This is something I've been meaning to start for a while. This is a list of companies or other entities who have pissed me off to the point where I will no longer do business with them. These are in chronological order. I have no real motive here - just to gripe in a public forum. If someone happens to read this page and avoid a bad experience with one of these companies, great. Power to the people!...and stuff...right - here's the list.
I drove 20 miles on a workday to the airport in order to buy this ticket to go see my fiancee. I waited patiently in line while she helped the one person in front of me. I got to the counter, and she refused to sell me a ticket without a reservation already in the system (which they couldn't make when I'd called earlier because I needed the voucher number). Again, no one had told me anything of all of these supposed stipulations, and they were nowhere in any of the ad or voucher copy. There wasn't anyone behind me in line, no upcoming flights or anything, and I knew the exact flight numbers and times that I wanted, but she flat-out refused to book me a ticket. "We don't do that here at the ticketing counter because it takes too long." *!* ...so I stormed off to find a phone. I called the 800 number again, and they found the two inquiries I'd made still in the computer and made the reservation in 30 seconds. I walked back to the counter. By this time, a couple people had gotten to the counter and a second ticketing agent had shown up. The Witch was helping another customer. She was helping him reserve and buy a ticket. I waited in line for 20 minutes while she read him options and he waffled and finally picked one and fished out his credit card and paid for it. I, meanwhile, was seething. Finally, the other agent freed up (she was still helping that guy), and he completed the transaction for me with no trouble. After all that, the flight was miserable and delayed, and due to the whole experience, I will never give TWA my business again.
A few weeks later, we received the check back in the mail with a note saying that they don't take checks without our name and address pre-printed. (Nowhere in the catalog or on the order form was this mentioned.) We had written all of our contact information on the check - they could have called and explained the problem and asked us for another form of payment, but no! I called to find out what had happened to the order, and was told simply that my father's credit card had been credited for the amount and our order cancelled. Great - so we look rude after all - this credit showing up with no explanation. I asked if there were any way we could still use the credit, since it was a gift. They refused to give me any information because my name was neither Dan Wegner nor Mr. Records and Tapes Galore (as the address label was printed), and said that unless I was one of those two, they would not make any exchange, nor even talk to me. Some company that won't let you exchange a gift - sheesh! I can get much better prices in much friendlier places. I don't need them, and I suggest that you don't either.
After 30 minutes of watching people who came before us (and maybe after us) get their cars, I got in line again to find out about the holdup. Another agent helped me, but confirmed that I hadn't missed anything - I was still top on the list. He assured me that it would only be another 10 minutes or so. I sat down again.
Another 15 minutes passed, and this time there were definitely people that came in after us getting cars. A fair number of people. So I got in line again and the original agent spotted me in line. He didn't wait for me to get to the front again - just assured me that it would only be another 10 minutes or so. "That's what you said 15 minutes ago!" I retorted flippantly. But I sat down again. By now, I'm tired from a long week and a two-hour timeshift, I'm dreading the weekend (have you seen the apartment prices in the Silicon Valley? Oy!), and now I'm getting mad.
Another 15 minutes pass (it's 9:00 now, if you haven't kept up). I got in line again. Weasel-Boy tried to assure me that it would only be another 10 minutes or so. I wasn't having any more of that. I explained that I had had a reservation. I was at the counter at 8:00 and it was now 9:00. I had seen a good 30 people or more get their cars, but I hadn't gotten mine. Surely at least a couple of them had reserved the same class car. "Were they my customers?" he asked. "I don't know...why???" I replied. "Each of us agents has his own list and they're all separate." *!* That was the stupidest thing I've ever heard! I was being made to wait for over an hour because they all have different lists?!? Needless to say, I made a minor scene and the manager noticed. He called the agent over and whispered something to him. The agent came back and said "If you want, I can give you someone else's reserved car in another class." I thought that was just dandy. He gave me my vehicle choices and we completed the transaction, but before it was done, he had the gall to try to guilt-trip me by saying, "Are you happy now, taking away someone else's reserved car?" I assured him that I was and flounced away.
So we got a nice (albeit huge) car for the weekend for the price of a compact. They did, however, try to recoup their losses when we returned the car by charging us for a prepaid fuel option that I'd specifically declined, and didn't credit the full amount when I complained, but I was tired of dealing with it for the remaining $5, and just resolved never to do business with Dollar again and to post a rant on the web. Beware!
So we moved in a month or so later. I made a few repairs, including replacing the burnt-out fluorescent ballast for the kitchen overhead, replacing one of the 12' long unsupported wood closet rods (sagged over 1' in the middle!) with a metal rod and supports, and some other miscellaneous things. I even lobbied to do a minor kitchen upgrade since it was so dismally dark and the cabinets were falling apart and falling off the walls, but she wouldn't have it, so I just spent 16 uncompensated hours thoroughly cleaning it and repairing what I could along the way.
Anyway, at the beginning of November we discovered that the hot water valve on the bathroom sink upstairs was leaking because all of our stuff under the sink was soaked. The valve was all corroded and nasty, but it was a slow leak, so I pulled everything out to dry and put a dish under the leak. I called Bobbi, but she was headed out of town and didn't want to deal with it 'til she got back. I was leaving for a 2-week business trip myself, and my husband didn't want to deal with it by himself. I don't do plumbing, but the leak was small, so I agreed that would be fine.
While on my trip, my marriage took a distinct turn for the worse, as I found out upon my return. We worked on it a little bit, but I decided that I couldn't bear to stay in that place alone, never knowing if or when he'd be around. So I talked to Bobbi about it and started looking for my own place that I could afford with only my own income. (Note that the bathroom sink had still not been fixed - at this point she wanted to wait until we were out.) Right away, she insisted that because we were only 7 months into the 2 year lease, she would not accept a sublessor - it had to be a whole new 2 year lease. Trying to be accomodating, since I was the one backing out of the lease, I agreed to help find someone for a whole new lease.
I posted ads and got a lot of response. I invited Bobbi to meet some of the prospective tenants during an open house, since they were to meet her approval, but she declined and asked me to collect their applications (including a lot of sensitive financial information! at least I'm a very honest person!) and to "send her the ones I thought she'd like best." What that meant, I wasn't quite certain, since they were her standards, not mine. I wanted to move fast on this, so I offered to bring the applications to her house or work or whatever, but she didn't want to deal with them right then. Finally she agreed to let me fax them all to her with my recommendation of which ones I thought she'd like best. Then she didn't get around to calling any of them for days, by which point the ones she hadn't rejected for her own (probably not legally defensible) reasons had already signed other leases.
Meanwhile, I'd found a little duplex I adored that was affordable, hubby had taken a room in a friends' house, and we were eager to be rid of this supplemental huge income drain on top of the major emotional turmoil, especially before we left for the holidays. Finally, she said that a couple from Minnesota that had seen my ad online had signed a lease and wanted to move in at the beginning of January. We recruited some friends, moved our stuff out, and I spent a couple of days cleaning, followed by Stanley Steemer for the carpets. She did a quick walkthrough and said everything was fine, and that she'd get our deposit back to us as soon as the new tenants were moved in and looked things over.
So hubby and I went to my Mom's house for the holidays. Relationship issues took a turn for the better, and we returned to CA to continue working on them. Around the middle of January we got a letter and check from Bobbi. The letter explained all of the expenses that she'd taken out of the check, including $40 *!* of long distance costs (unsubstantiated), ~$100 for a handyman to look at the leaky sink, then another $200+ to fix it because the handyman said it looked like someone had done a bad repair. We had nothing to do with it breaking!!!! It was probably whomever replaced the faucet with a non-bathroom-style faucet before our time. She also tried to blame me for the layers of rust on top of the 20-year-old refrigerator and scrapes on the bottom of the kitchen sink (which are completely normal side effects of washing dishes in a brushed stainless steel sink!), but she graciously didn't charge me for those. She also didn't charge me for the hours of work she'd put in to verify new tenants. *!* She's lucky she didn't, as the only reason she'd done any of that was because I'd graciously agreed to help find new tenants instead of finding my own sublessors. There were some other miscellaneous bogus charges too, but I was so completely furious with her that I could no longer have a civil conversation with her, and I was so desperate to move on with my life that I didn't want to pursue legal action (though I really really should have). I did send her an irate letter denying responsibility for her plumbing problems and demanding substantiation and/or receipts for all of the bogus charges, but we never heard back from her. (Not surprising.)
I'm not a vengeful person as a rule, but as far as I'm concerned, Bobbi Fox is one person who's welcome to fall off the earth and onto a pointy stick.