Whiney Wednesday - Since it can't be Ticked Off Tuesday

Nothing EVER comes of it, but I really feel like companies need to know when their employees or representatives are less then diligent about their - shall we say - tactics. Lately, I have fired off letters of complaint to the library and Michael's. And I have had to call Cingular/BellSouth twice. It is quite exhausting, actually.

The Michael's Incident:

I was checking out, and when I asked the cashier if she got the coupon, she said my 40% off coupon didn't take much off. So, after she handed me my receipt, I looked at it and saw she had taken 40 cents off of a $1 roll of ribbon I purchased. Well, my most expensive item was a set of Cuttlebug dies at $12.99. When I showed her the mistake, she simply stated that the computer does it, and went back to the other customer, who happened to be my friend. She made a similar purchase, including the die set, and it took the amount off of hers correctly. I told the cashier that the "computer" had made a mistake, and it needed to be corrected. VERY begrudgingly, she took back my receipt and called someone who told her to void the transaction and do it over. No problem, except this time, the "computer" only took off $2.38 on a magazine. I told her that still wasn't right, and another employee who had wandered up front walked her through the transaction and she finally got it right. Well, the cashier then told me that "it" had "voided" my check and just stood there waiting for me to write another. So I asked for my check back, and she again, very begrudgingly, complied. I wrote another, and she handed me my receipt without the first word of apology, thank you, or anything....

So I fired off the e-mail. I received a response within MINUTES. This was the response:

Thank you for taking the time to write Michael's regarding your recent store experience. As a customer-oriented business, our top priority is excellent service and product selection. Anytime we fail to accommodate anyone in any way; steps are taken to insure total satisfaction in the future. Comments like yours are instrumental in helping us to provide the level of service, knowledge and attitude you should expect at Michael's Stores Inc. We are forwarding your comments to the District Manager and Store Manager of the store concerned, so that the issue can be addressed. Thank you for taking the time to express your concerns. Sincerely, Michael's Customer Care

The BellSouth Debacle:

This has been the most exhausting for me. Mostly because part of it has been on-going. That being getting some things taken off of our bill that Steve put on there when he first started up the service. He didn't actually sign up for them, but the just sorta stuck them on there. I've had to call EVERY month for almost the last year to try to get these things taken off and credited to the account.

The second part was quite the shocker. Not too long ago, November to be exact, Steve washed his cell phone. Luckily, Cynthia still had the old cell phone from when she was on my account, and we just moved Steve's SIM card over. Well, there was a slight problem with a lock on the card, so we had to go into the store to get it fixed. While we were there, we encountered a - I'll call her a girl 'cause I don't think she was old enough to drink - who said she worked for BellSouth and had a deal for us. She said that we could add call-waiting, caller ID, & Privacy Director, and the amount of my bill would not change. I asked her, I know, no less than three times, if the amount of my monthly bill would change. She assured me it would not. Well, come to find out later, she was a contractor for BellSouth and she had not identified herself as such. She also said that if we signed up, we would leave there with a $25 gift card. That didn't happen either. Instead, its a $25 rebate. No biggie there. The shocker came when I got my bill this month. My bill went up about $30! So I check out the charges and discover that my basic service went up to $30 with these additions. At first, when my blood started boiling, I was thinking that this was in addition to my basic service. But it does actually include that, so it is a really good deal. It is just that the girl flat-out lied to me. I was also having to pay for a partial month - no big deal either. So BellSouth has said they will launch an investigation, as this does make them look badly. I should hear something from them by Monday, not that there is anything to BE done about it......