Customer Service has "Gone to Hell in a Handbasket"

P

pchinvegas

Member
Location
Las Vegas, NV
I do not know what "Going to Hell in a Hand basket" really means but it sounds bad so I'm using it. Back to Customer Service. After my stay in the hospital in December, I have received a shit load of bills from the hospital, the hospital doctors, the lab, radiolygy and the anesthesiologists all separate bills .

One bill I received stated in big red letters "FINAL NOTICE" and further stated that they ( Hospital Physicians) had on numerous occasions contacted me and that I refused to cooperate! WHAT ? It even stated that I'd be turned over to a collections agency next !

I called then and ask "when did you call me"? The agent said, I don't see that we have ever called you and this was the first notice of the bill I had received, he agreed this was the first mailing.

"Why is this company threatening me before they have even made me aware of the bill ? He stated that's just how they do it. "Has this claim been sent to Medicare and this is the balance I owe"? NO, he said but yes I see you have Medicare.
I said " Why don't we send the claim to Medicare first, then you let me know the balance". Okay, he says.

Now, I fear what tactics they may use to collect the balance. I may end up with broken knees!
 

Probably the worst that would happen is they put a red mark on your credit score. I know - for some people that's worse than broken knees ...

LOL@"HellinaHandBasket.com" - When my kids were little occasionally I'd be heading out somewhere, either to work or the store, and they'd be chirping "Where ya goin'? Where ya goin'? Where ya goin'?" like a bunch of hungry baby birds.

One day I couldn't take it any longer and just snapped out "I'm going to Hell in a handbasket - wanna' come?"

The look on their faces was priceless. After that it became a family joke -

"Where ya goin'?"
"To Hell in a handbasket - wanna' come?"
"Ooh, yeah yeah!"

:p
 
I completely agree about the lack of decent customer service anymore, and the ignorance and apathy of those who are supposed to be handling things like that. What really irks me, is you can call a company 10 times, talk to 10 different people, get 10 different answers, and still not have gotten a straight answer about your issue.

Once I received a notice that my $20 check bounced for something I bought at Petsmart...well there was a couple of thousand in my account, so it wasn't an issue on my end. It was one of those checks, where you have to sign the computer at the checkout, then your check is voided and returned to you. I never kept receipts for little things like that, so nothing was saved.

Anyway, it took me over a month to straighten out these people. First of all, the cashier either punched in my check account number improperly, or her machine read it wrong. They threatened to send collectors after me and put it on my credit report...and I have never had an issue in my whole life with paying bills late, bouncing checks, etc...so I was very angry.

After giving them a bunch of my bank account info over the phone, they said they would just deduct it from my account. Well, week after week I was calling them, always talking to a different person...and the money never showed being withdrawn from my bank. The bank worker said that they never received a request for payment for that check number since the beginning of this ordeal.

Turns out, when I was at my wit's end, and demanding to speak to a manager (again), because they were always unavailable :rolleyes:...that the girl had one of my account number's written down wrong, and they were unaware that the problem wasn't taken care of. :mad: You have to babysit these people, and even when you explain everything very clearly to them, you can never assume that they will do what they're supposed to. Needless to say, I started using a credit card when shopping at Petsmart. :banghead:
 

Watch yer Ps 'n Qs, pchinvegas. Medicare does not cover broken knees. Not those suffered in acts of war, anyway.

Don't know if Kaiser-Permanente is available where you live, but here's my experience:

#1. Heart procedures over six months in 1994-95, finally had bypass surgery. Covered with Blue Cross. The blizzard of paper work for my share of every single x-ray, Kleenex, doctor, technician, scalpel and pill was freekin' unbelievable. I paid something like $7K in co-pays and deductibles. It took months to get it all figured out and paid. Talk about adding insult to injury!

#2. Five stents in 2005. Ambulance trip in this case to transfer me to Sacramento - about 80 miles away. Hi $$ cost to Kaiser! I saw no paper work for any part of the whole experience except my co-pay of $100 per day in the hospital. The whole thing went as smooth and uncluttered as one could hope for. I love Kaiser.
 
How about "customer service" that isn't even? I've been coping with a lousy phone company and a lousy phone, and recently decided to get a different phone service. I received an email asking me to call for more information, and the email included their phone number. Called the number, and listened to recordings for nearly 8 minutes, then a chirpy recorded voice said "Goodbye!" and I was disconnected!
I don't mind (too much) being on-hold, or dealing with push-this-button-that-button recordings, but they generally lead to a live person at some point- not this time!!
 
JaniceM said:
How about "customer service" that isn't even? I've been coping with a lousy phone company and a lousy phone, and recently decided to get a different phone service. I received an email asking me to call for more information, and the email included their phone number. Called the number, and listened to recordings for nearly 8 minutes, then a chirpy recorded voice said "Goodbye!" and I was disconnected!
I don't mind (too much) being on-hold, or dealing with push-this-button-that-button recordings, but they generally lead to a live person at some point- not this time!!
Click to expand...

That seems to be the current mode of operation for "customer service". The few times I've called a company in the past year, or so, it seems that I must listen to a long recording of their various options. Instead of that, I just press the 0 "Zero" button on the phone, and that almost always gets me to a Live person.
 
SeaBreeze said:
I completely agree about the lack of decent customer service anymore, and the ignorance and apathy of those who are supposed to be handling things like that. What really irks me, is you can call a company 10 times, talk to 10 different people, get 10 different answers, and still not have gotten a straight answer about your issue.

Once I received a notice that my $20 check bounced for something I bought at Petsmart...well there was a couple of thousand in my account, so it wasn't an issue on my end. It was one of those checks, where you have to sign the computer at the checkout, then your check is voided and returned to you. I never kept receipts for little things like that, so nothing was saved.

Anyway, it took me over a month to straighten out these people. First of all, the cashier either punched in my check account number improperly, or her machine read it wrong. They threatened to send collectors after me and put it on my credit report...and I have never had an issue in my whole life with paying bills late, bouncing checks, etc...so I was very angry.

After giving them a bunch of my bank account info over the phone, they said they would just deduct it from my account. Well, week after week I was calling them, always talking to a different person...and the money never showed being withdrawn from my bank. The bank worker said that they never received a request for payment for that check number since the beginning of this ordeal.

Turns out, when I was at my wit's end, and demanding to speak to a manager (again), because they were always unavailable :rolleyes:...that the girl had one of my account number's written down wrong, and they were unaware that the problem wasn't taken care of. :mad: You have to babysit these people, and even when you explain everything very clearly to them, you can never assume that they will do what they're supposed to. Needless to say, I started using a credit card when shopping at Petsmart. :banghead:
Click to expand...

Have you ever noticed. And this is the worst. That when you are explaining things to them they interrupt and don't listen?
 
FishWisher said:
Watch yer Ps 'n Qs, pchinvegas. Medicare does not cover broken knees. Not those suffered in acts of war, anyway.

Don't know if Kaiser-Permanente is available where you live, but here's my experience:

#1. Heart procedures over six months in 1994-95, finally had bypass surgery. Covered with Blue Cross. The blizzard of paper work for my share of every single x-ray, Kleenex, doctor, technician, scalpel and pill was freekin' unbelievable. I paid something like $7K in co-pays and deductibles. It took months to get it all figured out and paid. Talk about adding insult to injury!

#2. Five stents in 2005. Ambulance trip in this case to transfer me to Sacramento - about 80 miles away. Hi $$ cost to Kaiser! I saw no paper work for any part of the whole experience except my co-pay of $100 per day in the hospital. The whole thing went as smooth and uncluttered as one could hope for. I love Kaiser.
Click to expand...


I live in Canada. We don't get the bills. The doctor submits his fee and he gets paid from the Province Health Care system.

We don't see the hospital bills either.

We do have to pay the dentist or other services not covered for which we do not have insurance.

Anyone with insurance. The dentist submits the fee to the insurance company and you might have to pay a difference on a co-pay. That bill comes from the dentist with the details.

We really get ripped off in Canada on hearing aids. The price of a hearing aid is astronomical. Surely in this day and age of electronics a hearing aid must be a simple device.
 
There's some companies/places we love to do business with, but they are few and far between. On the whole, businesses don't think they need customer service people that truly and politely help the customers. Now that the wealth distribution is just about all at the very top percents...well, those huge corporate entities don't much care anymore. There's a few small companies that still try.
 
Reading all the posts, I think, thank goodness for the NHS but private hearing aids are a rip off. If anything happens to the ones I have, I will just ask everyone to yell at me... I suppose I could ask the NHS but then there are young people who need the NHS much more than I do.

I can't really think of any really bad customer service either, I may just have been lucky there.
 
In my last job, a big firm moved into town. Home Depot. They were competition of course to a family owned lumber business in town.

Everyone told them to sell because they couldn't compete.

Well this is what they said. We have something they don't have. We open at 7 a.m. when the contractors wake up. We also have a live person answering the telephone. And we will not give written quotes so people can take it with them and get a discount.

They are still in business and doing well.
 
the meaning of the phrase, from wickipedia

"Going to hell in a handbasket", "going to hell in a handcart", "going to hell in a handbag", "go to hell in a bucket",[SUP][1][/SUP] "sending something to hell in a handbasket" and "something being like hell in a handbasket" are variations on an American allegorical locution of unclear origin, which describes a situation headed for disaster inescapably or precipitately.
 
I think your view of "customer service" depends on your total life out look. I like all,deal with the crappy phone trees that we all do.
I tend to think of all the times things go well.
I order 20lbs of coffee beans several times a year. Have been for several years now. I order Sunday afternoon and thanks to the merchant and the USPS they are in my hand in Wednesdays mail. Has never failed.
I stood in line at the local grocery went to pay, no wallet. Cashier had me sign the receipt with a promise to pay up and sent me on my way.
This example is almost thirty years old. Our eldest had an eye infection as a child and had to go to Rochester to the big hospital. She was treated but needed additional drugs on a strict schedule. The pharmacy would have been closed by the time we arrived home,but the druggist drove out to our home and out the prescriptions in the mail box.

Custtomer service does generally suck, but if you care to look plenty of good exists.
 
I pulled into Boca Landscape and ground cover and drove around the yard. Pulled into a parking space went into the trailer and asked for price of white rock. I was told to go walk around the yard, pick something out and then come back. (It feels like 90 degrees out there) Bull - I left. How hard is it to say "prices range from 65" to $150 /cu yd. If Old Mack had gone in there, it would have been a different story. Any of you women have that kind of experience?
 
SifuPhil said:
Probably the worst that would happen is they put a red mark on your credit score. I know - for some people that's worse than broken knees ...

LOL@"HellinaHandBasket.com" - When my kids were little occasionally I'd be heading out somewhere, either to work or the store, and they'd be chirping "Where ya goin'? Where ya goin'? Where ya goin'?" like a bunch of hungry baby birds.

One day I couldn't take it any longer and just snapped out "I'm going to Hell in a handbasket - wanna' come?"

The look on their faces was priceless. After that it became a family joke -

"Where ya goin'?"
"To Hell in a handbasket - wanna' come?"
"Ooh, yeah yeah!"

:p
Click to expand...


I heard Hell is having a fire sale on Handbaskets.

travel-tourism-hell-air-handbasket-devils-airplane-phan48_low.jpg
 
I'm probably in the lucky .00000000001 % that hasn't had any problems with any customer service lately. Knock on Wood !!!!
 

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