September 18, 2007
MS-DOS 5
For those of you who appreciate quality advertising for slightly older software:
Well... perhaps "quality" is a bit strong of a word.
September 17, 2007
War on U-Haul
This is a slightly altered version of a bit of "customer response" that I sent to U-Haul. Really, the only alteration is the removal of salient bits of contractual and financial information. Well... and the addition of some more colorful commentary.
To say that my experiences with U-Haul have been negative fail to fully describe the nature of my ordeal. The problems with the rental began before my arrival on the scene, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll stick with the problems relevant to me, which began after I became involved.
My friend Jared Wheeler rented a moving truck with which to conduct a 1-way move from Longview, TX to Waco, TX and due to complications involving his drivers' license (read: "crap... my drivers' license expires today so they won't let me drive"), it became necessary that someone else drive the truck, and I volunteered (read: "I was the only schmuck along who had a valid drivers' license). At the time, I was asked for my driver's license and a secondary form of identification, for which I used my MasterCard. At that point in time, I made sure to ask the man at the desk two or three times if my credit card would be charged under any circumstances and I was assured repeatedly that under no circumstances would my card be charged. (Seriously, this guy didn't look like much of a winner in the 'Brains' Department, so I kept asking to pound this point in... apparently, it didn't take.)
Of course, as would be necessitated by my irritation, my credit card was charged. As soon as I received my credit card statement and noticed the errant charge, I called the Cubby Hole where the rental was started (the one on 259 near my old apartment) and they were pleasantly helpful. I was promised a call for the next day by the manager, which I received first thing in the morning after he had researched my case. He apologized and told me that my name was not, in fact, listed as the driver and that somehow my credit card had simply been amended to the file due to an employee mistake. He also noted that he was sadly unable to resolve the issue in-store and would be forced to escalate me to the corporate offices. (Note: he would be the second and last intelligent employee with whom I would speak. Also notable was that he and the first lady with whom I spoke actually had brains and customer service skills and didn't work for U-Haul; the next 5 employees fit none of these criterion.)
Uhaul Corporate is worthless. Well, the receptionist is helpful enough, but the actual call-center failed to accomplish a single thing beyond wasting my time and exposing me to impressive lengths of heretofore unexperienced elevator-type hold music. I had to call on three separate occasions, being assured the first two times that I would be called within 48 hours and the third time (5 days later), I was only helped after I insisted that I speak to someone who could actually do something for me, at which time I was transferred to a regional office. Unfortunately, the manager who was required in order to rectify things for me was not in and I would have to hope for a call back.
I was pleasantly surprised that the manager from the regional office actually called back as promised. At least, that is, until after he got my information and went about his way, he became impossible to contact. In fact, after a week of trying to get ahold of him without so much as a peep, I finally decided to do what I should have done a week and a half earlier: call my credit card company and dispute the charge. Oddly enough, your company has managed to attempt to turn me from a non-party into a customer and in so doing has made me loathe to even associate with it, much less patronize it.
September 10, 2007
So Proud
| You Are 8% Texas |
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I would only be prouder if I had made a 0%.