automatic payment. I had no idea my interest rate would nearly triple. Now my automatic payment isn't covering the new bogus minimum, and I get whacked with a late charge on top of that.
So I call the customer service number. I get a guy, I explain as calmly as possible that I'm a bit pissed (hard work considering the multicolored steam pouring from my ears). He tells me about the CR&TC opt-out letter. I tell him that I never got it and would never have agreed to it because it's absurd, he puts me on hold for about a zillion hours, then comes back on saying that I'm past due and there's nothing he can do, sorry. He's a real butthead about it. I hang up. I fume. I very nearly throw things. I call the number back and get a different guy. Him I can work with. He quickly determines that a) I'm not a loon and b) the rate bounce is, indeed, completely whack and not my fault. The computer still won't let him fix things. So he picks and tweaks and gets the "past due" amount adjusted and gives me the number for the nice people who will have to deal with the rate adjustment, but I have to call tomorrow since they're not in right now.
No wonder the economy is so screwed. I sure hope the rate guys eat their Wheaties in the morning, or it is going to get very, very ugly in the banking world.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
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4 comments:
sounds too much like my experience with customer support at a tax software program company. Three emails, two days plus an hour on the phone -- and all I wanted to do (well, I didn't WANT to, but they changed their software so Schedule C is no longer included in the Basic program) -- was upgrade to the version I needed. This meant I was willing to pay them money.
Or dealing with the airline because the route I needed isn't on their website, even though it exists, and I refused to pay the extra fee for having to book through a rep -- so I get the ticket but have to do the final billing through their tech support department -- which, of course, is in India with a bad conncection and someone with marginal English skills.
I hate dealing with things like that. I have a hard time keeping my cool, but I know I get more with honey than with vinegar!
My frustration is highest when I'm talking to someone out of the country who is reading from a response manual. "If customer says X, then reply Y."
Or better yet, when the satellite or cable is screwy and you call for help, and the helper on the phone is clearly reading from the same lame instruction manual you are -- the one in 10 languages that you got at set-up.
And then there are cell phone companies ... mine is going to change when my contract is up for renewal in January, even though I've been with them (as a 'valued customer,' don'cha know) since the entire world had a pre-9/11 mindset. But when I renewed last year, it was in conjunction with a "we're giving you a new phone" offer, and the offerer failed to tell me they were renewing my contract for TWO years instead of the usual one, NOR did he tell me that they were charging me an activation fee for the new phone (I've NEVER paid an activation fee). When I got the paperwork in the mail, I immediately called to tell them I'd had no information on either of these things, was told that he'd put into the system that he'd told me (apparently the customer is no longer right) AND that they'd notified me of their new policy re activation charges MONTHS ago in an insert in my bill. Who reads their bills? I just keep forgetting to go completely online ... I mean, I read the bill there, but it's not the same as getting an insert.
I told her that since I'd been a customer for so long, and since the rep had specifically told me "no catches" (of course I asked--anyone offers you a free anything, don't you?), that I thought they should take the activation fee off my bill. And that if it was worth more to them to get that activation fee ($30 or something) than my continued business from here to eternity, that I would uphold my end of the deal, but I was terminating service with them as soon as the contract is up. So there!
Hope you were more successful than I!
Lara
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