Bad Service

If you call me, please do so during the hours clearly marked as "I would prefer to be called between these hours". If you call me outside of those hours I probably will be too busy to answer the phone.

If you can't read, and persist in calling me when I am otherwise engaged, please do not hang up without leaving a message. I do not turn on my psychic powers without good reason.

If I'm good enough to call back the number on my caller ID, please do not then bitch me out because I don't know why you called me. See that? It's all right there. You called me. I called you *back* because hangups leave me wondering the rest of the day unless I find out what you wanted.

I still don't know, because none of you people can tell me. I shall be billing you for that seven-minute mobile call in the middle of the day, four and a half of which were me being on hold, and the remainder of which was you assuring me that you don't know why I'm calling and what did the message on my answering machine say? It didn't say anything. There wasn't one. Twice.

If this happens again I shall take great pleasure in transferring my business to the other crap bank.

Thank you.

It's a Friday, so there was a fair bit of a line of people cashing their checks. I knew I would have to wait, and I was perfectly fine with that. I waited patiently, watching the TV monitor as it scrolls some news. They have two out of four windows open, as the other tellers are probably on lunch breaks. No problem, the line isn't that long, and I'm not in a hurry. Nobody else has complained/groaned loudly/whatever. When I get to the front of the line, ODTT opens a new window.

ODTT: Overworked drive-thru teller
ROT: Random other teller
BET: Busy experienced teller
ME

ODTT calls me over to the newly opened window, and I explain that I have multiple transactions that I need to do. I tell her I would like a $500 cashier's check first, then I need to deposit part of a paycheck. She says okay, asks who to make the cashier's check out to, and takes my paycheck and deposit slip to the back with her.

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While I'm waiting, ROT comes back from lunch or wherever and proceeds to get back on her computer at the window I'm at. She gives me a weird look (a perfectly legit. why the hell are you at my window when it was closed?) and asks if someone was helping me. I said yes, and she went in the back for something. ROT tells me to go to the other closed window and wait there.

ODTT comes back with cashier's check in hand, and has already deposited my paycheck.

Me: Ummm, I didn't want all of it deposited -- I wanted some cash back. I like to keep my account even, so once I knew what the fee for the cashier's check would be, I was going to put that much in.
ODTT: I guess I can cancel it, but you didn't WRITE that on here.
Me: I know, I didn't fill out the bottom "total deposited" yet because I didn't know how much the fee would be.
ODTT: It's $6.
Me: Okay. (does quick math to balance it, knowing I had an ATM fee to count in also, writes it on deposit slip)
ODTT: *BET*, can you help her with this? I just came up from the drive-thru for a minute, and I don't have time for this.
BET: I'm with someone right now.
ODTT: ...What name did you want on this, again?
Me: *tells, spells the last name while she writes it down, then disappears into the back again with the cashier's check*

While she's gone, I decide I'll just do a separate withdrawal to balance the account, instead of having her cancel/reverse the previous transaction. That SHOULD be easier, right? She returns, I tell her she doesn't have to cancel the original deposit, I'll just do a separate withdrawal. She tells BET to help me again, BET says she'll help me after the guy she's working on. ODTT then says she forgot to charge the fee on my account, but BET can try to fix it, then runs off.

After a couple minutes, BET wraps up with the other guy. I get up to her, show her the cashier's check and tell her that ODTT didn't charge me the fee for it yet. She grabs my paycheck and says I can't do a cashier's check out of it. (Duh, the cashier's check was for $500 and the paycheck was only $400!) Before I can respond, she asks how I intend to pay for this cashier's check. ...I explain that I have an account with this bank and there is more than enough money in my account to cover it. She flips the paycheck over for my account number, punches it in, checks her computer, says the $500 has already been withdrawn, and shoves the cashier's check back at me, saying she doesn't need it. I explained that ODTT hadn't charged me the fee for it.

BET: "I don't care about the fee!"

...Okay, excuse me for being honest. I then showed her my deposit slip for the paycheck and asked if she could see if it was deposited yet. She pointed to the number stamped on the bottom and said yes, of course it has. I mentioned that I had not gotten a receipt for it, so I was unsure.

BET: "Well, she kept your check, didn't she?"
Me: "No, she gave it back to me. It's right here." (gestures to check on counter between us)

BET then snatches the check and the deposit slip, angrilly prints a little receipt for me, and tosses both in a pile with other papers. Then, finally, I got a withdrawal slip and withdrew the amount I had calculated. She was very curt with me for the rest of the transaction, but I thanked her and apologized for being complicated. Her reply?

BET: "NEXT!"

This isn't quite bad_service, but I thought this would be the best community to come to for opinions.

A few days ago I came home from work, picked up my mail from it's designated spot on the table, and started leafing through the contents. One of the items was one of those reminder post cards that many dentists and specialist send out to remind you it's time to come in for a check up. Since I don't have a need for any doctors outside of my general practitioner I assumed it was from my dentist and threw it on my desk to make an appointment later.

Today I found my way back to it under the pile of "stuff I need to do something with at some point", only to discover that it was from an eye care place. This wouldn't be that odd... excepting the fact that I can't even remember the last time I had my eyes checked, and I certianly have never had them examined in my adult life, becasue despite being born to a family of blind people, I have PERFECT VISION! I even called my mom to see if she or my father had ever been there to eliminate any reasonable cause for me receiving this. They hadn't, which I knew, because they both get there eyes examined at Lens Crafters or some other such chain of eyeware stores. Which leads me to believe that this was sent to me from some sort of mailing list.

This bothers me for many reasons. It does not state that it is an advertisement or solicitation anywhere, nor does it even allude to it. Now, I'm definitely a scatterbrain, and the only reason I was positive I've never had my eyes checked there is because I have no need to get my eyes checked at all. What if I didn't have perfect vision? I very well would have called them to make an appointment assuming it was the same place I had been the last time I had my eyes checked.

I really think this is a shady way to "advertise", and I hate to think that this place might be luring in business by people who, like me, don't always remember the health care professionals or their locations that they don't have to see on a semi-regular basis. I couldn't tell you where I had physical therapy, or who my nose, ear, and throat guy is if my life depended on it. Their cards and information are somewhere in a file or a stack, and I'll dig them out when and if I need them again.

I was thinking about not only writing them a letter, but contacting the BBB as well. This really bothers me, especially considering people who might be on fixed incomes or have special insurance needs that could possibly have services rendered and not be covered. Am I overreacting? Should I just put it in the rectangular file with the rest of the junk mail and forget it?

Editing for clarification:

It was addressed TO ME. It said:

"Our records indicate that it is time for your next checkup." "Please call to schedule your appointment"

Then at the bottom there was two lines for appointment time and date and a line that said something like "retain this card to keep your appointment information".

It didn't look like junk. They claim "their records", which they don't have, say it's time for me to have a check-up. IMO that goes beyond junk mail or solicitation that's made to look like something it's not (the fake checks, sweepstakes thingies, and others)because at least on those types of things in small print somewhere it is stated that it's an advertisement, or is at least obvious to anyone with half a brain that it is one. I'm not trying to be overly anal or anything I just think some of you don't get that this in no way shape or form looked like junk, and I could easily see how people might end up getting screwed by that fact.


Oh, and a little good_service:

Thank you a million times over to the people at Nasser Tire. I had a flat last night, and I could't for the life of me find the paperwork today that states I have the road hazard coverage on my tires, and being that this is a locally owned family business they don't keep anything on file as to who has it and who doesn't.

They took my word for the fact that I had purchaced it, took care of me even though I was a walk-in this morning and they were short a man, and had me in and out in 30 minutes with a complementary tire rotation and alignment. I paid 50% of the new tire (if the flat is ruined, which mine was, the road hazard covers half) gladly, and they will have my business as long as I live somewhere remotely close to the area.

Long story short: I am making a pretty expensive necklace out of Swarovski crystals for an upcoming formal event. I needed a somewhat hard to find piece, and ordered it from a website I dug up somewhere. When I placed the order, I was told at the site's checkout AND via e-mail that I would be charged only $9.99, which was odd because that was the price of my one item, but supposed that I had simply lucked up. No shipping? Yay!

When the transaction cleared my checking account, I found that I had not been charged $9.99, but was instead charged $19.52... nearly twice what I had been told beforehand. Needless to say, I wasn't pleased. I sent a brief e-mail to their customer service rep, explaining the situation and gave them all of the needed information so they could look it up.

Anyway, one would think the company would make amends, either by refunding the money or perhaps sending a discount off of a future purchase. Or maybe give me a "Oh, whoops. Sorry about that." Instead, I get this short e-mail in response...

"Hello, it's Kevin with (removed) Company. I hope you are doing well and will be able to go back home soon (I am a displaced person from Katrina). Alisha, the total of $19.52 was for the crystal and shipping with fed ex ground. We always charge our customers shipping as is stated on our website.We use fed ex ground on all our small items because we are able to track all packages sent to our customers and receive the best shipping rate with them. We also email our customers with the shipping before we ship if they ask us to do so in the comment section of the order page. If you have any other questions please let me know and thank you for shopping with us."

Ah, so you do not directly notify your customers of the ENTIRE amount to be charged, is that it? (Never did I see anything like that, but I admit... I could be stupid) And then when they complain about this dumb ass policy, you basically just say "Oh, it's a shipping charge." Yeah, thanks. Got that impression. I fired off an annoyed, but polite, reply. We'll see how it goes.

Am I the only one who thinks this is BS?