jnthnlllshprd

2 months ago I had 3100 bucks saved up, living by myself, driving a cheap but reliable motorcycle everywhere. Nobody helps me with money, etc. I'm on my own here. I work but it's not bad. I was grateful to have a home, transportation, and a job. All good.

Move to a month ago. I sold the old bike to help pay for a bigger, better, and more reliable bike. Cost me about 1100 bucks to do all of this. Then, I bought a cheap car from a very good friend of mine, who is a brilliant mechanic. Had 1800 bucks in the bike after all of that.

Move to now. I have a bike that can't be sold because nobody has the cash I would need for it (asking less than what I paid after investing over 300 into parts on it), the car started falling apart after 40 miles of driving it, and someone stole my wallet and has spent all of the money on my card, which I can't get back because Wood Forest is trying to say I tried to cancel the "temporary" card I got when I first signed up, not the active personalized card with the money on it. I got irritated when 3 weeks passed and the new card still hadn't arrived, so I called them and the situation came to light. They insist that I had them cancel the temp card, obviously so they don't have to pay me 1800 dollars, and they won't accept responsibility. I was floored. If the recording of my original convo with Customer Service is still around, you'd here that I was exceptionally pushy about making sure I was secure. But no, this is what happens when your employees don't speak english and don't give a shit. HOW THE HELL DO YOU CANCEL AN INACTIVE TEMPORARY CARD INSTEAD OF THE ACTIVE PERSONALIZED CARD THAT HAS VALUE? WTF.

So now, I've a fucked up car, an unsellable bike, and no money. Stack that with my fucked up attitude at work and recent series of write-ups, complete apathy because everything is falling apart because my best friend and my bank decided to fuck me out of money, and that I can't go to anyone for help, I'm feeling pretty fucked up right now. There's no real point to this but I can't bitch about it openly because I'm not that kinda dude. Right about now I just want to break my own neck.

If you can relate to this I'd like to read about it, though. Thanks.

robot_parade

Dude, that sucks...all I can say.

The_Jazz

OK, let's see if I can help a bit. I know, I know, it's really out of character for me, but I'm doing it anyway.

First step: dress nicely and go into the nearest branch. Calmly and cooly explain the situation. Be polite. You want this person to help you. If they can't, thank them for their time, then leave before you go off the deep end.

Step two: read this - how to write a complaint letter and send it in. I've been trying to find the email address for the CEO, and I'm pretty sure it's RMarling@woodforest.com. Send him a copy as well. You might also want to send it to The Consumerist since they love stuff like this. You need to be polite, to the point and have an obvious solution. If it's obviously their mistake, then they need to fix it since they're contractually obligated to do so.

Good luck.

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

noodle

Side note: The Jazz is wise.

And had the exact advice I was going to share... Mostly. I didn't go look up the email address. Hope things work out.

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Wes Mantooth

Holy fuck dude, I'm really sorry to hear that...honestly I mean that sucks in every possible way I can imagine.

Personally I'd be livid and probably go the Hank Hill route of "I'm gonna kick your ass" if they didn't do something to fix it, although I think Jazz has a better idea. Really though there has to be some kind of recourse for garbage like this.

Not really the same but I'll share a story. Last year I ordered the Center Ice package from my cable company, bit of a hockey nut and enjoyed watching my old home team. Anyway about half way through the season the service just stopped, the screen was blacked out and had a message saying "call to subscribe". I call comcast and speak to some crackhead who informed me that "He'd turned it back on but it wouldn't activate for 24 hours"..wtf right? So I wait and the next day nothing. I call again. Get the exact same speech almost word for word about it being hooked back up in 24 hours. Again nothing. I call again and speak to a supervisor and it turns out "somebody" canceled my service...

...and we're just getting started, unfortunately she couldn't hook it back up and had to send a request "upstairs" to get it turned back on which could take up to 7 days (keep ind mind I paid for the whole season up front). I was pretty annoyed but accepted and asked if there was going to be a refund for the 10 days I'd be missing which of course she can't do that either. Okay, whatever just give me back my service. A week goes by and still nothing again I call. "No sir we haven't any records of your service either being cancelled or a request to reinstate it", in other words nobody had actually done ANYTHING at that point to fix it. She however informs me that she can turn it back on and within minutes my service is restored, all that and it just took a few key strokes, or so I thought. I get a bill from comcast the next month billing me $179.95 for the price of a full season of Center Ice...which is odd because the half season price is something like $90 and they always ask you to pay in installments anyway. Apparently the only way for this multi billion dollar company to fix my problem was to just sign me up as a new customer (without asking) and hope I was too stupid to notice the extra $180 on my bill. I eventually got it resolved but holy fuck was the whole ordeal a headache.

I HATE what customer service has become these days. Its just a joke to these companies at this point and I honestly don't even know why they bother with it when they usually can't help you anyway. I mean is the point just to pay some poor schmuck to take tons of abuse so the company doesn't actually have to deal with it?

Sorry 170 bucks and few missed hockey games aren't quiet on the same level but I thought you might appreciate the story.

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The_Jazz

Wes, I've actually got contact information for a bunch of folks at Comcast if you ever need it. Well, I don't HAVE it, but I know where to find it. Sounds like you needed the Executive Service folks since the trained monkeys weren't so helpful.

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

Daka

Noto to worry about it, we just had a "go round" with Direct TV...after the Flatscreen instal...(see my story about that) "we" decided to finally get the HDTV working.
Needless to say after talking to 4 FOUR MORONS AT DIRECT TV...we finally got someone who seemed to know what she was taking about and scheduled an instal date.
Next thing is we get an email with completely different prices...call again..OH NO the email is correct...we could never give you what "you were told over the phone"
So guess what F**K Direct TV..I'm going back to COMCAST and no more outages every time there is a heavy rain....
Do these companies care....NOT ONE BIT

The_Jazz

Getting angry at CSR's will NEVER, EVER solve your problem. Unless your problem is venting your frustrations, in which case, problem solved!

Take detailed notes (times, dates, names, etc.). Remember that contracts are two-way streets and that just because a company says "that's our policy" doesn't make it right or legal (for instance, unless you're in a warehouse club like Costco or Sam's, you're under no obligation to show anyone your receipt. And that's a law that holds in all 50 states, despite what Best Buy and Wal-Mart want you to think.).

But if a company's not going to let you give them your money, like in Daka's case, you're under no obligation to do so.

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

Daka

The Jazz, you are right...venting ....thanks
As far as the Dish TV deal, we are no longer under contract to them, so now I'll look for another service.....
Venting is fun, especially at the range....9mm....venting....

whateverandever

I can completely relate with you on this. I had it all going good for me just like you, the car, the job, the air of "I can do this," then was hit with a life changing experience for the worst. Now I'm amidst problems where I'm 98% on my own in trying to solve things and jobless. I've basically lost everything, on top of getting screwed by not my credit card company but by the world-renowned hitters my cell phone provider. May not seem like that big of a deal but for someone in as bad as shape as me, it can seem like digging your own grave the more bills you get.

My hope for you is that in the last two weeks you've posted this maybe things have turned out a little better for you in terms of sorting out the problems with your financial tumble. The bike, what can I say? I'm not an auto-oritented person and can only give you good luck but the most important thing is that you keep up high spirits at work.

What's worked for me the past months I've been going through this is really focusing on myself and that innate will inside you to just move on. Keep doing your best at work no matter how you feel, and even if your shitty CC company ends up giving you the boot, you can take a hit but always make it back in the future through hard work and sticking it through.

Anyway, good luck to you. I guess I felt like reaching out because of the resemblence in my own situation and don't want to come on too strong. Best of luck. Venting, ftw.

Wes Mantooth

Thanks I actually could use it, what I wrote above is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dealing with Comcast (wished I had noticed this was bumped I didn't see your response until now). I wont go into details but outages for REALLY long stretches, channels fading in and out/freezing, subscription channels blocked out, ppv movies on my bill that I didn't order...yeah you get the idea. I've been thinking of going Direct TV but I hear just as many horror stories...man cable/satellite companies suck.

I actually worked at a call center for Microsoft billing (the stories I could relate about that) back in the day, I know just how pointless it is trying to get anything resolved calling customer service yet for some odd reason I keep trying.

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