Inept people and phone runarounds

Today at work I placed an order. It was for a lamp. Not just any lamp, but a $299 lamp. Must give off pretty decent light, you must think. Well, I hope so, because it is for a VIDEO PROJECTOR. It is little more than a bulb, but even after checking out prices, $299 was the cheapest I could find, short of ebay (only $249 there).

So, I place the order. Later I get a confirmation e-mail with the purchase price plus tax on it, even though my company is non-profit. Okay, so they don't have our tax-exempt status on file. So, I fax it over to them.

Later I get a phone call. It is someone with a foreign accent, but we are the land of immigrants, and I'm happy that we are. I myself am a combination of many nationalities. This person informs me that my purchase could now include a 15 percent discount. Well, that makes me happy because $299 plus the tax that we should not have been charged is a lot of money.

Would I like to charge that to the credit card that I used when I originally placed the order? Sure, I replied. Okay, can you confirm that number for me? Well, I don't have it right in front of me. That's okay, I'll wait. Well, I respond I really don't feel comfortable giving that information to you since you called me--I didn't contact you. I understand, they reply then click.

Well, I think to myself, is this a case of fraud? Did they want that credit card for less than honorable reasons?

I called the company to find out. First I listened to the voice mail and pushed an assortment of numbers and waited to get connected to a live person. Then after I voiced my concerns to a customer service person, that person connected me to someone else who could better help me. That person listened to my tale of woe, then told me I'd have to talk to someone in online sales since my purchase was made online. That person was not much help, either.

In all cases, I was not initially asked for my customer ID number--I offered it first. I was asked if the person who called me was a foreigner (how should I know--plenty of American citizens have accents and are fine people). They said that they have callers from India and perhaps these Indians were offering discounts unbeknownst to the company??????????

Then, I asked for confirmation of my tax exempt status. I was told I'd have to check back in a couple of days because it takes that long to process the bill or something like that.

Ay caramba. I'm spending $300 (plus tax, perhaps) on a light bulb. I get a call with an offer of a discount from someone in India, maybe, and the company has no idea about it but doesn't seem concerned that it might be consumer fraud.

All this, when I should have been interviewing people for the next newsletter that will be coming out soon. Maybe I should do an investigative article about scammers who somehow find out you make online purchases and call you to get credit information.

Or I could just complain and ramble on about it in my blog.

Till next time,


Suzi