Friday, April 20, 2007
Financial institutions f*ck up
We put a great deal of trust in our financial institutions; we have to, because with the exception of a few holdouts who still keep their $ in their mattresses we've all handed over our entire accumulated funds to them. The gov't is aware of this, which is why so many laws apply to such companies... except for PayPal (which acts as a bank but isn't regulated like one), but that's a whole 'nother essay. The companies themselves are aware of the importance of dotting every "i" and crossing every "t," and so go to great lengths to perform each function in a proper manner... usually. Their failures, therefore, are particularly dismaying. I've got 2 such issues currently in progress:
I belong to a military credit union, a holdover from when I was a military dependent; this is mostly a good thing, as it provides even more benefits than a regular credit union, 1 of which is that I've had a free credit card from them for about 20 years. A couple of months ago, they sent me a letter informing me that they were inexplicably eliminating gold cards, and thus that I had to choose between several equally worthless types of "reward cards" to replace my current one; given my lengthy history of things going wrong, I held onto that letter in case of trouble... which provided me with the # to call them with when, well past the date that my new card should've shown up, I still hadn't gotten it. The guy I talked to apologetically explained that there'd been some delays getting the new cards out, but that I should have mine within a few days; this was a little grim, especially since the old cards were going to be cancelled en masse whether we'd gotten the new ones or not, and some folks might not HAVE any other cards, but I resigned myself to waiting. And waiting. Finally, I called again a few days ago, and was informed that it'd been so long since even the delayed cards had been sent out that, after a check to see if someone had tried to activate or use the one they'd sent me (they hadn't), they had to CANCEL that account and issue me a card with a whole new #. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Wait, that's not all!! Yesterday, I got a card from them... with the OLD #. There were no dates on any of the enclosed letters, or on the envelope either (they have the special non-profit thing on there that doesn't get postmarked), so I have no way of knowing if the card was sent 6 weeks ago when it should have been and had been floating around the postal system in the interim, or had just been sent out instead of a card with a new #, or been sent some random time in between; this totally violates professional business practice, and might even be illegal for financial companies' paperwork. I called them today, to discover that my old # has in fact been cancelled, and that, brace yourself, they have no way to find out when the card with the old # was sent out...???!!! So, now I have TWO versions of the card with the old #, neither of which are good, and have to wait at least 2 weeks before getting the card with the new #... all because they decided to be the only credit card issuers on Earth to no longer offer a gold card. Oh, and the final blow; according to the supervisor that I asked to speak to, everyone EXCEPT the idiot who cancelled my old # was aware that the delays had continued, and if I'd spoken to anyone else I would've been told to wait a little longer, and thus would be DONE now instead of having to continue waiting for their next blunder.
Even scarier, for sheer ineptitude, is my ongoing problem with USAA, which usually provides top-notch service in all their departments (I have investments, insurance and a credit card with them), but this time have really embarrassed themselves: I'm signed up to use their website, and recently they started asking the members to create login names to use instead of their member #'s to access their accounts, which is a good idea security-wise, and not rocket science to implement... right? I created a login name without a hitch, but the next time I tried to access my account it accepted the login and then took me to the screen asking me to CREATE a login name. After several trips through the add-a-login system failed to convince it that I HAD a login name, I called the website support #... and they had no idea what was causing it to misbehave. They talked me through all sorts of activity on their site, but couldn't figure out what was going on; finally, I had to get off the phone, but they were supposed to call me within the next couple of days to let me know it was fixed and what the bug had been... and they never contacted me.
I finally just went to log in and see if it was fixed... and it refused my login. After a protracted struggle with security questions (which they later agreed should NOT have been asked under those circumstances), it sent my login info to the email account I had on file with them; I discovered that my login name had been CHANGED without my knowledge or consent, and without them even TELLING me... and neither my phone nor my email had been out of service in the intervening time. I called them again, and they couldn't determine what had happened or why; they assured me that the system couldn't have altered my login name, which any 6 year old knows is baloney, and theorized that one of the tech guys might have done it because the underscore in my chosen login name was causing a problem... which is pitiful if true and still no excuse to change my login and not TELL me. Once I realized that the girl I was talking to couldn't help, I requested a callback from a supervisor for the next day (today).
The supervisor seemed genuinely appalled at how far afield from USAA's normal treatment of members the tech department had gone, gave me his private # so that I can deal exclusively with someone who knows my case (classy), and asked me to log into my account and see if I could change my login name back to the original one; although it had let me log in with the new name and use the account without problems the night before, today when I logged in it sent me directly to the "create a login name" screen... and of course we had no idea why. He had me go through a bunch of trial and error stuff on the site to no avail, and then went and got a programmer; she had me do even MORE trial and error, also to no avail. Now, as so often happens, an entire tech department is going to have to be called into action to fix a glitch that appears to only exist for MY account; the supervisor's supposed to call me back within a few days with a full report... I can't wait to hear it. He also informed me that, not only was he going to track back to whoever said they'd call me and didn't, and whoever changed my login name without informing me, with thorough squaring away to result, but that there was going to be a training exercise about this particular problem so that the next time it happens (which it probably won't, unless I have a long-lost twin somewhere) they'll all know how to handle it properly.
Un-frigging-believable.
I belong to a military credit union, a holdover from when I was a military dependent; this is mostly a good thing, as it provides even more benefits than a regular credit union, 1 of which is that I've had a free credit card from them for about 20 years. A couple of months ago, they sent me a letter informing me that they were inexplicably eliminating gold cards, and thus that I had to choose between several equally worthless types of "reward cards" to replace my current one; given my lengthy history of things going wrong, I held onto that letter in case of trouble... which provided me with the # to call them with when, well past the date that my new card should've shown up, I still hadn't gotten it. The guy I talked to apologetically explained that there'd been some delays getting the new cards out, but that I should have mine within a few days; this was a little grim, especially since the old cards were going to be cancelled en masse whether we'd gotten the new ones or not, and some folks might not HAVE any other cards, but I resigned myself to waiting. And waiting. Finally, I called again a few days ago, and was informed that it'd been so long since even the delayed cards had been sent out that, after a check to see if someone had tried to activate or use the one they'd sent me (they hadn't), they had to CANCEL that account and issue me a card with a whole new #. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Wait, that's not all!! Yesterday, I got a card from them... with the OLD #. There were no dates on any of the enclosed letters, or on the envelope either (they have the special non-profit thing on there that doesn't get postmarked), so I have no way of knowing if the card was sent 6 weeks ago when it should have been and had been floating around the postal system in the interim, or had just been sent out instead of a card with a new #, or been sent some random time in between; this totally violates professional business practice, and might even be illegal for financial companies' paperwork. I called them today, to discover that my old # has in fact been cancelled, and that, brace yourself, they have no way to find out when the card with the old # was sent out...???!!! So, now I have TWO versions of the card with the old #, neither of which are good, and have to wait at least 2 weeks before getting the card with the new #... all because they decided to be the only credit card issuers on Earth to no longer offer a gold card. Oh, and the final blow; according to the supervisor that I asked to speak to, everyone EXCEPT the idiot who cancelled my old # was aware that the delays had continued, and if I'd spoken to anyone else I would've been told to wait a little longer, and thus would be DONE now instead of having to continue waiting for their next blunder.
Even scarier, for sheer ineptitude, is my ongoing problem with USAA, which usually provides top-notch service in all their departments (I have investments, insurance and a credit card with them), but this time have really embarrassed themselves: I'm signed up to use their website, and recently they started asking the members to create login names to use instead of their member #'s to access their accounts, which is a good idea security-wise, and not rocket science to implement... right? I created a login name without a hitch, but the next time I tried to access my account it accepted the login and then took me to the screen asking me to CREATE a login name. After several trips through the add-a-login system failed to convince it that I HAD a login name, I called the website support #... and they had no idea what was causing it to misbehave. They talked me through all sorts of activity on their site, but couldn't figure out what was going on; finally, I had to get off the phone, but they were supposed to call me within the next couple of days to let me know it was fixed and what the bug had been... and they never contacted me.
I finally just went to log in and see if it was fixed... and it refused my login. After a protracted struggle with security questions (which they later agreed should NOT have been asked under those circumstances), it sent my login info to the email account I had on file with them; I discovered that my login name had been CHANGED without my knowledge or consent, and without them even TELLING me... and neither my phone nor my email had been out of service in the intervening time. I called them again, and they couldn't determine what had happened or why; they assured me that the system couldn't have altered my login name, which any 6 year old knows is baloney, and theorized that one of the tech guys might have done it because the underscore in my chosen login name was causing a problem... which is pitiful if true and still no excuse to change my login and not TELL me. Once I realized that the girl I was talking to couldn't help, I requested a callback from a supervisor for the next day (today).
The supervisor seemed genuinely appalled at how far afield from USAA's normal treatment of members the tech department had gone, gave me his private # so that I can deal exclusively with someone who knows my case (classy), and asked me to log into my account and see if I could change my login name back to the original one; although it had let me log in with the new name and use the account without problems the night before, today when I logged in it sent me directly to the "create a login name" screen... and of course we had no idea why. He had me go through a bunch of trial and error stuff on the site to no avail, and then went and got a programmer; she had me do even MORE trial and error, also to no avail. Now, as so often happens, an entire tech department is going to have to be called into action to fix a glitch that appears to only exist for MY account; the supervisor's supposed to call me back within a few days with a full report... I can't wait to hear it. He also informed me that, not only was he going to track back to whoever said they'd call me and didn't, and whoever changed my login name without informing me, with thorough squaring away to result, but that there was going to be a training exercise about this particular problem so that the next time it happens (which it probably won't, unless I have a long-lost twin somewhere) they'll all know how to handle it properly.
Un-frigging-believable.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Fun with freebies
If you're still struggling to get your taxes done, this one's for you; if you didn't earn over $52K last year, you can get "free federal online tax preparation" and access to free electronic tax return filing via the IRS website:
http://www.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp
http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html
Several years ago, I went through a period of signing up for tons of freebies and samples online; even then there were forums dedicated to getting free stuff, so all I had to do was click links and fill in my info on the requisite websites. Most of what I got was those little packets of lotion and shampoo, but I got some bigger stuff too: I especially remember a large bag of hard candy from Sweet'N Low (for my husband, who loves saccharine), and, the all-time champion sample, several styrofoam bowls filled with cereal that I'd "designed" with my choice of ingredients from a lengthy menu of options (also for my husband)... and the latter was so good, although very expensive, that we bought it a couple of times when it was on sale and mourned when the website closed down (the idea was brilliant, they just either couldn't figure out how to do it cheaply enough or were too greedy).
I got some unusual freebies from sites eager to bribe people into signing up for their newsletters (I was still willing to acquire more email in those days, when spam wasn't an issue): gardening gloves, a tire pressure gauge, and then there was the ugly pen... I was supposed to get an ugly pen for subscribing to a daily humor thing, and never got it, but the emails were hilarious so I read them anyways; I eventually submitted a funny rant to them, and when they accepted it they sent me a free ugly t-shirt, which was much better than a pen, so I was satisfied (and besides, I'd gotten plenty of pens from other sites).
I ran across a couple of blogs dedicated to samples/freebies a few weeks ago, and dove in and signed up for a bunch of stuff; the bulk of it has been for my mother, who's thrilled to go to her mailbox each day and get something new to try, which provides a valuable distraction from her constant worries about her health (there's no sign of the cancer having returned, but she still has to take blood thinners and deal with issues from the surgery) as well as saving her some $, which will always make her happy. I've received various pet food samples (all of which are being checked to be sure they haven't been recalled, fear not), which I'm testing on the raccoons and skunks to see what they prefer; I got a generous 6 oz of Purina Naturals cat food that the little male skunk and one of the coons have shown a real preference for, but there are still plenty of contenders... and, as crazy as we are about our critter visitors, we'll probably end up buying a bunch of different pet foods so that everyone has their favorite.
Samples seem to be getting bigger, because I've gotten some pretty impressive ones: My husband consumes soy products, so I signed up here
http://www.soyjoy.com/spreadthejoy.aspx
and he got THREE full-sized Soyjoy bars, and liked all 3 flavors enough that he plans to buy more; they're not gross like most nutrition bars, and they're not too sweet like cereal bars, so they make a good on-the-go snack.
The folks at 3M have the honor of being the ones who sent the biggest samples ever; 1st, they sent me (and my mother, from whom I learned to be a habitual note-writer) a package of different kinds of Post-It pads, a dispenser, and a variety of sticky tabs to mark places on paperwork and such... and that seemed pretty impressive, until the doorbell rang Saturday morning because they'd sent me a package too big to fit into my mailbox!! The box is over 26" tall, and I assumed at 1st that it was something my husband had ordered, but MY name was on it, so I opened it up; it contained another set of sticky tabs, a pad in a hard leatherette folder, and a GIANT Post-it pad meant to be stuck on the wall to use for business presentations... the paper for this monster is 20"x23"!! If you'd like a mountain of Post-it products too, sign up here:
http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/perks/perks.html?rp=postit
The best recent sample came from Yogi Tea, which gives you 5 different choices of trios of tea bags to try free:
http://www.yogitea.com/FreeSamples/FreeSamples.asp
My mother, who's notoriously hard to please, was so enthusiastic when she tried the Green Tea Pomegranate flavor, which she was able to drink without honey, that we were very hopeful about our own samples, which came 4 days later (the post office sucks); my husband tried the Classic India Spice flavor, and pronounced it so wonderful as to be "revelatory." I don't drink hot beverages, but I'll tell you that this was the best-smelling stuff ever; I kept sniffing his mug to get hits of the cinnamon, cardamon and ginger, and it's made his entire study smell lovely, in marked contrast to its usual miasma of "eau de colon" (not a typo). He started joking that he'd rub the tea bags on his body to increase his chances of "getting lucky," and then that, given tea's alleged antibacterial powers, he could wash under his arms with them to kill the stink:
Him: The only problem would be that I'd forget and reuse those tea bags.
Me: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!
Him: LOL!!!!!!!
And that, dear friends, is how we had fun with freebies.
http://www.irs.gov/app/freeFile/jsp/index.jsp
http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html
Several years ago, I went through a period of signing up for tons of freebies and samples online; even then there were forums dedicated to getting free stuff, so all I had to do was click links and fill in my info on the requisite websites. Most of what I got was those little packets of lotion and shampoo, but I got some bigger stuff too: I especially remember a large bag of hard candy from Sweet'N Low (for my husband, who loves saccharine), and, the all-time champion sample, several styrofoam bowls filled with cereal that I'd "designed" with my choice of ingredients from a lengthy menu of options (also for my husband)... and the latter was so good, although very expensive, that we bought it a couple of times when it was on sale and mourned when the website closed down (the idea was brilliant, they just either couldn't figure out how to do it cheaply enough or were too greedy).
I got some unusual freebies from sites eager to bribe people into signing up for their newsletters (I was still willing to acquire more email in those days, when spam wasn't an issue): gardening gloves, a tire pressure gauge, and then there was the ugly pen... I was supposed to get an ugly pen for subscribing to a daily humor thing, and never got it, but the emails were hilarious so I read them anyways; I eventually submitted a funny rant to them, and when they accepted it they sent me a free ugly t-shirt, which was much better than a pen, so I was satisfied (and besides, I'd gotten plenty of pens from other sites).
I ran across a couple of blogs dedicated to samples/freebies a few weeks ago, and dove in and signed up for a bunch of stuff; the bulk of it has been for my mother, who's thrilled to go to her mailbox each day and get something new to try, which provides a valuable distraction from her constant worries about her health (there's no sign of the cancer having returned, but she still has to take blood thinners and deal with issues from the surgery) as well as saving her some $, which will always make her happy. I've received various pet food samples (all of which are being checked to be sure they haven't been recalled, fear not), which I'm testing on the raccoons and skunks to see what they prefer; I got a generous 6 oz of Purina Naturals cat food that the little male skunk and one of the coons have shown a real preference for, but there are still plenty of contenders... and, as crazy as we are about our critter visitors, we'll probably end up buying a bunch of different pet foods so that everyone has their favorite.
Samples seem to be getting bigger, because I've gotten some pretty impressive ones: My husband consumes soy products, so I signed up here
http://www.soyjoy.com/spreadthejoy.aspx
and he got THREE full-sized Soyjoy bars, and liked all 3 flavors enough that he plans to buy more; they're not gross like most nutrition bars, and they're not too sweet like cereal bars, so they make a good on-the-go snack.
The folks at 3M have the honor of being the ones who sent the biggest samples ever; 1st, they sent me (and my mother, from whom I learned to be a habitual note-writer) a package of different kinds of Post-It pads, a dispenser, and a variety of sticky tabs to mark places on paperwork and such... and that seemed pretty impressive, until the doorbell rang Saturday morning because they'd sent me a package too big to fit into my mailbox!! The box is over 26" tall, and I assumed at 1st that it was something my husband had ordered, but MY name was on it, so I opened it up; it contained another set of sticky tabs, a pad in a hard leatherette folder, and a GIANT Post-it pad meant to be stuck on the wall to use for business presentations... the paper for this monster is 20"x23"!! If you'd like a mountain of Post-it products too, sign up here:
http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/perks/perks.html?rp=postit
The best recent sample came from Yogi Tea, which gives you 5 different choices of trios of tea bags to try free:
http://www.yogitea.com/FreeSamples/FreeSamples.asp
My mother, who's notoriously hard to please, was so enthusiastic when she tried the Green Tea Pomegranate flavor, which she was able to drink without honey, that we were very hopeful about our own samples, which came 4 days later (the post office sucks); my husband tried the Classic India Spice flavor, and pronounced it so wonderful as to be "revelatory." I don't drink hot beverages, but I'll tell you that this was the best-smelling stuff ever; I kept sniffing his mug to get hits of the cinnamon, cardamon and ginger, and it's made his entire study smell lovely, in marked contrast to its usual miasma of "eau de colon" (not a typo). He started joking that he'd rub the tea bags on his body to increase his chances of "getting lucky," and then that, given tea's alleged antibacterial powers, he could wash under his arms with them to kill the stink:
Him: The only problem would be that I'd forget and reuse those tea bags.
Me: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!
Him: LOL!!!!!!!
And that, dear friends, is how we had fun with freebies.
