damn you city of los angeles
part of life is calling up companies and complaining about something. usually money. getting charged for something you shouldn't have been charged for, refusing to pay for bad service, demanding a mail-in rebate be processed, etc... i mean, most of us have called our cable and/or cell phone company at least once so we know what its like. well... we win some and we lose some. :oP
i called washington mutual about a fee for a check copy i requested but never received. they promised a refund in a couple business days. i'll assume they carry through with that...
+$3
now the drama of my parking tickets. i brought my dad's car to school over summer. our apt has two parking spots, but three of us have cars. my friend down kelton had an extra spot behind her current spot, so we three apt car folks agreed to rotate between our two apt spots and my friend's spot. also, the spot at my friends' was sorta in the street so we would have to move our car once a week for street cleaning. since i knew my friend better than the other two with cars, i offered to park there most of the time and if i needed to rotate, i'd let them know.
tip: don't offer to be nice.
due to my forgetfulness and the hecticness of an emergency trip to taiwan over the summer, i accrued a total of 5 parking tickets. two for parking in 2-hour zones ($35 each) and 3 for forgetting to or being unable to move my car during street cleaning. ($45 each)
i didnt keep great track of these tickets and thought i only received 4 tickets total, which i paid off. a couple months later my parents called me saying they received a notice that i had an overdue parking ticket. i checked my bank account, seeing all the checks i sent out had been deposited, i assumed the notice was an error. a couple months later my dad says he's received more notices about the ticket so i call the parking violation hotline and find out i need to submit a copy of the check to prove i paid (thus the wamu check copy from above). i finally receive the copy (which i had to request again) today and find out the fine is for a ticket i must have lost track of, since the citation numbers on both my checks don't match the citation number i'm being fined for. by this time the fine had already been doubled to $110. i call the parking violation people and explained my situation about how i thought the previous notices were errors and tried to resolve the matter and only found out today i really had an unpaid ticket, so i requested they remove the late fee and fine me only $45. they wouldn't budge.
tip: if someone asks you "so you're saying ________?" and your gut reaction is "yes! that's exactly what i'm saying! you understand me!" think long and hard before you answer. chances are theyre not really being sympathetic and understand you, but they want you to say yes to confirm a statement that actually condemns you. :o\
its a bit longer and more complicated of a story, which i think i've blabbed more than enough about. bottom line...
-$110 (initially thought to be a $45 error that's been doubled)
on a side note, sometimes it seems we need a lawyer, or at least have the mind of a lawyer, before we set out on these conversations. the parking violations bureau actually logged the calls i made to inquire about the citations and took notes of any prior conversations i had with their operators. sometimes you think you're calling someone like a clueless tech support moron who will give in to your pleas and make exceptions, but don't count on it. also reminds me of a co-worker's conversation with the dean of students. i prolly woulda thought it would be an understanding talk to straighten out the situation but man, shoulda brought a lawyer to advise on when to speak and what to say... :o\ authorities are tricky.
in a still developing story.... the vietnamese bus. my new favorite alternative transporation between norcal and socal. $35 each way, but its los angeles stop is in chinatown, over an hour by bus from my apt. i was supposed to go home this morning on their 8:45am bus, according to their website schedule. (www.vietnamxekhach.com) i called yesterday to book, stating the morning san jose bus and they took down my name and phone number. i get there at 8:45 today and no bus. i call. lady tells me they changed management about a month ago and the bus leaves at 8am.
wtf?
luckily my dad was still there and dropped me back at home. i call them again to comment on inconvenience they caused me and hope for some service recovery in the form of offering a free trip (never hurts to try). as i tell the lady what happened in the morning, she tells me i can just take the afternoon bus (leaves at 4pm, arrives 9-10ish pm). i say its not that easy... they've caused me more inconvenience because i also have to take the public bus from chinatown back to my apt and i'd have to wait at night for the 11pm bus. she asks where i live and i blow off her question because i thought it was irrelevant to the situation. she then says they can give me a ride back to my apt. first i thot whaaaaaa?? but remembered they have vans, since i was shuttled in one from the chinatown parking lot to where the bus was parked. i tell her i live next to ucla and she says if i take the afternoon bus, they'll give me a ride back to my apt and sorry for the trouble. i accepted.
hmm.. not the service recovery i accepted but still a good move. now i'll see how they actually carry through with it.
+$1.25 (bus fare) and 15 min walk from chinatown to the bus stop
now the difference i see in the parking violation situation and the vietnamese bus situation... i was hopeful for service recovery from the vietnamese bus because they caused me an inconvience and more importantly they're a business... and we're capitalists. same for cable companies, retailers, banks, etc... we always get a little more leverage because upset customers spread their dissatisfaction and on the long run may hurt the business. so invest a little extra now, keep the customer happy, and a happy customer on the long run is more beneficial than a bitter customer.
not so for parking violation people. i never expected them to budge much in the first place. what do they care if they remove my late fee or not? if they have the legal right to fine me, then they'll fine me. dont give a shit if i'm satisfied, happy, or bitter. what am i gonna do? take my business elsewhere? start violating parking laws in another city? the most i could've asked for was for them to be understanding of my situation and be generous by waiving the fine, which is what i did, and they didn't budge, understandably, because there's no logical reason to.
fortunately for us cliccsters, we're more like the parking violations people than the vietnamese bus. "what's that? you typed an extra '0' and printed 50 pages instead of 5? hmm... whose fault is that?... what? you're not happy with the way we handled this? uhh... take your business elsewhere??" not that we like to be jerks, but its easier to enforce rules without having to walk that line of enforcing rules or making exeptions for customer satisfaction. of course, we'll still give refunds if it wasn't a user error. :oP :o)
$110!! arrrrgh Xo(
edit: oh yeah, i also can't really make a comparison cuz in the vietnamese bus' case, they screwed up, and in the parking violation case, i screwed up. :oP heh. big difference :o|
i called washington mutual about a fee for a check copy i requested but never received. they promised a refund in a couple business days. i'll assume they carry through with that...
+$3
now the drama of my parking tickets. i brought my dad's car to school over summer. our apt has two parking spots, but three of us have cars. my friend down kelton had an extra spot behind her current spot, so we three apt car folks agreed to rotate between our two apt spots and my friend's spot. also, the spot at my friends' was sorta in the street so we would have to move our car once a week for street cleaning. since i knew my friend better than the other two with cars, i offered to park there most of the time and if i needed to rotate, i'd let them know.
tip: don't offer to be nice.
due to my forgetfulness and the hecticness of an emergency trip to taiwan over the summer, i accrued a total of 5 parking tickets. two for parking in 2-hour zones ($35 each) and 3 for forgetting to or being unable to move my car during street cleaning. ($45 each)
i didnt keep great track of these tickets and thought i only received 4 tickets total, which i paid off. a couple months later my parents called me saying they received a notice that i had an overdue parking ticket. i checked my bank account, seeing all the checks i sent out had been deposited, i assumed the notice was an error. a couple months later my dad says he's received more notices about the ticket so i call the parking violation hotline and find out i need to submit a copy of the check to prove i paid (thus the wamu check copy from above). i finally receive the copy (which i had to request again) today and find out the fine is for a ticket i must have lost track of, since the citation numbers on both my checks don't match the citation number i'm being fined for. by this time the fine had already been doubled to $110. i call the parking violation people and explained my situation about how i thought the previous notices were errors and tried to resolve the matter and only found out today i really had an unpaid ticket, so i requested they remove the late fee and fine me only $45. they wouldn't budge.
tip: if someone asks you "so you're saying ________?" and your gut reaction is "yes! that's exactly what i'm saying! you understand me!" think long and hard before you answer. chances are theyre not really being sympathetic and understand you, but they want you to say yes to confirm a statement that actually condemns you. :o\
its a bit longer and more complicated of a story, which i think i've blabbed more than enough about. bottom line...
-$110 (initially thought to be a $45 error that's been doubled)
on a side note, sometimes it seems we need a lawyer, or at least have the mind of a lawyer, before we set out on these conversations. the parking violations bureau actually logged the calls i made to inquire about the citations and took notes of any prior conversations i had with their operators. sometimes you think you're calling someone like a clueless tech support moron who will give in to your pleas and make exceptions, but don't count on it. also reminds me of a co-worker's conversation with the dean of students. i prolly woulda thought it would be an understanding talk to straighten out the situation but man, shoulda brought a lawyer to advise on when to speak and what to say... :o\ authorities are tricky.
in a still developing story.... the vietnamese bus. my new favorite alternative transporation between norcal and socal. $35 each way, but its los angeles stop is in chinatown, over an hour by bus from my apt. i was supposed to go home this morning on their 8:45am bus, according to their website schedule. (www.vietnamxekhach.com) i called yesterday to book, stating the morning san jose bus and they took down my name and phone number. i get there at 8:45 today and no bus. i call. lady tells me they changed management about a month ago and the bus leaves at 8am.
wtf?
luckily my dad was still there and dropped me back at home. i call them again to comment on inconvenience they caused me and hope for some service recovery in the form of offering a free trip (never hurts to try). as i tell the lady what happened in the morning, she tells me i can just take the afternoon bus (leaves at 4pm, arrives 9-10ish pm). i say its not that easy... they've caused me more inconvenience because i also have to take the public bus from chinatown back to my apt and i'd have to wait at night for the 11pm bus. she asks where i live and i blow off her question because i thought it was irrelevant to the situation. she then says they can give me a ride back to my apt. first i thot whaaaaaa?? but remembered they have vans, since i was shuttled in one from the chinatown parking lot to where the bus was parked. i tell her i live next to ucla and she says if i take the afternoon bus, they'll give me a ride back to my apt and sorry for the trouble. i accepted.
hmm.. not the service recovery i accepted but still a good move. now i'll see how they actually carry through with it.
+$1.25 (bus fare) and 15 min walk from chinatown to the bus stop
now the difference i see in the parking violation situation and the vietnamese bus situation... i was hopeful for service recovery from the vietnamese bus because they caused me an inconvience and more importantly they're a business... and we're capitalists. same for cable companies, retailers, banks, etc... we always get a little more leverage because upset customers spread their dissatisfaction and on the long run may hurt the business. so invest a little extra now, keep the customer happy, and a happy customer on the long run is more beneficial than a bitter customer.
not so for parking violation people. i never expected them to budge much in the first place. what do they care if they remove my late fee or not? if they have the legal right to fine me, then they'll fine me. dont give a shit if i'm satisfied, happy, or bitter. what am i gonna do? take my business elsewhere? start violating parking laws in another city? the most i could've asked for was for them to be understanding of my situation and be generous by waiving the fine, which is what i did, and they didn't budge, understandably, because there's no logical reason to.
fortunately for us cliccsters, we're more like the parking violations people than the vietnamese bus. "what's that? you typed an extra '0' and printed 50 pages instead of 5? hmm... whose fault is that?... what? you're not happy with the way we handled this? uhh... take your business elsewhere??" not that we like to be jerks, but its easier to enforce rules without having to walk that line of enforcing rules or making exeptions for customer satisfaction. of course, we'll still give refunds if it wasn't a user error. :oP :o)
$110!! arrrrgh Xo(
edit: oh yeah, i also can't really make a comparison cuz in the vietnamese bus' case, they screwed up, and in the parking violation case, i screwed up. :oP heh. big difference :o|