ammogirl

Reason #1 (of too many to list) why I am glad I’m Air Force, not Army, Marines or Navy:

I had to walk up on main base today, around…say, 9-ish. You know, late enough to be warming up, temperature wise, and muggying up, humidity wise. Coming towards me was a group of about 30 people, and they were all running towards me in a loose formation. They were all carrying either: 5 gallon water containers (full), stretchers, or at least two rifles. WHILE RUNNING. Not jogging, or walking quickly. RUN-NING. They were, of course, not Air Force, but Army. Y’all, screw that. That looked like it SUCKED.

Anyway, I have a problem to solve. Do any of you have Direct TV? Okay. Well, WE do, and for the past….three? years have subscribed to NFL Sunday Ticket, because John has people over for football nearly every week, and it sort of requires you to have more than one football game showing or…something…well, it’s all about the remote control, I think, and how many times they get to change the channel. Men. So anyway, of course THIS year, we will not be utilizing NFL Sunday Ticket because of the big move in mid-October, and selling the house (and TV!) before football season, and all that. So when they sent me a notice in May telling me they were automatically renewing my subscription and charging my account in four equal monthly payments, I wrote them an email that said, basically: No thanks, moving, please cancel. In return, I got an email that said: No problem, got it, cancelled. That was in the middle of May. BEFORE the current billing cycle. Yesterday, I noticed while perusing my bank account that Direct TV had charged me for….you guessed it! NFL Sunday Ticket! "Hmm…" thought I, "This is odd! Good thing I have my cancellation confirmation! This will be easy to fix!" and then I forwarded said email to their fine customer service reminding them I had cancelled and requesting a refund. Great, right? Easy as pie, right?

Well, no. I got an email back from them (promptly, I will admit) and it said, sorry for the confusion. I will forward this on to somebody else in a completely different section and they can call you and you two can discuss how we can "help" you.

Wait…what? Puzzled, I hit reply, and wrote: Well, I’m confused. Why would you have to call me to discuss this? It’s a simple problem with a simple solution. Cancel my subscription, FOR REAL this time, and refund my account. And, blah blah about being in Korea and you CAN’T call me…blah. Just as quick, I got the second reply that said:

"Thanks for writing. I apologize for any confusion regarding removing your NFL SUNDAY TICKET. I have forwarded your message to one of our Customer Service Representatives and let them know that you are waiting for them to contact you. Thanks again for your continued patience.

Sincerely,

Bretha
DIRECTV Customer Service"

YOU GUYS! I AM CONFUSED! If you did not notice, I highlighted a few items in pink. Is there anything…I mean…don’t you see…ARE YOU NOT CONFUSED? Isn’t "Bretha" a customer service representative? Can she not help me? Is there ANOTHER customer service that is super secret, like ninja stealthy, and you have to work your way through a labryinth of confusion before you can get to them? Is this email totally and completely redundant and without content? Is it just me? Should I write them back? WHAT SHOULD I SAY? I’m not being rude! I haven’t been pushy! I just want them to cancel that football thing, LIKE THEY SAID THEY WOULD IN THE MIDDLE OF MAY, and give me back my money. Am I asking too much? AM I?

Did any of you see that news piece from last week, where a guy wanted to cancel his AOL account, and because he had heard doing so was next to impossible, he recorded the conversation? And they went all possessive and defensive on him and TOTALLY WOULD NOT LET HIM DO IT? It was pretty funny to read the transcript. If you haven’t read it yet, go check it out…if the link doesn’t work, just Google "AOL wouldn’t cancel" or something like that, it’s worth it, I promise. I especially like the part where he just kept saying "cancel the account" over and over. Classic. Anyway, I sort of feel like I’m caught in the same type of situation. I mean, really: Hi, I’m from customer service. I will now forward you to customer service, so one of our customer service representatives can help you. Sincerely, customer service.

I need your help on this, you guys. Advice, please.

Auf Wiedersehen!!!!!!