Grievances and wins: Customer Service

1. You know how Biden was supposed to write some sort of edict about being able to cancel subscription services with one click? I have been fighting with Chewy for yearsss. You can't actually cancel things altogether (and that account has come in handy before when we needed prescription meds mid-move), so I just keep delaying orders by 6 months. Along with that, we began using Pet Flow a few years ago for dog food because it's cheaper and they don't put rainbow bandanas all over the pets on their site a month or two out of the year. However, they will not let you cancel. There is no way to do it on the site. You have to call. No one answers the phone. Scott has been trying to cancel our account for over a year. We started buying our food locally to support smaller businesses and have no need for Pet Flow. Finally, Scott just  canceled the credit card and they're emailing him every day saying they need an updated number. He literally canceled the card and got a new one so they would stop hassling him. That is the state of customer service in this country. 

So, if Biden could actually do something about that, he'll go out a-okay in my book. I mean, maybe.

2. Speaking of annoying...this company sent me 22 emails in 5 days. I signed up for a webinar or something. 22 emails in 5 days. It's an education company. 

3. Arbonne initially did me wrong. Twice in 4 months, I've gotten the wrong free gift with my Replenish Me order. I, like many others, plan the free gift into the purchase of my recurring order and, without notification, my gift has been replaced with something I don't actually need or want. I guess they update the list of "free gifts" regularly and if your selection gets the ax, they just stuff something else in the box instead of telling you to go in and change it. This is why MLMs are hard.

So anyway, I asked if I could return the free gift I'd received and they were like no and wrote all about what I said up there ^. My consultant was apparently supposed to notify me and she definitely didn't, either time. The first time I thought it was user error on my part so I let it go. 

But I'd had a rough day and wasn't in the mood, so I wrote them back saying I understood the changes and thanked them for clarifying. But it seemed unfair to customers and I know if it happened to me twice, it happened to others. They immediately wrote back saying they were putting my original free gift in the mail to me, at no charge. This is a $110 product so that's an A+ for their customer service department. I mean, the response time, the fact that they made it right, and the fact that they seemed to care about retaining repeat business. The product is the icing on the cake. 

4. My Shark air purifier just up and died at the beginning of December. Just shot straight to 0%, wouldn't function, made me think there was some kind of gas leak in the house. Luckily, I have another air purifier with an air quality measurement on it (despite what Scott would classify as "lucky") and I could see that it wasn't the air, it was the device. 

So I spent an enormous amount of time on the phone with Shark and they said they'd put a new one in the mail, free of charge, replacing it because it was a faulty unit. It was only 7 months old and had a two year warranty. The new one would be arriving in "10 or less business days". I was kind of concerned it'd show up while we were in Pennsylvania for Christmas. While I'd put a hold on USPS, that doesn't apply to other carriers. I didn't really want a $300 air purifier sitting on our porch for a week. 

Never fear, though. They never sent it. 

I emailed them January 6th, one month later, and said "hey, I never got it" and they were like "OH right. We never sent it." 

Currently, as of January 19th, it's at a Fed Ex facility 40 minutes away. Fingers crossed, guys. 

This is my own fault. I buy things and just assume they won't break or assume I'll get what I paid for and it never quite works out. I got a crazy deal on an EdenPure plug-in the other day and I used birthday money for it. EdenPure has definitely disappointed me in the past but they make the best products when it comes to actual function. 

4. I sent a Stitchfix box to Colorado by mistake. They actually solved my problem immediately when I contacted them (they do have a useful chat feature for customer service issues) and sent me a new box. Unfortunately, the clothes from the first box were not the clothes in the second box and I really liked some of the clothes in the first box. :/ 

5. I wrote a whole post about it that I'll get around to publishing, but Scott had to take Jett to an animal hospital in Springfield to have him put to sleep last month. We couldn't get him into our regular vet soon enough. It was an immediate need, sadly. We had an appointment here, ready, but he wasn't going to make it to the appointment. But, we'd never even heard of this animal hospital before, and I made an appointment for same-day at 7am and Scott took him by himself. Scott said it was the best customer service experience he'd encountered, maybe ever. We got very lucky. Scott was so impressed that he took them a Panera gift card for the office staff when he went to pick up Jett's remains a few weeks later. We also received a sympathy card from their office and one from our regular vet. So, veterinarians "win" the customer service era right now for us.  

6. Lastly, I wanted some kind of anniversary ring/band for my birthday and I ended up picking one out on Kay's website. I have a ring for 10 years and I wanted this last spring for 15 years of marriage but we were busy paying for lots of dog treatments and it wasn't a priority. Scott ordered this ring at the end of December and it showed up a week later and it wasn't at all what I had seen on the site. I sent that back too. While it was a "want", not a "need", I'm back to square one. I think I'm going to go look in-store. The problem is that a lot of their rings, and especially the ones with the deals, are online.

7. Okay, never mind. LASTLY, Little Poppy Co. bows. I started this subscription for Sutton a year and a half ago and it's the only way I get bows. I don't buy hair things. Three bows just show up every month. It's definitely superfluous and fun (for me, she doesn't care yet) but I do skip months often because it's not like it's free and we do have a lot of bows that don't get worn. They don't send you a warning email that a shipment is coming. You just get the receipt saying "Thank you for spending $18 on bows!" The only way to skip is to remember to go in and skip in advance. The only way to cancel altogether is to write them an email saying you want to cancel. I can't be bothered to do that yet. And they are high-quality hair accessories. Every other brand I've ever used for her (that were gifts and whatnot) has had at least one bow break (unravel, come off the clip, etc). The Little Poppy ones are good. Just...annoying. 

That in which DirecTV is the worst

I know. You'll tell me to just get rid of it. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about how much I hate DirecTV and, when we move in a few years, we'll eventually get rid of them. So shake your heads and tell me "I told you so" if you want, but we have it for now. This is just the latest in how much they are not good at what they do, so tell your friends not to get DirecTV.


I ordered a movie, much like I did last week when we watched Passengers.

The movie never came through on the DVR. So I "chatted" to complain.

They actually charged me twice for a movie I didn't get to watch once. And the language barrier here loses a lot in translation.  

He never answered my questions about what to do and what went wrong and what I can do to prevent this from happening again. 

At this point, I just cut it short and resolved to call later if the refund wasn't given. Last summer, when I called to cancel DirecTV (that was short-lived for a few reasons), the person they had call me back to persuade me to re-join spoke perfect English and was very good on the phone. It was like haggling with a car salesman (I re-joined because she gave me a hefty discount and I'll pay $40 a month for DirecTV, instead of the $75 I was previously). 

I can see that they do not use their best people for day-to-day operations. 

Then I got an email with my refund notification. 

The result is that we still haven't seen Arrival. I really hate DirecTV. But Comcast is worse, and that's the only other option. 

This might be the ultimate in 1st world problems. 

However, the movie magically (and for free!) popped up on the DVR on Monday night. We watched it last night. 

I admit: It wasn't that good. Did you see it? I saw shades of Inception happening there. And I was very concerned about the fact that squids probably can't steer (or build) spaceships. 

Weekend Things.

Friday was Jett's 3rd birthday.

Just to give some context: this is the first dog birthday that Scott has ever been around for. That's a good way to demonstrate how much he's really been gone in the last 3 years. Or wait. He was around for Scout's first birthday, I believe, but can't be sure if he was actually there on the day of. We were in the middle of PCSing.

So poor Jett turned one and two with just me around. And Scout turned 2 and 3 stuck with, again, just me.

To celebrate, we had pupcakes and chewed on some rabbits. To Jett's dismay, this was just a stuffed rabbit. But still, he could get out his aggression without killing an actual rabbit (again...that might have happened once last summer).

That was Friday night.

Saturday, we went on base for the Warrior Dog Dash.

He turned 3 and became attentive.

Jett and his best buddy Max.

He who cannot be controlled a.k.a. Scout

I was impressed with the ginger's well-behavedness. Scott wrangled Scout the whole time. I knew this would happen so I "let" Scott run with Scout. 

Then I went to a Noonday party with a friend. I bought nothing because jewelry and I aren't really a thing.  I'm not sure how I feel about that brand either. They had a great leather bag I loved but $200 seemed a little steep and unnecessary. Is it wrong to think that these brands are exploiting people? But the bag I posted on Thursday has the same sort of story behind it. (Though, I don't think I could spend that much for an "unlined interior" anyway.)

I had two minor meltdowns on Saturday when #1 I tried to order an On Demand movie from DirecTV (note: they suck) and Scott ended up yelling at them on the phone and #2 When Scott decided to read my blog (which I didn't know he does every now and then). I just feel judged when people I know read my blog. I don't know why.

Then we watched Making History. The first episode is on Hulu. Very funny.

And then the O.J. Simpson story that's on Hulu and was previously on ESPN.

Because, obviously, there was no On Demand movie to be had that night. (We watched it Sunday. Hell or High Water and it was very good.)

Sunday was cleaning and basic chores that get us ready for another *shudder* week.

It's going to be a busy one. Here's your motivation:

Linking up with Biana.

3 Stuff and Things.

Here's a mish-mash of all sorts of things...

+We have an army ball in January. I rented this dress back at the beginning of November. I also got the bracelet because I don't think a necklace will work and I like bracelets better anyway. Now I just need some moderately/cheaply-priced (closed toe) shoes. 

Regarding nylons/pantyhose: neutral/tan? Or black? 

I'm not doing bare legs in January. 

(Don't mind the glitch from the screenshot.)

+Do not buy appliances from Home Depot. They use an outside delivery company, which means that they don't have control over when you actually get your order. 

They were supposed to deliver a dishwasher on Saturday, December 10th. They didn't. I called. The lady was nice (I forget her name.) They said they'd call Monday. They didn't call. I called again. The guy (David at the Southgate Home Depot) was not helpful. He just kept saying "Yes....yes....yes" and letting me spill the whole story while never actually offering a solution. He then said he'd put a note in the file that says we "weren't contacted" which is the same thing they did Saturday so we know this method is not effective. 

I put Scott on the phone. 

Scott told David he was going to come pick it up because this outside delivery company that Home Depot uses (they don't deliver their own appliances?) cannot be trusted, apparently, because they didn't show up at all with the appliance in the first place and then they never called to tell us and they also never followed up to reschedule. Scott told Home Depot that they just needed to call and tell us when it's available for pick-up. We were going with the delivery option only because that meant they'd haul away the white hunk of 2002-gross-appliance that is (still) sitting on the porch (spoiler alert).

Home Depot called and left a message on Tuesday, 12/13, and said it would be at the store for us to pick up on 12/20, ten days after the original delivery date. 

I called back. 

When this lady (she was nice, but I don't think she said her name) said there was nothing she could do, I put Scott on the phone again. But before she completely exasperated me, I said, "It's been almost a month since we bought this thing and we still don't have it. I don't have a dishwasher. There's a hole under the counter." She said, "I'm sorry...that sucks". But it's not about washing dishes! It's about the fact that I BOUGHT SOMETHING A MONTH AGO AND I STILL DON'T HAVE IT. 

Scott took the phone. I wrung my hands in despair.

He explained himself and asked to speak to a manager. 

The manager was reasonable (Abby?). She refunded us an extra $81 but said the only thing she could do was have us call the delivery company ourselves and arrange to pick it up. 

The next day, Home Depot called Scott back and told him he could call the company (I feel like this was an extra step and I'm not sure why) and make "an appointment" to get it. He called several times and got no answer. Then he called Home Depot (he had this manager on speed-dial) and said he was going over there at 2:30 because that was when he could get away from work and it better be ready and they're still not answering their phones. 

He showed up and it was just a warehouse; there was no reception area, but as he walked in, he called the number again to see if it was correct. He watched/listened as the phone rang and rang and they purposefully ignored it. It turns out that they answer when they see Home Depot is calling and don't answer otherwise. 

Anyway. 

He loaded up the dishwasher and then this Home Depot manager called him back to make sure he got it and she apologized again and again and he said that he didn't see how anyone could ever want to do business with Home Depot just because of this company. The store itself wasn't the main problem, but the trickle down part of this story is powerful, so we'll likely never go back there again. 

There was talk (on my end) of just canceling it, getting a refund, and going to Lowe's but that would've just extended this terrible experience.

Also, the lady who used to live here didn't know how appliances worked so, while the new dishwasher is fully functional, Scott will be pulling it back and redoing some wiring/etc in the near future.

It never ends. 

______________________________________________

A podcast you should listen to:

Appointment Television

So I love book podcasts, but there's always a learning curve for me because I'm not always up on the latest and greatest and I'm one of those who just think making time to read is hard. I will admit to that.

However, TV, I can do. I adore TV. I don't really watch movies*, but I will find, figure, or fanangle a way to watch shows. 

These hosts have some interesting thoughts and every episode is different: wide variety of topics and not super formulaic.  I don't agree with all of their opinions, but I love hearing opinions on TV in general so that's okay and probably good for me. 

*Scott asked me if I wanted to see the new Star Wars movie today. I said that'd be difficult because I've never seen any Star Wars movie and I'm not sure why I would want to start now. 

Also, I can't decide if I did this terrible center-spacing thing in this post on purpose, or if it just kinda happened that way. 

Stuff and Things 10/15

+It's still not really fall here yet.  It's 40 degrees in the morning yes, but it's 80 by noon. Therefore, I'm still dressing like it's summer.  When I see people in pants/boots/sweaters/down vests/etc, they look like they're ready for a Christmas card picture. I see this every single day.  And when someone says, "Oh yeah, I should check the weather report", I really start to question things.  1. Weather generally follows a pattern. There is no need for vests and boots on a Monday if it was just 85 degrees on a Sunday. Boots, in my humble opinion, should only be worn if it's a high of 60 degrees or below. 2. There are 18 different ways to check a weather report.  If you cannot be trusted to glance at a weather report, I can't trust you with a multitude of other things.

3. Apparently someone needs to create rules for fall. Maybe I'll put together a flowchart.

+I've had a few people ask what the difference is between ProActiv and Unblemish.  Both are made by Drs. Rodan and Fields, after all.  I used ProActiv for years and never saw massive change. I didn't have a lot to change at that point and it gave me results, but not life-altering results.  The difference really is that Unblemish is newer technology and, I think, a more powerful formula.  It's for the person who desires to see change, not just needs to wash his or her face. You would think that such a difference in product would mean a difference in price.  I was kind of shocked when I saw this cost breakdown.  Unblemish really can't be that much more expensive than what you're already using (and it works!).

+This made me super happy to see.  I'm glad I'm using the best of the best!

+Also, if we're talking about the potential of growth and opportunity, this graphic impressed me.  

I see a lot of graphics pop up on my Rodan+Fields Facebook groups.  I only save the ones that make me pause/reflect and leave me impressed.  These are the big three right now. 

+And now, a rant:

We (I) have been going back and forth about internet and DirecTV for the last month.  Scott thinks we pay too much for internet, I think we pay too much for TV. I also think we pay too much for internet (because CenturyLink is awful and they were really good at what they did back in the day...2009...and they're just not anymore because they've gotten too big...they are the new Comcast), but Scott isn't willing to part with DirecTV and I'm not sure why.  We have means of watching what we want to watch in other ways, and we don't watch regular TV.  I like the news in the morning and evening (and I'm pretty sure that that habit came from my parents) and I do like to watch the weather reports (see the fall rant above), but I could do without DirecTV because, let's face it, they are also just as bad as every other crooked company.  We thought about switching to Hughesnet for internet but they limit your data and we do most of our TV/movie viewing via an internet connection. Which is another reason why we don't need DirecTV. 

Fun fact:  DirecTV and Centurylink actually work together to do discount bundles but, when I inquired about this, I was told that is for new customers only.  Glad to know they treat their customers they already have so well.

The kicker is that, yesterday, the DVR stopped working and I was told to call a certain number for customer service because it needs to be replaced.  Without DVR, DirecTV goes from serving little purpose to serving absolutely no purpose. I called and they are mailing us a new receiver that I get to set up myself following a series of emailed directions and prompts.  It should be here by Saturday and I also will lose everything on our current hard drive.  Which means all the shows that I've so painstakingly filed away for rainy days are gone.  Including Frozen.  We do like to watch Frozen every once in awhile.  

I think we need to cancel DirecTV.

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Car trouble

In the 6 years I've known Scott, I've watched him disassemble and reassemble many vehicles.  Our vehicles, friends' vehicles, etc.  He does all the work himself.  It's his thing.  He started teaching himself how to do all of this when he was a teenager because it was either learn how to fix the truck he had or just not be able to drive anywhere. He is what you would call an expert.  I'm not bragging or trying to make a point.  This is just a fact that you need to know in order for the following account to make sense.  Last summer, he rebuilt an entire exhaust system.  This is the kind of thing he spent his time on before he had a house to remodel.  We all have our hobbies, right?

Two Saturdays ago, my check engine light came on.  I told Scott, he asked how it was running, I said fine, he said okay.  He looked at it and hooked it up to the code scanner to see if it would tell him what was wrong.  He got some inconclusive codes so he said we should call the dealership since it's under warranty right now.

I called at 6pm on Saturday to make an appointment for Monday.  She said to call back Monday morning.  That was the first clue.

I called back Monday morning at 8am.  They said to bring it in Tuesday morning because after school Monday would be too late for anyone to look at it.  Scott and I left the house at 6:30 Tuesday morning to get to the dealership by 7.  He followed me there and we dropped off my SUV.  He drove me to school.  Toyota was supposed to call me at some point and I left my phone on all day (a no-no) in case.  They said "we'll try to have it ready to go by 3:30".  We assumed this meant they would diagnose it and either fix it or tell us when they could fix it.  I understand that things happen and "try" doesn't always mean "for sure", but we were assuming they'd at least be able to tell us what was wrong because they were confident about their ambition for the day.

No one called. Scott picked me up at 4:00 and I had to report to him that there had been no phone call.  We drove to Toyota.

On the way, I called and the lady said that she would "check and see if it's ready".  She wasn't sure.  Kept talking about how it was "James'" and she needed to find him.  We arrived at Toyota.  I could see the sticky note with my name and number on James' desk but the flurry of several people confirmed that James could not be found.  We waited a few minutes.

Finally, James appeared.  He said that the code scanner was inconclusive and showed us a printout from a computer.  It said one thing was high and one was low and that could mean one of two things:  something that is under warranty (and free for us) or..."and we've seen this four other times today...rodent damage".  Rodent damage, surprise surprise, is not covered by a warranty.

James asked if they could keep it for another day so they could figure out what was wrong and what route to take.  THEY HADN'T EVEN LOOKED AT IT.  They had just hooked it up to the scanner and printed out a report of what a computer said was wrong with it.  SCOTT DID THAT TWO DAYS EARLIER.  In fact, he told me later that the printout said exactly what he saw on our scanner. An analogy that crossed my mind was that us taking the car in there was the equivalent of using WebMD.

We brought up the fact of Well, yeah, you can have it for another day because you still don't know what's wrong with it but why should we trust you because you didn't even call to tell us if it was ready or not.  We were particularly upset about that.  Like, we have jobs. You said you would try to have it ready at 3:30 but you didn't even call to give any kind of update, much less figured out what was wrong.

Wednesday morning, Scott drove me to work again.  It's worth saying that I'm not a morning person and look forward to my drive in solitude so this arrangement was not working out for us.  Scott had meetings all day and no cell phones were allowed. Toyota called me at 7:30am.  They said it was rodent damage and the part was $838 and the labor was $115 per hour and it would take 12-15 hours. Suddenly, between us leaving the night before at 4:30pm and 7:30am, they'd gotten their act together, ripped my SUV apart, and diagnosed my problem.  It must have been some sort of sorcery because I didn't realize things could move so quickly in that establishment.  Quotes had also been drawn up. They said we should probably call the insurance company.  Then they said I could come look at it and see the damage for myself.  I calmly replied that I don't have a car.  Then, I'm a teacher.  

I called Scott.  He, luckily, answered because he wasn't at work yet and said he'd try to go over on his lunch break.

I was left wondering and worrying all day but, alas, the show must go on. 

At 1:00ish, I got a text.

I felt kind of relieved that he'd taken care of the dirty work.  

When he picked me up from school, he told me how it went down.

He saw the damage they were referring to.  He was all WTF.  He said it was all chewed up and honestly looked liked parts of wires were cut.  He wasn't sure how he hadn't seen this before.  Or, rather, had it been like that before?  We weren't sure. When they told him of the $115 an hour for labor and 12-15 hours of work it would take to replace an $800 part....he called them out on it.  He said he didn't trust them.  He didn't think it was rodent damage.  He didn't believe their story about a mouse climbing up there and gnawing part of it while the rest looked like it had been cut with scissors.  While it is obviously possible that a mouse did some of the damage (we're not denying this), a mouse did NOT ruin the entire wiring harness with his little teeth. Scott said he didn't believe them at all and he was going to get a second opinion and he would never pay $115 an hour for them to do something he could do himself and did that $800 part really need to be replaced?  No, they said, but you really should to prevent further damage.  He asked them how long it would take for them to replace the wires.  They weren't sure until they "got in there and looked around".

Then he said that he didn't trust them because they didn't call when they said they would and they HADN'T CHANGED THE OIL YET, which they were supposed to do the day before and homeboy mechanic had his pants around his ankles and there were several others sitting around messing around with cell phones.  I'm sure that speaks volumes on how they rack up their labor rates; didn't these guys have work to do? He threw all of this at the customer service rep and said we'd pick it up at 4 and the oil better be changed.

It took them over 24 hours to actually look under the hood and another 5-6 hours to change the oil.  They didn't call us.  They quoted us ridiculous pricing.  When Scott complained about the cost of labor, they said they could drop it to $100 an hour.  To which he replied, Oh, so you can drag it out for an extra few hours and make it cost the same?    

We showed up at 5:00 to get the car.  They'd sworn it'd be ready by 2:30.  This is what I sent Scott after I got inside.  He didn't want to talk to them again.  

There were 6 people looking for the keys, the paperwork, and the car.  It took 15-20 minutes for me to get out of there because one of the guys wouldn't stop talking to me about cell phones.  Of course, he was quite occupied, playing with his cell phone and eating Chinese food at the front desk.  No wonder no one could find my paperwork.

I'd like to reiterate that this was the dealership.  This wasn't some backroad, backwoods mechanic.  This was the Larry H. Miller Toyota Dealership in Colorado Springs.  They are supposed to be reputable places of business.  It wasn't a used car lot.  

Scott bought the replacement wires for himself at an auto store a few days later.  They were $6.
Upon taking things apart, he realized that the wires looked to be cut (we could see the razor blade marks), not all had been chewed (though some had), AND they hadn't reassembled things properly.  Something with the gas tank was off (the charcoal canister) and codes were still popping up as a signal that something was wrong. We're assuming they did this to make money off of their customers and then, when they realized we weren't going to pay them to fix it, they continued down this path just to be difficult.  There were then several little things wrong with my car, mostly stemming from the cutting of wires.  Scott took a video and several pictures of the damage and left the dealership a few messages.

 The service manager called Scott this past Monday and offered to fix the car for free.  Scott said he didn't have time to sit there and watch and make sure they do it right.  They argued a bit about it and mentioned that they'd already gotten the terrible review I wrote (eh, I was kind, all things considered) so the company is offering to fix it for free.  They still stand by the fact that a mouse must have slit the wires with his teeth and pulled out 4 separate pieces, all exactly 5 inches long, and carried them away.  A more likely story is that the person who disassembled things cut all kinds of stuff, assuming that we would be paying them $2400 to replace it.  With the extra damage, the estimate Scott came up with is about $3,900 to fix.  They took a $6 problem, lied to make it a $2,400 problem, and created a $3,900.  (That is L-A-R-R-Y H. M-I-L-L-E-R Toyota of Colorado Springs.)

Scott took one more crack at it on Tuesday night.  He spent 3 hours outside under spotlights rewiring things and repairing the damage. And then, it was fixed.  All the codes disappeared when he scanned the car for the final time at 9:30pm.

The End.