The soul has greater need of the ideal than the real for it is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

have I mentioned...

Have I ever discussed the incredibly bad customer service we endure daily here in America today? It's unbelieveable.

Take for example, Paypal, an institution who advertises their wonderfulness. NOT TRUE!

Well, perhaps if you're a seller, they may be wonderful, but caveat emptor is the rule if you're a buyer.

I recently got a Paypal buyer credit acct and decided I needed to use it to do a few things to my car. So I got online, selected the necessary merchandise, and won my auctions. That's when the trouble started.

Being new to the Paypal buyer credit game I inadvertently clicked on the wrong selection and instead of charging these items to my account I charged them to my bank account. This was not in the budgetary plan for the month of august...or ever at this time. Needless to say I was instantly screwed up in the banking department.

Fortunately for me, I thought, I realized my error instantly and moved to correct it. I called Paypal to enlist their much touted assistance. It was not forthcoming. In fact it didn't exist in my case at all.

I explained my error to the woman "Jen" who answered the phone and se told me, that their was absolutely no remedy for me. This did not ilicit a positive response from me. She then told me that she'd get a supervisor, but there was no way she was going to do it either. This turned out to be the truest statement of the day. The supervisor, coincidentally, also named "Jen" also informed me I was S.O.L. in the help department. She was roundly cursed, and deservedly so.

Now intent on defeating Paypal's evil machine that was bent on the destruction of my very carefully laid out budget for the month. I turned my attention to the seller. There was a good guy. His name was Ben and he works for a company called Opto-Electronic design (raintracker.com) and I will hold them both dear to my heart til the day I die. (yes, I recommend this company)

Ben (if that's not your name I apologize, but I'm pretty sure that's it.) told me he'd just refuse the payment, and I could return to Paypal and pay however I wanted. Ben is a GOD! He did, I did, and all was well. The malignancy that is paypal had been defeated, or so I thought.

This morning I awoke to the need to attend to another auction for car stuff. I'd been outbid overnight so I knew I'd need to be diligent to win this item which was important to me to acquire. I won the auction, very happy. More paypal involvement, not so happy.

Needless to say in my blurry state right after waking I did it again. I clicked on the wrong thing and paid with the bank account again! Upon realizing this I went to my bank account only to discover that Paypal had charged me for yesterday's item anyway! I emailed the seller, bypassing paypal, they're worthless, and asked them to deny the payment so I could fix the problem. No response. Now it was time to go to the bank.

I went in this morning when the bank opened and denied both ACH charges from paypal, which cost me stop-payment fees, which sucks, but it was my mistake and if it keeps the malevolence that is paypal from getting their hands on my money it's totally worth it.

I will use paypal in the future, they're a necessary evil, too many people use them to avoid them completely but I'll be deleting my checking and credit card numbers from that acct today. I will forever curse them and will berate them publicly whenever I get the chance. Being mean to their staff is also a perk I intend to indulge in.

It's a symptom of how little business cares if we're happy. They don't care at all, they just don't want to hear about our unhappiness, they're not the least bit interested in helping us be more satisfied with them. No matter what they tell you.

I hope I sounded appropriately bitter in this post. PAYPAL SUCKS!