Frackin' customer disservice people
Jun. 6th, 2005 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynNormally when I approach people for customer (dis)service, I try to start out friendly -- identify myself, tell them what I'm calling about, and ask for their assistance. If they give me a name when they answer, I'll say something like "Hi, Joe, my name is blah blah and I'm calling to find out how to..." and so on. Even when I'm enraged beyond comprehension at the always-terrible voice mail hells of pretty much every customer disservice line in existence, I try to be friendly to the people on the other end. But oh, man, today... today I lost it with Best Buy. I loathe BB, I'll just say up front. I think they are evil. From the moment I bought my TiVo there, the first major purchase I made at a BB store, where they demanded I give them every bit of data on myself including my bra cup size and the name of my mother's first boyfriend, I've despised them. Every time I've bought something there, I felt dirty.
See, my dad can't understand how to navigate the voice mail hells of all these credit card companies, so he gave me an envelope full of cards to cancel that belonged to my sister (because people troll death notices for false identities and use old accounts to make charges). Most of them were easy and the people were incredibly sympathetic -- and I have every bit of info I need to prove that I'm not some random sleazebag: SSN, account numbers, mother's maiden name, address and phone number, blah blah. Except for fracking BB -- no, they demanded a death certificate. I answered with "Oh, no, you are not getting a death certificate. There's no reason you need one." The guy counters with privacy act, blah blah. I said, no. Put me through to a supervisor. He starts arguing with me about it. I said, no, you do most emphatically not need a death certificate to close an account for a stupid little store. The BANKS I've dealt with haven't asked me for one, you most certainly do not. (For the record -- death certificates aren't cheap, and you have to buy like a ton of them for the legit things, and you always end up needing more, so you have to contact the funeral home and then wait. It's hella painful, and expensive.) So then me and Supervisor guy get into a major go-round, and pretty soon I'm swearing at him and yelling. Because he comes at me with this utter bullshit about how "you wouldn't like it if someone tried to close your bank account on you, would you?" And I said, "Well, hell, you know what? If someone had this much personal information on me and knew my security passwords and had legal power of attorney, then I'd pretty much assume they could do whatever they pleased." Which made him all huffy.
They absolutely refused to close the account. I could see it if someone was charging something, maybe even if there was money outstanding. I wasn't buying anything or asking for a balance to be forwarded. But this is a stupid store charge card that is balance-free, and not something listed in the probate, so unlike the other credit cards from banks, they wouldn't get a statement of the estate being closed. Closing the account doesn't do a damn thing to them. It's completely irrelevant, as the person at Home Depot said to me when I told her I appreciated her being so helpful after such a bad experience with BB. She was like, you have all the relevant info and there's nothing owed, so WTF? I told dad he was going to have to mail the copy of the certificate to BB, because otherwise I would end up scrawling "Fuckers" all over it and threatening them with bodily harm. I just cannot believe that people can't see how unbelievably painful this sort of thing is, and be accommodating when they ask for help. Not only is their requirement ridiculous -- and a requirement no one else has -- but they made no effort to be helpful at a really bad time. I know it's pointless to try to encourage my friends to stop buying from Best Buy, but if you're like me and you hated them before, here's another reason to avoid them. And they have stupid hair.
***
And speaking of cranky Best Buy and other places things: After spending tons of money on Due South dvds, apparently now they are releasing the effing things on single-sided discs, including the pilot that was so conspicuously absent from the first season sets originally released. To say that I would like to move all the Alliance people into a building with BB people and set them on fire is an understatement. I've just wished and wished for the pilot on dvd for so long, and then it came out in the third season discs, but I didn't want to spend the money since I don't really like third season... it was very annoying.
So now I have to ask if there's someone out there who might take pity on a DS fan who already paid a fortune for the pilot movie-less discs, and who can make a dvd copy of the pilot movie? I know people who have the pilot, but can't make a dvd copy, and vice versa, but no one who can do both. I would of course pay you for materials and postage and the like, and who knows, maybe even offer you a vid in the future, since the pilot is the one thing outstanding that I couldn't successfully make a vid without. If you'd be willing, contact me at gwyn_r at livejournal dot com and I will sing hosannas in your name.
***
I am, however, thrilled that I finally got the Battlestar Galactica miniseries on dvd after having waited for months on Netflix. I only sporadically paid attention when it first aired, and then either missed the repeats (don't get me started on my TiVo that keeps forgetting what day or time it is) or they refused to repeat the damn thing. I knew there were stories in there that would fill in the later stories that made no sense to me, but I couldn't quite get a handle on everything without them, so finally, yay, I get to fill in the blanks.
And I am really grooving on watching Numb3rs now that BSG is off and catching up on the eps I missed. I find this show hits something really personal in me that I wasn't expecting. The story with Charlie having missed their mother's death, with Don having come back to take care of her and giving up some of his life for that, with them all trying to kind of find new footing with each other, and with Don and Charlie's redeveloping relationship after all the changes, just really elevates this above the stupid crime-solving CSI bullshit that CBS is so fond of. It reminds me so much of my family situation -- my sister wasn't around towards the end of my mom's life (though not crazy in a garage, just far away), and I ended up in the caretaker role, and then our own relationship changed a lot... it just really speaks to me personally. I also really love that they are a Jewish family, and that is clear and not apologized for or made to seem "other"ly in any way. Everyone's so white or so Christian or whatever on TV, especially CBS, and whenever characters are Jewish, it's very hush-hush and jeez peez, we wouldn't want to make anyone overtly Jewish, would we? This is a very refreshing take. I've always been a big Ridley Scott fangirl, even when he lets me down like in Kingdom of Heaven, but this is one thing where I don't have to feel ashamed to say that. It doesn't seem like a very viddable show right now, but I'm going to keep watching to see. At the very least it's a very human show for a crime-solving story, and that's what elevates it beyond all these forensics crap littering the airwaves.
See, my dad can't understand how to navigate the voice mail hells of all these credit card companies, so he gave me an envelope full of cards to cancel that belonged to my sister (because people troll death notices for false identities and use old accounts to make charges). Most of them were easy and the people were incredibly sympathetic -- and I have every bit of info I need to prove that I'm not some random sleazebag: SSN, account numbers, mother's maiden name, address and phone number, blah blah. Except for fracking BB -- no, they demanded a death certificate. I answered with "Oh, no, you are not getting a death certificate. There's no reason you need one." The guy counters with privacy act, blah blah. I said, no. Put me through to a supervisor. He starts arguing with me about it. I said, no, you do most emphatically not need a death certificate to close an account for a stupid little store. The BANKS I've dealt with haven't asked me for one, you most certainly do not. (For the record -- death certificates aren't cheap, and you have to buy like a ton of them for the legit things, and you always end up needing more, so you have to contact the funeral home and then wait. It's hella painful, and expensive.) So then me and Supervisor guy get into a major go-round, and pretty soon I'm swearing at him and yelling. Because he comes at me with this utter bullshit about how "you wouldn't like it if someone tried to close your bank account on you, would you?" And I said, "Well, hell, you know what? If someone had this much personal information on me and knew my security passwords and had legal power of attorney, then I'd pretty much assume they could do whatever they pleased." Which made him all huffy.
They absolutely refused to close the account. I could see it if someone was charging something, maybe even if there was money outstanding. I wasn't buying anything or asking for a balance to be forwarded. But this is a stupid store charge card that is balance-free, and not something listed in the probate, so unlike the other credit cards from banks, they wouldn't get a statement of the estate being closed. Closing the account doesn't do a damn thing to them. It's completely irrelevant, as the person at Home Depot said to me when I told her I appreciated her being so helpful after such a bad experience with BB. She was like, you have all the relevant info and there's nothing owed, so WTF? I told dad he was going to have to mail the copy of the certificate to BB, because otherwise I would end up scrawling "Fuckers" all over it and threatening them with bodily harm. I just cannot believe that people can't see how unbelievably painful this sort of thing is, and be accommodating when they ask for help. Not only is their requirement ridiculous -- and a requirement no one else has -- but they made no effort to be helpful at a really bad time. I know it's pointless to try to encourage my friends to stop buying from Best Buy, but if you're like me and you hated them before, here's another reason to avoid them. And they have stupid hair.
***
And speaking of cranky Best Buy and other places things: After spending tons of money on Due South dvds, apparently now they are releasing the effing things on single-sided discs, including the pilot that was so conspicuously absent from the first season sets originally released. To say that I would like to move all the Alliance people into a building with BB people and set them on fire is an understatement. I've just wished and wished for the pilot on dvd for so long, and then it came out in the third season discs, but I didn't want to spend the money since I don't really like third season... it was very annoying.
So now I have to ask if there's someone out there who might take pity on a DS fan who already paid a fortune for the pilot movie-less discs, and who can make a dvd copy of the pilot movie? I know people who have the pilot, but can't make a dvd copy, and vice versa, but no one who can do both. I would of course pay you for materials and postage and the like, and who knows, maybe even offer you a vid in the future, since the pilot is the one thing outstanding that I couldn't successfully make a vid without. If you'd be willing, contact me at gwyn_r at livejournal dot com and I will sing hosannas in your name.
***
I am, however, thrilled that I finally got the Battlestar Galactica miniseries on dvd after having waited for months on Netflix. I only sporadically paid attention when it first aired, and then either missed the repeats (don't get me started on my TiVo that keeps forgetting what day or time it is) or they refused to repeat the damn thing. I knew there were stories in there that would fill in the later stories that made no sense to me, but I couldn't quite get a handle on everything without them, so finally, yay, I get to fill in the blanks.
And I am really grooving on watching Numb3rs now that BSG is off and catching up on the eps I missed. I find this show hits something really personal in me that I wasn't expecting. The story with Charlie having missed their mother's death, with Don having come back to take care of her and giving up some of his life for that, with them all trying to kind of find new footing with each other, and with Don and Charlie's redeveloping relationship after all the changes, just really elevates this above the stupid crime-solving CSI bullshit that CBS is so fond of. It reminds me so much of my family situation -- my sister wasn't around towards the end of my mom's life (though not crazy in a garage, just far away), and I ended up in the caretaker role, and then our own relationship changed a lot... it just really speaks to me personally. I also really love that they are a Jewish family, and that is clear and not apologized for or made to seem "other"ly in any way. Everyone's so white or so Christian or whatever on TV, especially CBS, and whenever characters are Jewish, it's very hush-hush and jeez peez, we wouldn't want to make anyone overtly Jewish, would we? This is a very refreshing take. I've always been a big Ridley Scott fangirl, even when he lets me down like in Kingdom of Heaven, but this is one thing where I don't have to feel ashamed to say that. It doesn't seem like a very viddable show right now, but I'm going to keep watching to see. At the very least it's a very human show for a crime-solving story, and that's what elevates it beyond all these forensics crap littering the airwaves.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 09:36 pm (UTC)And one of these days I will get around to figuring out how to copy my Star Wars laser disks for you, because yes, Han ~does~ shoot first.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 09:38 pm (UTC)I remember how awful it was to go through that, and I'm so sorry you have to deal with it. Hugs.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 09:40 pm (UTC)if some jerk does try to steal your sister's identity and uses her Best Buy credit card to buy lots and lots of expensive things, who loses money? Best Buy.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:43 pm (UTC)(He was in a coma and his "friend" who "helped" him had taken his cash card, credit card and had hidden all of his financial records.)
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 09:47 pm (UTC)When Mom died six months ago, I just couldn't believe that you needed to get original death certificates for like twenty different people, and that they each cost $10 bucks apiece. That's a minimum of $200 bucks for farkin' death certificates, 'cuz xeroxed copies simply aren't acceptable.
Meanwhile, AOL still refuses to close her account, even after Dad canceled her credit card, which they had for years tapped once a month for payment. They just keep sending e-mails demanding that someone give them another form of payment; this, after six months of e-mails, billing support sessions, and phone calls from me informing them all that Mom remains dead, and as such won't be checking her e-mail anymore, and that we would really like to cancel her subscription to AOL, thankewverymuch.
Hang in there, hon.
Re:
Date: 2005-06-06 10:26 pm (UTC)Really, people just suck.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 09:49 pm (UTC)What a bunch of wankers.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 09:52 pm (UTC)Were it me, I'd take Sis_R's card out and go on a charge-o-rama ... after of course, the estate has been settled and there's no way Beast Buy can get a dime.
And thank you for reminding me, once again, why they are my store of last resort.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:29 pm (UTC)I now regert every purchase I've ever made there. Only as a last resort, that's the truth.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 09:54 pm (UTC)Try explaining this stupidity to the people who work there and SHOULD know it, and then try to get them to deliver you the fucking disks. I know, kindly providing a reasonable service to a paying customer...what a weird idea.
Fuck 'em and hugs to you. I'm glad you got promise of the pilot, too.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:09 pm (UTC)There's one up here in B'ham, too, so I'll give them a call. I still need to get Season 1. Thanks for the tip!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 11:04 pm (UTC)Fred Meyers doesn't list the Platinum Disk 2005 releases at all. It's possible they have them in the store even if they aren't listed on the website; certainly, that's the case with Best Buy.
But so far, on lists and LJ, the only place that I've heard that carries the Platinum Disk releases is Best Buy. If they do show up elsewhere, please post to the DS Noticeboard LJ. I'm sure that there are many people who'd love an alternative to Best Buy. I know that I would.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 11:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:02 pm (UTC)And I adore Numb3rs. It's probably my third favorite new show from last season (after VM and BSG - lots of good new shows last season), and I think it's loads better than House simply because it's not the same story repeated over and over. And I love the family dynamic and the character development we get thanks to that family dynamic. So glad it's coming back!
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:39 pm (UTC)Still sobbing about Angel.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:49 pm (UTC)I've made my peace with the demise of the Buffyverse. I'll always love it, but I'm okay with how it ended. More okay with how Angel ended than with how Buffy ended, actually.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:46 pm (UTC)BTW, you know what I don't tell you but should? The baby pictures are incredibly sustaining in the face of all this. She is so lovely.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:40 pm (UTC)Try calling their corporate office and asking for their Consumer Complaint Dept. If that does not work, give me a call and I'll be happy to put a call into their legal dept (assuming they have one and don't use oustide counsel).
Best Buy Co., Inc.
7601 Penn Avenue S.
Richfield, MN 55423
(612) 291-1000
Did you get the name of the supervisor?
PS Look - NUMB3RS icon.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-06 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-07 04:02 am (UTC)We'd pretty much decided to avoid shopping at Best Buy as much as possible because they're an all GOP donation all the time kind of shop. This just makes me even more determined to shop elsewhere.
I'm so sorry that you're going through this crap.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-07 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-07 11:52 am (UTC)Well, I've been boycotting BB since 2002, but in case I might have considered wavering at any point in the future, you've strengthened my resolve. I think it's a requirement to be a) stupid, b) clueless, and c) a total asshole to work there. I'm not sure what the requirements are for supervisors, but they must be even more stringent.
On a much, much brighter note, I got a disk in the mail from you yesterday. OMG, *love!!* Will write privately. You made me soooo happy. *hugs*
no subject
Date: 2005-06-07 04:20 pm (UTC)(BTW, how wonderful is her friendship with Joanie? I just adore it. I finally got to see the last three eps and I was just giddy with the Jane and Joanie friendship love. And Charlie's reaction to Jane in a dress... priceless.)
I'm glad you liked the vids! Yay! I know I'm in a small minority, but I love my Buffy. The boys are all wonderful, but without loving Buffy, I would never have been half as interested in that show.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-07 06:09 pm (UTC)Even better, "Be fucked." Heh.
. I finally got to see the last three eps and I was just giddy with the Jane and Joanie friendship love. And Charlie's reaction to Jane in a dress... priceless.
:-D :-D :-D
*points goofily to icon*
no subject
Date: 2005-06-07 07:45 pm (UTC)August is such a long time off. I wanted to tell you about the vid idea that I'm going to do with Jo for Deadwood... I thought I'd bring the music and an outline with me to VVC, but I might have to send the song to you and tell you about it before then. The big thing we're trying to decide is whether or not to wait for the second season dvds, because I'm sure it'll be a long wait. I'd like to match the quality, but...