Posts filed under 'Businesses that Suck'
I got an e-mail from Orbitz this morning, alerting me to a United Airlines fare sale, so I clicked on over and started searching flights to London this spring.
I’ve flown a bit on Virgin Atlantic between New York and London, liked their service, and they had the lowest fare. But wait a minute, what’s that?
(click to see the idiocy with your own eyes)
Yes, $192 in fare, $298 in fees, for a total of $490.
Higher fees than the damn fare?
Wow, must be a lot of security fees. Or are they fuel surcharges? $298 in taxes and fees must buy me a lot. Jet fuel, maybe airport fees… gotta pay those people who make me take off my shoes. Hmm… it should cost about the same in taxes and fees for different airlines, right? And since taxes are usually calculated on a percentage basis, the higher the fare, the higher the taxes and fees, right?
Oh, maybe not.
(click to see the idiocy with your own eyes)
Same total cost, lower taxes and fees. $130 lower. Is American Airlines getting a deal on x-ray machine usage?
The complete lack of transparency on what the fee components are is quite disturbing. I wonder which of these “fees” might be service fees imposed by Orbitz. I’m more than open to explanations.
December 27th, 2006
Our second installment in the Businesses that Suck category — Amazon.com
Now, I’m a pretty loyal customer, and you know, I just may stay that way. Which is precisely why not to piss me the F off. I got an Amazon Prime membership last December when I had a bunch of gifts that I wanted to order that were really heavy, and where I really wanted second-day shipping. The cost of the shipping would have exceeded the $79 membership fee, so I decided to go for it.
Since then, I’ve ordered plenty of things from Amazon, more than any other online retailer…
So I got an e-mail a few days ago that they were unable to charge my credit card for the renewal. Today I hopped on the site to see about some additional gifts. A little bannery-thing-a-ma-jig showed that my Amazon Prime benefits were on hold because they couldn’t charge my default credit card. So I told it to try another that they had on file. No dice. Same for a total of 5 cards.
If I had 5 cards which legitimately all didn’t work, I’d either be up to my limits on everything, or have had some kind of fraud alert or have been declared an enemy combatant or something.
So… I spoke to them with their “call me” thing, which I’ve figured out must simply be a way to not give out a phone number, since I was still on hold for several minutes. Why bother having an automated system call me to have me hold? Seriously, WTF? Why not have a system by which they call me back when someone’s available, or at least when there’s a 30-second or shorter queue?
So then this woman with some kind of speech impediment (maybe she’s Indian and trying an American accent, maybe she’s developmentally disabled, or maybe she’s just got a speech impediment — I couldn’t tell anything but that she was hard to understand AND that she didn’t seem to “get” that I’m neither an idiot, a deadbeat who hasn’t paid his bills, nor a first-time orderer) who refused to understand that the problem was with their system in some manner.
After watching a movie (I was too pissed at the asswipes to deal with it), I decided to change the e-mail address on my account and create a new account. Of course, I got signed up and charged on the first try to sign up for Amazon Prime.
Amazon is well-known for its customer experience quality. I wonder how this kind of crap happens. I suppose they increase the staffing for the holiday, and some of the people are less-than-stellar.
Of course, it makes me wonder what the customer experience is like at $WORK. I’ve never called their customer service. Maybe I should some day…
December 18th, 2006
I’ve been finding myself getting more and more frustrated with businesses in my everyday life. It’s been getting to me far more often than it should — it really shouldn’t ruin my day when a store’s not living up to what I consider either minimal standards or reasonable potential, depending on my expectations.
It might seem ridiculous, but I think that this gets its own category, so there can be a series. The category is “Businesses that Suck”, and I’m sure that having it there as an option will prompt me to write a bit more often.
I’ll get this party started with a company known for the “experience” it provides more than the coffee it brews. Starbucks has been raising my ire quite a bit lately. Here’s why:
I often order a quad venti skim latte. I don’t say nonfat. OK, I know that slows them down a little, they need to translate the milk part from skim to N when writing on the cup — S is for soy.
Now, repeatedly during the summer, I ordered a ”quad venti skim latte” and was presented with an iced quad venti skim latte. Hey, I ordered a quad. I’m not your average “oh, what should I get?” thinkers, I’m an orderer. If I didn’t say iced, I didn’t mean it.
Another recurring event: they’ve called out “quad venti skim latte” to the barista but only rung up a venti latte, plus a shot. Comes to $4.88 here in Manhattan. I know that they’ve undercharged by a shot. Apparently a venti Americano comes with 3 shots, or so I’ve been told — when I explained how I’d been undercharged. I’m not sure where my responsibility lay. Must I explain to them repeatedly how to do their jobs? If they charge me $4.88 and not $5.47, am I obligated to train their employees?
And… since I’m still going back, often multiple times a day for a $5 cup of coffee… I’ll break this one out. Their store layouts and their designated traffic flows for ordering and then obtaining your bevvies and then getting to the fixin’s stand and finally leaving require customers to squeeze past each other uncomfortably several times.
I pay for a premium product and a premium experience. It doesn’t cost money to do things right. Make it easy for me not to be uncomfortable when buying your product…
The “experience” has to start with the lack of discomfort. C’mon. Make me not feel dirty, businesses.
October 2nd, 2006
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