Wordless Wednesday: Black Bear Diner

As seen at the Big Bear Diner









Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Worst Customer Service Award of the Month Goes To...

After a month of dealing with old and new companies, moving half way across the country, and dealing with a stolen credit card number the search concluded for the company with the Worst Customer Service. Not only do they win for the month, they may just take the year. And the winner is.... Zoosk!

In the last month I've dealt with rental trucks, Realtors, rental agencies, various stores from grocery to thrift store, and even dealing with getting my new driver's license, all with wonderful service and great people. A few days ago I discovered my credit card number had been stolen and used online to make a couple purchases. Luckily I get notices in my email of all charges, an electronic receipt, so I knew the moment they happened. Well, you can bet I rushed right in and cancelled that card. The charges were still in their "Authorization" phase, not actually being charges yet, so I set about contacting the companies that charges had been made with to attempt to get them stopped. Smooth process until I get to this month's award winner.

Tried their customer service line and was greeted by a message that said they don't talk to people on the phone, if I'm a member I need to log into my account and if I'm reporting a fraudulent charge, I have to email them. That right there pushed them high up on my poor customer service list, a company that won't even talk to someone who had their card stolen and needs to report FRAUD? You'd think they would want to clear something like that up right away, but NO that would be too easy.

OK, I'll play their way, I emailed the email address and told them what happened. My number was stolen, and there is a fraudulent authorization for their company, I want to have it stopped before it's processed. Here's the lovely email I received back:

Hi,

Thank you for contacting Zoosk and alerting us to this situation.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience with this unwanted charge. Since you aren't registered with our site, we do not have your name or email address in our records and we are not able to identify the account that used your credit card. It is likely that someone used your credit card number to make a fraudulent purchase on our site.

If you feel your card is lost or stolen, please follow this process:

1. Please immediately contact your credit card issuer and report unauthorized charges or close the account.

2. Dispute the charge(s) that you believe are not authorized through your credit card issuer.

3. The bank or credit card issuer will then file a claim with us. With this information, we can trace the payment, cancel the account that used your card, and issue appropriate credit.

Please let us know if you have any additional questions. Happy Zoosking!

Regards,

XXXXX

Zoosk Customer Support

(Yes, I took out the rep's name). Well, now that seems a little odd to me, of course someone who is a victim of fraud wouldn't have the name and email of the person using their card. Why would they have a message saying to email them if they wouldn't do anything about it. So, I emailed back. Said I would gladly give them the account number on the card used, since it wasn't any good anymore anyway. I really would like to stop the charge, not wait for it to clear then dispute it and wait for the money to be posted back. Their response.... Nothing, not a word. They completely ignored my pleas for assistance, and instead let the charge go through. Now I have to jump through hoops to get it reversed. So, Zoosk wins this month's Worst Customer Service Award (it was so bad, I couldn't wait until the end of the month to announce it.). Congratulations Zooks on your less than prestigious award, and for making sure you didn't have a customer for life. You are officially in my "Companies I'm Never Doing Business With" file.

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

I have arrived! Well, that's what my GPS said. We've arrived at our new home safe and sound. Unpacked the moving truck, and had the internet installed already. and we just got her yesterday. Boy am I tired. 2 days on the road, right into unpacking the truck and moving boxes and furniture. Next time I move, I'm hiring someone else to do all the heavy lifting!!!!

OK, keeping this one short, a lot to do still.

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

Freak Out Avoided

OK, breathing easier now. Totally blew the issue with the house out of proportion. Rental Agent had me freaking out with her comments. All is well and we move into our new place in less than 2 weeks.

My son has just graduated 8th grade, and will be starting high school in the fall. In a new city, in a new state. He's looking forward to it, but I don't think he is fully aware of how hard it is going to be moving away from the family. He's been surrounded by family all his life (as have I), and this is a big change for us all. It's a good thing, but kinda scary at the same time.

Add that to the fact that he's been home schooled for the last 3 1/2 years, and he's got one more hurdle to overcome this year. We're going to be trying a couple programs for him to do some studying and improving over the summer in hopes that he will be more mentally prepared for the new school. I'll be doing a review for one of them that we will be starting shortly and will write about our experiences with it here.

In the mean time, we still have a lot of packing to do. Need to pack up the truck in 9 days.

Until next time,

The Blogoholic

We're Moving! . . . maybe

That's right, we're moving. Not the blog, I mean really moving. Like many people out there, we've been struggling financially and for the last couple months haven't been able to keep up with our mortgage payment. So, we've put the place on the market for a short sale. We'll be moving out of state and fulfilling our dream.

So, we've been scouring rental websites, my husband has been spending a lot of time on the phone to various rental management companies, and we've found several places we like. The other day we found one that was just about perfect, so we jumped on it and sent our application right in. It's a lovely place on a court, 4 bedrooms, about 500 sq ft bigger than the place we have now. There's a huge backyard perfect for our girls (the 4 legged kind that bark). Got the call yesterday that we were approved and needed to send in the security deposit. Getting ready to run to the bank for a cashier's check I got another call. "Oops, wait a sec, what about this mortgage payment we see?" Well, that's the house we're selling through a Short Sale process. "Oh, I didn't know that. Can you call *** at our main office and tell her that and make sure that is still ok?" WHAT!!! We stopped even considering any other places. I told my friends and family that we got the place. Showed them pictures. Posted it to my FaceBook account, and now they tell me "fooled ya, ha, ha, neener, neener, neener. You don't really have the house yet." Is it just me or is that totally ****** up? Not fair to tell us yes, then say "well maybe not." And of course the lady at their main office isn't there when I call. Her message says to give her 24 hours to call back. My sanity won't hold on for 24 hours! I'm going to lose my freaking mind by then. It's bad enough we lost all the equity we had in our house, that we have to move out on short notice, and I'm stressing out about that. A 2 day drive, with me, my son and our girls in my SUV and my husband in the moving truck driving half way across the country. Trying to find a hotel half way through that will let 2 big dogs stay in the room, and another in town since we'll arrive late on a Sunday. Stretching the money we've managed to save not paying the mortgage for a couple months plus my tax returns to pay the security deposit, 1st month's rent, the moving truck, and all the necessities we'll have to get as soon as we arrive. No, that's not enough stress to pile on one person. Don't be silly. Lets taunt you with the possibility of not getting the rental house we already told you that you have. I hope they're getting a good laugh out of this.

If I wasn't so against using alcohol to self-medicate, I'd go get a bottle of coconut rum and get schnockered! But that little voice in my head that tells me alcoholism is hereditary just won't let me drink to feel better. I'll get into that another time.

This is so frustrating. It's affecting my work, I can't convince myself to finish packing and getting the house ready to show. I have a short temper and keep snapping at my son (sorry kiddo). I feel tears burning the back of my eyes that won't fall, which is giving me a headache. I can hardly eat even though I'm hungry. And I just want to curl up in a ball and sleep for a week until it's all over. I don't feel like myself. For the first time that I can ever remember my mind isn't churning thought after thought. In fact, I can hardly keep a coherent thought in my mind at all.

I am trying to convince myself that I'm worrying over nothing. But what better to worry about than the future of my family? The very roof over our heads? Not quite ready to live in my car thank you very much. It's not like we can't afford the place. I make almost 5 times what the rent is on the place we're getting. I budgeted it so that we'd be able to put at least $400 in savings every month, and that's just my salary! Doesn't include anything my husband makes from whatever job he manages to get. Doesn't include anything I make off my home based business. I don't see the problem? The rent is $650 less a month than our mortgage. Come on people! Cut us a little slack, we're trying!

I'd like to say that's the end of my personal pity party, but I think I'll sit around and feel sorry for myself a little longer. At least for a couple more hours, I'll shake it off before my son's 8th grade graduation tonight. No point in feeling like this during such an important time for him. So I'll take all the sorry, worry, stress, and anger and tuck it into a tight little ball to store in a tightly locked box in the back of my mind, and give him the proud mama he deserves to have at his graduation. After all, you only graduate from 8th grade once.

So I'll go take a few deep breaths and maybe go grab a Starbucks coffee or a chocolate candy bar. And try not to totally go off the deep end until I hear back. Wish me luck.

Until next time,

The Blogoholic