Thursday, February 7, 2013

Organ Grinder, Monkey and pennies

You will have no doubt heard of this saying before:


Speak to the organ grinder not the monkey


Which translates to "Talk to the boss not the subordinate."

Well for the past couple of weeks I have been speaking to a couple of "monkey's" and yesterday I had finally had enough and decided to speak to the "Organ Grinder."  Want to know why?  Settle down with a cup of tea/coffee and I'll re-tell this sorry tale!!

Back in September of 2012 I get a flyer in the mail for a buy one get one free for a major magazine.  Now as I already subscribe to this magazine anyway, figured I would take advantage of this deal and give the free one to dd as part of her Christmas gift.  I mail it back to the magazine along with my credit card details.


Meanwhile, my credit card was compromised so the credit card company issued me with a new credit card.  I get a letter in the mail in October from the magazine letting me know they were unable to process my order as the credit card wouldn't go through.  So I mail the letter back as requested with my updated info.

At Christmas I mention to dd about the magazine and she says she hasn't received it yet?  I tell her I will follow up and to cut a long story short forgot about it until January 24th, 2013.  

I call customer service to find out what's going on, and the guy tells me they couldn't put the payment through because of my credit card.  So I tell him yes I know but I sent in new payment details and that the magazine had charged my credit card at the end of October.  So he told me to fax a copy of my credit card statement along with a cover letter telling them what's what.  I asked whom to address it too and he said Customer Service.

I waited a week and no one called me, so I called back in and spoke to a lady who told me that there was no sign of my fax and I should have addressed it to someone as no one would look at it???  So I got dh to re-fax it to this lady and called back to make sure they had received it. Lo and behold the guy who answered the phone was the guy I had talked to initially.  I made him go and pick up the fax and he said he would look into it.

I decided to call him again yesterday to see what was going on as I hadn't heard from him.  So I call him and get him on the phone and he has no idea who I am and so I have to go through the story AGAIN???  He looks up my account and tells me that my payment went through on January 31st and everything was fine?  I say what payment and make him hold on until I go online and look at my credit card account and sure enough they have charged me again?

I of course asked him why and he had no idea?  He asked me to re-fax the original paperwork along with a copy of what had been charged at the end of January so he could look into it.  I hung up the phone and then fiddled on trying to print out the transaction detail and rewriting another cover sheet for the fax.

After lunch I was doing my ironing and stewing over the conversation I had, had with this guy when all of a sudden it came to me.  If they are claiming that they didn't receive payment in October as my credit card wouldn't go through and I had told them I had a new credit card, how on earth were they able to charge my new credit card on January 31st unless they had my new number???  Also why did I have too provide more information when I had already done it twice before?

So that is when I decided enough of the monkey's now onto the Organ Grinder.  Now it took me two phone calls but I finally got to talk to the Organ Grinder who also thought it was mighty strange about my credit card and also thought there was no need for me to re fax everything through for the third time.

She told me she would get back to me by Monday of next week at the latest.........stay tuned for what happens next.


I was out and about on Wednesday morning and it seems that each store/location has their own way of dealing with this, which makes the whole thing very confusing if you ask me.  For the Canadians out there are you having trouble figuring out what each store does?

11 comments:

Evelyn said...

hmmm the penny, I haven't really shopped since it was taken out of circulation so will have to check it out when I get groceries next.

Paula said...

I don't even try to figure it out. What's the point? The store is going to do what it wants to do. I usually shop with my credit card (I get free groceries and pay it off every month) so it's not an issue. I've rolled up all the pennies here at home to drop at the bank. I've heard that it's up to the stores whether they even want to accept pennies any more.

Jane and Chris said...

Aha! I figured out your problem...you sent the fax to Customer Service...Customer Service doesn't exist anymore!!
Jane x

chksnowqueen said...

With the new penny situation, stores are supposed to round up or down to the nearest nickel. 3 cents or more, to 5, 2 cents or less, round down to zero. So 7 cents becomes 10, 6 becomes 5. It is all supposed to even out so it is not only in the shopkeeper's favour, but I have my doubts.

I hope you get the magazine/credit card situation cleared up soon. Customer service nowadays is horrible.

Christine

Piece by Piece said...

You were lucky to speak to a "Live Person" usually the "Computer" asnswers the phone.
Hope the "Organ Grinder" sorts it all out for you.
Patricia

Rose said...

I tell you I am almost angry and this did not happen to me...but have had enough stuff like this happen till it just makes my blood boil. A lot of it to do with when my daughter was in college...she went the first two years away from home...then transferred to one where she could live here. I could get more done at the Big college over the phone...a college that had 4 or 5 times as many students as the local one.

At the local one, my husband had a friend whose wife worked there. Thank God for that...it was not her dept. but she seen to things. And told us to let her know if we ever had stuff happen again.

Stella Jones said...

nothing would induce me to fax a copy of my credit card bill anywhere! Be careful Gill.
This sort of thing happens all too often these days. I think almost everyone has a story to tell.
It really raises the stress levels, doesn't it.
I could write a book about the things that happened to me when I was relocating to Tennessee!

Debby said...

CRAZY, crazy stuff!! Things like this can give you grey hair, oh wait I already have grey hair!! Ha

angela said...

I had no heard that saying before, but I like it. I'm glad you finally got to the boss. I hope they sort it out soon.

Meanqueen said...

What a flippin mess. I would have told them to stuff it :o)

Linda said...

I was in a few stores yesterday ... one rounded down, one gave back pennies in the change, and one I gave exact change and they accepted it. Guess the stores are making their own rules. I also figured out it will be the stores that keep the rounding up or lose out on the rounding down. It is supposed to balance itself out at the end of the day, but who knows?

{{{SIGH}}}

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