Shaking my head

Two recent events that left me shaking my head:

I was looking for something in my wallet, and discovered that I had two Amoco/BP Auto Club cards. The only thing different about them was a number printed in small type above my name; I couldn't tell which card was the most recent one. So I wrote to the Customer Service email address listed at the website and explained that, and said I was trying to determine which card was the current one, and gave both numbers.

I got an email back from them thanking me for my feedback, telling me that yes, in answer to my question, my membership was still in good standing, and telling me that the new cards I had requested would arrive soon. What??

In a few days, I got an envelope containing new Auto Club cards, with yet another number on them. At least I now know which are the most current ones . . .

I almost never write letters of praise or complaint to companies for just this reason--they never seem to actually read them. Someone gets it and just shoots off a form letter that may or may not have anything at all to do with the original question.

Over the weekend I was using Kiplinger's TaxCut to do our taxes, and as I mentioned before, I efiled them. The next day I got an email from the software company telling me that they had received notification that our tax return had been accepted by the government, and in order to complete the process, I was to open the program, go to the "File" menu, and choose "Check Status" in that menu.

The only problem was, "Check Status" doesn't exist under that menu, or under any of the other menu items.

I finally gave up and went to the website and searched through the technical support documents until I found the right instructions, which were to press the button that says, "Take Me To," then choose "Check Status" under a new list of items which appears.

So I wrote to the technical support people and said that while I could certainly understand software shipping with errors, it seemed pretty unbelievable to still be sending out an email with incorrect information, since it could certainly be easily changed. I set out exactly what the problem was, and how I had solved it, and what the response email should say. I got an email back today thanking me for my positive feedback, telling me that they always appreciate hearing from people who get good value from their product, and saying that they would definitely pass my email on to be sure that my positive feedback was noted (note "positive feedback" was mentioned several times, however, I had given them no positive feedback at all).

I suppose in both of these cases, whoever answered these letters can now consider the matter wrapped up, and can add another checkmark to their "cases closed" list. It's probably more important just to get them out of the inbox than to actually respond to the question (or comment) that the customer has raised.

I can't remember now what company it was, but I remember a long, drawn-out correspondence I had with someone who kept sending me form letters that had absolutely nothing to do with what I was asking, and I kept writing back and pointing that out, only to get yet another form letter in reply. I finally stopped, and I won't pursue these either, since all it does is raise my blood pressure and make me regret taking the time to let anyone know what I think about anything.

My latest socks:

Wild, huh? The pair I'm working on now are a little quieter, although not much. They're cream and pale orange and spring green. And purple, and blue . . .

I redesigned Barbara Bretton's website a couple of weeks ago, and I really like it. Lots of yellow flowers and kind of a pale purple wisteria color--very Spring-like.