Tales of WHOA!

[lurch]

Inspired from complaints surfaced in Feel for the Day thread, this thread is for Tales of Dealing with the Bureaucracy, not just any bureaucracy, but the one or two or more, that have stretched your patience to the breaking point, given all new depth of understanding to the word " incredulous",,and possibly re-evaluated your perceptions of the characters in "Dumb and Dumber" and now " Burn After Reading" as to being too life like.

My Tale or One of My Tales, went as follows..An Insurance bill arrived with a 15% increase in rates. I had made no claims so I got hold of the agent and asked why. I was told that my credit rating had slipped to so poor, that I was now no longer eligible for the few discounts I had garnered...o oh..credit rating. Some exchanges later provided me with the Credit Rating Company telling the world of my awful lack of financial responsibilities. I was told by my agent,, that I had to straighten out the Credit Rating Company, A hook I was later to spit out, back into the agents face.


I did try talking sense to a clerk at the credit rating company. Another Arizonian with same first and last name but not the middle name, had caused some hot conversations over the phone with confused bill collectors of late, so I had some clues going in to this debacle. The frustration of hearing " uh huh",, no, make that,," Uh HUUUH " I experienced and tucked it away for my own use when required or would get the best communication across. But at the time, that " Uh HUUH" after every point I made,, was infuriating. My middle name starts with E,, the asshole who doesn't pay his student loan from U of A,,credit cards,, skips out on rent and utility bills,, his middle name starts with A,, and he lives up in Prescott,, and I live in PHOENIX!! ..Uh HUUH!!!...Her supervisor I was not allowed to talk with. I left the conversation at,,fix it or you will be hearing from my lawyer. She got the last word in..Uh HUUH....

So I rethought the whole deal. I realized my mistake. I called my Insurance Agent up and told him straight out..I do not nor did not hire or pay for the Credit Company's service. I DO pay for my Insurance. If my agent wanted any more business from me,, he would restore the 15% discounts immediately. I told him that the information he was receiving from the Credit Rating Company was erroneous and that it was his problem,,not mine. He was paying for bad info,,therefore, I suggested he get another credit rating service in line. He would be losing customers for paying for such bad advise.

Three days later I received a refigured Insurance bill, much to my delight.
The epilogue didn't hit for another year tho. The agent sold his franchise, got out of the business, and the new agent immediately revoked all discounts and to restore them meant a visit to her office or her to my home. This is when I realized,,they are into it just for the money,,and any excuse to jack the rates, is good enough for them. I have another Insurer now,, but it only a matter of time,, before bureaucnaphobia has its way with me again.

Have you any pleasantries with a bureau to tell about?

[High Lord Tolkien]

In before Balon f#cks this thread up too.

[wayfriend]

You can get two kinds of credit reports. Credit reports with the barest of information to go on, such as first and last name. And Credit reports with full details to go on, including soc sec number, etc.

If someone with a similar name has bad credit, it can show up on the first kind of credit report. But it won't show up on the second, since that uses a good identity. Unless there real misfiled report somewhere.

In the first case, you can usually get your own credit report for free, and provide it as evidence. Or else give the company more personal info so that they can get it themselves.

In all cases, if your every denied credit because of something bogus in your credit history, you CAN straighten it out, and you SHOULD straighten it out.

Every tom, dick, and harry checks your credit. Your landlord. amazon.com. your insurance company. Usually, they don't tell you how they penalize you for having bad credit. You should get it fixed.

[lurch]

In before Balon f#cks this thread up too.

Touche'!!...that tale was going to be the last one..but you beat me to it..fortunately I can laff at that one.

Not all Tales are of upsetting tho,,Perhaps a better way to phrase the point is.. they can offer an opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade. Over time I had earned a fair amount of Learning Together credits at work. A library of cd and dvd available for training and learning while at work is available at work. I had accumulated enough credits to show management that I was a serious professional , and used a print out of my credits when interviewing for new jobs.

So, it was disclosed that the lady who had kept all the records electronically,,when she quit,, either took all the info with her,, or hid it so well, nobody knew where to find it all. So..an opportunity arose. Ahh,, not so fast. The real queston became..to be paid while at work for taking the course you already have taken,,,or ,,claim what you did take.. or claim what you did take plus some you may or may not have taken..choices, choices choices.

What I opted for doesn't really matter. Why?.. literally,,a short Time later,, as HR is " instructed" to do in a non Union shop, by upper management, the rules of evaluation where changed , signaling a lay off ahead. The rules or " parameters" of scoring an employee's worthyness, where changed ,,in that,, Education no longer was a metric applied,,Time in Grade and Time in Company was no longer a metric applied..The only measurement was.. how well you did your job,, as determined by your Supervisor and Management.. Us'ns called it,, how far up your bosses ass you had your nose metric. Anyway.. even the folks with Masters and a PhD or two got screwed. But..nobody can take away an education, its yours for ever, even if you got paid twice for it.

[lurch]

you CAN straighten it out, and you SHOULD straighten it out.

Yes, its fixed..but by an interesting bureaucratic foul up at that. A recent security breach by a temporary employee at corporate headquarters, mite have given access to all employee records by evil doers...the upside?..I get a " credit rating" with access to my credit history.. sent to me electronically every two weeks or so.. Free..paid for by the company I work for. Now hold on..theres more!.. I also get the same kind of report from my Bank,,for the same problem they had awhile back. Its good to see so many doing the right thing.

[balon!]

In before Balon f#cks this thread up too.

If only I had a ban-stick...





The only tale of woe I have is when the Dell Tech support had me on hold for fourty minutes, only to lead me around for three hours and twenty more minutes, leading to the pinnacle of them telling me to reboot my computer "and that should fix it."

When I told him, "no, all I did was reboot. That won't do anything," I stopped being jerked around and asked for the supervisor. Eventually he sent over a local to replace the parts, and it's worked fine since.

But that was the last time I subjected myself to being led in phone-circles. Now I just skip it and ask for the floor manager straight off.

[Nathan]

Now I just skip it and ask for the floor manager straight off.

Having worked phone tech support and been good at my job, I can tell you that when I had someone call and ask immediately for the manager for no reason, I would do my utmost to be unhelpful when they got back to me. The managers are managers, not tech support agents and you're just antagonising and wasting everyone's time by asking for them needlessly.

[balon!]

Now I just skip it and ask for the floor manager straight off.

Having worked phone tech support and been good at my job, I can tell you that when I had someone call and ask immediately for the manager for no reason, I would do my utmost to be unhelpful when they got back to me. The managers are managers, not tech support agents and you're just antagonising and wasting everyone's time by asking for them needlessly.

Were you reading passages out of a handbook when you worked? Because that's the impression I've always gotten from the floor staff at Dell. Very rarely were they telling me anything I didn't learn from my high school tech class. Their supervisor guy was the only one who knew his stuff. And it didn't help that every accent was nearly undecipherable.

[CovenantJr]

Now I just skip it and ask for the floor manager straight off.

Having worked phone tech support and been good at my job, I can tell you that when I had someone call and ask immediately for the manager for no reason, I would do my utmost to be unhelpful when they got back to me.

Absolutely. And in my last job, if someone absolutely refused to speak to anyone but the manager the first time they called, the manager would pick up the phone, say something to the effect of "My colleague here is very capable and quite able to deal with the majority of issues" then pass them back to me and not speak to them again unless I couldn't deal with it. Of course, this may have been because I was better at his job than he was. I generally only had to refer things to him when they required managerial clearance to authorise something, or similar.

Anyway, yes, by asking for the manager straight away you're probably antagonising the staff, including the manager. But I understand why you'd want to do it.

[lucimay]

i just always said i was a manager even when i wasn't. i am now but i started saying it loooong before i was. hee.
course it had nothing to do with tech and everything to do with bunions and hammer toes.

[High Lord Tolkien]

I used to be a manager in retail.
Asking for a manager in retail is just asking for confusion.
My staff hated me getting involved because I'd give away the store before I wanted to talk to a customer.
Customers suck!
Seriously, everyone of you that walked through the door was the enemy.
I know, "you" (whoever is reading this) don't suck.
Of course not!
Nobody ever thinks that they themselves suck.
But you do.
"you're" not the one that pisses and shits all over the bathroom either or come in the store with empty bags fill them and then come to the service desk demand a refund and then scream holy hell when we say that you're a f#cking thief either but clearly some customers are doing so.
So whenever I was called up to the front of the store I wasn't thinking "how can I help this person quickly expedite the discrepancy on his/her receipt" it was "is this the son-of-a-bitch who just shit all over the bathroom floor and got my maintenance guy to quit over it?"
Now I'm a retail customer.
And I fully realize that I suck just by walking in the front door of any retail store.
But f#ck you Mr. retail person!
You're there to kiss my ass!
Yes, YOU!

[lurch]

Well..in manufacturing, the mantra for years has been,,not only meeting the customer's expectations,, but exceeding their expectations,, is what will keep the customer returning. And yes, it appears this is a understanding that has to be taught, mentored, from generation to generation.

With that in mind, in exchanges at retail or with the bureaucrat,,I've always implied at the onset,,that I was King, a benevolent King, and in my Kingship,was the need for information, advise, direction,,required for ME, the King, to make decisions. A phrase used alot in the country south of me begins most exchanges; it is .. Mi Amigo,, My Friend.

I tried that tact with a city dog catcher who had a hard on for my dog, a story i believe relayed already here..anyway,,it didn't work. His PETA'ness started to repulse me like the mustard stains on his tie and shirt. Rather than get nasty with the civil servant , I found my self simply unable to give him the answer that he was demanding. I clammed up and could only say, " I have heard what you have said." Okay,,so an appearance in front of the judge got the whole deal blown away with a warning not to let my dog off the leash..He was clearly pissed that a dog catcher case was taking up time in his court . Yet,, i couldn't help my self ,,and fortunately,,the judge was experienced and wise enough to see the humor of my stated situation. He got my wit.,,or whatever it is. With a laff, the whole thing was dismissed. Whats the point of this Tale? Even when answering to higher authority,,start out with him or her as a friend.

[Cagliostro]

This just in....

Cov Jr. has carried through on his threat to throw Balon! down the stairs.

News at 11:00.


(I know...the hair isn't quite the right color, but...)

[magickmaker17]

better you than me balon!....!

[balon!]

Ahhhhhhhh....

*thud*

[Cameraman Jenn]

BALON!!! BALON!!!!! Are you OK??????

[Nathan]

Now I just skip it and ask for the floor manager straight off.

Having worked phone tech support and been good at my job, I can tell you that when I had someone call and ask immediately for the manager for no reason, I would do my utmost to be unhelpful when they got back to me. The managers are managers, not tech support agents and you're just antagonising and wasting everyone's time by asking for them needlessly.

Were you reading passages out of a handbook when you worked? Because that's the impression I've always gotten from the floor staff at Dell. Very rarely were they telling me anything I didn't learn from my high school tech class. Their supervisor guy was the only one who knew his stuff. And it didn't help that every accent was nearly undecipherable.

Ah, we were one of the call centres where the staff got training in common issues and had extra support to call on if needed. We had an opening statement "Hello, my name... How can I help" and then it was entirely free-form from there.

Not a handbook in sight.

I have the easiest accent to understand ever. RP. I wish I could say the same about some of the customers! (I'm looking at you, Scotland)

[Menolly]

I have the easiest accent to understand ever. RP. I wish I could say the same about some of the customers! (I'm looking at you, Scotland)

Hey, dlb. You need to talk to Nathan.

[aliantha]

I have the easiest accent to understand ever. RP. I wish I could say the same about some of the customers! (I'm looking at you, Scotland)

Hey, dlb. You need to talk to Nathan.

Can I get a recording of that conversation?

[Cameraman Jenn]

No matter what conversation ensues it will never be as funny as CovJr trying to do dlb imitations. That was about as accurate as the Repulicans reporting on spin alley in the 2004 elections and about as funny as John Stewart's appearance on "Crossfire".... uh oh... now this thread must go to the tank...