Rant: Really? Why is it so difficult?

[awp101]

Seriously, lately it's been the Devil's own work to get anything done without a fight and/or fixing someone else's screw up.

We had reps come by and tell us U-Verse is now in our area so we decided to go for it since it's not affected by wind/rain. It was supposed to be installed Wednesday between 1300-1500. We gave them my cell# and instructions to call me 60 min ahead of time so I could meet them there.

By 1430 no one had called so I checked online for a ph#. I found I could check the status of my install order. Looked and it said someone was enroute. Whoa, hold on a minute...

Found a ph# and called. They say the tech called, got no answer, went by and no one was home. Well, no kidding! AND my cell never rang. A little digging turned up my wife's # was the one called. I raised my fair share of Hell (I'd worked through my lunch break so I could leave early) and got it rescheduled for Thursday between 1100-1300. Also got them to confirm the call to meet number and time frame. Sure enough, by 1230 Thursday there was no call. I checked online and it said someone was enroute. Again? We're going to do this AGAIN?

I called back and got the same song and dance only this time they told me they called my cell. Not only did I throw the BS flag, I decided to raise some more Hell. In fact not only did I raise my fair share, I raised my share, your share, his share....I raised a lot of Hell. I gave them two options: turn the installer around and get him back today or forget the whole thing.

They re-routed someone into my area and he got to my house about 1320. He said our install was scheduled between 0900-1300. Um, not according to the supervisor I spoke with... He starts looking around to find the phone junction on the house and notices we have overhead lines. Guess what? It makes a difference whether the lines are overhead or buried when it comes to the maximum reliable signal distance from the box. And it turns out we're about 1200' too far from the box as the line is routed to get it.

So for now I'm out 120 minutes in phone time (three phone calls) and part of a day's work.

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In May my truck was rear ended and totaled. The other party was 100% at fault but I had to do the legwork to get the payoff figure on the truck, set up the repair inspection and car rental.

I faxed the paperwork requested by the other party's insurance in mid-August to get the (minor) medical portion settled. I called the next day to make sure the rep got it and she did. But she needed different paperwork than what I sent (since that's what I was given) in a couple of cases. Again, I had to do the legwork instead of them picking up the phone and requesting it from the responsible parties.

After three weeks, the rep called yesterday and said they had a figure for my part of the medical but were still waiting on the hospital to send my wife's paperwork. I'd already left work but had her fax it there so I could get it this AM. No need for the rush though, she's going to be out of the office AGAIN until late next week.



How hard can it be? My job isn't exactly rocket science but it seems like no one gives a rip anymore and just throws out whatever they think they can get away with while taking the least amount of butt chewings.

I already smoke like a chimney, maybe I need to start drinking again...

[vancelw]

Not only did I throw the BS flag, I decided to raise some more Hell. In fact not only did I raise my fair share, I raised my share, your share, his share....I raised a lot of Hell.

You didn't raise any of my Hell or you'd need someone to bail you out
But, thanks for trying.
Your story about the install sounds typical of everything you try to accomplish nowadays and appears to be the norm for "customer service." I think today's mantra is. "the customer is always a sucker."

Glad we could absorb some of your rant. Now brace yourself for the next idiot you will encounter soon. They're everywhere and breeding like rabbits.

[Kansas Ed]

Yep...been there...and still there. Colt Firearms, the Mattress Firm, Insurance, Credit Bureaus, Cops, you name it, no one gives a tinkers D#$% about the stand up guy. The average Joe has "victim" tatooed across his forehead. And people wonder why we buy foreign....because the US standard has become.."take everyone for a ride, and appease the 5% that complain".

Ed

[Blaine]

For that feeling of never ending hate, try answering the phones at a water utility....... I garrrrenteee no one loves me

[El Chivo]

I already smoke like a chimney, maybe I need to start drinking again...

looks like you picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue...

I know what you're going through, but it can help try and be amused rather than enraged. About six months ago I ordered a custom ukulele, and you get to choose the wood it's made of. Most people get all the same type of wood, but I wanted the top made of one type and the back and sides made of another type.

I purposely mailed in my payment with a letter explaining exactly what I wanted. Sure enough, I got a thank-you e-mail ignoring the fact that I wanted two kinds of wood. I immediately e-mailed to correct this.

Even though this correction was acknowledged, I KNEW they wouldn't get it right. Sure enough, the ukulele was made of just one wood; the store owner e-mailed the maker about the correction but the maker forgot.

So they started from scratch about a month ago, and it's taking twice as long. Thing is, when I ordered it via written letter I was pretty sure this would happen, so when it did I just laughed.


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When it really gets scary is when inanimate objects start gunning for you. Not too long ago I went on my hunting vacation. As I pulled in to the campsite, I saw a deer walking around the perimeter. So I got out of my car to take a look, and left the motor running.

Well, when I got back to the car, as I pulled on the door handle to open it, the door locked itself. I have these powered locks so the key opens all doors at once, and apparently something is going wrong with the contacts. So there I am 150 miles from home, six miles from the road, 12 miles from town, and my car locks itself as I try to get in it.

Luckily the window was open, but just imagine.

[Gobblerforge]

OH your singin my song. My name has been misspelled in our phone book for six years. I call every year to get it fixed. Funny that they get it right on the bill. Makes you want to grab somebody and beat them with a stick.
Gobbler

[bsaride]

Oh man, you don'y know how many people, places etc I REFUSE to return to.

car wash 100 yds from me had an attendant that wouldn't take no for an answer.
had to get in his face, the next day I noticed 13 fresh key like scratches.

I spent 25 minutes in a fast food drive through last week, people chatting at the window,
orders wrong, who knows, I kept driving when the car in front pulled out, went
down the street and in and out of another place in under five minutes.

[Beaker]

I feel your pain on the truck. In June my 2004 honda Civic was totalled by a driver of a tow truck no less, who ran a red light and was ticketed for disobeying the traffic signal. Trying to settle with his insurance company was a real nightmare. Shelter Insurance Company treated me like dirt and strong armed me, to force me to take a low ball offer for my car. All the while thier adjuster would never return my calls.

[J Miller]

When dealing with auto insurance companies, especially the other guys after an accident, don't bother doing it yourself: GET A LAWYER.
It's the only way to get it done without going postal.

Don't ask me how I know this.

Joe

[Ben_Rumson]

So in the middle of July I get a speeding ticket.... I goes in to pay it and they have no record of the ticket...The clerk wants to see my courtesy notice with the citation number on it.. I tell her I never got one... The clerk says they are running a couple of weeks behind schedule and duly enters the citation number into the system off of the ticket I brought with me and tells me I should receive a courtesy notice in a couple of weeks and come on back in with it and pay the fine. BUT no courtesy notice comes in the mail and I wait almost a month.. my blood pressure rising as I wonder if the ticket has gone into a warrant. I wonder if I’ll get hauled in if stopped again for some reason and I’ll have to pay a $1000 dollar fine...At this point I’m afraid to go into the courthouse to see about it because it’s a closed security system and if my ticket has gone to warrant I’ll be locked in and I might go forthwith to jail!... So I’m on the phone with Traffic Division... on hold (30 min), waiting my turn, idly reading the fine print on the back of the ticket...when I see “You may not receive a courtesy notice” Conflict!.. Clerk says I’ll get a notice.. ticket says I may not...clenched teeth.. blood pressure rising... telling myself to stay cool and not go off on the person that answers my call...My turn finally comes... Once again I’m told they’re running behind and I should be receiving a courtesy notice in the mail...Man...I feel like my stuff is really hanging out there on this... all I have is, what I say I have been told...

[Bullard4075]

Thank heavens ObamaCare is going to go smooooooooth.

[HEAD0001]

The problem is everyone is out to save a dime. But then they want Cadillac service when they have a problem. For example. I am with NationWide Insurance. I have had the same agent for well over 25 years. I have had a few accidents that were not my fault. I called Mike, told him it was not my fault. He told me where to take my truck and have it fixed. Then he said leave all correspondence with the other insurance company to him, and pick up your rental truck at the auto body shop. Never heard another word about it.

Who is your agent?? And why didn't he handle it for you?? You do not have to put up with any stuff from other insurance companies. They just want to see how much they can make you do, so they don't have to do it. If they want an estimate that is fine. Let them come to my house and look at my truck, I am not wasting my time going and getting an estimate for them. To heck with them, it is their customers fault, not yours. I never let them get away with that. But then I have an agent I trust. And that is something to say in the insurance industry!! But then I usually have lunch with my agent once a year when I pay my premiums.

Nowadays when you call most places you talk to some one in India, or five or six states away. Do you actually think they care about you?? Or your truck?? Or whether you cancel your policy?? Heck no!!

When handling things I have learned to keep them local, and with local people. For example I know the direct phone number to the telephone repair man. It cost me a pizza one time. But now I have it forever. When I have a problem I call him-not Verizon. No one at Verizon cares-but my local guy cares. And he comes right over when he says he will.

The only company I deal with that is not local is Direct TV. But I have also learned their system, and who to talk to. And what to ask for.

I never let them ruin my day. If they ruin my day then I consider it my fault, because I know going in that they do not care.

One last trick to handling those guys. Always keep a phone log of every conversation. Always get a name and return phone number, as well as a date and time of phone call. This normally throws them way off balance. And will normally get everything you want done. The last thing they want is to be called on the carpet by their boss. Tom.

[AJMD429]

In health care, if I make a minor mistake 0.01% of the time, but somehow an adverse outcome (only 2/3 of some things we do 'work', so 1/3 are somewhat 'adverse') happens, there is probably a 80% chance the patient will be angry at ME for the event, even if I forewarned them (and even if it was the safest option they had), and a 50% chance some ambulance-chaser will decide to see if they can make some money off it. Thus, every few years something really bad happens, and although so far (knock on wood) I've never really been an instrumental part of the bad outcome, we live in a state of fear that our obsessive-compusive disorder won't be adequate to assure the 100.00% perfection we're supposed to deliver.

But we deal with vendors who ship the wrong product 5% of the time, products which are defective 1% of the time, patients who are noncompliant 30% of the time, insurance companies who can't process claims adequately 30% of the time, "fraud" auditors from the government who can't do an accurate audit 75% of the time, and so on.

If the bankers, accountants, regulators, and other such bureaucrats were held to our 'standards', they'd all be out of a job or in jail.

Probably about 8 times a day I'll get a ten-page form, in small print, listing all sorts of detailed information about a home-care patient, or their medications, and the changes the insurance company has made (often without my ok), and I have to "review and sign" it, with fines and "fraud" penalties from the feds if I make any mistakes on it. If I keep a detailed record of what forms I sign, and if I can document that I do maybe 10 a month for a particular patient, I may qualify for a $20 payment from Medicare, if I can prove that I did take more than an hour doing those forms (i.e. document start and stop times), although if I don't have enough to attain that threshold, the documentation is wasted. If I make a mistake on the documentation or it isn't "adequate", I not only get a fine, but potentially JAIL time, and license revocation. If any of the above involves pain medication, it gets even worse - can I PROVE that I reviewed the pertinent imaging, and that the surgeon's reports I have aren't photoshopped ones the patient made? Those forms either take half an hour apiece to do right (so you spend four hours on eight forms, for $20 "reimbursement"), or you just sign them and hope the companies doing the home-care are legitimate, and you're not drug into some mess.

I'd love to see an attorney who would be willing to sign forms all day like that, with fines, licensure revocation, and jail time waiting if he or she made the least mistake, and be willing to do it for free, unless they could prove they did enough during any calendar month to 'qualify' for $20 from that patient.

Some of us are either held, or hold ourselves, up to very high accuracy expectations, yet the rest of the world seems to think a tolerance of +/- 1.0" on a 5.0" part is 'acceptable', if you even make it of the right material, deliver it on time, or do it at all.

Grrrrrrr............

[BigSky56]

101 your luck is as bad as mine, I could fall in a vat full of tittys and come up sucking my thumb. I got hay on the ground and its raining with no end in sight and there isnt a haylage bag for a 1000 miles. This morning I get up and my horses were gone one of those nags can open gates I guess, got them rounded up the mares got a wire cut on her pectoral muscle and upper leg vets in the bob marshall elk hunting so I had to fire her up with ace and sew her up hope she well for hunting season oh well. danny

[awp101]

I'm glad some humor and venting came from this thread since that was part of the reason I posted it. I knew there had to be someone else out there that needed to vent and get a good chuckle at the same time. Things are looking up a little bit around here this week so I suppose I helped myself out as well.

I've been that "easy target" that got chewed on simply because I was the one who walked into a home to fix something so I try not to unload on someone because I'm unhappy with another person (there are a couple of AT&T call takers that might debate that though. ). I'm an easy going kind of guy and will work with a person or group so we are both happy with the outcome as long as it doesn't violate my priciples.

In addition to what I posted about, there's about three other serious situations I'm handling right now. The AT&T thing was something minor but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I still haven't received a return call from the supervisor I was dealing with so it looks like I'll be starting the hunt for a new tv/internet/phone provider.

I remember reading a quote from someone (H.L. Mencken?) along the lines of:
There comes a time in every man's life when he must hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats.

I hit that point last week. I just need to make sure my own throat isn't one of them....

AFA my insurance helping, I filed the chiropractic claim under my PIP but if they offered to help deal with State Farm, I don't recall. They may have but my head was too scrambled to understand it. Our old agent retired about 6 months ago so we have a new one and I haven't spent any time with them. Plus this was my first accident so I didn't know they were supposed to/could help.

101 your luck is as bad as mine, I could fall in a vat full of tittys and come up sucking my thumb.

I've never heard that one but I guar-on-tee I'll be using it!

How's the mare doing?

[awp101]

For that feeling of never ending hate, try answering the phones at a water utility....... I garrrrenteee no one loves me

Kind of like when I did in-home service. No one ever calls when things are hunky dory, do they? I take it being punny doesn't help?

I already smoke like a chimney, maybe I need to start drinking again...

looks like you picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue...

They even had the gall to tell me the white zone was for loading and unloading only...

OH your singin my song. My name has been misspelled in our phone book for six years. I call every year to get it fixed. Funny that they get it right on the bill.

I was working on an appliance in a new home in a new neighborhood one time that was right on the border of two towns. The customer was telling me they were having a hard time getting some kind of utility because they would call company A and be told that company didn't service that particular town and they needed to call company B. Well, company B would tell them the same thing. Didn't matter what the zip code was, each company and town thought the neighborhood belonged to the other. In jest I suggested the homeowner not pay property tax. Someone would be SURE to claim them at that point!

The problem is everyone is out to save a dime. But then they want Cadillac service when they have a problem.

That's a whole 'nuther rant/social commentary but it's true. And it ties in to the primer discussion a couple of pages back. We want the highest wages and lowest cost. If a company is to be profitable, something has to give within reason. We've hit the point where the companies have figured out they can generally schlep out whatever and the general public will accept most of it. And then each side will complain the other doesn't understand.

Makes me wonder just how much longer the house of cards will continue to stand....

[BigSky56]

101 shes doing well most the swelling is gone and in a few more days I will pull the stitches I keep her fired up with antibiotics daily and gave her some anti toxin for wire cuts plus she gets to stay in the barn and eat alfalfa while the rest of the group is out gleaning the pastures. Hey anything to cheer up a friend danny

[fordwannabe]

You want to talk about no customer service try dealing with medicare on a regular basis, If that doesn't cause you to lose your religion nothing will. A few months back it was so bad we (Iam not kidding or joking , or lying about this) would call three different times on the same day and whatever answer we got twice was the one we used. Heck of a way to run a railroad. I had a multi-multi page application returned as not processable because I had written "Commonwelath Of Pennsylvania Dept of Public Welfare" instead of "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania DEPARTMENT of Public Welfare". Oh I think the fellow on the other end of the line had to go to church to ask for forgivness of MY sins. Boy howdy was I peeved. Now you wonder why healthcare is so messed up, and this is a small sampling of the stuff that goes on. I had 4 Doctors I was enrolling in a private insurance group for our hospital and I sent all four applications in one envelope. I waited a week or so and I got a letter, one of the doctors was enrolled but I needed to send paperwork for the others. So I called, "nope just the paperwork for the one Doctor nothing else for the other 3, which she named. My question was "if you don't have any paperwork on them, how do you know who the other three are?"
"UHHH MMMM EERRRRR" Right!
I love my job I have decided I will write a book about my experiences when I retire and the title will be
"MY LIFE AS A STATE PSYCH NURSE: I worked with crazy people everyday, and occassionaly saw patients!
AAARRRGGGHHH Tom

[Beaker]

I worked with crazy people everyday, and occassionaly saw patients!
AAARRRGGGHHH Tom

I love it. And people think I am crazy at the clinic.

[awp101]

You want to talk about no customer service try dealing with medicare on a regular basis

I got a taste of that with the VA earlier this year. What should have been a couple hours for a "vesting appointment" to get into the system turned into a 5+ hour marathon...

[fordwannabe]

With medicare I must cross every "T" dot every "I" and hold my tongue in the prescribed manner while doing the paperwork, BUT I was in on a teleconference with the Jerks errr fine people the other day and they had the gall to tell us they had various intiatives that resulted in more 855 application than expected so they "PROACTIVELY" extended the processing time for each application. Ok, now the cut through the stuff version. They had a requirement they would process 80% of the 855 applications in 45 days, so when they made 32000 additional people file 855s ,after 2 months they found out they were backlogged, so they extended the processing to time to 60-75 days so their numbers fell into the 80% range, yes I said 2 months after the fact. I believe by definition that is reactivley not PROactively but what do I know, I must be holding my tongue wrong again. The really really sucky thing is you have no choice but to take it. they are the only game in town for the vast majority of our clients, very few(like 2 off the 250ish clients) have their own private carrier. AAARRRGGGHHHH!Tom