One of the last post in Trio's blog was about how stubborn he is and how while embodied in a tiny 3 three year old body is a pain in the ass occasionally over all it's a good quality to have. Especially if you look at it when it comes to expectations of people and how you should be treated. While yes sometimes it can be extreme (ie the girls who are like "OMG if you do not get me a canary diamond for my engagement ring it's completely off") most of the times it's a good thing.
There's a shop here in Pflugerville that I love the clothes in. It's amazing it's resonably priced, and hey they have big girl sizes; it's awesome. So when I first started going there I got the credit card for the place because hey it was nice a way to build credit and not have to touch the checking account. Today I closed it. Why? Because the last purchase I made there was an emergency pair of boots because it was so fracking cold here that open toes weren't gonna work like they sometimes do in the winter months. I paid that off last month and today I get a late fee and finance charge because they say it was due on Feb 12th and they didn't receive payment until the 18th.
This drove me crazy. I realize with burying my dad February was a crazy ass month for me so I may not be what you call reliable when it comes to remembering things around then, but something didn't sit right. So after canceling the card (because quite honestly what they charged me IMO is a ludacrious price for a card that doesn't have a Visa logo and can't be used anywhere else and because the "late fee and finance charge" were damn near what I owed in the first place). Then I went over my emails because I have paperless and see that I didn't receive the statement with what was owed until February 18th.
So I call back and ask when I made the purchase and they said the 18th of January and that the statement was sent on February 19th. So I'm like "Wait a minute you didn't send me a statement with what was due until 7 days after correct?"
"Blargh blargh blargh---you signed up for paperless statements in--"
"I know when I signed up for paperless you didn't answer my question. What you're telling me is that this was when the purchase and this was when the statement was sent. So I'm expected to call and check to see on a weekly basis when my statement's due?"
"No you can log in---blargh blargh blargh" (which let's face it is just a way of saying you're suppose to do the Internet equivalent of that.
Now forgive my squirrely ignorance but the two other credit cards I have? They send the statement on a monthly basis WELL before the due date so it's not late. So quite honestly maybe it makes me spoiled and even a bit lazy but that's what I expect. In the hustle and bustle of the world I like that. It helps me stay on top on things and quite honestly it's one of the reason I'm paperless to begin with.
I work in Customer Service so I try to be polite no matter what. The first girl was nice-ish to me even as she could I was losing my cool. Did the whole spiel about "How can we keep you?" Etc. Second old biddy? Not so much and it sucks because it was like I was no longer a customer so why should she care? And in the essence of not going off on her and reaping so horrific CS Karma I said "There's nothing else" and hung up.
I know that the credit card company is different from the store but this seems shady to me so it's gonna be a cold day in hell before I buy anything in there. I'll go in and I'll pay that little piddly ass severance fee and I'll be done. Simply because the way I look at things is this; I'm not so naive enough to believe that me as one little bitty buyer has an impact on stuff when I choose not to shop somewhere. But it's still my money and while I'm not interested in boycotting I feel better knowing that my money's not going there. And that's a me thing. There's a little convenience store here in Pflugerville that I will no longer go to not even for gas because the few times I walked in there the guy was rude to me. I'm like "Screw you buddy there's a mom and pop not even a block away and they're polite to me". I do not think that as a customer you have to kiss my ass at all. But I do expect politeness and I do expect courtesy because I give it in my job. I expect them to realize that I choose to come here I choose to shop I choose to put my money here and that it's because of that regardless of my age, creed, sexual orientation I deserve respect. Treat me how you would want to be treated if you were the consumer and I was the business.
Coming around to how this ties into my stubborness (I didn't forget) my money is one thing I'm very serious about. If I spending money somewhere I expect to be treated a certain way. I'm not one of those people who clearly their throat loudly or shake their empty ice filled glass in a restuaraunt when the waiter ignores them. I just either leave a really lousy tip or not one at all. The last time I did that was at a Chili's around Halloween. We saw our waitress at the beginning and the end she didn't even bring us our food or drinks and I was like "Oh hell no you're not getting anything". (Before you ask no it wasn't that busy and yes I saw her go and check in at her other tables). I get mad but I don't write letters and I don't boycott and I don't throw (big) fits. I just sigh say okay do what I need to do to make it clear and then don't go there anymore. Because when it comes to certain things I expect it to be a certain way and there is nothing that anyone can tell me to make me think or see differently; I dig my heels in and I'm like "You're not changing my mind". So there you have it. The point of this long bloggy rant. Hope it wasn't too laborious to get through. :)
