Voter Registration Card

I received my voter registration card last week. Some things are going to change around here, let me tell you.

Psychic Dissonance

• Support our troops ribbon decals on the back of humungous SUVs. (Who makes those things anyway? Where do the profits go?)


• Diet soda

amazon.com customer service shines

After being disappointed before by certain firms' attitudes towards their customers, I was dreading a run in with amazon.com.

For years I've been telling people who are nervous about on-line shopping that I've been doing business with amazon.com for years and I've almost never had a problem, and on the very rare occasions when I do have a problem, their customer service people take care of me quickly and courteously.

I placed my first order with amazon.com on March 21, 1997. I ordered The Transition of H. P. Lovecraft: The Road to Madness, A Rendezvous in Averoigne: The Best Fantastic Tales of Clark Ashton Smith, and Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos: Golden Anniversary Anthology. I remember being so thrilled to be able to order these books. The last two were published by Arkham House, the publishing firm set up by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, H. P. Lovercraft devotees, with the purpose of keeping the master's work in print. I knew that Arkham House was still in business because I found their website, but I received no reply to my enquiries and for some reason my local bookshop could not order copies. Then I found them on amazon.com. I was thrilled!

Recently I signed up for a thirty day free trial of their Amazon Prime program. $80/year for unlimited two-day shipping. I'm pretty sure I don't buy enough books to make this worth while for me, but what could I lose on a free trial, right? Well, inevitably, when the trial period elapsed on April 1, I had neglected to cancel, and my credit card was charged $80. Dang. It's not like they didn't give me plenty of warning either. I even placed an order the day before the trial period elapsed. Why didn't I cancel my membership then? (As well to ask, why do I have $10 in unpaid fines at the Houston Public Library? I believe it's spelled procrastination)

So I emailed their customer support and asked them to cancel my membership. Given my recent experiences with afore-mentioned certain other firms, I was expecting the usual "unfortunately..." I am delighted to report that I was completely wrong. The credit card charge was reversed the same day. No questions asked. It reminds me what the word service in customer service means. It's a good reminder of what the word customer is supposed to mean, too.

Pandora

Uh-oh. There goes what little remained of my "free time".

http://www.pandora.com

Shame it doesn't integrate directly to Napster as it does to amazon.com and iTunes. I wonder if there's some kind of tie-in?

Green Mountain Energy & Optel: Two customer service departments that don't

In January, and then again in February, Green Mountain Energy lost my check. In March they sent me a letter threatening to disconnect me unless I made a payment. I called their Customer “Service” department and explained the situation. I made a credit card payment for the full amount and informed them that I would stop payment on the two checks. I guess the checks must have turned up because a month later I noticed tucked away on the back of the latest bill under “other charges” that they had added a $25 returned check fee, for the checks they lost, which they had been informed that I was going to stop payment on. Once again, I called the Customer “Service” department but I was told that unfortunately they would not be able to back the charge out.

When a company tells you they appreciate your business, it’s rare for them to put a dollar amount on that appreciation. In Green Mountain Energy’s case, apparently my business was worth less than $25.

At least I got straight through when I called, unlike Optel. I used to have Optel cable “service” when I lived in an apartment complex. One time, while trying to straighten out a similar billing snafu, I waited fifteen minutes listening to a recorded message telling me how important my call was to them. Finally the voice told me to try again later without giving me an opportunity to leave a message or a call back number. When I finally did get to speak to a human being, it took three or four calls, even faxing the copies of my checks that they had deposited before I could get them to refund the $35 fee that had erroneously billed me. At the same time, Optel were soliciting my long-distance phone and high speed internet business. They didn’t get it.

I’m really mystified by this kind of behavior. In both cases, I had been a customer of the company for several years and had never missed a payment. I’ve been comped more than $35 in coffee from a Starbucks store that I’ve been using half as long as I used either of these businesses. And in both these cases, I don't feel like what I received from either of these companies could fairly be described as "service," at least not in any sense of the word that I am familar with. (Soon-to-be former) Customer Aggravation department would be a much more accurate description.