Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Things I am NOT Digging!

*WARNING* Negative post below!

Yep that is me, Miss Sour Puss today!

Okay, so most of you know that I run a wine group. I have for over a year and a half now. I do it for fun, I don't get paid to do it, I am not a professional organizer, I am not an event planner and I actually have to PAY for it, to keep the website up and available to the rest of the members to RSVP through. Well, next week is restaurant week here in the Twin Cities. I have arranged 8 (actually I only did 7, a wine club member did one) reservations for 8 different restaurants. This means that 8 different emails get sent out from the site with the pertinent information along with the RSVP option. On top of that the day after I sent these out I sent out a rather lengthy email (which I have only done one other time) the next day explaining the ins and outs of restaurant week, the fact that I would not be hosting all of the dinners (how in the world was I supposed to be in all of those places, there is only one of me) but that other members would be helping out in hosting these dinners. It also had information regarding some other upcoming events and such.

Today I sent out four more updates with the menus to the dinners that still had availability along with an email for one more event. So in total there were a TON of emails from me this week. If I add them all up a total of 13, so yes, a lot of emails. But that does not give people the right to be down right rude to me does it? When you signed up to be a part of this group, you signed up for the emails, there is an option to opt out of these emails as well. So why not just opt out instead of abuse me over email? There was one person in particular who accused me of sending out 36 emails in one day and then accused me of being rude. So be it, whatever I say. I have adopted a zero tolerance policy for 2008 with this group. If you RSVP yes for an event and do not show up for the event I kick you out. Yes, I have the power to do that. If you contact me with a very reasonable situation of course I take that into consideration, but still. So far I only have had to kick one person out this year. That person also decided to berate me via email. UGH! How in the world am I supposed to plan events if 40 RSVP yes and then 18 show up?

Restaurant week happens once a year, I got a ton of emails from regular members who were so happy with all of the options and exclaimed how happy they were about the events. Why does it take one bad pea to spoil the pot?

Anyway, whew, that feels better.

So yesterday I was telling a friend about a problem I have been having with my cable DVR unit, asking her if she was having the same problem. Lets call my cable company Bombcast (right Suz?), in the past 15 months I have easily spent a total 15 hours on the phone with Customer Service (if that is what we are going to call it). They never cease to amaze me and each time I promise myself I am not going to let them get the best of me and I am just going to remain calm. Sometimes it works. Last night I am not sure if it did.

My cable box will all of a sudden freeze when we are watching something and then at that time it will just automatically shut off and reboot itself. This process takes about 8 minutes. Now we all know if you are watching something like Law & Order if you miss the first 8 minutes you can pretty much forget it. This happened last night at the beginning of Law & Order. Instead of calling them, I logged onto my handy dandy laptop and decided to resolve the issue via a Live chat session. I guess I really did not feel like wasting my breath last night and let my fingers do the talking.

After waiting in an online queue for 10 minutes I was finally connected to my session. The first thing they did was ask me for my account number which I had to go rooting around to find since I do not get a paper statement and just log into my account, which I was logged into to have this session. Where was I going to get that information? I found it, then I proceeded to tell the CS person the situation and how it would just reboot itself randomly and then would also lose all of my scheduled recordings (so for example last week it was Cashmere Mafia I missed and this week it was the finale of Dance Wars) and I would not even be aware of it. He then proceeded to tell me that my account was in soft closure status for being 57 days past due and that was probably why. WHAT?

Now this is where I was set off because on a regular basis they have messed up my bill, the last time was February 10th and I spent a good 45 minutes on the phone with them while they corrected it. So why all of a sudden am I 57 days late and why would that cause technical problems to my box, is that how they just mess with us? The fine CS person then proceeds to tell me that he sees my last payment for $167.37 was entered on 1/17/08. Now I wasn't a math major, but that does not seem to be 57 days ago does it? And another thing, that is A LOT of money to be paying for this fine CS experience I am getting.

Anyway as all of this is going on I decide I better get someone on the phone because this is obviously going nowhere fast. So I dial me up some CS, two is better than one right? As I am now waiting on hold on the phone, this fine CS person is making more of a mess of things by telling me that since my account is in soft closure status they can't send anyone out to take a look at my box (again, why is my account in soft closure status?). So he then proceeds to tell me that I need to go IN to an office to get this straightened out. So we have now logged 45 minutes in this session, I have spent 37 minutes on hold, we have not resolved ANYTHING, and you want me to waste my gas and more of my time to go in and talk to yet another lovely CS person? No.

Bombcast really has us between a rock and a hard place here because they are the only ones that provide high speed internet access (I don't want to go the DSL route) at the moment here. They are also the only ones that provide digital cable and digital voice. Yeah, I have the WHOLE package. I have not had a LAN line since 2000 but I signed up for one this past fall after I started racking up $400 cell phone bills working from home. It was a necessity and I thought this would be a good way to go, the whole "package" route. The problem is, because I have the "package" but added on bits and pieces here and there, my bill is constantly screwed up and I am not really even sure what the real amount is supposed to be!

So we concluded the call with the fact that he could not help me and that I would try to straighten this out over the phone today. I asked him to send me a transcript of this session via email for my records. He told me that he did not have the ability to do that but I could copy and paste it into a word document (totally missing the point that I wanted them to do it so that I had a paper trail at least). So now today, have I contacted Bombcast to look into this today. No. I have no patience today because of the whole wine group situation. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for this.

One last thing. This is a family thing, so brace yourself, I usually do not vent too much of that here, I do love my sister very much. My sister and I are very different though. We do not even see situations the same way. She emailed me today asking about some tickets that I got for my niece, my sister and myself for a dinner and fashion show (for American Girl). I have mentioned this event to her about a half a dozen times. She kindly let me know that she had just committed herself to something until 7 that night and was hoping it wasn't going to be a problem. Well since the event starts at 5, maybe it will be. Lets keep in mind, this is not the first time this has happened. Last fall my sister mentioned to me that so and so was coming to town and that the kids would really like to go. So I got tickets, again these tickets were not inexpensive. So as I am talking to my sister the week before the show about it, she says oh, well the kids are out the latter part of that week so I was thinking I would take them up North (to see my Aunt) and we would not be back until Sunday (the concert being Saturday). I was silent. What do you want me to do? She asks if I can sell the tickets. Do you know how ticked I was? I did sell the tickets, but totally not the point. My sister also NEVER responds (at all) one way or another to any invitations I send to her. Then when I call her to ASK her if she is coming or not, she very nonchalantly says oh no, I am not coming. She never reciprocates ANY invitations and then wonders why I am not happy with her at the moment and now this. I am kind of at my wits end here. I want to have a relationship with my niece and my nephews. I gave up my life out East to be here closer to them to have a relationship not only with them, but with my sister who obviously does not see a need for one.

So sorry for my bad mood today, but when it rains it pours, maybe if it will get a little bit warmer here that will help!

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest!

I hope you are all having a good Wednesday!

11 comments:

ATC said...

I just want to let out a big, "UGGGGHHHH" for ya! Dealing with Bombcast, alone, is annoying enough!

Good for you to set up those boundaries with the wine club! I know what courage it takes to set rules and expect people not to get angry with the consequences.

I hope you're week gets better.

Suz said...

ahh, Bomcast, yes they must be in collaboration with Lime Warner because I also have tons of problems with my cable.

sorry you're having a sucky day, the inconsideration of some people is really irritating after awhile.

Libby said...

Jilly, if you were here I would absolutely buy you a drink and we could gripe together.

Jacky Hackett said...

Unappreciative, inconsiderate people suck! Sorry to hear about all the hassles you are juggling.

The wine club you run is such a great thing, how I would love to have an option to join one like that. Way to weed out the downers, makes it that much better for the people who actually appreciate.

And how I would love for my kids to have an Aunt that planned special events with them in mind.

You need a warm fire, nice glass of wine and the boy to lean on.

k e r r y said...

sounds like you had plenty o'reasons to vent all of those frustrations!!! Justified I'd say!

Anonymous said...

Hey did you know the city of Minneapolis now offers wireless cable.. and you can work on canceling your stuff with Bomcast... I'm going to do it!!

A LOT CHEAPER !

Tres Poshe Preppy said...

HUGS to Jilly! Honestly, don't you hate when you think you are doing good (and are) and people are ungrateful, it SUCKS!!! I hope it all gets better for you. :)

Meg said...

I really sympathize with you about the wine group. But it seems like, unless you lay down the law, you could end up with just the disaster you mentioned: 40 RSVP yes and 18 show up. Good for you for having a strong, chin-up attitude. Don't listen to the complaints, we know you're doing a great job.

Britt said...

Grrrr, I have spent many a hour on the phone with our previous internet/cable company (not bombcast) and it DROVE me crazy. I would get so mad!

Good luck to ya and enjoy your weekend!

RED said...

What a bunch of crap. 'customer service' these days is so, so terrible. sorry to hear about your troubles with Bombcast, I have been there, I feel you!
And, about the sister, isn't it amazing when you think two people that came from the same gene pool, same house, same parents, can be so different? good luck working thru, I'll be thinking of you! Hope you have a fantastic weekend - you deserve it! And remember, we'll always here, so vent away! (It always make ME feel better to just get. it. out.!) TGIF!

Martha said...

You poor pumpkin.

That's a crap day. I hate that. And those creepy winos better watch it!

xoxox

martha

 
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