Welcome back, Blogging Pals!!
My apology for the delay in posts. I have been busy with some things that didn't leave me time to sit and ponder what you might find of interest.
So... a few comments as the adventure in southwest Louisiana continues.
Recycling is not really something that is actively pursued here. Many of you in Austin are aware you put your recycles out (single-stream) alongside your garbage bin and the city comes along and empties it. "Single-stream", for those of you who are not familiar with the term, means you have ONE big bin into which you deposit ALL recyclable items... glass, metal (cans, etc.), plastics, paper, etc. In other words, if the city recycles it (and Austin recycles quite a bit these days), you can dump it all into the city-provided bin. Between the recycling program in Austin and my two compost bins in the back yard, we rarely filled up an actual garbage bin!! The only "recycling" I have found here is the WalMart and the local grocer providing a place to return one's plastic bags for recycling. That's it. There is no effort to recycle on the part of the town. I continue to have a hard time placing items I was able to recycle in Texas into the garbage can to go into a Louisiana landfill. I don't have a choice.
A Farmer's Market is always of interest in my world. I pretty faithfully attended the Sunset Valley Farmer's Market in Austin every Saturday morning for a long time. I had almost a "standing order" with my lettuce lady and my mushroom man and was always on the lookout for other offerings that were of interest. It was a large market with not only produce but interesting handmade items by local artists. There was nearly always something to see. I looked forward to it. I noticed a "Farmer's Market" sign in my new environment at each end of one of the two downtown blocks. It obviously was set up to slide from "closed" to "open" so folks would know. Good idea! There is a pavilion there so I figured it might not be large but it certainly would be worth a visit. Homegrown produce is always worth the trip! I have never found any specific information about it so could only assume it would at LEAST be open on a Saturday morning... right? Oops. There I go with my assumptions again. I got up one Saturday, had my coffee, got dressed, and headed downtown looking forward to checking out the local Farmer's Market. As I approached the site, there was NO ONE there. The place was absolutely dead. The sign showed "closed." Sigh. Foiled again. (Since then, I have discovered that the local sellers sort of show up whenever it makes sense to them and move the signage from "closed" to "open" while they are there. There is no specific day or time to set my schedule by.) Have I made it by when it was open yet? Nope.
Finally, there is one more comment about differences. The former owners of the house we now own had left quite a few items that we would like to dispose of but that are not accepted by the garbage workers. (I set out a non-functional trash can with writing on it to advise it was intended as TRASH itself. It was still there when I went to retrieve the functioning empty garbage bin.) There are other items so we called the city to determine where the local dump was located. (There was a local dump when I grew up here.) The city worker advised there was no city dump. I suggested to the spousal-unit (who was making the calls) that he contact the Parish. He did so and the Parish worker advised there was no Parish dump. Strike Two. He asked this individual WHO might have information about a location where items could be taken that the garbage guys would not retrieve? He was sent to the contracted trash pickup folks. A third call answered the question. The contractor has a location near the entrance to Fort Polk (about a 30 minute drive from here) where they will accept items you wish to bring in. There was no discussion about whether there was a charge to take them in. We have also been made aware there is a "bulk pickup" taking place twice a year. We apparently have not hit the first one since our arrival. We may just hold off for that.
The update is about my credit card dispute of Yahoo!'s charging of my card without my knowledge or permission. The last I had submitted to the credit card company was a little over a month ago. I received a letter from the credit card company last week advising they were "blocking" (guess that means "killing") my card and I shouldn't use it. I haven't used it in over a year so there was no real danger there. No problem. Suddenly, I receive a credit card bill in the mail with a $10 charge for an "additional or replacement card." Huh? First of all, I didn't GET a card. Secondly, I didn't ASK for a card. Thirdly... ah heck... I'll just call them. So I did. I actually was VERY pleased with the customer service I received. I spoke with a nice young lady, explained the situation, and asked her to determine if/when a "replacement" card had been sent as I had not received it and I asked why it was even sent since I did not request it. She checked on the whole thing, told me she would waive the $10 charge (but to call her back if I did not get the replacement card!), and advised that my dispute was in some limbo called "supervisory" something-or-other under review. Uh... okay. I asked what kind of timeline I should expect to get a resolution? Not sure. The process apparently "takes a long time." Uh... okay. I'll just mark my calendar and keep checking in about once a month. How's that? Fine. No problem.
I will continue to try to adapt and will continue to fight previous battles with vigor. :) Wish me luck!!
Until next time...
Showing posts with label Yahoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yahoo. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
YAHOOS AT YAHOO
Hello, Blogging Pals!
This will not be a funny post. If that's what you are looking for, I suggest you bail now and find one elsewhere. This is a rant about Yahoo!
So... as time goes on, I have come to expect less and less from "customer service" departments. My expectations have not only been met, they have frequently been exceeded. This little debacle really takes the cake and I am writing about it to inform any of you who do business with Yahoo! about their complete lack of concern for you or your account which is replaced with a HUGE concern about making money from you.
Long story as short as I can make it:
As a Realtor in Austin, I had an individual put together a web site for me which included obtaining five domain names I could use to direct traffic to that site. He purchased the five domain names for me in late 2004, billed me for his work including the domain name charges, and everything was good to go. I did not ask anything about the domain names or the account he had used to purchase them as I was led to believe he would be handling that for me.
In early 2007, I was making some changes and checked on the domain names. None of them led to my web site. Further investigation revealed the domain name registration had expired in late 2006 as they were 2-year registrations. I contacted Yahoo! customer service in an attempt to get these domain names back. They would not even TALK to me since the account was not in my name and I could not verify the credit card number used to purchase the domain names in 2004. DUH!!! I explained verbally and in writing (email) what had taken place, etc. No help. I finally tracked down the individual who I THOUGHT was going to take care of this to find he had left town, apparently let everything go, and seemed surprised to hear from me. He (allegedly) attempted to renew the registrations through his account with Yahoo! but Yahoo! (allegedly) would not accept his credit card. He emailed me with his username and password, suggesting that I go into his account and enter my credit card information in order to get the domain names renewed. This is where I clearly made my error.
I entered his account, renewed each of the five domain names using my business credit card, then attempted to delete the credit card information from the account. The Yahoo! system would not allow deletion of that information. I requested that the individual whose account it was attempt to delete it. He was (allegedly) unable to do so. Since I was led to believe it was a 2-year renewal, I wasn't too worried about it. I asked him to notify me when the next renewal came up and would place it on my calendar for April of 2009. Easy enough.
Things changed, as you all know, and my real estate career pretty much ground to a halt in September of 2008. During the move to Louisiana, I received a credit card bill with (you guessed it) five charges for $34.95 each for the five domain names. I don't think so!!! I immediately disputed the charges via the credit card company. They were removed and the games began.
I received a letter from my credit card company this past week advising that Yahoo! was disputing my dispute and asking if I wished to continue my dispute or recognize the charges as valid. There was an amusing letter of length from the Yahoo! folks to the credit card company pointing out all of the things that made their "automatic renewal charges" to my credit card valid. I sat right down and put together my OWN letter of length pointing out all of the reasons their reasons were NOT valid. One specific point of contention between Yahoo! and me is their statement that I should have contacted them first, before disputing through my credit card company. *chuckle* I did have to laugh at that one.
One thing I have learned after many years is to keep any/all documentation that MIGHT come in handy in the future. Fortunately, I had retained ALL of the correspondence between the actual Yahoo! accountholder and myself as well as the correspondence between the Yahoo! "customer service" representative and myself. Yup. Enclosed copies of all that fun along with my letter of length.
So... my letter was received by the credit card company on June 12th. I'm not certain what the next steps are other than their probably sending copies of MY stuff to Yahoo! for Yahoo! to review and plot to further try to collect the monies. It's pretty interesting, really. This is a firm that refused to talk to me at all... but apparently they have no compunction about taking my money even though the credit card name (mine) and address (mine) did NOT match the accountholder information they still have!!! Hmmmmmmmmmm. At any rate... I will await the next barrage. The response I receive will indicate whether or not Yahoo! is a business with ethics or whether Yahoo! is simply out to make a buck. I will keep you all posted.
Oh... and I can't put the exclamation point behind Yahoo! in the title as that character is apparently not allowed in the blog title. My apologies to Yahoo! for my inability to appropriately depict the firm. Uh-huh.
The worst part of this is how upset this situation has made my cats. It wasn't enough that they had to endure a 6-hour ride between states. Now there's this. Sigh. I hope they can manage to get over it all.
This will not be a funny post. If that's what you are looking for, I suggest you bail now and find one elsewhere. This is a rant about Yahoo!
So... as time goes on, I have come to expect less and less from "customer service" departments. My expectations have not only been met, they have frequently been exceeded. This little debacle really takes the cake and I am writing about it to inform any of you who do business with Yahoo! about their complete lack of concern for you or your account which is replaced with a HUGE concern about making money from you.
Long story as short as I can make it:
As a Realtor in Austin, I had an individual put together a web site for me which included obtaining five domain names I could use to direct traffic to that site. He purchased the five domain names for me in late 2004, billed me for his work including the domain name charges, and everything was good to go. I did not ask anything about the domain names or the account he had used to purchase them as I was led to believe he would be handling that for me.
In early 2007, I was making some changes and checked on the domain names. None of them led to my web site. Further investigation revealed the domain name registration had expired in late 2006 as they were 2-year registrations. I contacted Yahoo! customer service in an attempt to get these domain names back. They would not even TALK to me since the account was not in my name and I could not verify the credit card number used to purchase the domain names in 2004. DUH!!! I explained verbally and in writing (email) what had taken place, etc. No help. I finally tracked down the individual who I THOUGHT was going to take care of this to find he had left town, apparently let everything go, and seemed surprised to hear from me. He (allegedly) attempted to renew the registrations through his account with Yahoo! but Yahoo! (allegedly) would not accept his credit card. He emailed me with his username and password, suggesting that I go into his account and enter my credit card information in order to get the domain names renewed. This is where I clearly made my error.
I entered his account, renewed each of the five domain names using my business credit card, then attempted to delete the credit card information from the account. The Yahoo! system would not allow deletion of that information. I requested that the individual whose account it was attempt to delete it. He was (allegedly) unable to do so. Since I was led to believe it was a 2-year renewal, I wasn't too worried about it. I asked him to notify me when the next renewal came up and would place it on my calendar for April of 2009. Easy enough.
Things changed, as you all know, and my real estate career pretty much ground to a halt in September of 2008. During the move to Louisiana, I received a credit card bill with (you guessed it) five charges for $34.95 each for the five domain names. I don't think so!!! I immediately disputed the charges via the credit card company. They were removed and the games began.
I received a letter from my credit card company this past week advising that Yahoo! was disputing my dispute and asking if I wished to continue my dispute or recognize the charges as valid. There was an amusing letter of length from the Yahoo! folks to the credit card company pointing out all of the things that made their "automatic renewal charges" to my credit card valid. I sat right down and put together my OWN letter of length pointing out all of the reasons their reasons were NOT valid. One specific point of contention between Yahoo! and me is their statement that I should have contacted them first, before disputing through my credit card company. *chuckle* I did have to laugh at that one.
One thing I have learned after many years is to keep any/all documentation that MIGHT come in handy in the future. Fortunately, I had retained ALL of the correspondence between the actual Yahoo! accountholder and myself as well as the correspondence between the Yahoo! "customer service" representative and myself. Yup. Enclosed copies of all that fun along with my letter of length.
So... my letter was received by the credit card company on June 12th. I'm not certain what the next steps are other than their probably sending copies of MY stuff to Yahoo! for Yahoo! to review and plot to further try to collect the monies. It's pretty interesting, really. This is a firm that refused to talk to me at all... but apparently they have no compunction about taking my money even though the credit card name (mine) and address (mine) did NOT match the accountholder information they still have!!! Hmmmmmmmmmm. At any rate... I will await the next barrage. The response I receive will indicate whether or not Yahoo! is a business with ethics or whether Yahoo! is simply out to make a buck. I will keep you all posted.
Oh... and I can't put the exclamation point behind Yahoo! in the title as that character is apparently not allowed in the blog title. My apologies to Yahoo! for my inability to appropriately depict the firm. Uh-huh.
The worst part of this is how upset this situation has made my cats. It wasn't enough that they had to endure a 6-hour ride between states. Now there's this. Sigh. I hope they can manage to get over it all.
Until next time...
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