Sunday ramble part I: movies and customer service

I'd grown bad at watching movies; I liked them enough, but never got around to watching them. With theater, the tickets were purchased ahead of time so I had reason to go, no matter how little I felt like it; whereas you can always talk yourself out of a movie without swallowing a sunk cost. I don't have cable, so I didn't feel the need to watch TV even after I bought one last year to appease mom. But I got back into movies, starting a year ago on the way to and from Dubai and then on the way to and from Vienna (well, on the way to and from London). I even got in "Pitch Perfect 2" on the way back from Albuquerque (go Delta for having entertainment on a relatively short flight; can't say the same for either American or United, which had nothing on the way to or from San Francisco--although the lack of entertainment inspired me to read a good part of a very good short story collection). Once I got back into movies, I started taking them out of the library--and watching them on my horrible laptop, for lack of a DVD player, until I broke a month or so ago and bought one. And now I'm a regular at the library. Between in-flight entertainment and the library, I've caught up on lots of Marvel--"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is by far the best, "Ant Man" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" tied for second. "The Avengers" was an abomination.


The other day, there was nothing good at the library I hadn't already seen, so I contemplated restarting Netflix--except Netflix made it difficult for me, so I didn't. Why a company would make it difficult for you to give them money is beyond me, but it happens all the time. I don't think some companies appreciate how much customer service matters. I've complained to you about more than one experience with Barclay's, which acquired a credit card that I already had. After being assured all of my information would transfer seemlessly, including autopay, I got hit with a nasty late fee and finance charge when it didn't. So I called customer service India, which is almost never a good thing. By the time someone like me calls customer service, the people in Bangalore cannot help me; their scripts do not address my concerns, and it is a mutually aggravating interaction. I explained my situation, and got in response, "you seem to be having trouble making your payments on time. We can transfer you to someone who can help you with that." Bitch, what?? Transfer me to your supervisor. More recently, Barclay's Bangaloreans couldn't dispute a fraudulent charge of which Barclay's own system notified me. I had to talk to someone stateside before it was successfully disputed. Even more recently, I tried to request a Marriott Bangalorian to give me an extra day to cancel a reservation, should the government not get funded, and she was all "huh? do you want to cancel the reservation or not?" I don't blame her--though I do blame the condescending Barclay Bangalorean who tried to direct me to credit counseling, because that was just a case of not listening--whereas this one had no reason to understand the complexities of why I wouldn't know until 48 hours, not 72 hours, ahead of time whether a business trip was on or off. So I called the hotel directly, and they immediately got it and adjusted my reservation.

I recently opened a new Citi credit card in pursuit of points--I rarely do this, but I had a specific destination in mind, and knew I'd spend the minimum needed for a massive amount of bonus points, because it was donation season. One of the charities charged my credit card three times, though reversed it twice. I wasn't sure what this meant--it just said 'pending' on my account page--so I called Citi, and customer service dealt with it immediately. Customer service was not in Bangalore. I talked to a person, not a script reader. The person listened and took in the complexities of my situation. Then, she addressed the problem. I'm confident in Citi's handling of fraud, disputes, etc.

Conversely, I've not used my Barclay's card since the customer service triple-fail, even though it provides better points on gas and grocery. I just don't trust them any more to deal with issues promptly or efficiently. Customer service matters, even when you're more competitive on rewards.

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I've also taken to buying used/donated books from the library. When Netflix made it mildly difficult for me to restart service, I picked up one of those instead. Meet me at the next post.