I agreed to a magazine discount of $2.00 per year per magazine as a "gift" from a merchant, and, try as I might, despite continually calling their number and CANCELLING the service multiple times over the last 6 months, they keep charging my account.
I could no longer afford renters insurance and cancelled it last week. I received an email confirmation that it was cancelled. The next day, they charged my bank account as if the cancellation had not happened!
I ordered bottled water from Walmart, which was supposed to arrive today by FEDEX, but, unbeknownst to me, FedEx had destroyed the shipment (AGAIN) and, instead of advising me, made arrangements with Walmart for me to receive a NEW shipment on Tuesday....while I waited for it ALL DAY TODAY. Computers don't care that the customers are left hanging. Computers cannot anticipate that customers need to be notified of changes.
I tried to correct the Walmart snafu with an online chat person, who I waited for 3 minutes, and then he told me I had to be patient because he was talking to more than one person at a time! No wonder he got the whole thing wrong. He was multi-tasking...the bane of my existence. I demanded the customer service phone number for Walmart, which is not available anywhere...online or on the internet, that I could find. Then I got off the internet and called them, explaining the damn thing ALL. OVER. AGAIN.
This is not the half of it, but I can't imagine you want to read it. Suffice it to say that I have spent the ENTIRE afternoon trying, in vain, to get my bank (Wells Fargo) to correct these issues (and others) without treating it as if some STRANGER had made off with my card, forcing me to cancel my card (again) and wait for another week before I have access to my account, without going to the bank, standing in line, getting a temporary card, etc. etc.
I am disabled and home bound. The entire reason for using these infernal debit cards and internet ordering is so that my needs can be met, but they AREN'T met, not even nearly met.
It is obvious that the merchants are disreputable, dishonest and majorly incompetent, but the bank insists that it be treated as if my card was STOLEN. Why do they not want to admit the true problem? Because WELLS FARGO is disreputable as well, along with all the other banks.
Not long ago, a salesman at Wells Fargo tried to fraudulently open a credit card account in my name. Fortunately, I am so poor that my credit is lousy and they were unsuccessful. I received a letter in the mail from WELLS FARGO apologizing that they could not accommodate my recent request for a credit card! I was astonished. Sure enough, it was on the news before long that thousands of these accounts had been opened, and the customers hadn't a CLUE about it!
I submit that our system isn't working, yet the technophiles keep pushing us "forward" into more and more complex technological systems.
I called a friend of mine the other day, and he has this "Alexa" thing in his apartment. "Alexa, put bottled water on my shopping list," he said. The machine repeated the instruction and reassured him that the item had been put on his list. As for myself, I find this horrifying. Really, a piece of paper and a pencil is far superior.
When making an appointment with your doctor, an appointment book, a pencil, and an eraser is MUCH FASTER and infinitely more efficient. Why is everyone ignoring this fact and pretending that these technological toys, computers, internet ordering and all that goes with it are somehow more efficient? Talking to computers is impossible. They never give you all the choices that they need to include. You can't press any button or say anything that it will accept because it is only programmed for certain things, whereas a human person can simply ask you, "what can I do for you?" Provided, of course, that the human person's command of the English language is sufficient for the job.
All of this automated stuff was SUPPOSED to be cheaper, easier, faster and more efficient, but it ISN'T. People just find it fun, I suppose...the idea of it....like the Dick Tracy watch from the comic books.
Switching over to the "old style" of living will definitely be more difficult, especially for someone like me, who is ill, mobility challenged, and in constant pain, but I suspect very strongly that a sense of peace and tranquility will descend upon me as soon as I am rid of as much technological ties as I can possibly cut away from me.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Silver Rose
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