February 6, 2009 at 9:34 am (Anger, Phones, Stupidity)
Tags: Chase, Circuit City, Circuit City Rewards Card, credit score
Well, this week I started receiving the harrassing collection agency phone calls again. Yesterday I had about 10 on my cell phone, plus they called my work number 5 times. To make things worse, almost all of these were hang-ups.
This morning they called me and I finally got someone to respond when I answered. I stopped their collection routine and informed them the charges are under dispute (which they should have known) from over a month ago. I was transferred 3 times, each of them needing my information all over again, until I reached a woman who wanted to conference in Circuit City’s customer support and asked me not to hang up. I promised her I would not. After 5 minutes of her going through their menus and us getting a CC CS rep on the line, the woman who told me not to hang up dropped her connection. %#$%^#$@^!
So I called the Chase Credit Card dispute line. The woman who answered took my information and told me that because the charges are 3 months old, there is nothing I can do. She told me this was my fault for failing to make payments. As my voice rose in volume and intensity, I told her that I did not actually owe anything, so there was no need for a payment. She became audibly angry and put me on a deaf hold, which is basically purgatory where they wait until I hang up. So I did.
I called the number back immediately, knowing how different CS reps can be from one another. The next lady was my angel. She already knew my customer info, listened to my story, read the notes on their system, apologized for ‘ the ridiculous amount of trouble’, and promptly wiped off the charges. All of them. In less than 5 minutes.
What in the hell? It’s over a month after this began, and I have made dozens of phone calls and sent letters here and there, and then I get ONE good rep and it’s all fixed? I mean, thank goodness for that lady, but what is wrong with this system? Geez!
Note that I am going to wait until I see a zero balance statement before I close this case for good.
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January 29, 2009 at 9:51 am (25 random things, Anger, Bad Driving, Dog, Dreams, Laney, Pain, School, Stupidity, Virginia Tech)
Tags: 25 random things
- I broke a bone in my hand punching one of my friends in the arse. (His name rhymes with Wreath Yelps)
- The volume of my car stereo has to be an even number. (Obligatory OCD admission)
- I used to shoplift baseball cards when I was a little kid, and I never got caught. I kind of wish I had been.
- When I see someone driving a Mustang, I assume that person is a douchebag, and I’ve only been proven wrong a couple of times.
- I have recurring dreams about having to go back and finish high school for some reason.
- When I was a teenager mowing the lawn, I would stop the mower to shoo a ladybug out of the way every time I saw one in the mower’s path.
- I know who is cheating at golf, even if I don’t say anything.
- I unintentionally take on the accent, colloquialisms and mannerisms of the people with whom I’m speaking.
- I tend to either have a really strong opinion or none whatsoever.
- Unapologetic tardiness is a cardinal sin in my book.
- I’ve never been sold on having kids because I just don’t feel like my genes are so special that they need to be propagated.
- As many times as I’ve tried to learn, I simply cannot read sheet music.
- I have extended conversations with pets even when I’m the only person in the room. I speak for them as well as for myself. Each animal gets its own voice.
- I get frustrated when someone is unable to tell me why they do something a certain way.
- I leave extra money when no one’s looking if I see someone left a crappy tip. (But I don’t look at people’s receipts; it’s only if I happen to see cash or the like)
- Sudden loud noises make me jump and feel a momentary surge of rage. (Like PTSD, but I have no idea what the trauma was)
- Animals absolutely love me as soon as they see me.
- If I could change careers without having to pay for retraining, I’d become a personal chef.
- I feel like I have a billion dollar idea in my head, but I have no idea when it will surface or what it will entail.
- When I see another driver about to do something illegal, I sometimes try to make it look like I’m going to hit them and then honk my horn in order to scare them.
- I think it’s pathetic how desperate people are to get themselves on TV, even if it’s just in the background of a news report or sporting event.
- I assume people are dumber than average when they have a southern accent, even though I grew up in the south and have seen countless examples to the contrary, and can even take on one myself when in a group of southerners.
- I feel like I learned almost nothing in any of my classes in college.
- It takes me a good 15 minutes of cycling to break a sweat, yet I’ll be dripping with perspiration less than 5 minutes into vacuuming a room.
- For 15 years or so, I’ve had a gigantic numb spot on one of my thighs. You could jam a fork in there and I’d never know. (But if you’re going to try, you’d better pick the correct one!)
Link to Part I
Link to Part III
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January 19, 2009 at 3:02 pm (Anger, Deals, Phones, Wasted Time)
Tags: Blu-Ray, Chase, Circuit City, Cirtcuit City Rewards, Credit card, HDTV, Samsung
This is a continuation of an earlier post.
It’s been two weeks since then, and still no resolution. I decided to go into the store instead of calling them, as making a call to a retail store can be a pain for all parties involved. I went after work the following Wednesday, January 7. The Customer Service clerk took in all my information and asked to go speak to the manager. The manager came out about 10 minutes later and started giving me some fluff about not being able to help me because it’s too late in the day (remember, before 11am is too early, and after 5pm is too late). He said ‘the best he can do’ would be to take down my name and number and try to do something another day. I became insistent that he do more than that, and he refused.
I told him that if I did not hear from him shortly, my next move would have to be to contact a lawyer. He replied, “Usually when I hear lawyer, my next move is to shut you down completely.” I told him he had better call me in the next few days, and I left.
Of course, he has not called me. I called the credit card company, Chase, and spent another 30 minutes trying to find a resolution beginning the following Tuesday, January 13. The woman ended up telling me that the first call I made, on the 5th, put a freeze on the credit and that they would be mailing me a form to fill out. The form came in on Wednesday, January 14. It is nothing but a blank form for customer complaint that I needed to fill out and fax along with the cancellation notice. I did that this morning, so we’ll see.
With Circuit City beginning liquidation, this could get really ugly. At least I can feel pretty good about that manager losing his job when the store finally closes.
So to recap, we are 2 weeks into my investigation, with me wasting probably 3-4 hours total on this, and Circuit City still has not refunded Chase the $2200+ that they owe them (and in turn I owe Chase) for a purchase that I cancelled without receiving, and Circuit City is going out of business in the meantime with the local manager refusing to help me solve the problem. And the latest thing I was allowed to do is fill out a generic paper form stating my case. Stay tuned!
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January 5, 2009 at 9:09 am (Anger, Deals, Stupidity, Wasted Time)
Tags: Black Friday, Blu-Ray, Circuit City, Circuit City Rewards, credit rating, credit score, customer service, HDTV
Back in mid-October, I found a good deal for an HDTV plus a ‘free’ Blu-Ray player at Circuit City. I applied for a Circuit City Rewards credit card and bought the TV online with in-store pickup. Buying it with that card allowed me zero interest until 2010 and 2 weeks to cancel the order. Three days later, without picking up the order, I decided to wait for Black Friday and I canceled the order by phone.
Fast forward to January 3, and I start getting calls from the credit service telling me that I have not made any payments and that my credit score would be negatively affected. What the &$%#???? I canceled the order! I don’t owe anyone anything!
Now mind you, I fully understand that Circuit City and the credit service are NOT the same company. However, since they present themselves as such, I expect a little bit of cooperation between them.
So this morning at 8:15AM, I called Circuit City’s Credit Service number. After being transferred twice and giving them every bit of information I had, the woman told me that they were never issued the refund, so this was Circuit City’s problem, not her company’s. I took off the kid gloves and ‘persuaded’ her to call Circuit City.
She conferenced Circuit City in with us, and I explained to that lady the problem and gave her my information. She told us that this was not Circuit City’s problem and that I needed to call the credit service. Fortunately, before my cursing began, the credit service woman interrupted her and told her that she was already on the line. At least the ridiculousness of the situation was apparent to someone besides me at this point.
So you’d think at this point they would be able to fix this problem, right? Well, I probably wouldn’t be posting about it if that was the case.
The Circuit City woman told us that since I asked for in-store pickup, she would need to call the actual store and conference them in. After several minutes on hold, she came back and informed us that the store would open at 11AM and that I should call again then.
So after 30 minutes on the phone, speaking to 4 people and getting the run-around from everyone involved, I have to call back later! So my credit rating will not get hammered by a $2000+ debt that I don’t actually owe anyone. Screw you, Circuit City!
To be continued….
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September 25, 2008 at 7:58 am (Anger, Charlotte)
Tags: Anger, Charlotte, Gas, Gas Shortage, Idiots, Media, Panic, Shortage
So here in Charlotte, the local media have started a panic by claiming all the gas stations are out of petrol, which of course is not true. Some are, some aren’t. The result, however, is that everyone panics and goes out and waits in line for hours and hours to fill up their tanks with the gas that supposedly does not exist. This in itself would be humorous, but for one thing: These frickin’ idiots are so selfish that they are actually extending the lines out into the streets, creating total gridlock at any intersection with a gas station. On my 1 mile commute this morning, I saw two stations where there were approximately 20-30 cars in line, maybe 10 of them in the street. This is a new low for selfish driving behavior. The rule is fairly simple, and should be intuitive: If you are doing something that blocks the flow of traffic, stop doing that thing!
I’m glad my commute is so short, as I’ll just walk to work (and to lunch and dinner) when I run low on gas.
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August 27, 2007 at 9:13 am (Anger, Bad Driving, Grocery Store, Lateness, Patience, Wasted Time)
Patience is too broad of a word to be used for all the possible scenarios in which it currently applies. We need one word for being reasonably patient when the situation calls for it, and another for when you just have to sit there and wait for some idiot to stop wasting your time. I can be patient for events that are worth the wait, or for delays that have good or unavoidable reasons. I can wait weeks, months, and even years for things depending on the cause or benefit. But there are other times when even a one second delay drives me nuts. Grocery store checkout lines bring that out in me more than anything else. Once I’m in that line, I just want to get out of the store as soon as possible. But the people in front of me invariably are running at a clock speed so low that I feel the need to check their pulse.
I do realize that instead of expecting the world to conform to my standards and speed up, I should try to match their pace by slowing down. But I loathe wasted time, especially when it is wasted for no good reason, in an un-enjoyable location or manner.
If you are in the self-checkout line with less than fifteen items, it should not take you 6 minutes to check out. If it takes you that long, go to one of the manned registers and let someone competent do the work for you. If you are in that line and waiting 15 minutes for your 300 cans of cat food to be scanned, you can go ahead and write out most of the fields of your check (and yes, I know you are going to be using a checkbook to pay) before the total is tallied up. Your name, the grocery store’s name, your signature, and the memo are not going to change between now and when all of your Fancy Feast cans and their corresponding coupons have been accounted for and filed in the correct bag.
Grocery stores are just one example of how I can blow my stack over small amounts of wasted time. I am working on trying to let these things go, but it’s difficult because I notice annoying behavior all the time. Think Larry David in ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’. I also notice when some selfish jerk pulls a 3 point U-Turn in the middle of a street with oncoming traffic. I wish I could just ignore that stuff, but instead I find myself yelling at the guy or at least making mention of the incident to whatever poor soul is with me at the time. Perennial lateness is another one that gets me. It drives me crazy that people have so little respect for others that they will make plans with someone and then waste their time by showing up late. Everyone is occasionally late. Unforseen problems can cause that. But some people are late all the time, and they never have a good reason. That is nothing short of a slap in the face to the people they were supposed to be meeting.
I have a lot of work to do to stop caring about how much everyone else sucks. 
Ignorance is supposedly bliss, so it’s probably worth it to keep trying.
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August 22, 2007 at 10:29 am (Anger, Happiness, Lifestyle, No)
One of the many bugs in Sean 3.5 was that my ‘No’ function was disabled. I had a really hard time putting my foot down when someone asked me to do something I didn’t want to do or someone’s actions were bothering me. I would instead accept whatever was happening and let my anger over it fester. (Note that this does not apply to TGAW — I would routinely deny her requests, but I believe this is a different situation entirely as her relationship to me is different than that of friends, coworkers, and strangers.) I think it’s possible that I did that because of my shame over what a rotten person I was — that a confrontation would result in someone pointing out what a poor life I was living and how many shortcomings I allowed to represent me as a person.
I am only now beginning to become a better person and put that rotten old self behind me, but I can already feel a virility that has been foreign to me for a long time. Already today, I have had two incidents where people asked me for unreasonable things, things that I normally would have begrudgingly accepted, and both times now, I’ve laid down the law to the people who asked about them. I suppose some would label my new strength as self-righteousness, and that may be the case. But it feels great to know that I can express myself without fear of someone trotting out my miserable existence to shame me.
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