HOLIDAY HAPPENING
When one of the nation's largest firms cannot credit monthly payments for gasoline to the proper account, it should indicate that something is amiss within that organization.
And, when that firm, on the Sunday morning before Christmas , calls, not once, but twice by different annoymous persons – to harangue the client with threats of reporting “non-payment” to credit firms, it should suggest that changes are now past due in their methods of operation. Both call resulted from earlier calls the previous week alleging non-payment. A prompt visit to the local bank showed clearly that the questioned payment had been made and falsely credited to an account in Shawnee, Oklahoma instead of to ours in Virginia. Our local bank made copies of the check and of the billing and faxed them to the gasoline firm. Neither of our “Happy Holidays” callers Sunday had any information concerning any such clarification of the problem.
No wonder there is so much interest in the possible passage of legislation designed to curb the excesses of the Telemarketing field in general. The major gasoline companies, banks, and, oddly enough the multitudes of telephone firms appear to be the most bothersome users of such methods. The new legislation may not concern the phone companies,I understand because they operation under different set of rules than others. It will be unfair if such new legislation curbs the industry to the point of killing it.
Firms such as the automotive fuel collossus to whom I have been alluding, spend millions of dollars annually intended to better the public perception of the manner in which they claim to be doing business. Much of that public relations money is wasted, when they are rotting within.
Ours, I find, is not an isolated case. Check around, and you will find that scores of people you know have such “horror “ stories of their own to tell. It is not an uncommon experience.
I do not approve of the firm's repeated infringement on our family's Sabbath Day and, especially on a Sunday just prior to Chrismas Day. It was certainly not in keeping with the special meanings of the time to have grand choldren wondering why Grand Mother was near to tears talking with someone on the phone; why Grandpa was suddenly so grouchy, and why their own parents seemed so concerned by the calls.
Christmas stopped.
It seems to me the firm could have controlled the Scrooge-like impulses they seem to have for a few days, until, at least, they had the opportunity to look at the situation as it existed rather than some uninformed underlings imagined it to be.
The die has been cast.
Pay up. Get out.
And, never buy from that firm again.
A.L.M. December 22, 2002 [c464wds]
