I had a new furnace and A/C unit installed this summer. They came with a $500 rebate from Thermwise (Dominion Energy).
I tried a few weeks ago to submit my rebate, which requires you to create an account on their website. It wouldn’t work, so I called them and was told that their web portal was having issues creating new accounts and to try back in a couple days. I tried several times over the next two weeks, all with the same issue. This morning, I was finally able to create an account. As part of the process, it sends you a confirmation e-mail that you have to click on before you can submit your rebate paperwork.
Only…the confirmation e-mail never shows up. I requested it over 2 hours ago and nothing. I asked their system to send it to me again and nothing. Checked my spam and junk folders…nothing.
As with many of these things, they make the process as difficult as possible so people just give up and they don’t have to actually send the rebate $$. On that front, you’re doing a bang-up job, Thermwise. SMH.
Crazy Basement Dwellers who decide it’s time to take down the Halloween Decorations at the crack of dawn, the day after Halloween, in freezing temperatures; then give you the face when you don’t join them in turning into a human popsicle.
Proprietary common auto parts. The battery died on my RAV 4 Hybrid (the 12V Battery, not the Hybrid) and do you think it exists anywhere other than at Toyota? Nope. When did what should be a simple repair-replacement turn into a quest for the damned Holy Grail?
The common cold. There is nothing quite like getting sick the day after getting a colonoscopy and endoscopy while running around the valley to get proprietary auto parts to fix the wife’s car. Amazing I didn’t go full road rage, though I saw a lot of folks out there trying to roll like Mario Andretti, and getting pissed when drivers cut them off (and weren’t using their turn signals).
Here’s one that pops up for me once in awhile. The various idiotic names for the full moon. For example, tonight’s is a Beaver Moon. WTF is a Beaver Moon? I recall Strawberry Moon, at least that one was slightly red, albeit from the crap in the atmosphere.
My cell phone bill with AT&T just randomly jumped by $15/month. No explanation, they just tacked on another $5 a month because they can. The customer service person was very nice and apologetic about it, but they know I’m over a barrel because it would be a giant pain in the a$$ to switch providers.
It seems like all these new moon names have popped up in the last decade or so, like random diseases that I never knew existed until an ad for its cure showed up through various media.
Doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, I just wasn’t aware it had a name
Verizon just added $5 to each of my lines this month with no explanation. I went back and found an email from 9 months ago that said there may be a price increase sometime …
I’m sure this is going to sound like an angry old man, “Get off of my lawn” sort of comment, but I am increasing frustrated, sometimes to the point of tears, over the inability to communicate with anyone in business, industry, education, medicine, government, or you name it, interactively, over the telephone.
I frequently spend so much time:
on the phone attempting to get past an automated IVR system, designed to “help” me,
emailing back and forth with someone, often waiting hours or even days between replies,
or in chats, which are increasing driven by Bots or AI, which virtually NEVER provide any resolution,
etc., etc., etc.
that by the time I get the information/answer, I no longer care. And often, I simply never get the information/answer, give, up and go on without the product or service.
Problems or questions often require a small amount of human integration, a bit of give and take, a little information to answer the first question, which then logically leads to a follow up question or two. These non-human, or non-interactive mechanisms are woefully inadequate for real human communication.
I wonder how many people or organizations realize how often these mechanisms result in the organization’s eventual failure to sell its goods or services.
The new “phone help” system blows, though my personal favorite peeve is going to a store and having the employees not having a clue how to do the most basic customer service tasks. I get it’s the holiday season and most companies are flooded with temporary help, but if you’re wearing a manager badge, shouldn’t you know something?
And they wonder why people just go to Amazon and its peer retail portals.
LOL! Yes, there is that… My favorite is going to Home Depot, asking an employee where I can find some item, and watching them reach for their phone, go to the company website, and start searching for the location in their own store for the item in question
I inevitably give up after a minute, and look for an employee with gray hair, who has been there long enough that they know the answer.
I’m old enough to remember when even a large corporation had a central receptionist who pretty much knew every department - if not, every person - in the building, and could help you find the right person for a particular question.
I also find it more common with younger folks nowadays to answer the phone with a “whatever” type of attitude or “…and…?” They don’t identify themselves by name or department. Don’t seem to be particularly cheery or interested in being involved in the conversation. Often you can tell that they’re probably looking at a screen watching cat videos or something…
Exactly. The tired “Press 1 if you want to pay your bill”, press 2 if you want …" doesn’t help. And then there’s always the “please visit our website” which is NEVER any help.
Being able to talk to a person sometimes works wonders.
One time I went to Home Depot and asked where I could find a leaf vacuum. The guy sent me to the area where the shop vacs were. I asked again about leaf vacs and they said they had never heard of such a thing. I told them to look on their phone, they looked and said, “oh, I guess they do make those sort of things, but we don’t have any in this store”. I immediately left and went to Lowes and was able to buy a leaf vac. They knew what they were and where they were in the store.
Edit to add: How does someone who works at a home improvement store not know what a leaf vac is?
The “leaf vac” around here means raking the leaves into a pile and using the chipper-shredder to turn it into mulch. Then I mix it into my garden soil.
