Drat!

[ceagle]

After over FIFTEEEEEEEEN years with my pager (and cool pager number), the company has changed hands so many times they finally figured out how to royally screw it up so bad... I... *ulp* ...had to cancel my pager service ;_;
My Dad asked me to get that pager way back so he could get ahold of me, and it turned out to be great for business, too. I went through 4 of 'em.

It was only about $3 a month so it was cool to keep before.. and getting to be a fun conversation piece when people would ask me "what's That?" :D
But my ole pager recently got wonky (they last about 4 or 5 years), I got a replacement ... and they just sent me a bill for SEVEN TIMES the amount it was before!!! ;P
Hey people.. it's numeric paging!!! There's barely any cost to it!
I think a bunch of idiot execs just sat around a table and said "hey... cel phones are really making money out there. Let's start charging that much." Way to kill a company, guys...

Feh.

-

And on that note...
What IZ it with businesses???
Commerce has been going on for thousands of years, and there's still dufuses out there!! *grrrrr* Here's some recent samples:

- Chase buys WaMu ... a few months later they say "no more free checking". Well, Thanks A LOT, people. Don't they realize I can just go somewhere else? *grrrr*

- The local Hawaiian restaurant is out of business. Well, no DUH.... they would never sell a la carte stuff. I'd say "I don't want ALL that rice and cabbage! Just give me the main dish a la carte, please"
"Sorry sir.. no way." Don't they realize that disappointment just builds and builds until the house of cards comes falling down? :/

- My old old credit card tells me the lowest rate they have now is 24 %
Usually you can call in and say "please give me a lower rate."
"Sorry sir... no can do."
"But... my other cards are like 8% and 3%"
"Sorry sir."
*card shelved... no longer using it... ever* Scrooo yooo, Wells Farguuuuu!

Ya know, customer satisfaction is practically worth its weight in gold... and a little help goes a long way. Looks like some businesses prefer put their weight into anchors and sink, rather than shine like gold.

Dufuses!! ;P

Comments

[canid-anubis.livejournal.com]

It is always nice to read your posts, no matter how frustrating the subjectmatter can be for you :)

My only comment, as I am racing to get to work (late again... hmm..I wonder why?), is that when you say:
"*card shelved... no longer using it... ever* Scrooo yooo, Wells Farguuuuu!"
Do make it a point to check the fine print. There are a lot of cards out there now that if you don't use them at all in a year will charge you a $35 fee. Some, I hear, will have a mothly fee if there is no usage now. They want to find a way to get your money. If they can't rape you with interest, they might do it that way.

Good luck,
-Canis

[whitetail.livejournal.com]

I'll be leaving Chase myself soon for the same reason - after 19 years. Banks seem to have forgotten - you pay ME for the privilege of keeping my money, not the other way around!

[aldi.livejournal.com]

Banks are so rich (at least in Canada) that they don't even seem to need our money anymore, so yes, it is the other way around now, sadly.

[aldi.livejournal.com]

Easy explanation: they only focus on very short term profit to please the stockholders. They don't give a crap about long term investing in customer satisfaction.

[orv.livejournal.com]

I suspect pager service is getting more expensive because they have fewer and fewer subscribers, so the maintenance and tower rental costs get spread across fewer and fewer people. Many pager systems are running hardware from the 1970s.

For $21/month ($3*7) you could get a prepaid cell phone...just sayin'. My Net10 phone costs $30 for 300 minutes and 60 days of service, which works out to $15/month since I never go through all 300.

[dwight j. dutton (from livejournal.com)]

YOu can get a $10 a month cell phone from Ralphs grocery now - and whenever you buy food they give you free minutes.

[expandranon.livejournal.com]

So many of the businesses out there have bought each other out, there are really only a handful of big companies controlling everything, and they're all out to screw their customers. Hate the service you got at KFC and go to Taco Bell instead? YUM Foods wins, either way.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Chase buys WaMu ... a few months later they say "no more free checking". Well, Thanks A LOT, people. Don't they realize I can just go somewhere else? *grrrr*

Actually a lot of banks (most?) got rid of their free checking (some will still waive the fee with certain balances or direct deposit).
Since they can't force people to allow overdrafting, they need to make their money somewhere, or so they say.

Also, I just got a letter from Wells Fargo where they out of the blue lowered the interest rate on my credit card. Weird eh?

[orv.livejournal.com]

My credit union still offers free checking. I also have a (mostly unused) checking account at JP Morgan Chase (née Washington Mutual) that hasn't had a fee added, yet.

[atkelar.livejournal.com]

OK... let me sum up what's reality around here:

1. Banks having free anything? Huh? With checking accounts the fees usually even outweigh any intrest you might get... So better not keep anything in there for too long.
2. Pager service around here has been discontinued several years ago and was only kept operational for so long since emergency service personal (ambulance drivers and such) relied on it. But now even they have cell phones for it.

As for the rates going up... it's a general problem of how our commerce works. Companies have to have INCREASED profits every year. STABLE profits or JUST profits won't do it. And since the amount of total customers remains rather constant, the only way to increas profits is to... well, you get my drift.

[mortonfox.livejournal.com]

My credit card is also at 24% APR but I never carry a balance so it's irrelevant.

As for restaurants, yes, there are some that I haven't been back to in years because of customer service issues.

[genecatlow.livejournal.com]

Almost like Oliver Twist in reverse.. "Please sir, could I have a little less (interest rate)"