Again in the "I swear these things only happen to me" department. When Terri and I were in college we saved up and bought college rings. There were a fairly pricey item but a memento we both wanted. Now when I ordered the rings, I thought they only came with one choice of stone, a synthetic amethyst in a dark purple color to match the Scottish Thistle, thus completing the connection to Andrew Carnegie and his wonderful college. Now college class rings, if ordered from the right vendor, are guaranteed for life against most defects, etc. We did order them from the right vendor. The school only has one vendor for that matter. So, when the stone in Terri's ring cracked, I carefully checked out the policy and mailed it from work hoping that it would only take a couple of weeks and I could just not display my right hand as prominently so that she wouldn't notice her ring was missing. So, I sent it priority with insurance and delivery confirmation. That was August 11th. A bunch of things happened in the middle of August and kind of got me sidetracked, but right before I left for Bristol I decided to check the tracking number on the post office reciept to see whether or not the ring had made it to Texas to the facilities that were going to fix it for me. The tracking number simply said that it was accepted in Pittsburgh on August 11th. Duh! I knew that. Then we left for Bristol and I got sidetracked again. When I came back I needed to send a package to my soon to be cousin-in-law (4 days and counting). I also put the insurance and delivery confirmation on it, the whole nine yards. While I was mailing that package, I casually inquired about the process for the other package since at that point I was considering it lost. They told me that after 30 days if I still saw no activity they would begin to manually trace the package. So, this week I grabbed the receipt and checked the web again. It still said that it was only accepted in Pittsburgh on August 11th. So, I prepared to make the trek down to the post-office. In fact, I was headed down there tomorrow.
However, I was deterred by a phone call that Terri received from the ring company informing her of the pricing options that they had in order to fix her ring. The ring she didn't know for sure wasn't at the house. So she called me and gave me the woman's phone number. I was slowly building up my controlled rage and barely contained sarcasm that I reserve for the people on the other end of customer service lines. So, I called Lorraine. I asked her how a ring that was under warranty could have a price for fixing it. She explained that genuine stones weren't covered and that if I wanted the genuine stone that was in the ring currently replaced with another genuine stone it was going to cost me $230 plus tax and shipping. If I wanted a synthetic stone it was going to cost me $45 plus tax and shipping. So, I asked how it could be a genuine stone if their website said that only synthetic stones were available. I was told that Terri had decided on a genuine stone when she purchased the ring.
"That's impossible." I said. The woman asked me how I knew that. I told her it was because I ordered the ring and ordered a synthetic stone. Then I explained to her that if it was indeed a genuine stone, then it was a mistake that was made on their end. I also wanted to know that why, at the end of July, their representative said nothing about genuine versus synthetic stones and there was no mention of a cost at all for stone replacement. So, she took my number and proceeded to figure out the answers to my questions. I was all ready for her to call back with some story about it being a genuine stone and it was either pay the $230 or get back a damaged ring.
Then she called me back and said it was entirely possible that when the ring had been in for repairs once before it had been a computer error that listed the stone as genuine and as soon as the gemologists came in in the morning, she would have them verify that it was synthetic, it would be fixed free of any charge and all I would have to pay was shipping (which I knew going into it).
So, that turned out ok, but then I had this whole head of steam built up to release on the customer service person, but that never materialized.
Anyway, I have a mini link dump to do now.
This is a slight surprise but not entirely unexpected. However, does this mean the spin people are now going to start taking blame for everything? How long before the White House lays claim to the blame for this little incident?
This falls into the too little too late category. It also warrants an "Amen!" and an "I tried to tell you that 5 years ago." Unfortunately it may not stem the new ones from happening and it's certainly not going to get the old ones yanked. No one actually listens to the public.
I'm not sure what, if anything, is going to happen to these parents, but I know exactly where I would stick them for 12 hours every day. I can't possibly even begin to imagine what sort of mental deficiency would even tell you that this might be a good idea.
If you read their blog you find that they spent the better part of a trail hike trying to corral their young son so that he didn't get injured in any way, but still had the full enjoyment of the outdoors. I look at Gage and can't even remotely think of any situation where I would want to do anything other than my level best to protect him and make him the happiest little boy possible. I mean, I have no other words to even begin to describe that article.