June 16th, 2008


quacks with stethoscopes.

Thursday night(or Friday morning, depending how you look at it), my boyfriend took me to the ER because I was writhing in pain. All 4 of my wisdom teeth are impacted and one is coming is sideways. The tooth next to the sideways wisdom tooth was what was hurting. This tooth also needed a root canal. This pain was unlike anything I have ever experienced(worse than when I had gallstones) and I was screaming.
Anyway, we got to the ER and after a bunch of registration got me in. The people in front of me in line were super sweet and felt bad. They wanted to let me go first. I appreciated their compassion. In fact, the girl being admitted said "I'm not in pain, I'm just drunk!"
I waited for what seemed like forever for the doctor...

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My boyfriend then showed me this link: http://ratemds.com/social/
I really wish I could remember the name of that doctor.
heraldry quilt

My first ebay problem.

Everybody has to have one, right? I've been buying stuff online for years, and I've never had a real problem until now. Very minor problems only, but nothing that couldn't be fixed by returning the item (seller was awesome and gave me a full refund).

On May 6th I ordered a DVD box set from a seller on ebay. It was a Buy It Now, so I bought and paid for it right then and there. Within 12 hours I had an email from the seller saying thanks for the payment and my item was on its way. It sounded all good at the time. I sat back and prepared to wait 2 weeks, because that's the average time it takes for stuff to get to me.

Two weeks go by. Nothing. Then three weeks, then four. I send an email to the seller asking him to confirm when he shipped my DVDs, and to confirm which address he shipped them to, just to make sure. I get no answer. But it's happened before that sellers didn't get my emails, so I give him the benefit of the doubt and a few days later I send a message through ebay. Another few days go by and still no answer. I send another email. By this time I'm getting both worried and annoyed. Tomorrow will be 6 weeks since I paid for the DVDs and he said they were shipped.

On a gut feeling that this won't end well, I open the emails ebay sent me when I made the purchase. I always keep them until the item arrives just in case something like this ever happens. I click on the item description, but I get a message saying the listing has been removed. It has not been 90 days since I bought the item. It should still be there. I click on the "contact seller" link I just used about a week ago to contact him, and lo and behold, this seller is no longer a registered ebay member. Not only that, he has had over FOUR HUNDRED negative feedback comments in the past month. His feedback when I bought the DVDs was almost 100% positive. WTF?

Seeing that was enough to make me file a dispute with Paypal then and there. I tried being nice about it, contacting him three times and waiting patiently for my DVDs, but now I'm sure I'll never see them. :( I should've just paid the full retail price (twice what I paid on ebay) and bought the DVDs in the store. I'll be doing that in the future to avoid this hassle.

ETA: Because of what I've heard before about Paypal and what some people posted in the comments, I just phoned my knight in shiny plastic armor, Visa (I paid by Visa through Paypal), to see if they could do anything to help me if the Paypal dispute goes down the toilet. The nice Visa man assured me they would refund my money if it came to that. Needless to say this makes me feel better.
  • Current Mood
    disappointed disappointed

(no subject)

 I really need some advice here.  This is going to be the really short version.

So I buy a laptop from Best Buy on November 14, 2007. It was about 1300 including the extended serice plan.

Less then a month after owning it, the internet connection is gone. It's just NOT THERE. So I take it in, and my friend is working there on the Geek Squad. Aparently it's a software issue, and he said it'll cost me a ton to fix it, so he can fix it for me.

All is well after he fixes it. 

2 months later, it bluescreens on me about 10 times. I bring it in, Geek Squad tells me it's the harddrive, it's a 'lemon' hard drive, and it's faulty. But they can't do anything about it, call Gateway. I call Gateway, I run a million tests, it's determined that it IS in fact a 'lemon'. They send me a new one. I put it in, awsome.

About...3 months ago now. My daughter spilled juice all over my keyboard. 100% MY FAULT. 

I have the extended plan, so it's covered. I bring it in, the keyboard isn't working, the mouse isn't working. It gets sent out.
I get it back, the SCREEN ISN'T WORKING.
I sent it back out. 
I get it back, the SCREEN STILL ISN'T WORKING, and now my mouse isn't working.
Send it back out.
Every time I get it back, there are MORE problems with it. I brought it back in again, last Monday, and they told me that they will know within 6 days wether I'm getting a replacement or what. I call today (the 6th day), I get put on hold for 24 minutes.
I call back, the kid tells me it's just really busy. He asks my name....which is NOT how they look up orders, they use phone number, or service number. He says, "It's really busy here, call back in a few days, or we will call you."

I've spoken to the manager of Best Buy, AND the Geek Squad, and neither parties give a fuck, quite frankly. They all know me by name there by now, however, I've ALWAYS been polite, and calm.  My grandparents bought me this laptop as a gift, and they are pissed, I'm pissed, and I don't know where to go from here.

Any advice/suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
gerard wtf

(no subject)

So I was headed to work at the mall, and I missed my bus. I had no bus schedule on hand, so I called the MTA's information desk to find out when the next one would be by.

Me: *standing on corner of Merrick and Front Street, traffic zooming by* Hi, I was wondering if I could find out the next time the N51 is going to be at the stop on Merrick and Front Street?

Guy: Which way?

Me: To Roosevelt Field.

Guy: Alright, let me check.

*hold music*

Guy: Okay, N51 to RF via Merrick and Prospect...

Me: Uh, Merrick and Front Street.

Guy: Merrick and Prospect.

Me: No, Merrick and Front Street.

Guy: ...ma'am, I'm not going to argue with you, but you said Merrick and Prospect. And it's 10:51. Have a nice day.


Me: ...

I wouldn't have had a problem if he'd said, 'Oh, I misheard you' or even 'You need to speak more clearly'. I mean, there was traffic whizzing by and I can be hard to understand when I speak quickly. But don't pretend you know what I'm saying better than I do, and don't immediately hang up when I said I asked for something else.
sophie likes treats

Inspired by a recent post re: transit systems.

NJ Transit is awesome!

(I guess I should clarify that I wasn't at home during this first exchange, or else, oh my god I would have looked it up on the website.

And since I'm sure there will be other smartasses...the TRACKS run by my house, but the two closest stations are at least 3 miles away in either direction.)

So, the other day I didn't have a bus schedule handy and needed to call customer service.

First, you have to go through an automated system. If you're taking a train, allegedly the automated system tells you when a train is coming. Except of course, even though it runs 24 hours right by my house, the Atlantic City line is never running according to the system. By the time I got through the system, I heard the train I wanted to catch go by, so I gave up on that and pressed zero for customer service.

...ten minutes later...

Transit Agent: GoodafternoonthankyouforcallingNewJerseyTransitmyagentnumberis12345howmayIhelpyou?
Me: Ye---
TA: HELLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO? (she gave me all of a half a second to respond!!)
Me: Hello, I'm just wondering when the next 554 leaves from Berlin going to Atlantic City?
TA: *sigh* Hold ON...I have blahblahforty five and blahblah fifty.
Me: Okay, thanks a lot!
TA: Mm-HMMM. *click*

NJ Transit seriously has the WORST customer service. The agents are rude and more than once bus drivers have just driven past me as I waited at a stop.

NJ Transit also has two kinds of buses. On one kind of bus (usually the ones with more localized service or the ones that run more often), the drivers don't carry change and so you need exact. On the other, you get on, tell the driver where you're going, hand them your money, and if needed, they give you change. It's usually assumed the drivers have change, and if they don't, they'll give it to you when you get off because by then they usually have it...no big deal. Usually. So one night, it was about 3AM and I'd been visiting a friend who came up for a short visit. After waiting two hours for a cab (which is a bad_service story in itself), thirty minutes for a train, I had a headache and wanted to go to bed. I had a five dollar bill, my trip was $1.90. I don't think I was wrong in not getting change inside the train station, as it only dispenses annoying $1 coins, not to mention most drivers can change a $5. So I get on the bus...

Me: *holds out $5 bill* Berlin, please.
Driver: *looks at bill and then me with the nastiest look on her face* I don't have change for that!
Me: Okay, let me see if I have it. *sits down* (now, I was on my phone when the bus pulled up, but I had the courtesy of telling my boyfriend to hold on BEFORE I got on the bus, and resumed the call as I sat down to dig in my purse for change.) We depart, get maybe 1/4 of a mile up the road when the driver stops to let someone on.
D: *yells, even though I was only two seats behind her* DO YOU HAVE THE CHANGE???
Me: No...I'm about forty cents short.
D: Get off and get it, then! (we were stopped in front of a gas station)
Me: *tells bf she'll call him right back, gets off bus, gets change, gets back on and hands driver $2.*
D: *departs again* You SHOULD have gotten change at the train station!
Me: Well, aren't drivers SUPPOSED to carry change on these buses?
D: Uhm, NO, we ain't.
Me: Well, the sign just says you aren't required to carry change over $20 (meaning $20 bills, as in, the driver can change a $20 but not a $50, not that they carry only up to $20), didn't think $5 would be a hassle. And I have a Freedom Card for the Speedline, so I don't have a need for $1 coins.

Seriously...there was no need for her to talk to me like that. Usually I thank the driver and wish them a good day, but I just silently cursed her as I disembarked.

Brand new member due to the past 36 hours.

Copied and pasted from my journal:

My flight was cancelled AGAIN [to Europe]. We waited three hours, boarded the plane two SEPARATE TIMES and then they cancelled our flight because our plane was deemed not fit to fly. Mind you, I also waited four hours yesterday and then my flight was cancelled.

So now we re-booked our flight for tomorrow so hopefully we'll fucking get to Europe. We now only have 2 days in London which makes me so so sad [I lived there for 4 months while I studied abroad so it holds a special place in my heart], so now I think we may try to extend our time and re-visit London at the tail end of our trip to get a few more days.

This is total bullshit. I really can't even put into words what I am thinking and feeling. Seriously...how the fuck does something like this happen. I am so tired, frustrated...angry, disappointed, I don't even know. It's like a fucking bad movie or something.

And the worst part is, we weren't even compensated, or anything. We didn't get bumped up (my parents are flying first class so they are still fine), no free miles, tickets, anything. We got meal vouchers for $10 - OH GEE THANKS THAT MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER. MY CRAPPY BURRITO IS DELICIOUS.

Fuck you, United Airlines. I will NEVER fly you AGAIN. They even brought the police downstairs at our gate because they were afraid the travelers would riot.
  • Current Mood
    angry angry
snow AC

Qwest... you can bite me.

I can't help it. I have to post this, it's not very exciting, but it is bad service.

My dad got DSL for the house. I listened to his conversations a little bit about what service he wanted. The guy promised him that for no charge he could upgrade to 7 mb from 1.5. My dad verified this over and over. Got a confirmation number.

Bill comes and he is charged for a $4 upgrade for the 7 mb. My dad calls Qwest and goes around and around with them on the phone about this. Then, because the local office is close by, he decides to go down there just to show he's serious about wanting what he was promised. They still didn't budge. I think they did admit that he was lied to about the "free" upgrade, but they didn't honor it or do anything else about it.

My dad thought he was doing the right thing by getting the confirmation number, but now he says his lesson learned is getting it in writing. Of course. *sigh* Very frustrating that the business DID pretty much admit he was lied to and STILL didn't do anything to make up for that fact.

ETA: Whoops! I just edited to change the name to the right spelling.