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bad_service as of yesterday. It's still bothering me today, because I'll have to take action on it and deal with the people at Discover about it.)
This irritated me greatly today on two levels.
Two weeks ago, I helped my mother place an order online with Bud K. (We were ordering something for Hunter.). Yesterday, she was wondering how come it hadn't shown up. So I checked my email for the confirmation email (since Mom's still not very familiar with using her email yet), and I discovered that in the last few days I had been sent another email verifying that the order had indeed shipped as of a week ago. I click open the email to check the information....and it's been sent to some other person in our town. Not only that, but it looks like the credit card information was also put under this other customer's name.
I have no idea how this happened, seeing as how I was teaching Mom how to place an order online and we double-checked everything before we confirmed the order. Mom is sufficiently freaked out and distressed, not a good thing for a woman whose nerves are already fried enough from the MS. She's new at using the Internet, and one of the first things she attempts to do--order something online--ends up screwing up her address and credit card information. I wonder how the hell this even happened. So I call the customer service number on the website to try to get this straightened out. I don't know if this was the right thing to do, because I got no help at all.
After I explain the situation to "Marilyn" on the other end (we placed an order a couple of weeks ago, we just got an email saying it's been sent to an address other than the one we put for our shipping info, how can we fix this?), she tells me, "I'm sorry, but we don't handle Internet orders. Any order that is placed online doesn't touch our hands." (.....Soooo, what's the point in having the customer service phone number displayed on their website and on their paper catalog?)
She then asks me what the address on the back of the catalog was that we ordered from and for the customer ID number. Here's the thing. I requested this catalog. It was sent to me. My address is on the back, the same as my mother's and the same as our shipping info. I give "Marilyn" our shipping address and customer ID number, and sure enough, she says that account order is under some other guy's name (Elliott Abel) and not my mother's. "Marilyn" is then asking, "Are you sure you didn't order from someone else's catalog and use their number?" I don't freaking believe this! She's making it out like we're the ones who made the mistake! Of course I didn't order from someone else's catalog.
"Are you sure you got the customer ID number right?" YES! We double-checked everything before we placed the order; I'm trying to help my mom learn how to do this stuff. And I'm not stupid!
"Well, this is the account that is being brought up when you give me that information." Well, it shouldn't be, because that's not the address we typed in when we put the info in online. There's a world of difference between "Tammy H****" and "Elliott Abel."
"Do you know the person who the order was shipped to?" No. Just because he lives on the other side of the same town I live in doesn't mean I know him.
"Marilyn" once again says, "Well, I'm sorry, but we don't handle Internet orders." (THEN WHY BOTHER HAVING A CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER ONLINE?!!!! I didn't say that, but I was about ready yell it at her over the phone.) I got so frustrated with her not being able to help me (whether she knew how to or not...or was just being lazy...or really can't help handle an Internet order, which is stupid), so I asked to speak to her higher-up. I didn't get much further with the superior, but at least she didn't give me the "we don't handle Internet orders" thing...but she didn't want to admit that they were at fault for screwing up the order, either. I let her know that I thought the fact that there is a customer service number listed both in their catalog and on their website means that they should be able to handle any problems from either a manual paper order or online. Not only that, but now that my mother's credit card number has been registered on their website under some other guy's name means that he could order anything he wants to from their website BECAUSE OF THEIR MISTAKE. NOT OURS. That constitutes as identity fraud. And now Mom's scared to try to order anything online again.
Our only course of action now (since Bud K doesn't want to own up to this mistake) is to call up Discover and report this fraud. We still lose out on the order, though, which is the cherry on top of this whole experience. But I swear...I'm even more bothered by the crappy customer service I got when I tried to straighten this out. I can't imagine how Mom (in her frazzled, stressed-out state) could've dealt with it if she called. I mean, really.
Like I said, why do they even bother having a customer service phone number online if they aren't going to deal with Internet orders?
*************************
Onto the other thing that upset me yesterday...and it's upsetting the whole family, too. Yesterday, Mom got a call from Dad's cousin Janice, who lives down in Alabama not far from Grandma Cozie. Mom was thinking she was calling with bad news about Grandma Cozie, if she had possibly passed away or something. (Because seriously, you never know when that can happen. And I hate to think about it.) No...I guess Janice stopped by to check up on Grandma Cozie, and she kept knocking the door and ringing the doorbell, getting no answer. Janice started worrying, so she was about ready to break a window to get in the house to see if she was all right, but eventually Grandma Cozie answered the door. Grandma Cozie claimed she wasn't feeling well, running a fever and worried that her urinary tract infection was acting up. Janice took her to the hospital to get her checked up, and the doctors there ran some tests on her....she has no urinary tract infection! But she's not taking care of herself and not taking her medication and not eating.
Now before you start harping on me, "How come your and your family isn't doing anything to make sure she's being taken care of?" We've tried!! Dad offered to have her come live with us months ago, and she refused. (Despite me, Mom and Hunter balking at the proposed living arrangements, we were going to go through with it regardless because she's family.) She doesn't like being up here in Indiana! She went to stay with Uncle Glen and Aunt Roberta in Texas for about six months, and Uncle Glen (her own brother) got tired of having to help take care of her when she doesn't do anything to cooperate. She wanted to go back home to Alabama, so we tried to arrange for a visiting nurse to come help take care of her, but ohhh nooo, she didn't want that, either.
Janice decided to offer Grandma Cozie some help. Her daughter is in college right now (commuting, I guess), and Grandma Cozie's place is about halfway between where Janice lives and where her daughter goes to school. So Janice and her daughter offered to have her come stay the evenings with her when she gets off from classes so someone's there for her if she needs help. And I guess Grandma Cozie was okay with it....as long as she rented out the room to Janice's daughter for $400 a month. For a ROOM. In the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE in ALABAMA. It's not a freaking apartment. And this is a COLLEGE STUDENT we're talking about. Janice and her daughter offer some help, and this is how Grandma chooses to accept it, as long as she gets paid. The thing is, Grandma has money. PLENTY of it. She's just being stingy, and she doesn't want help. This upset Janice, and she called Mom up and asked, "Why is Cosette being this way about it?" Janice, she's been like this with us for the last twenty-five years. We have no idea why she's like this. We really wish we knew what to tell her. It's just....she's trying to help her out and help us out, and this is how she gets treated.
bad_service as of yesterday. It's still bothering me today, because I'll have to take action on it and deal with the people at Discover about it.)This irritated me greatly today on two levels.
Two weeks ago, I helped my mother place an order online with Bud K. (We were ordering something for Hunter.). Yesterday, she was wondering how come it hadn't shown up. So I checked my email for the confirmation email (since Mom's still not very familiar with using her email yet), and I discovered that in the last few days I had been sent another email verifying that the order had indeed shipped as of a week ago. I click open the email to check the information....and it's been sent to some other person in our town. Not only that, but it looks like the credit card information was also put under this other customer's name.
I have no idea how this happened, seeing as how I was teaching Mom how to place an order online and we double-checked everything before we confirmed the order. Mom is sufficiently freaked out and distressed, not a good thing for a woman whose nerves are already fried enough from the MS. She's new at using the Internet, and one of the first things she attempts to do--order something online--ends up screwing up her address and credit card information. I wonder how the hell this even happened. So I call the customer service number on the website to try to get this straightened out. I don't know if this was the right thing to do, because I got no help at all.
After I explain the situation to "Marilyn" on the other end (we placed an order a couple of weeks ago, we just got an email saying it's been sent to an address other than the one we put for our shipping info, how can we fix this?), she tells me, "I'm sorry, but we don't handle Internet orders. Any order that is placed online doesn't touch our hands." (.....Soooo, what's the point in having the customer service phone number displayed on their website and on their paper catalog?)
She then asks me what the address on the back of the catalog was that we ordered from and for the customer ID number. Here's the thing. I requested this catalog. It was sent to me. My address is on the back, the same as my mother's and the same as our shipping info. I give "Marilyn" our shipping address and customer ID number, and sure enough, she says that account order is under some other guy's name (Elliott Abel) and not my mother's. "Marilyn" is then asking, "Are you sure you didn't order from someone else's catalog and use their number?" I don't freaking believe this! She's making it out like we're the ones who made the mistake! Of course I didn't order from someone else's catalog.
"Are you sure you got the customer ID number right?" YES! We double-checked everything before we placed the order; I'm trying to help my mom learn how to do this stuff. And I'm not stupid!
"Well, this is the account that is being brought up when you give me that information." Well, it shouldn't be, because that's not the address we typed in when we put the info in online. There's a world of difference between "Tammy H****" and "Elliott Abel."
"Do you know the person who the order was shipped to?" No. Just because he lives on the other side of the same town I live in doesn't mean I know him.
"Marilyn" once again says, "Well, I'm sorry, but we don't handle Internet orders." (THEN WHY BOTHER HAVING A CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER ONLINE?!!!! I didn't say that, but I was about ready yell it at her over the phone.) I got so frustrated with her not being able to help me (whether she knew how to or not...or was just being lazy...or really can't help handle an Internet order, which is stupid), so I asked to speak to her higher-up. I didn't get much further with the superior, but at least she didn't give me the "we don't handle Internet orders" thing...but she didn't want to admit that they were at fault for screwing up the order, either. I let her know that I thought the fact that there is a customer service number listed both in their catalog and on their website means that they should be able to handle any problems from either a manual paper order or online. Not only that, but now that my mother's credit card number has been registered on their website under some other guy's name means that he could order anything he wants to from their website BECAUSE OF THEIR MISTAKE. NOT OURS. That constitutes as identity fraud. And now Mom's scared to try to order anything online again.
Our only course of action now (since Bud K doesn't want to own up to this mistake) is to call up Discover and report this fraud. We still lose out on the order, though, which is the cherry on top of this whole experience. But I swear...I'm even more bothered by the crappy customer service I got when I tried to straighten this out. I can't imagine how Mom (in her frazzled, stressed-out state) could've dealt with it if she called. I mean, really.
Like I said, why do they even bother having a customer service phone number online if they aren't going to deal with Internet orders?
*************************
Onto the other thing that upset me yesterday...and it's upsetting the whole family, too. Yesterday, Mom got a call from Dad's cousin Janice, who lives down in Alabama not far from Grandma Cozie. Mom was thinking she was calling with bad news about Grandma Cozie, if she had possibly passed away or something. (Because seriously, you never know when that can happen. And I hate to think about it.) No...I guess Janice stopped by to check up on Grandma Cozie, and she kept knocking the door and ringing the doorbell, getting no answer. Janice started worrying, so she was about ready to break a window to get in the house to see if she was all right, but eventually Grandma Cozie answered the door. Grandma Cozie claimed she wasn't feeling well, running a fever and worried that her urinary tract infection was acting up. Janice took her to the hospital to get her checked up, and the doctors there ran some tests on her....she has no urinary tract infection! But she's not taking care of herself and not taking her medication and not eating.
Now before you start harping on me, "How come your and your family isn't doing anything to make sure she's being taken care of?" We've tried!! Dad offered to have her come live with us months ago, and she refused. (Despite me, Mom and Hunter balking at the proposed living arrangements, we were going to go through with it regardless because she's family.) She doesn't like being up here in Indiana! She went to stay with Uncle Glen and Aunt Roberta in Texas for about six months, and Uncle Glen (her own brother) got tired of having to help take care of her when she doesn't do anything to cooperate. She wanted to go back home to Alabama, so we tried to arrange for a visiting nurse to come help take care of her, but ohhh nooo, she didn't want that, either.
Janice decided to offer Grandma Cozie some help. Her daughter is in college right now (commuting, I guess), and Grandma Cozie's place is about halfway between where Janice lives and where her daughter goes to school. So Janice and her daughter offered to have her come stay the evenings with her when she gets off from classes so someone's there for her if she needs help. And I guess Grandma Cozie was okay with it....as long as she rented out the room to Janice's daughter for $400 a month. For a ROOM. In the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE in ALABAMA. It's not a freaking apartment. And this is a COLLEGE STUDENT we're talking about. Janice and her daughter offer some help, and this is how Grandma chooses to accept it, as long as she gets paid. The thing is, Grandma has money. PLENTY of it. She's just being stingy, and she doesn't want help. This upset Janice, and she called Mom up and asked, "Why is Cosette being this way about it?" Janice, she's been like this with us for the last twenty-five years. We have no idea why she's like this. We really wish we knew what to tell her. It's just....she's trying to help her out and help us out, and this is how she gets treated.
