Company: Optimum (cable services).
Roar Rating: 3.4 roars.
Scale: Fire-->5 roars-->4 roars-->3 roars-->2 roars-->1 roar-->1 purr-->2 purrs-->3 purrs-->4 purrs-->5 purrs
(Fire is so awful you should run away gibbering. 5 roars is as bad as it gets, don't even bother with the product or service. 5 purrs is so good you should drop what you're doing and run and get whatever I'm talking about.)
I've been musing about this blog - and thanks to everyone for the great feedback! - because I didn't want it to turn into, you know, a whine-fest. Because I've noticed (and this is my new motto) nothing works. By this I mean, in corporate America nowadays, well - nothing works!!! I could write this blog 10 times a day and have stories all day long.
There is a mega-trend in this country: major corporations are willfully creating policies that make it difficult (if not impossible) for consumers to be treated fairly. And each of these incremental policy changes, cheerfully described by ever-so-helpful phone reps, shifts a tiny amount of power away from us to the companies and 1%ers who are taking our money and our country away from us. And it's hard to complain. No one cares. No one is listening. "I'm just one person." And yet, if we remain quiet, shame on us. If we quietly allow our rights, our voices, our person-hoods to be usurped, then we get what we deserve.
When stuff goes wrong and you have a voice, which we still do in this country, you need to use it. Sometimes, when things reach a certain point, you need to roar to the high heavens.
So I'm continuing my roar. For solidarity, and to have a voice, and to let others know that no matter how much each of these customer service events seems unique, they are not. They are not bad luck. They are not just your experience. They are not a fluke.
These things happen because of corporate America's continuing, abject failure to have any respect for the public they serve, while simultaneously making sure they get Every. Last. Penny. From hapless consumers who have virtually no recourse.
What's that clatter I hear from the gallery? Optimum? Oh right. Cable service in NYC. Right you are.
Ok, so, I had an account with Optimum (www.optimum.com) which is a cable, internet and phone provider here in NYC. It happens. Anyhow, I tried to cancel my service - and tried is the operative word here.
First, after waiting 75 minutes to reach a rep, I learned that even though it was a snap to set up auto-pay on this account, guess what? You must submit a request, in writing, for auto-pay to be discontinued. What's up with that? In 2014? Puhleeze. That is a purposeful attempt to make it difficult for the consumer to discontinue auto-pay, a payment form that is extremely convenient (and certain) for Optimum - but if you can't cancel it, then it becomes quite inconvenient for the same consumer when, for example, they are discontinuing services.
So I sent in my silly letter to plese stop auto-pay, and duly received Optimum's response a week later, which stated, "We received your request, and it will take us 14 days after the date of this letter to honor it, which we will do at our discretion." WHAT??? 14 days? At then only at their discretion? I, or more accurately, my bank account, remains at their fingertips. And I, the owner of said bank account, can do nothing. Not even calling the bank will stop an auto-pay debit.
I also arranged to return Optimum's equipment, for which I scheduled my day in order to be at home when the cable guy came to also disconnect the services. True to the service we have all come to accept, Optimum gave me a 3 hour window for the apponitment, which is always during the work day. So I waited from 2 to 5pm and of COURSE the guy didn't show until 5:30. He did take my box, he neglected to disconect my outside cable (I learned later), and he departed, all in about 5 minutes.
And so, with my service turned off, the box safely in Optimum's hands, and well over 14 days after recieving a letter stating that my auto-pay would be turned off - my bank account was debited for the full amount of my monthly bill. Which in turn triggered a $35 overdrawn fee on my bank account, which I was in the process of closing.
Another 75 minutes on the phone, and I spoke with a very nice man, who said gosh, that NEVER should have happened, so sorry. Turns out the service was disconnnected but not my bill. So so sorry. But Optimum could not return my money except by mailed check, to be recieved in 4-6 weeks. WEEKS. I politely suggested that he simply undo the auto-pay debit, which he stated Optimum "could not do". They also have no ability to refund my $35 overdrawn fee, even though it was directly due to an error on their part, as they freely admitted.
Think about the overall effect of this. So far I have been forced to spend over 2 full hours on the phone and wait for over 3 hours in person, to discontinue service. Which, by the way, is an amount of time we have all come to regard as pretty normal for this sort of thing. I had done everything to discontinue auto-pay and verifed it with Optimum. I was billed anyway, which incurred a bank fee, which Optimum will not refund.
And this experience is common! In fact, companies every day make errors in thier own favor, and it is very difficult for their customers to find and then reverse these errors. This takes time. This takes effort. You have to figure out the companies billing system. In many cases, I have friends who say the effort of fixing is not worth the amount they were overbilled - they eat an overbill, or an extra cycle of billing, because the effort to correct such errors is beyond annoying, it is a life-altering, day-destroying time suck.
And since there is a profit to be made, where is the motivation for any of the large corporations we all must deal with to fix their billing and/or customer service? It not only does not exist, in fact it is in their favor - they make money - by not correcting these errors. In fact, the more cryptic and difficult they make obtaining valid refunds, or fixing errors, or understanding their billing, or in fact any customer service - they profit!! And so they train their reps to be polite and "so sorry." And they systematically take advantage of our silence.
I've been musing about this blog - and thanks to everyone for the great feedback! - because I didn't want it to turn into, you know, a whine-fest. Because I've noticed (and this is my new motto) nothing works. By this I mean, in corporate America nowadays, well - nothing works!!! I could write this blog 10 times a day and have stories all day long.
There is a mega-trend in this country: major corporations are willfully creating policies that make it difficult (if not impossible) for consumers to be treated fairly. And each of these incremental policy changes, cheerfully described by ever-so-helpful phone reps, shifts a tiny amount of power away from us to the companies and 1%ers who are taking our money and our country away from us. And it's hard to complain. No one cares. No one is listening. "I'm just one person." And yet, if we remain quiet, shame on us. If we quietly allow our rights, our voices, our person-hoods to be usurped, then we get what we deserve.
When stuff goes wrong and you have a voice, which we still do in this country, you need to use it. Sometimes, when things reach a certain point, you need to roar to the high heavens.
So I'm continuing my roar. For solidarity, and to have a voice, and to let others know that no matter how much each of these customer service events seems unique, they are not. They are not bad luck. They are not just your experience. They are not a fluke.
These things happen because of corporate America's continuing, abject failure to have any respect for the public they serve, while simultaneously making sure they get Every. Last. Penny. From hapless consumers who have virtually no recourse.
What's that clatter I hear from the gallery? Optimum? Oh right. Cable service in NYC. Right you are.
Ok, so, I had an account with Optimum (www.optimum.com) which is a cable, internet and phone provider here in NYC. It happens. Anyhow, I tried to cancel my service - and tried is the operative word here.
First, after waiting 75 minutes to reach a rep, I learned that even though it was a snap to set up auto-pay on this account, guess what? You must submit a request, in writing, for auto-pay to be discontinued. What's up with that? In 2014? Puhleeze. That is a purposeful attempt to make it difficult for the consumer to discontinue auto-pay, a payment form that is extremely convenient (and certain) for Optimum - but if you can't cancel it, then it becomes quite inconvenient for the same consumer when, for example, they are discontinuing services.
So I sent in my silly letter to plese stop auto-pay, and duly received Optimum's response a week later, which stated, "We received your request, and it will take us 14 days after the date of this letter to honor it, which we will do at our discretion." WHAT??? 14 days? At then only at their discretion? I, or more accurately, my bank account, remains at their fingertips. And I, the owner of said bank account, can do nothing. Not even calling the bank will stop an auto-pay debit.
I also arranged to return Optimum's equipment, for which I scheduled my day in order to be at home when the cable guy came to also disconnect the services. True to the service we have all come to accept, Optimum gave me a 3 hour window for the apponitment, which is always during the work day. So I waited from 2 to 5pm and of COURSE the guy didn't show until 5:30. He did take my box, he neglected to disconect my outside cable (I learned later), and he departed, all in about 5 minutes.
And so, with my service turned off, the box safely in Optimum's hands, and well over 14 days after recieving a letter stating that my auto-pay would be turned off - my bank account was debited for the full amount of my monthly bill. Which in turn triggered a $35 overdrawn fee on my bank account, which I was in the process of closing.
Another 75 minutes on the phone, and I spoke with a very nice man, who said gosh, that NEVER should have happened, so sorry. Turns out the service was disconnnected but not my bill. So so sorry. But Optimum could not return my money except by mailed check, to be recieved in 4-6 weeks. WEEKS. I politely suggested that he simply undo the auto-pay debit, which he stated Optimum "could not do". They also have no ability to refund my $35 overdrawn fee, even though it was directly due to an error on their part, as they freely admitted.
Think about the overall effect of this. So far I have been forced to spend over 2 full hours on the phone and wait for over 3 hours in person, to discontinue service. Which, by the way, is an amount of time we have all come to regard as pretty normal for this sort of thing. I had done everything to discontinue auto-pay and verifed it with Optimum. I was billed anyway, which incurred a bank fee, which Optimum will not refund.
And this experience is common! In fact, companies every day make errors in thier own favor, and it is very difficult for their customers to find and then reverse these errors. This takes time. This takes effort. You have to figure out the companies billing system. In many cases, I have friends who say the effort of fixing is not worth the amount they were overbilled - they eat an overbill, or an extra cycle of billing, because the effort to correct such errors is beyond annoying, it is a life-altering, day-destroying time suck.
And since there is a profit to be made, where is the motivation for any of the large corporations we all must deal with to fix their billing and/or customer service? It not only does not exist, in fact it is in their favor - they make money - by not correcting these errors. In fact, the more cryptic and difficult they make obtaining valid refunds, or fixing errors, or understanding their billing, or in fact any customer service - they profit!! And so they train their reps to be polite and "so sorry." And they systematically take advantage of our silence.
