The Crotchety Old Man

Category: Bad Customer Service

  • Amazon Blues

    The phone I ordered from Amazon for delivery 11/21 still hasn’t arrived. Although “Next Day Delivery” was my only selection criteria, the expected arrival date immediately changed to 11/25. On the 25th, it changed to the 29th. On the 29th, it changed to 12/5. On the 29th, I ordered the same phone from Walmart and…

  • Gym Memberships Revisited

    Six years ago, I joined a gym for the first time. A location close to my house and the availability of Zumba classes were deciding factors. Having never set foot in a gym, I sprung for regular training sessions to keep from hurting myself. The gym — Omni — hadn’t been open very long. Everything…

  • My Gypsy Curse

    A month ago, I blogged about my horrible, no good, very bad week. Since then, my run of bad luck has continued, unabated. I strongly suspect a gypsy curse… To refresh your memory, my air-conditioning went out ($300), I got sick, Toodles had to go the vet twice ($600), and to top it all off,…

  • Online Shopping: Easy, Convenient & Cheap

    The internet has changed the way we shop. Big retailers are closing stores at an unprecedented rate. Shopping malls look like ghost towns. It’s hard to compete with virtual everything. Shopping is not my cup of tea. In fact, thanks to poor or non-existent service, long checkout lines, and people getting in my damn way,…

  • The Curse of Complexity

    Nothing is simple any longer. Nearly everything is infinitely more complicated than was the case twenty or thirty years ago. Hardly a day goes by without an encounter with something complex enough to make my head explode. Take my medical flexible spending account — please. Tax-free dollars are transferred with each paycheck to an account I access with…

  • No Tipping?

    The latest trend in upscale dining is to do away with tipping. Instead, fine dining establishments say they will pay staff a respectable wage. Of course, they’ll also jack prices up by twenty percent or more to cover the cost of higher wages. Many moons ago, I waited tables. For more than a decade, I…

  • Birthday Presents

    For my 57th birthday earlier this month, I gave myself a new car and a trip to Orlando. The new car was somewhat of a requirement. The PT Cruiser I bought in 2005 had enough miles on it to make me nervous about driving to Florida. I’ve known for months what kind of car I wanted to…

  • My Cable Bill

    The ability to retire a few years earlier than planned has provided an incentive to pay a lot more attention to my monthly bills. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always been vigilant. But the emphasis has shifted from checking for errors to looking for (painless) ways to cut back. As they’re based on usage, I expect bills…

  • The Southern Way

    Today my new bedroom furniture arrives. Regular readers will recall I ended up ordering enough for at least two and possibly three bedrooms. After the furniture arrives and I get it arranged the way I want it, my move will be complete. I’m grateful for a team of contractors who worked together to get me…

  • Useless Usernames & Passwords

    When I was in junior high a very long time ago, the only number I had to know was the combination to my school locker. I remembered it. Mostly. And when I forgot, someone in the school office could look it up for me. High school required that I remember two lock combinations (one for…