OK, my daughter is three and even she knows that the people that work for Best Buy are a bunch of Monkeys. I went to Best Buy a few months ago to purchase two identical digital cameras. They were on sale and with each purchase you received a $10 gift card. I was going to purchase one for a gift and keep the other one and use BOTH of the gift cards to purchase a memory stick for my camera. So in one trip I wanted two cameras and one memory stick, and i wanted to two gift cards to pay for the $19.99 memory stick. I explained this to my "sales monkey" and the monkey said "OK, sure I can do that but i will have to ring it up as two seperate transactions." "No problem", I tell the monkey.
He proceeds to ring me up as I blindly hand the monkey my credit card. I am not paying too much attention at the time because my aformentioned 3 year old is requiring my attention at the time.
I sing the slip and grab my bag and drag my daughter out of the store and get her in her car seat as I review my receipt.
WRONG!!!!!!!!
I look in the bag and there are two cameras. a memory stick and two $10 gift cards.
UGH!!!! What happened?????
I drag my daughter back into the store with my bag and receipt and the gorilla at the door tells me to go right to customer service. The gal at the counter was dumb even for a monkey. I explained it tow her a few times and she just didn't get what I wanted to do. She was filled with excuses like, "Oh those cards aren't activated yet, it takes a few seconds for them to go through".
HUH????
I had to speak monkey to get through to her.
I said, "OK, forget everything I said to you just now. Ok, is it all gone yet? Good. I would like to return this memory stick I purchased, here is my receipt." She did and credited my credit card.
Next i said,,"Hey, do you have any memory sticks on sale for $19.99?"
She said, "Well, yeah the one you just returned was $19.99."
I said, "I'll take it!!!!"
"Do you want me to put the charge back on your credit card?" the monkey grunts.
"No, i would like to use these two $10 gift cards."
OOOOOOHHHH I get it now, the monkey said.
Finally i was on my way with my two cameras, one memory stick, and no more gift cards. This entire process took the better part of an hour, instead of 15 minutes or less.
Why do they think that placing a blue Best Buy shirt on a monkey is going to make them smart?
i would like to say I am never going back to Best Buy again, but I can't.
They still ar ethe best place in town for certain things that don't require customer service, like CDs or movies.
Still, the piss me off just the same.

Let's start with the most recent one since it is still VERY fresh in my head. I ordered 3 items from Lillian Vernon. A cat in the Hat Halloween costume for my three year old daughter, a ballet bag for her, and a cat flashlight that she could use during Trick-or-Treating. We placed the order on September 21st, and were told that it would arrive at our house no later than October 10th. On October 10th, we received a package from Lillian Vernon containing the flashlight, the ballet bag, and a set of bloody hands wondow clings????? Hmmmm Major problem, because we were having a Halloween PArty at our house on Saturday the 14th. We needed that costume in 4 DAYS!!!
Keep in mind, the fine people at Lillian Vernon located at 100 Lillian Vernon Drive
Virginia Beach, VA 23479-0001, have decided to have their customer service call center OUTSOURCED TO INDIA. Do they even have Halloween in India?
Anyway, my wife calls about the mistake and she is promptly told thatthey are sorry and they will process the order and send out a new costume. The item will be ready to ship out in a minimum of 4 to 5 business days. Naturally, I receive the phone call at work from the hormone filled very pregnant crying wife to see what I can do to FIX this problem. My daughter by the way is fighting back the tears in the background but is very angry with Lillian Vernon nonetheless.
I call and immediately ask to speak to a manager. I speak with a Miss Ryan Onz, who to the best of my understanding has attempted to expidite things and 2nd day air a package to me. Everyone at the call center is very difficult to understand.
I call back the next day and Miss Onz is unavailable. No one is able to provide me with a tracking number at that time, but if I give them my e-mail address, they will send me an e-mail with the tracking number for UPS in it. I give them my e-mail address and wait.
Thursday October 12 (Two days before the party) I call again because I still have not received an e-mail. Miss Onz is unavailable yet again so I speak with whoever is available. They call up my records and track the package for me and tell me that it is scheduled to arrive at my doorstep on Monday October 16. She actually seemed OK with that even though I wasn't. I replied with," I had made it abundantly clear that if the package wouldn't be able to be at my doorstep no later that Friday October 13th, to NOT SEND IT as I have no use for it. So Why did you still send the package?" I was informed that the package is no longer there and that there was nothing they could do about it. I asked, well what am I supposed to do now? I was then given the tracking number and the phone number for UPS and told to give them a call to see if there is anything they can do to hurry it up.
"WHAT?????"
Then I was asked if there was anything else that Lillian Vernon could assist me with. My reply was this,"Yes there is, you screwed this shipment up, you should be the one tracking down my package, calling UPS, and fixing the problem that YOU are responsible for. Not me! If I call UPS and ask them if they can speed thing up I am going to look like a complete idiot. This isn't UPS's fault, it is yours. You call them and explain yourself, and right this wrong!"

This is the best part.

They hung up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have not heard from Lillian Vernon since. And they from now on, will never hear from me.

First of all any company that outsources their customer service department gets a HUGE black mark in my book. Secondly they treat you like a number on a screen not a person, not an indivual. Two failed attempts in my book is all they have made. It is now Friday October 13th, and I have no halloween costume (as of yet) for my three year old daughter and her halloween party at our house for tomorrow.

I suppose I will run out and buy her one locally tonight at the last minute.
But who knows, maybe I will get home from work and there will be a package at my doorstep.
Even if there is, after all this hassle, I still am NEVER DEALING WITH LILLIAN VERNON AGAIN!
Besides, with my luck, the box at my doorstep will contain another set of bloody hand window clings.

New found inspiration!
I haven't written in this blog for almost (or maybe it's over) a year, and I have just had a revelation to rid this writer's block. I now know what the purpose of this blog should be.
I will use it to bash the companies that have wronged me as a consumer throughout the years!
I have this mental list of companies that I just will NOT deal with anymore because they have screwed me over big time in a time of need and I will never forget it. I keep telling myself I need to actually write this down so I never forget. Well, this blog will be even better. Instead of a crumpled piece of paper in my wallet, this list will now be available for the entire planet to access.
Enjoy and feel free to add your comments as well!