Habitual Blackmailer

On my trip to Berlin, I buy an international data card with international and local call facility. It does not work. Calls to company concerned.

It is working is the response.

It does not. I can't make a call to the doctor and have to borrow a colleague's phone. BH calls company here. They call me back.

I have had to borrow somebody's phone to make a local call. They asked me which card I have and I have to tell them your company's name. It isn't exactly very positive publicity for you I tell the representative. Within 5 minutes my card is operational!

Lesson learnt: Threat of loss of reputation is the only thing that works.

We buy a refrigerator a year ago. We also pay for a 3 year extended warranty. Repeated calls asking for the AMC document bring no results. The representative stops even picking up calls. So we forget about it for the time. Now the light inside the frig starts flickering (loose contact). So we call the service centre. They say keep the document ready. We call back the representative. "You don't need the document. Just tell them it is paid for. All the records are on the computer" is the response. BH insists on the document. The rep cuts the call. He does not pick up when we try again. So we complain to the service centre and they give us the number of another person - the manager. Manager says "I am in a meeting and out of station." He cuts the call.

That is the last straw. I have reached the end of my tether. Putting into practice old lessons learnt, I SMS him threatening exposure of the company on social media. Within 2 mins I receive a call from another rep asking what the problem is. When I tell him, he says,

Obviously when you have paid the money, you must get the receipt. Where is the problem?

That is exactly my question I tell him. He sends the document to the BH by e mail within a minute.

Lesson learnt: It's the end of civilization as we know it and we now have to threaten companies with exposure on social media before they issue receipts for money paid a year ago. The moment social media are mentioned, they call back on their own and problem is resolved in a matter of minutes.

It leaves me feeling like a professional blackmailer when all one is trying to do is get a receipt and an extended AMC document.

Lesson learnt by BH: Don't stop your wife from threatening erring parties with exposure on social media when you want your job done. Social media do have their uses after all.

 

Indeed, I listed out everything on the SMS. After the job was done, I acknowledged the fact and thanked the person, also by SMS.

Unfortunately, the straight route does not work out. EMails after e-mails, n number of calls ..... what else can one do? Consumer courts? The AMC may run out before the case is sorted out. They did get fair warning about social media with written complaint about telephonic behaviour (cutting calls .....) Plus date of payment (bank records), date of resolution of problem should be sufficient evidence for customer of dishonest practices.

And yes, most big companies have a presence on FB and Twitter.

 

This reminds me of my student days in the UK. One day my wallet got nicked from my handbag which was in the lab. Some people had seen the woman who did it. I immediately lodged a police complaint and handed over the document to the bank. Within a few days I got a call from the bank and they told me the lady had been caught trying to use the card at a supermarket. She had already polished off around 400 pounds from my account. They even showed me the signature she had forged. The signature did not tally with mine. When I asked how anyone could have accepted her imitation when mine was behind the card, the manager said that very often the smooth surface of the card makes one's signature appear different. I showed him mine on ordinary paper which was no different. Anyway they refunded every single penny that was lost! That was the Nat West bank in the '90s.

 

Guarding themselves in fine print is a different story altogether. I am not even going there. This was a simple issue of issuing a receipt for money received and mailing a copy of the AMC. What was accomplished in 10 mins took more than 1 year and a written threat/warning.