WTF...like really!

I am generally a calm-natured, patient, and understanding individual. It takes a lot to frustrate or anger me, unless it's rude and ignorant people, but that's a different story for another day.

I am so frustrated at the moment I could literally scream. Sorry if anyone was coming here for some sunshine on this post. Sunshine will return when I type the last period.

Anyways...why I'm annoyed...

Situation #1: I can't elaborate fully, but I am so unbelievably tired of being told that I'm inefficient and basically suck. I bust my ass and no one seems to care or take notice. I buy a book to better myself and then I'm told that basically it's not going to help me, because umm well apparently there is no hope. Wow, gee thankssomuch. And I wonder why I have no motivation...

Situation #2: Hubby and I currently have Comcast for our cable, internet, and phone. We had it when we lived in our apartment and just transferred it over when we bought the house. The service is great until you have to call customer service and then all hell breaks loose.

AT&T U-verse is finally available in our area and we were planning to switch in May when our contract with Comcast was up. Well today I got an e-mail from AT&T talking about their current promotion. I decided to look into it. I chatted with the customer service rep online and they were so helpful! I went ahead and ordered U-verse and set up installation for next week. Hubby and I are psyched. This isn't why I'm mad though. This would be the happy moment of my day well that and reading Sookie Stackhouse, but that's besides the point.

Well since I ordered U-verse, that means I have to do the pain in the arse part of cancelling with Comcast. I called this afternoon and told them I wanted to cancel. They didn't even try to keep me as a customer! What kind of customer service is that? Anyways, the guy asked me if I wanted to cancel effective today and I said yes not thinking. I hung up but later in the afternoon I was thinking and was like oh crap! I don't need service canceled today, I need it cancelled next Tuesday!

So I call back this afternoon and explained my mistake to a less than happy customer service rep. She said she adjusted the cancellation date and all would be well. Fantastic! However, I didn't have the birds are singing warm and fuzzies, as nothing is that easy with Comcast. If you have to call, prepare to have something screwed up and to be placing several more calls. All of my experiences with them have been this way.

My husband got home this evening and what do you know...no cable. I'm on my way home, so I call Comcast from the car. After speaking to two customer service reps, the lady tells me that my service is "green" and should be working properly. Great. Hubby confirms it's working, so all is good.

I get home and check the internet and ha, what do you know...it doesn't effing work. Go figure. So I call Comcast for something like the third time. I explain everything again to the customer service rep and she checks my "status." She tells me it's "green." I'm so tired of hearing green when the service obviously is NOT working. After several times of her telling me it's green and I tell her it doesn't work, she tells me she cannot help me and will transfer me. After 10 minutes or so on hold our internet connectivity is restored. WOW! It's a miracle!!

Service with Comcast has routinely been a large pain in the you know what. To say that I'm excited for the switch to U-verse would be a HUGE understatement. I would much rather pay a company my hard earned money who actually solves problems on the first run and isn't so much of a headache. Not to mention more service and perks for LESS money. The choice was easy. See ya Comcast!!

Situation #3: Hubby and I ran a quick errand to Walgreens this evening to grab some chips and salsa to go with dinner, as well as a few other things. We stopped in the Easter candy (to torture ourselves of course) and decided to go ahead and grab our favorites to indulge in when Lent is over. We check out and hubby makes a comment that one of the candies were expensive. I step away from the register and check the receipt. I bought two bags of the Cadbury Mini Eggs as they were advertised as 2/$4. I was charged $5.99 for each bag.

They call a manager and she comes to assist me or rather I go over to the photo area. She pulls out the ad and starts reading it. She says I bought the wrong size for the coupon. I tell her that the sign specifically says 2/$4. After arguing with her and insisting she go see the sign, she walks down the aisle. I show her the sign that is clearly under the specific candy and it's placed over the price tag of $5.99 for the bag of candy.

She proceeds to tell me that she will not honor it and that it was placed in the wrong place--That it was for the smaller bags, which didn't make sense becuase those bags had their own coupon of $1 off. I told her if she wasn't going to honor it then she should take the sign down. She waved me off and said "No, it's fine." Really? It's fine? Because you just said you weren't going to honor your obvious mistake AND you're not going to take the sign down, therefore you're going to go through this with another customer? Oh and get this...she's a MANAGER. Those are some spectacular managerial skills. Like top-rate I tell you. I grabbed the smaller bags of candy, got my refund, and left.

This isn't the first time a store has advertised something and then wouldn't honor it when it was CLEARLY their mistake. I think that is stupid on their part and really makes me question being a regular customer in their store. I own my own business, as small as it may be, but if I accidentally advertised something as such, someone purchased it, and then I realized my mistake, I would honor what I advertised. I think that's a fundamental of business. Walgreens is a multi-million dollar company and my little business is barely in the hundreds, yet I seem to have a better moral and ethical compass when it comes to business relations. I just really think companies need to own up to their mistake, honor the price, and then change their advertisement to avoid confusion or problems with other customers.

Did I need the bag of candy? No. It's the principle here folks. The principle.

In my humble opinion of course.

Whew. I feel better just writing that. I was fuming when I started this post, but now I feel better. I'm sorry my rant carried on, for what maybe seemed like an eternity, but thanks and kudos to you if you stuck it out all the way to the end. Another thanks for letting me rant whenever I feel like it and not taking me off your Google Reader or subscription service :)

Lots of love,