Resolution

After talking to several people on the phone this morning, I finally got the one who could help me and she did so quickly and decisively. My bank even refunded the overdraft fees (as opposed to insisting that the vendor take care of it, which, as the institution informed me, it was well within its rights to do), which put my account back in the black.

I took the opportunity to e-mail the Moving Company's headquarters last night about the trouble I had,and took the time to mention that I had not been completely satisfied with the amount of time it took the movers to complete the job. I tried to be judicious in my e-mail, but also clear about the nature of my complaint(s).

Because the money stuff has all been taken care of, now there's no action item there, but a representative did respond to let me know that my letter had been forwarded to the appropriate person who can follow up with an investigation into the claim.

This all brings me to a general observation about the nature of customer service at most companies these days. I have been on the receiving end of vendor error many times in my adulthood, and it is a disturbingly consistent trend that it takes a lot of calling, coaxing, and getting downright proactive (above and beyond the call of duty) on your own behalf to even convince the companies that they are at fault. And when they finally fix the issue they act like they are doing you some grand favor.

Take my shelves from the furniture store, for example. Why aren't these people falling all over themselves to get me the correct merchandise? Why is it that I have to arrange to work from home next week to accommodate their delivery schedule? Why won't they break their own delivery "rules" and arrange to bring me the shelves at whatever time works best for me?

Why did the people at Starving Students Movers tell me that they weren't sure if they would refund me the Non Sufficient Funds fees I racked up as a result of their jacked up, completely moronic staff who charged me 993.00 freaking dollars on a move that cost a third of that?! Thankfully, I didn't have to jump through the hoops that that would have entailed.

And what is more, why did my Bank, the few times I've needed them to do this (refund fees they assessed AFTER knowing that a charge was in error) act like they are doing me such a huge favor to remove their gratuitous fees anyway? I hate it when corporations that are supposed to specialize in making one's life easier make it worse.