Permanent Grudges
Permanent Grudges
Some people hold grudges a long time. This must make them unhappy -- having to remember to dislike something or somebody. I do not have this problem: when someone or something is offensive to me, I turn it off and do not think about it or even see it. I do not think about it, I do not worry about it: I just turn it off. I invalidate it or them. They do not cross my mind ever again.
There are several companies with which I do not do
business.
I would name them but I do not know who they are -- I do not see
them.
It is easier this way. I have a permanent grudge against
the US Post Office
but, by law, I cannot ignore them. The following are a few I do
remember – and I try to remember, the list grows.
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Right. I am retied so what am I doing with a baby
merchant? I often order things for my friends. Most
Mexicans do not have credit cards. There is also no package
delivery in much of Mexico. There certainly is not in El Golfo
and if there were, the cost would be prohibitive. So I went
online to find a particular baby car seat for one of the women in the
park. The Walmart price was $130 plus tax and plus
shipping. It came to $180. Wow. I looked
elsewhere. Many sights. Albee Baby was one of them and it
had a price of $85 including shipping. There was also no tax if
shipped to Arizona. From here Yuma, Arizona is the most
convenient drop point. We have a sister park there that accepts
deliveries for our park. During the season there is regular
traffic between the two parks and mail and packages are transferred
every several days. Off-season, there is a transfer
every one to two weeks. The current Yuma management is very
friendly: they treat our packages and mail as it it were their
own. Currently, things work well.
Saturday, I ordered the baby chair from Albee Baby. It turns
out that they are a Yahoo storefront. I have had good experiences with
Yahoo stores and the price was great and I got an immediate email
confirmation of my order. Then Albee Baby went off the
map. I got no confirmation of shipment. I got no response
to my email requesting the status of the shipment when I emailed them
on Thursday. Saturday I sent another email. No
response. I emailed Yahoo stores.
Now I got a response. The package had already been shipped and
was already delivered to Yuma. It had arrived on Thursday.
Wow. That was quick. I got a response from Yahoo stores stating
that they would pursue it if I did not get satisfaction from Albee Baby
who were informed to contact me immediately. I do not know if the
email I got was just a belated email or was the response that Yahoo
promised. I think the latter because I doubt I would have heard
from Albee Baby otherwise.
I returned the email to Yahoo stating that the package had been delivered and I considered the issue closed but held a grudge against the unprofessional behavior of Albee Baby. I responded to Albee Baby indicating that there would be no future orders and therefore no future problems.
I spoke too soon. I showed up Monday (after the Thursday
delivery) to pick up the package. Have you ever shipped anything
by UPS or FedEx? Mostly they will refuse to ship anything in a
standard cardboard manufacturers box. There are exceptions.
Much computer equipment expects to be shipped. These items come
in double-layered, double-strength cardboard boxes with the product
well insulated by styrofoam or air-filled plastic bags or whatever it
otherwise takes to guarantee the integrity of their product. You
have seen these things, I think. The boxes are so strong that you
will have trouble getting rid of them except to have the trash man take
the whole box.
But baby car seats are not computer equipment. The box is a
two-color printed, single-strength, thin cardboard. These boxes
are strong enough to be stacked in a semi-trailer and make it to the
merchant in acceptable condition. They are not intended to be
shipped by UPS or FedEx. If you took one to their offices, they
would laugh and sell you a strong enough shipping box. Apparently
the shipping companies are more generous to their larger shipping
customers than they are to individuals.
There the box sat. Obviously UPS had done a good job of
taking care of the box. It was a little lop-sided but not
damaged. It looked like it had just come from someone's
attic. You know, you remove the staples holding it shut against
intruders. Maybe remove some shipping tape, and open the
top. First the two in one direction and then the two in the other
direction. Then you fight with the packing material to get at your
new-found toy.
You do not go through this process when you reload the box with
other belongings. If you are smart, you have a tape dispenser
such as available at Costco or like the movers use. If you are
not smart, you fold the 4 sides back over each other until you come the
4th side which you bend over the first one to make locking top.
This is expedient but hurts the box in two ways. The first is
that there is no lateral support for the box. That is, there is
no support against sideways movement. There was when the top
flaps
abutted each other. Now you can squish the box diagonally in
either direction. The second is that you have permanently
destroyed any chance of correcting this abuse when you folded the 4th
flap over itself. But you could come close if you were smart
enough.
That was how this box was: 4 sides folded one at a time.
I had obviously been shipped a returned product at best.
Hopefully not well-used. The bottom was folded properly but the
originals staples were missing and the tape was obviously not the
original. The top had several pieces of tape crossed over it like
someone wanted to cover their tracks -- as if the casual observer would
not have noticed the box abuse.
I was dismayed but two things happened very rapidly. Another
person from our park drove by with a small pickup truck. He was
willing to drive the box back to Mexico -- and pay the duties if the
Mexican Border Inspection caught him. Since Robert was leaving
immediately, I prayed for the baby car seat to be in better shape than
its box. UPS cause the box damage? Not a chance.
Oh!
UPS will damage boxes but the damage is not due to stupid
repackaging, UPS will do their best to maintain the integrity of
the
box sides and taping.
The second thing was when I picked up the box to put it into the
truck, metal baby car seat pieces fell out of the bottom of the
box. I tossed them back into the top of the box and prayed for
the best.
When I got home today and checked, the woman said that the product
was acceptable and not to pursue replacement. So this is the end
of the story. I do a lot of online buying and receiving
products. Maybe 40 in a year. This is the worst experience
I have had with an online merchant. Most online companies make an
attempt at customer satisfaction and do not intentionally alienate
their
customers by hiding their shipping information. They also do
their best to maintain quality shipments because they know that online
customers are more likely than store customers to return
products. If the product return is the merchant's fault. He
will end up paying shipping costs both ways. Worse, places
like Yahoo Stores keep score cards of the associated merchants. A
couple of complaints and they lose a star. I hope Albee
Baby sees lots of stars -- but none on their score card.
This is one of many companies that really want to hurt you just for using their web site.
First off, I have stopped shipping in the stores because they have
stopped carrying many of the products that I need or the products are
located someplace only known to little gremlins -- not the store
"help". I am persistent. It took many times going into a
Home Depot and trying to buy something, and discovering that they no
longer carried it. Easy things. Things that I previously
bought. No more. For example, brass wing nuts. I use these
on my threaded battery terminals.
So I try their web pages. Worse than the store. I search
for "vertical blinds". I get every kind of blinds that they sell
-- and anything "vertical". It gets worse. When I do get
vertical blinds only, they break down into two, inseparable categories:
sets and kits. I think I can figure this out but I send an email
information request to verify that "set" contains just the slats and
nothing else. I presume this because the price is lower. If
the price were the same or higher, I would presume that a "set" were a
package containing everything I need.
Sending Home Depot an email is a really bad mistake.
I got a response having nothing to do with my request. It was
just a canned response acting like someone was at the other end but
this is really not the case. The response was how to view their
site after inserting ZIP code. I really do hope that the
definition of "set" is not geographically sensitive. I sent
another request. Ignored. Or so I thought.
Later that day I get an email from Home Depot saying that I won a
$1,000 gift card, same as cash. Just take their satisfaction
survey. Great, they knew they had alienated a customer so they
are trying to make amends. Probably a few strings attached.
I take the link. They pretend to be a secure site and ask for my
name, address, phone number, etc. I get suspicious when they
require cell phone number. Now I know it is a scam -- but I want
to know how far they are going with this and a guaranteed $1,000 with a
chance for $100,000 is good bait.
Here is how the scam works:
I cannot warn you strongly enough about these scams because
merchants that you may trust are betraying that very trust to gain a
few cents from a marketing company that cares less about you that the
host company. Solution: always give out a phony cell phone number. Two,
never visit the original company either online nor in person ever
again. They may never know you are boycotting them but you have
the satisfaction of knowing that you found a better and more honest
merchant somewhere else. In the case of Home Depot, the other
merchant is Lowe's.
Remember when you dialed '1' and got AT&T long distance and the
court changed this to force 'equal access'? This was back in 1982
and was a good thing. The big players at that time were AT&T,
Sprint, and MCI. I made the wrong choice. I chose
MCI.
In those days, calls were rounded to the next minute and cost $.32 per
minute. This was enough except if you had a bad connection or an
otherwise unacceptable call. Then you called the operator and had
the charge
reversed. I was living in Scottsdale at the time. When the
operator claimed to have removed a call but did not, I just paid my
bills as if the amount were no there. One month only. Then
I switched to Sprint. I started getting MCI bills for $.32 month
after month. I always refuse to pay bills which cost the same as
postage -- especially bills that I do not owe.
This monthly billing occurred every month until I moved to Florida
in 1989. They continued for the next 4 years in FLorida and
started to appear in San Jose. Then one month I got a bill
stating that they would defer future bills until the amount exceeded
two dollars. That would never happen as the account had been
closed 10 years before.
So much for MCI. But then the company I worked for started a
conspiracy or something with MCI and we got better rates using
a corporate plan. I signed up for this as the rate really was
much
better and I presumed my employer would add some weight to make them
honest. They promised a single account no matter how many phone
numbers. They never did get it straight. I got bills
enumerated each month on 8 1/ 2 by 11 paper using so much paper that
you could have made a tree out of it within a year. One bill each
month for each of my two numbers. I pay all of my bills online
with Checkfree. Trying to pay numbers separately was a
pain. So I alternated payments between the accounts. This
kept the total amount due paid but a credit would show up on one
account with an equal debit on the other. They never did combine
the accounts. When I got so frustrated with this, I switched to
another service. This caused worse problems. After about a
year, and many phone calls, most threatening me, they paid me the
credit and stopped billing the debit. Eventually the phone calls
went away. $12.93 can not be worth that much.
Never again long distance service with MCI. But then came cell
phones and calling cards. Necessary for RV life. Well, I
knew better than to try MCI cell phones but their rates on calling
cards looked OK and Costco sold them. Bad mistake -- both times.
The first time a couple of years ago, I gave cards to my daughters
so that they could call me. Megan did OK. Bree claimed to
not have used hers but when she gave it back it did not work. I
checked: MCI canceled the card for non-use. No. They would no
refund the minutes. No. They would not extend the
minutes. No more MCI calling cards.
But again this year, with MCI having gone through so many changes
and Costco promoting their cards, I again made the mistake of buying
their cards. One for Megan and one for me for International
Cards. They were much cheaper than anything else around. I
thought. No. I discovered this when I ran out of minutes --
too soon. I called to buy more minutes and verify rates.
When I was buying more minutes I asked about the rates. they were
charging exactly double the Costco quoted rates and more than double
what my AT&T calling card charged for the same calls. But I
had given my credit card number already they immediately charged the
not yet authorized minutes to my card. Talking with a supervisor
did not change this.
So I shall give Megan the recharged card and not touch anything MCI
ever again. The disputed rates? 7 cents per minute on local
call which I get 3 cents per minute on my AT&T card. 17 cents
per minute to Mexico where I get 5 cents per minute on my tMobile phone
service. See -- more than double!
There is so much wrong here that I do not know where to start. But, start we must. Many years ago when my children were small, I opened up accounts for them at Southwest Savings and Loan. We all know the scam that happened here. The banks got Congress to declare that the Savings and Loan industry irresponsible and declared the industry bankrupt. The banks then bought the savings and loans for pennies on the dollar with the taxpayers paying the remainder. The biggest coup in the financial history of our country. Southwest was transferred around a few times and ended up with Bank of America.
We were lucky, sort of, when we moved to San Jose, a Bank of America branch was located at the corner of McKee and Toyan. Next to our apartment. Not so lucky. My daughter came back from the bank: they refused to accept her deposit – they were not her branch. I tried and got the same response: a branch was not required to accept a deposit from another branch. Even a cash deposit. They told me that someday this would be corrected.
I moved her account to another bank. I forget its name but it is now Washington Mutual. It is 20 years later. No major problems. Any of their branches accept deposits regardless of the originating branch. They also cash checks at any branch regardless of the originating branch.
So, five years after the first problem when a friend of mine sent me a check written on a branch of the Bank of America, I again tried to cash it at the neighborhood branch. Not a chance. I thought maybe the McKee branch was just ignorant of the law requiring them to honor their own checks. The branch near my office also refused to cash the check: Outside their district.
Another 5 years go by and another friend writes me a check against her account at Bank of America. Her account is across town at another branch of B of A. Same District. I go to the neighborhood branch: they will not cash it. Their claim is that it is not their branch and so it is another bank and they do not have to honor the check. I insisted. They called the police.
Only the cross town branch was required to honor the check. I took the check to my own bank, Bank of the West. No problem.
I have learned from 20 years experience that just entering a B of A branch will raise my blood pressure and that nothing positive will come of the experience. I now cash my B of A checks at the local Washington Mutual branch. And I do not have an account at Washington Mutual. I just believe their ads. I know better than to believe any B of A ad.
I have no problem with Camping World stores or their "President's Club". Some people do. My only problem with Camping World is their online store. After waiting a week and emailing why they were not shipping my order, I finally got an email saying that my shipping address was not recorded with my credit card. They could have indicated that they match addresses on their web page. They could have immediately denied the order. They could have even replied to my email. Responsible web sites do this. Not Camping World. They waited until I was ready to cancel the order and go elsewhere when I received an email ignoring everything else and saying something about not being able to verify the shipping address. If I had not already guessed the problem, I would not have understood their email.
So. If you want to buy at Camping World, and I do, fine. You have been warned about their web site.
If you work in a cow barn, you forget that good air does not smell. Enough said or I get angry.
I put a quarter in the Yuma Kinko’s soda machine. It returned with a clunk. The guy next to me asked if I had been to Fry’s grocery. I had just returned from Fry’s. It was a Canadian quarter – worth about 15 cents. Back when I was a kid, the difference in the Canadian dollar was about 2 cents. Now it is 35 cents. Then there was no exchange on coins. Now there is. Except at Fry’s. I returned to Fry’s and demanded they exchange the Canadian quarters for American (we won't go there). I will not shop at a store that intentionally defrauds me.
But then in Yuma the Wal-Mart just expanded to being a Super Center. Their food prices are so much lower than Fry’s that there is no more an excuse to go to the downtown Fry’s. Think not? Price the limes and the spices. Not even close.
When I got married, my wife and I drove to Florida. On our wedding night, we stopped at the downtown Indianapolis Holiday Inn. The room was mediocre but the air conditioner worked just fine. It was 55 in the room. It would not adjust with the thermostat. We called the front desk multiple times. No answer. Finally about 3 am I got an answer and nothing happened. An hour later, someone abruptly barged through the door without knocking and without any other warning. Ignoring my wife and me in bed walked to the thermostat and declared it out of order. We complained to the front desk in the morning. No comp’ed room. Threats of calling the police. We left. That was August 15, 1970. I have never stayed at a Holiday Inn since. When I found that Embassy Suites was owned by Holiday, I stopped going to them. When I found the Forum in Munich was Holiday, I went across the street to the Munich City Hilton. When I interviewed in Cherry Hill and they set me up at the Holiday Inn, I walked across to the Hilton.
I wrote to Holiday and complained. I wrote on my 10 and 20-year anniversaries. Not much in the way of a response. Understandable but I just wanted to remind them that it does not take much to lose a customer and the customer may be gone for a long time. I travel 365 days a year. Mostly in the RV but when a motel is needed, it is never a Holiday Inn.
Rudeness and non-hospitality in a hospitality industry should not be rewarded.
See my discussion of CPAP machines.
Since my Home Sleep CPAP did not work on the specified 12v, I took it back to Home Sleep, the insurance-designated supplier. They told me to use an inverter: Home Sleep would not send it to be repaired or replaced. Home Sleep said that Respironics had no warrantee. I used the inverter for the life of the unit. I held it against Respironics for selling junk. I held it against Home Sleep for not honoring the warrantee (there is a two year warrantee on that unit from Respironics) and against my employer for not paying for the unit in the first place.
Now is when I find out what CPAPs cost and worse. My insurance company, which has approved the purchase, then does not pay for it due to a coverage problem introduced by the insurance agent (Hewitt). Home Sleep bills me for $900 – twice the retail price. It takes 2 years to get the insurance (really my employer) to agree to pay the $900. It takes 5 more months to actually get the check.
Now the $900 is really a rip off. The same unit is available retail from other suppliers for $400. How do I know? Remember the disaster? I had to buy a new CPAP and could not go to the insurance company while they were going bankrupt and disputing the first machine. I went online and discovered CPAP Supply, Inc. Mike there gives a good price and helps select a good unit.
In any case, a friend loaned me his machine for a few months until I got organized. Good friend. His was a different brand but the headpiece I really liked: no mask, just a tube over my head with soft nosepieces fitting my nostrils. Thanks, Sheldon.
When I bought a CPAP machine on my own, I investigated the brands and suppliers. That is when I discovered Home Sleep (now Sleep Med) had charged twice the retail price; Home Sleep lied about no warrantee (All Respironics CPAPs have 2-year warrantee). I also learned that only Respironics made all of its units to work on 12v (nominally).
So now I have a new Respironics unit. It works off 12v reluctantly. Reluctantly? If the 12v goes too low, it turns off. This is good but it must be unplugged and re-plugged to get it to work again. Just to make sure, I have new insurance, a new sleep study, and a new unit on the way. When this one fails, there will be another to replace it.
Lifeguard Insurance went bankrupt and then Hewitt decided to investigate my claim. Real George of them. About the same time, Home Sleep sends me a letter saying they will accept the retail price ($450) of the unit as full payment. Since I had to replace the unit, the $900 gets split with Home Sleep (now Sleep Med) and the new unit. I come out even other than harassed by Sleep Med for 2 years and the hassle with Hewitt for 2 years. It turns out that Hewitt is not paying the $900 – my employer, Siemens, is paying for it. This is wrong but I will accept the $900 from anyone (which does not show up until May).
I pay Home Sleep on the promise of the check.
Had Home Sleep honored the Respironics Warrantee, I would have tried harder to get the insurance company to pay them. I tried hard enough: every couple of months I would call Hewitt (Agent for my employer, Siemens) and they would claim to correct the coverage problem with the insurance company. Home Sleep rather than going to Lifeguard started billing me. Worse off, when I called Home Sleep, the woman called me nasty names, including ‘deadbeat’.
Had Home Sleep gone after the Lifeguard or the Hewitt, maybe they would have been paid. Had Home Sleep been timely, maybe they would have been paid. The first I heard from Home Sleep in August -- 8 months after the defective machine was obtained.
So I call Sleep Med and the woman assures me that the will close the account with the credit card payment of $450. I think I am finished. My blood pressure is so high my doctor prescribes meds.
In March (this is the second year) a fellow named Hank from Sleep Med calls to my daughter's cell phone and wants the $900. My daughter reads me the riot act for passing out her number. I did not do this. I return the call to Hank who understands that Sleep Med does do the Retail Price deal ($450) but does not have the paperwork indicating I paid. He turns friendly, says he will look into it, and offers to compensate me for the problems with supplies or something. I do not pursue this but these communication things happen. I promise to ask for presents at a later time.
In May Hank again calls my daughter on her cell
phone demanding the other $450. Now this is
about as dishonest as it gets. I have
not called him back and I guess I shall not until he calls me
directly. I hate dishonest businesses. Maybe
they are just incompetent. Maybe
that is whey Sleep Med bought out Home
Sleep. I just wish they would honor
their product warrantees and honor their own agreements.
Sometimes I really wonder what the world
would be like if another 10% of the people were competent and honest.
Wow. Just when I think I have seen it all. And I always
shopped at Peneys at the ChrisTown Mall in Phoenix when my kids were
younger. How they have
changed. James Cash would roll over in his grave.
Let's start at the beginning. A friend asked me to order the
Disney Princess 25-piece Play set from Penney’s. I went to the
web
site. $39.99 and free shipping
on orders over $50. We added
several clothing items to take the order to $60. When I got to
the checkout free shipping had
disappeared. I went through the
trouble of registering and addressing and ordering and filling out the
comment section asking about the missing free shipping.
The order was accepted and I got a page saying to "Click Here after
waiting a while" to see the status. I clicked for over an
hour. Nothing changed.
The next day I went back. Red letters: Order History
Lost. I tried to replace the order. The price went up to
$49,99 and no offer of shipping. I called the 800 Customer
Service offer. They informed me that there was a secret code
found only on the first page that I had to submit to get the free
shipping. Of all of the asinine gimmicks. In any case I got
a lecture on how I never order anything online or I would know their
tricks. After the lecture, the woman hung up on me. If you
have read my pages you know that I order thousands of dollars of
merchandise every year from many different merchants.
The next day I emailed Customer Service -- two addresses. No
record of any order ever. No, such a hang up could not have
occurred because they do not tolerate that behavior from their customer
service call
center.
I tried to find the Disney Play set with PriceGrabber and a
few
other similar sites. There it was: $47.42 with tax and shipping
included. But only at Penney’s. I followed the link.
I
was quickly back to the $49.99 plus tax and shipping! Not really
Bait and Switch. I do not know what you call it. But the
price just shot up $14.00. 30%!
I went through the web sites to see if they had a price policy fraud
link. PriceGrabber says that it does but I could not find
it. I emailed them anyway. Same for the other storefront
sites.
My friend really wants that playset: I came back again the third
day. The same fraudulent Pricegrabber pricing links to
the JCPenney site. Does not anyone even try to be honest any more?
In 1982 and 1983 I would take my daughters to Tucson for holiday weekends. We would tour the area and enjoy the pool. We stayed at Traveler’s, Embassy Suites, other places. One day we stayed at the new place in town: Inn Suites off of Ina road. The rate was the same as at Embassy: $49/night.
We were promised a suite. It was more like a room with a kitchenette. I slept on the sofa. There was no real breakfast. In the morning we complained and were given a new bigger room. It smelled like urine and we moved to the Embassy Suites after complaining that Inn Suites was not in the same league as their competition: Motel 6. I wrote Best Western who owned the Inn Suites at the time. I got a letter from Inn Suites with a coupon for a free night. I discarded that. Is there any reason that I would want to re-experience the same trash? I don’t think so.
A few months later we ran into a Best Western person at the Best Western Motel in Flagstaff. I told him of the incident, he recalled the letter and told me that Inn Suites had been told to refund my money –not send a coupon. That was the last straw. Inn Suites is on my permanent list.
In 1967, I used Gillette Super Blue Blades to shave. Stainless was hitting the marketplace. Schick had a promotion: buy the pack and if it was not the best shave, return the blades and get a dollar bonus. I cut my face badly because of a defect in the edge. I had the scar for years. I sent the blades in and not only did I not get a refund; I did not get the dollar. I received instead a letter of apology. They were no longer offering the dollar. Maybe they had too many takers. I no longer had any proof of the offer; I just stopped buying anything Schick. That was 40 years ago. Just think of all of the razors and blades they did not sell. When Eversharp owned them, I did not buy Eversharp. Now I use the Gillette Mach 3. I do not know if it is the best because the store primarily only sells Schick and Gillette and that leaves me no choices. I have not seen Wilkinson for a while.
With Sears it took a really long time to stop going there. I kept butting my head on the wall until I guess it broke. It all started when Carole and I were in Madison, Wisconsin. The Sears store there was progressive for 1970: they accepted Master Card. Well, almost accepted. What Sears did was to accept your Master Card but then open a Sears account and bill you from it. We must have had a dozen Sears accounts as we would send the check to Sears but keep using the Master Card.
We moved to Illinois. The Bloomington Sears store did not accept Master Card. We used one of the legacy Sears cards. I bought a drill for the rec room I was building in the basement. The drill burned out in a couple of days. I took it back. You know that Sears tool lifetime guarantee? That only applies to hand tools. The store refused to replace the drill. It was worn out. I went to the store manager who permitted me to buy the next model up crediting the original price. I did that but also went to Penney’s and bought a good drill.
We moved to Phoenix. They did not take Master Card. A couple of years in, I bought a pair of shorts on the Bloomington Sears Card. You know where it says “Good at Any Sears Store Anywhere”? That was a lie. Since this was before computer networking, each store maintained its own filing for the cards it issued. The store that issued the card had to be open for the store you were at to verify the purchase. The shorts went through OK. I forgot about them. If a bill came for $15 shorts, Carole would have paid it.
A couple of months later, Sears had a sale on their 10” table saw. I went down and bought one -- charged on my "Good At Any Sears store Anywhere" charge card. They were to deliver it the following week. I forget which day but I took it off work because Sears will not tell you when they are coming. I waited. I called in the morning and was told that it was on the truck and would be delivered by 3 pm. After 3 I called back and was told it was refused but I could come down and pay cash. The credit was refused. I really needed the saw. This would be the last purchase from them ever. Why was the credit refused? I have always maintained the best possible credit.
A month later Carole started getting harassing calls from
someone claiming we owed $15.00 sporting goods plus penalties.
They
refused to call when I was home. They
started calling her every day. I
called the manager of the Sears store. It
turned out the Bloomington store had honored the $15
shorts charge but
they did not have an address for us. When
the saw purchase came through, they collected the address
and refused the saw purchase. Sears could
have called and told me about the problem rather than lying about the
saw being
on the truck. A day off work was worth
several hundred dollars. I told the
manager that I would be happy to pay the original bill when properly
presented. He also sent me a new card from
the Metro
Center Sears store -- he assured me that we would not have the same
problems. He actually told me that I would never again have that
sort of problem and to contact his office if there were a problem.
The next week some guy came out with the bill in hand and a security guard, maybe sheriff, behind him. I thanked him for the bill and told him that I would pay it within 30 days. He screamed. He insisted that I pay him in cash then and there. I read him the part that said I had 30 days and he and his bodyguard went away. I paid it the next day. So much for Sears.
Well, not quite. We moved to Dallas in 1977. Sears had their best microwave on sale. It was the last day of the sale. Just like the table saw sale. I took Bree down to the Sears store with me and we bought one of the microwaves. They had to approve the credit card. It took three hours. The Dallas store finally gave up on waiting for Phoenix Metro and issued us a new card. We went home with the new card and the new microwave. A month later we got the bill for the microwave on the new card and promptly paid it. Two months later we got a bill for the microwave on the Phoenix card with service charges and a demand notice. We sent a copy of the canceled check and the Dallas billing and both cards to Phoenix.
In 1993, Megan and I moved to San Jose. We went down to the Sears store and bought an over-under washer-dryer. I told the salesman that I was hesitant to do this based upon my previous Sears store experience. I thought in 20 years, maybe Sears had gotten the idea. They delivered the unit and I installed it in our utility closet. It just fit. The reason for buying this model is that it was the largest unit that would fit in our closet. I tossed in a load of laundry and fired it up. Literally. Black smoke poured out everywhere. I called the store and asked them to pick it up. They told me that they do not do that: talk to service on a weekday. Monday, I called service. They would send out a repairman some time during the next week and he would repair it. I told him that the unit was out in front. There would be no repair. If they wanted it back, come get it before someone stole it or the trash man collected it.
I have bought a few photo sets from sears but I no
longer have any need for any of their products.
In 1982 I attended a marketing event where Sears was doing a survey
on their store popularity and advertisements. At the very end of
the event they let out that their concern was over competition from
Kmart. I was really astounded. I had thought at the time
that the Kmart image was seriously below that of Sears. Now Kmart
owns Sears. It seems appropriate to me. I guess someone was
smarter than me to see problems ahead but not smart enough to prevent
them.
In 1967, I failed out of college. In those days there were no VISA or Master Charge. You carried a collection of credit cards, one for each company with which you desired business. While a University of Wisconsin student, I had wangled Skelly and Phillips 66 gasoline credit cards. I got a job at Chrysler in Detroit. In Michigan I needed different cards. I applied to Gulf and got a card immediately. I applied to Shell. No response. I applied to Shell 3 times. No response. I had wanted Shell because they were everywhere. If they wanted to ignore me, it was their loss. I drove a lot. I still do. This is the reason for my RV life style.
After 18 months at Chrysler, I returned to the university to complete my degree. Wonder of wonders -- I heard from Shell. Not a reply to my applications. No. I received a letter indicating that I was now entering the professional world of highly compensated people and as such deserved a Shell card. Return the letter and they would immediately send me such a card. This was grating to me. When I wanted their card and had an income, they ignored me. Now that the university was selling its student lists, I received a card as junk mail. The letter I returned was a description of why I would never accept a card from them. I turned off Shell. I do not see Shell stations.
In 1987, 20 years later, my kids and I were on vacation in Wyoming and desperate for gas. The Datsun 200SX had a talker and it had complained for 20 minutes that it was about to die for lack of fuel. We got into Jackson and passed a Shell station. I did not see it. My kids yelled out at me. I looked back and sure enough we had passed one. My kids did learn that there are some things I simply do not see. You would not believe the headache I got while pumping that gas.
The other day at Sam’s Club, I picked up a pack of tuna cans. You know Sam’s Club and Costco: nothing comes small. If it is a small can, they package a group together. So it is with Tuna. I always liked the “Sorry Charlie” ads and Sam’s Club sells good things generally so I thought I was getting good food.
I was wrong. After I opened one can and drained the water, less than half a can of tuna was left. Worse, it was just mush. I thought I had a bad can. I opened a second: same results, I added them together to make tuna salad for my sandwich. Not rotten but not good. I added a can of Kirkland (Costco) tuna and improved the mix.
Then I went to the Star-Kist web site and sent in a customer comment form. I even included the code off the bottom of the cans. I received a nice (glib) email back saying that sometimes things get past their quality control and they were sorry and they would mail me coupons to make up the loss.
They did not do this. Instead they sent me a coupon for two packages of tuna. Not 8 coupons to replace the 8 bad cans of product. Not 1 coupon to replace 8 cans of product. 1 coupon for 2 packages. I emailed back with an appropriate response: you sold me bad product and when confronted, sent me a piece of paper not worth going to the store to redeem. Companies like this deserve to be put on my permanent grudge list. Star-Kist has sent me a check for the other tins: the company made good on the money loss.
What now? After all, they paid me for the money.
I met
a couple in Sam's Club checking out the tuna. I told them my
experience. They said that they had had the same experience with
the standard tuna and now only bought the albacore tuna. This is
wrong. If a company puts out a bad product and you buy it and do
not like it, you do not buy from the same company the higher priced
product. This is the absolute last thing that you should do as it
encourages the expansion of both products!
I did it again. October, 2005, I went to Sam's Club with some
friends and bought some Star-Kist tuna. People had told me that
the Albacore was better than the cheaper stuff. This is the only
brand Sam's Club carries. This stuff is indeed cheaper than the
Star-Kist regular. The next time I shall go without: the
Star-Kist albacore is about the same quality as I would expect from the
cheapest can in a supermarket. I mean this stuff is really
bad. I shall not complain to Star-Kist this time. Just
complain here. After all there is the old adage: "Fool me once,
shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."
Just to make an objective comparison so you know that this is not a
only gripe. If I open a Costco-brand albacore, I drain the can of
a little water, add some mayonnaise to lubricate it, some celery seed
and pickle relish to add a little flavor, and some cheese, I have
enough for two sandwiches and some crackers. If I try the same
with the Star-Kist ALbacore, I drain a lot of sick-looking water, and
have enough for one sandwich and a couple of crackers. There is
enough water added to the can to make up for enough tune for an entire
sandwich. When I pay for tuna, I should get tuna. When I
pay for water, it should come in clear bottles and be labeled as
water. I do not want to blame the runs I got later that day on
the tuna. I do not think it was the pickle relish or the
mayonnaise either.
I notice that Sam's Club is selling only the plastic bags of
Star-Kist now. Their cans are Bumblebee. I am still gun shy
of tuna from Sam's Club so I have no opinion of Bumblebee.