To all the companies I've loathed before....

If I ever again find myself on the phone to a call centre again, and hear those fateful words "I'm sorry, I know this must be frustrating, but there's nothing we can do", I think I am going to explode.



(and Princess bits will scatter all across the city... what a glorious thought!)

Some of my older readers may remember the tendency of my lovely boyfriend to be the master of surprise when it comes to gifts and special days. Thus, when he asserted that we would be having a no-gift policy for our upcoming anniversary, I knew that he was, frankly, full of it.

And I decided to beat him at his game...


... by covertly ordering him a Wii.

My surprise was immensely successful. I believe his exact words were "I can't believe you beat me at my own game!"

In short, he was a very happy fellow.

Future Shop, however, had more nefarious plans.

While I paid extra cash to get it extra speedily... it didn't arrive.
Finally, after waiting a week with no word, I checked its progress online.
Whereas Future Shop reported the item successfully delivered (and charged my credit card accordingly), Canada Post had brought it all the way to my side of the country... and then mysteriously deemed it undeliverable without even attempting to contact me. And thus, my Wii gift found itself headed on another trip.

Still doesn't sound like that big of a deal, does it? You'd think I could contact Future Shop, figure out this inexplicable shipping problem, and bring Mr. Wii back to me... albeit a little late.

Apparently that's not how it works.
Apparently once Mr. Wii gets sent back, despite a shipping error that isn't my fault (I double checked that all my info was correct!), it is no longer mine. I will get a refund and have to order another.
The problem? They are sold out. As they have been for months, except for random pockets of time.

So I have to tell my boyfriend sorry, no Wii after all.

It doesn't help that the call centre lady was an enormous cow. Not only was she completely unsympathetic to the fact that I was having to renege on a gift, but she refused to let me speak to a manager or even consider some sort of reimbursement for the fact that I was now giftless.

I'm not good with anger. It's an emotion that doesn't sit well with me. I don't really know what to do with it. It makes me so antsy, and the strategies I have for the more frequent negative emotions in my life (sadness, etc) are seemingly of little use.

However, one thing that came to me in my angry rumination was how very many similar experiences I have had with companies. Experiences in which I take all the appropriate steps, wait on hold listening to the same soft jazz rift on repeat, am told different solutions by each different person I reach on the, and, in the end, am shit out of luck.

I figured I would offer up a smattering of these experiences with the goal of answering one question-- Is this kind of piss poor customer service really that normative? Or do I have particularly poor luck in this regards?

Before you answer that, keep in mind this is just a selection of my experiences. And they all come from the mere six years (plus a few months) since I moved out on my own.

***

I'll start out with a familiar one... the cell phone company.
Again, you may remember my brief-lived phone stalker.

(who mysteriously disappeared and never did reveal themselves)

My synopsis: I only have a cell phone, the person was calling from a private number, and I apparently have the only cell phone provider who has no call trace feature. They apparently also have extremely rigorous privacy protection laws. I spent much time in the days following speaking to various customer service reps, who kept on telling me different steps I would need to take to get the stalker's identity revealed. I did every step, including filing a formal report with the police, and getting the police to call the cell phone company. No dice. The cell phone company, after telling me each time to take another step further, wouldn't budge. Despite every other company having a plan in place to trace harassing calls, mine wouldn't even reveal my stalker's identity with a police report.

***

Of course, we need the representative from the utility side of things-- my power company.

For no apparent reason, after years of consistency, my power bill sky-rocketed. Quite literally, it quadrupled in one bill.

To give you a little perspective, I lived in a fairly small one-bedroom apartment with no major appliances outside of a fridge and stove, yet our power bill suddenly beat those of family's with four bedroom houses. We could have been running every appliance in the place 24-7 and it should have never been that high.

At first, the power company was understanding, and took off the amount the first time around, saying it must have been a billing error (only to put it back on the next bill)
But it kept on happening.
And we could not get a representative of the power company to come to our apartment for the life of us. We did everything they asked-- checked all the fuses, went into the meter room, checked our fridge. And every billing period, I was back on the phone, listening to elevator music, trying to convince them that something was broken somewhere. And every month, we would end up paying it.

(side note-- when my ex moved out, it did drop, but was still conspicuosly high. Now that I am at a different place, I am back down to the rate I was at for the years prior)

***

Not convinced?

I've saved a doozy!

Just over three years ago, I moved from City A (undergraduate city) to City B (graduate city). After some price comparisons, I decided it would be worth the few hundred in extra cash to hire a moving company.

Having been exposed to all the Dateline specials and having heard all the horror stories, I took all the steps I thought you were supposed to. I asked about hidden charges, insurance, gave them a detailed list of everything I owned, and checked them out on the Better Business Bureau.

I didn't think to ask "Will you actually show up?" and "Are you lying about all of this?". Silly me.

(How's that for foreshadowing?)

I have all my stuff packed. They have given me a two day window for pick-up. I get a call saying they're on their way soon. I don't leave my apartment for two days. And no one shows up.

Many unreturned phone calls later, I manage to contact someone, who informs me there's an accident, and denies that they ever called to say that they were on their way. I try to find out when they are coming. They are vague.

The problem? I am now legally evicted from my apartment. I have no car. It is the August long weekend and almost everyone is out of town, including my then live-in boyfriend. My landlord is set to do renovations on the house and has people coming in soon to start tearing it apart. And I am missing my foster sister's wedding.

They finally show up, four days late, after I have moved all my furniture on my own into one room so my landlord can start doing the renovations. But, when they do show up... it is midnight on a Saturday of the long weekend. And "they" is the driver, who has now been driving for 24 hours, and his pregnant wife. And no movers.

Two of my amazing friends save my life, and the three of us move my apartment (despite the fact that I PAID for movers), while dodging a whole lot of anger from the other apartment building tenants. I try to purchase insurance for my valuables, but the driver won't do it, or doesn't know how... at this point, I'm too exhausted to care, as I hand over my keys to my landlord and leave my apartment for the last time at around 3am.

(and, yes, there's more)

As I was told it would take a week for my stuff to arrive (and that I had up to a month's free storage, anyways), and I had already planned to go back to my hometown for the now-passed wedding, I went home for a much needed break. Only to, on my second day home, get a call from the company's associate in City B, saying that they are ready to drop off my stuff. I tell them I am out of town and do not even yet have possession of my new apartment. He threatens to charge me for storage. I thankfully manage to get an iota of support from the booking person, who tells this guy to lay off, as the arrival date is in my contract.

I arrive to City B, only to find several things broken, and the fact that the original driver has marked down the condition of everything I own as broken and torn, so that they can't be held liable for any damages.
And I am charged double the original quote, despite the fact that I had given them a list of everything I owned prior-- they deliberately underquoted me.

Although they did take off a whopping 5% there being no movers.

***

So, my question is... is this kind of consistence in maltreatment as a customer normal?
I have done my fair share of customer service jobs, and I tend to treat workers really well, so I should have built up good karma on that front!

I would love to hear any bad customer service stories from your end.