🚀 go-pugleaf

[The following letter details an on going problem I seem to have with the ]
[billing department of Best.  If you are a 'best' customer, are interested] 
[in 'best', or are a competitor, read what follows to see what SHOULD NOT ]
[happen in ANY service oriented business.                                 ]

Mr Prez, 

  Since this is your newsgroup, I assume you may even read this.  I would 
not be posting this in this manner if I did not feel that an ongoing error 
has reeached the point where phone calls or email will solve it.

  On March 21st, 1995, I drove to Mt View and signed up with your 
company.  Rich White, your VP, personally handled my account, took my 
cash, and wrote me a receipt.  My total fees were as follows:

Startup fee:             $30
Domain reg:              $30
Prorated fee for march:  $10
Total:                   $70
(I am reading this from a nice printed sheet I received that started with 
"Thank you for selecting Best...")

I presented Rich White with $160 cash, and he gave me receipt #05138 
which reads:

1  Setup PPP                 30
1  register ghostwheel.com   30
1  March service partial     10
1  April service             30
1  May service               30
1  June service              30

total                       160

All was fine...  for about 90 days.

In May, I received an invoice that
 a)  Charged me for a period I had pre-paid
 b)  Had no invoice number
 c)  Did not actually state the time covered by the fee on the invoice

  With quite a bit of disgust, I wrote to billing to attempt to clear 
this up.  I received no answer.

  I then wrote billing, and carboned support.  Again, no answer.

  After I posted publicly to one of the best.* newsgroups, Arian called 
me.  I stated my problem, and he said to ignore the invoice, he would 
take care of it.  He also started to chastise me for my public posting, 
which he had actually NOT read!  I do not take kindly to attacks based on 
heresay, and told him to read the posting before I would listen to 
another word from him.  This was the last I heard for a while.

  In June I received no invoice.  Which is as it should have been.

  In July I recieved an invoice.  IT SHOWED NO CARRIED-OVER BALANCE.

  I admit that I was late in paying this invoice.  Because of this, I 
decided to pay the next couple of months in advance to save further 
hassle.  Not everything works out as planned, though.

  Along with my check, to calm my worries regarding Murphy's Law and your 
billing department, I included a letter stating as follows:

>  Acording to my records, I was paid in full up to and including the 
>month of June, 1995.  Therefore, this check of $90 is to cover the 
>periods of July, August, and September 1995.
>
>  If there is any discrepancy regarding the service period covered by
>this payment, DO NOT CASH THIS CHECK.  Cashing this check will be 
>considered acceptance of the above paragraph.

  Today, I recieved my check back.  It was accompanied by a "Customer 
QuickReport".  The QuickReport incorrectly shows the following:

Invoice   5/2/95   auto    30
Invoice   7/1/95   37564   30
Invoice   8/2/95   8044    30
Total                      90

  I'd like to direct your attention to the fact that there is no JUNE 
invoice shown!  Does this indicate an incosistancy to you?  It does to me.

  I'd also like to point out your rather random invoice numbers.

  The QuickReport also has a hand-written note on it saying:

>  Per your request here's your ck back
>  you still have not paid May inv.
>  so would you send us another ck where
>  it says you're paying May Jult & August.

  As a matter of fact, I WILL NOT.  This is your mistake.  I have a receipt 
written by Rich White saying that May was paid for.  

  It appears that Arian did not follow up on his obligations taken upon 
himself by calling me.  It also appears that you do not have anyone in 
billing who has ever performed in an accounts receivable position before, 
or the missing June invoice would have given them enough warning that 
they might have checked up on this before writing this foolish note of 
theirs.

  I am outraged and insulted by the actions of your employees.  By these 
actions, I really wonder what you think of your customers.

  In reality, I do KNOW what you think of your customers.  When I was 
signing up for my account, Harley relayed one of my questions to a 
co-worker.  Since she didn't know the answer, she walked over to Rich and 
said "Some yahoo wants to know..."
 
  I called her on it, but my mistake was in not realizing that this is 
indeed how customers would be treated in the future.

  Mike,  Do you stand behind your company?  Are you willing to straigten 
this out, when other attempts have failed?  If you are, call me.  That 
is, unless you've lost the customer record that has my phone number.

-Chris Knight