"Who the Hell Are You People?"

[ominousoat]

The client I work for was the highest bidder for a certain utility company that was selling off accounts. Anyhow, we sent letters to everyone explaining what happened, and the previous company also sent letters *AND* bill inserts to inform everyone of what happened. This was almost a year ago. However, since we know how well sucky customers read and comprehend policy, a majority of our calls started with the words "Who the HELL are you people? And why the HELL do I owe YOU money?" If it wasn't that it was "Are you guys a scam?" Because naturally, if you're a scammer as soon as someone figures you out you come clean and say "Well played."

My favorite though, was this man:

SC: WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE!
Me: We are [company name] and we just recently took over for [previous company name]
SC: I don't believe you! This is a scam! If you're really my gas company tell me who I am!
Me: I wouldn't know unless you told me.
SC: SEE! IT'S A SCAM! My gas company would know who I was. I was a Vietnam Vet and nobody makes a fool out of me (he's capable of doing it all on his own)
Me: Sir, we service over 500,000 customers here, I have no way of knowing anything about you unless you give me your account number.
SC: I Ain't givin' you nuthin! If you don't tell me my meter number in 30 seconds I'm reporting you to the Attourney General!
Me: Okay, but I have no way of telling you that, I don't even know your address.
SC: Well fine, my name is John Edwards (or some equally common name)
Me: J-O-H-N?
SC: HOW ELSE YOU SPELL IT!
Me: J-O-N.
SC: Who the hell would do that? Just look me up.
Me: [types it in, and sure enough, there's thousands of results]
SC: Well?
Me: Unfortunately there's about one thousand John Edwards, could you at least tell me your city?
SC: *grumble* [gives state] I still think this is a scam!
Me, amazingly only finding one result in this town: Okay, I have your account, but you'll need to verify your phone number before I can even give you your meter number.
SC: AHA! AHA! YOU'RE A SCAM! I AIN'T PAYING NOTHIN'!
Me: Then your natural gas service will be shut off, if you don't believe we exist contact the BBB, thank you!
SC: *hangs up*

[Luckymom]

Ominousoat I swear you must live in my area. Our Gas company did this about a year or so ago. My dad who lives down the street from us went ape telling me not to pay the new gas company because it was obviously some kind of scam. I just said sure dad sure and paid my gas bill.

[myswtghst]

We just took over for a call center in Anaheim, CA that shut down. We have different processes than they did, and have updated their customers to follow our processes. I feel bad, because the customers who used to call Anaheim were used to reaching an operator who was familiar with them, and would immediately transfer, whereas we need to get info from them and create cases, and don't know them right off. But still, it bugs me when they get riled up--the switch occurred almost a year ago, and the processes have only been updated on our side since then.

At least I don't seem to get yelled at for that, just held up 10 minutes into my lunch today by some guy who didn't understand what I was telling him, and whose company apparently didn't give him any of the "new" information.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Gee, when I noticed a couple months ago that my credit card bill said Bank of America instead of MBNA like it has for the last 10 years or so, I thought, hmmm, I wonder when that happened. Then I went online to their website and saw the blurb about how they bought MBNA. Lo and behold, my account number was the same and everything! I said, huh..., and paid my bill.

So you're saying I should have called them up and yelled at them for not coming to my house and telling me personally?

[TNT]

Not long ago, the cable company I worked for was taken over by another company. The first company -- which I'll call Small Cable -- was a locally-owned company. It not only had its headquarters here, the owner was a philanthropist and community activist. That meant that the sale was front page headlines in the local papers for a year. Plus, we sent out mailings and bill inserts. And the day of the sale, it was even a story on CNN and FOXNews. A person had to be living in a cave not to have heard the news a dozen times.

And still, after the switchover...

Me: Hello, thank you for calling Big Cable.
Customer: I keep getting a bill from you guys. I don't have service with you. I've had service since 1984 with Small Cable. I'm reporting you to them and the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General.
Me: We are them. They are us. We're now one big happy family.

Me: Hello, thank you for calling Big Cable.
Customer: I'm trying to call Small Cable, but I always wind up here.
Me: You're at the right place. We used to be Small Cable. Now we're Big Cable.
Customer: And you did all this without telling anybody?

And, of course the scammers came out:

Me: Sorry, no cable for you! You have a past due balance.
Customer: You lie! I've never had service with you.
Me: You did when we were Small Cable.
Customer: That's got nothing to do with you.

Customer: When you bought Small Cable, did you also buy their liabilities?
Me: Yup... including me.
Customer. Oh. I have a past due balance with Small Cable. Does that still count?
Me: No cable for you!

And then, there were my personal favorites:

Me: Hello, thank you for calling Big Cable.
Customer: You switched me to your company without permission. I insist on being switched back to Small Cable immediately.

And then, the winner of the Ultimate Asshat for 2006 Award... We created new email addresses at BigCable, and sometimes users had a 1 or something added to create a unique BigCable address. For instance, I didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that TNT at SmallCable wasn't going to become TNT at BigCable... the very condensed version of the story goes like this...

Me: Hello, thank you for calling Big Cable.
Customer: You gave my email address to someone else. Give it back to me or I'm going to court and have this sale reversed.
Husband in background: And we have a really good lawyer! He'll love this case!
Me: Yeah... it'll make him laugh his ass off. (okay, I didn't actually say that.)

[CrazedClerk]

I have a mental picture of you slamming your desk as you say "No cable for you!"

[Gurndigarn]

Though I usually don't get sucky about it, I usually hate it when Big Company buys up Small Company that I was with. I don't think I've seen one of those where I didn't think service went down and/or expenses went up. And at least half the time, I bailed on Big Company within a year.

[Retail Associate]

Though I usually don't get sucky about it, I usually hate it when Big Company buys up Small Company that I was with. I don't think I've seen one of those where I didn't think service went down and/or expenses went up. And at least half the time, I bailed on Big Company within a year.

Big monopolies suck! Competition is a good thing.

Every service oriented company in my area is now owned by a huge conglomerate who charge through the nose and at the same time, have lowered their standards or taken services away. It's happened with my gas company, electric company, cable company, phone company and even the guys who pick up the trash.

The costs of all these services have gone up at least 300% since I moved here but my income hasn't gone up to meet the demands of my bills. I'd bail on these guys too but there are no alternatives. Although, I did cancell cable and got a dish. And I now take my own garbage to the dump which saves me over $200.00/yr.

[Lehk]

Though I usually don't get sucky about it, I usually hate it when Big Company buys up Small Company that I was with. I don't think I've seen one of those where I didn't think service went down and/or expenses went up. And at least half the time, I bailed on Big Company within a year.

my bank was Fleet Bank before they got bought out by Bank of America

only difference i notice is more ATM locations

[ebonyknight]

Well, I can't really blame them for being suspicious. Unless i misunderstood. You said that you sent them letters saying that it was changed and then a year later called them. Sure, they may have been notified, but a year later is a little long to follow up with a call.

I am not sure I blame them in this age of scams, frauds and identity theft.

I also was an MBNA customer and was notified of the change. I wasn't happy about it, but I read and comprehended the notice. I obviously wasn't surprised when I got a statement from BoA and not MBNA.

I believe I am a very savvy consumer, considering what I do for a living.

On the same token, i almost got scammed by a lottery fraud. I received an official letter with a check for 10,000 dollars. I was told to cash it and send them a portion (about 2000) immediately for taxes (they were in Canada). Looked quite legit. Using the info I did some checking on the web and found their website. Still looked legit. They were a lottery company in Canada, that randomly took unclaimed winnings and distributed them to people (not completely unbelievable).

I looked up the bank that the check was drawn from and it existed and appeared to be legit and called my bank to see if they acknowledged them. They did. They had no problem taking it. I then called the number on the letter and was congratulated, etc. and was told to please pay the taxes in three business days and was "authorized" to now cash the check, since I had contacted them.

Despite everything looking legit, something just still didn't feel right. Although I couldn't find any complaints against the company or specific scams like this (like the notorious Nigerian scam and others), I still continued to dig.

I finally got around to the Royal Mounted Police website and they mentioned this scam. Taxes are never reimbursed and they mentioned this type of scam. What people don't know (even a lot of bank workers), is that a bank will deposit any legitimate looking check (your bank balance goes up, even though it is noted upon further investigation that the funds are still not yet available). You see the balance upgrade, think you now have the money and send them the "tax" money.

By the time the check finishes routing (about two weeks for international checks, the process for actually transferring the funds), the scammers have your $X in taxes and the bank comes looking to you for the difference. They remove the upgraded balance and usually, the bank account is short the amount of taxes.

Even if you had the $x you sent them and are not overdrawn, you are still out the money. When you complain to whatever government agency, they tell you that despite Canada being our good neighbors to the north, that they are still a foreign country and can't do anything.

I think I did my homework pretty well and still almost got scammed. Just because you know that you are working for a legit company and you can't understand how people would believe you are a scammer, plenty of people have been scammed and are now VERY cautious, or have heard of a friend who was taken. The scams are getting more sophisticated all the time and it is difficult to keep up with them.

I can understand why people are so cautious these days and are seemingly "over-skeptical" of everything.

Hope this wasn't a hi-jack...just a friendly warning.

[Gurndigarn]

Though I usually don't get sucky about it, I usually hate it when Big Company buys up Small Company that I was with. I don't think I've seen one of those where I didn't think service went down and/or expenses went up. And at least half the time, I bailed on Big Company within a year.

my bank was Fleet Bank before they got bought out by Bank of America

only difference i notice is more ATM locations

Bank of America wasn't terrible. We didn't leave it until... well, it's an interesting story.

My wife had web hosting through SmallDomainHost. Wonderful people, did their job... and sold out to BigDomainHost. Who had no customer service at all. Seriously. They never answered emails, they let problems go unfixed.

They never acknowledged or did anything when customers told them to stop autobilling their credit cards. Including us. No, I'm not kidding.

Months after we decided to leave them, they were still billing us, despite several attempts to get them to stop. So we called the credit card company (BoA) and asked them to refuse any charges from BigDumbDomainHost.

"Oh, we can't refuse any charge."

Whaaaa?

"If you wish to dispute a charge, fill out form X on the back of your billing statement."

Well, two problems. First, I quite honestly found form 1040A to be easier to understand than section X on the back of the billing statement. Second, we're going to have to dispute a charge every month— and there's no assurance that BDDH isn't going to fight each and every one. "Oh, we never received the email", and stuff like that.

Now, not refusing any charge may actually be part of the Visa rules— something to protect against customer fraud, or something like that. But if it is, that sounds like a problem. How do you prevent merchant fraud in a case like this? And they stuck to their guns. They weren't going to refuse any charge on the card, at all, forever and ever, praise be to <deity of choice>, no matter what.

So in the end, we cancelled the card.

[zzapp the witch]

This is why I love my local Credit Union.

When I finally got my ex to get out of my house (ooo boy), he apparently made sure he had my card #. About 6 months go by and one of the bank gals says hi and asked how the dating scene is treating me (my sis told her I was dating again). I was having a lot of fun. She asked if I'd ever tried that online dating stuff.....well, no, I haven't. Tried a freebie once, but just like when I'm playing pool, the only guys that would hit on me were creepazoids.

She smiles and tells me that she figured out why I was $50 short last month. What, we're local, she knows I'm on a very limited income, and I'm horrible at balancing a checkbook and I'm always asking them for help. I ask her to show me...and she points out a dotcom charge for $50 for the current month.

Oooo, creepy. So she works with me (my comp was fried atm) and we find over 6 months worth of $50 charges in dating services! There's a # so I call it.

Match Lady: Ok, could I have the card # and your name?
Me: # and Jennifer.
ML: Well now, this looks like a man's account, at least its set up like one?
Me: Well, I can assure you I'm not a lesbian. LOL
ML: Yes, well, I doubt, at least judging from your voice, that you'd be on a dating service with the handle "Monsterdick".
Me: ROFLMAO Well, now I know who's doing this, and he's no monsterdick.

And I gave her my ex's info. Bastard was surfing for chicks while using me as a sugartit. Wish I coulda got rid of him sooner, but that entailed one of my brothers possibly going to jail. T'was better to use his own idiocy against him in the end.

Next day, calls from my Bank's Home Office. What's wrong? Well, see, there's this company trying to put money INTO my account. I-N-T-O! So just anybody can take money out, but they want to make sure its ok with you before they allow anyone to put money in????

I dunno. Idiots. On the other hand, I was able to use my ex's idiocy against him again in another small, deserving way. (Oh, and before you ask about statements, they were going to my mom's house and I just hadn't changed their mailing).

[technical.angel]

I think I did my homework pretty well and still almost got scammed.

I just googled the number they gave, and came across either PFB or Ripoff report. I can't remember which.

[Noelegy]

Oh, I've got a bank buyout story for you...

My ex-husband and I moved to a new city, and opened an account with Bank of America, mainly because of BofA's omnipresence. The BofA branch was right next to a Kroger. Then they decided to move to Kroger. We weren't terribly happy about that, because we didn't shop at Kroger, and it wasn't convenient for us to bank there, but we didn't stop banking there until the day came that BofA decided to put my husband's payroll check ON HOLD (despite their assuring us that they never did such a thing). This was after about a three-year history of his depositing paychecks from that same company, and never once having a paycheck bounce. This caused us to bounce checks with several local businesses. We finally got it all straightened out, and BofA had to write several "Sorry, we screwed up things for our mutual customer" letters.

After this, we decided we'd had enough of BofA and their zany ways, so we switched to NationsBank, because they were located in Albertsons stores, which was where we shopped.

Then BofA bought out NationsBank.

There is no escape...

[protege]

Somewhat along these lines...has anyone been following what AT&T has been doing with its subsidiaries and spin-offs? If not, for the past few months, they've been spinning off, or selling some of their subsidiaries. Nearly every month, my grandmother gets paperwork from them about the stock she now owns. What's annoying, is that it's confusing! You don't know exactly what's going on, unless you spend *every* waking moment following AT&T through the news. Throw in their recent merger, and things are downright confusing. So much, that she now wants to unload the stock. Can't say I blame her..even with the dividend checks every quarter, it's just not worth it aggravation.