Criminal Minds

Sunday, while running with my friends, Tyler's car was broken into. We were parked at a common trailhead, next to a major road. Tyler had given Michelle and I a ride to the run and as a result my wallet, phone and grocery money for the week was in my bag in his car. Michelle, in genius fashion had stashed her belongings in the truck and the thief had not bothered with the trunk. This was a calculated criminal because in the short time it took us to run, he racket up thousands of dollars on Tyler's credit cards. They did not touch my cards until the following morning. By then they were all cancelled, but they did attempt to charge on every one of them Monday.

Sunday afternoon we headed to the Apple store to replace my phone, only to find out that since my contract was not up for an upgrade, it would be $499 to replace my iPhone. I walked out of the store crying, telling the store clerk that I could not make a decision like that under such emotion.

It's been interesting how many times I have been blackmailed through the process. Our renters insurance company told us that if I filed a claim they would up our premium by 25% and increase our deductible. Um, thanks? WE plan to file a claim. Last time I checked property and casualty insurance companies are begging for customers.

After being shocked and revolted about the iPhone I called customer service (several times). The last lady I talked to was the best. I asked her how much it was to cancel my contract. She said $130. I asked why they were going to charge me $500 to keep my contract, when I could cancel it for $130, then open a new one and buy a $99 iphone? Her response...so totally classic...

"Because that's illegal"

I said "What's illegal about it?". She angrily said "Hold one minute, I have to talk to my supervisor". She then came back after 5 minutes to tell me that it wasn't illegal, but that she would be very surprised if they issued me another account if I canceled mine. Nice, more blackmail.

I find it interesting that when someone commits a very blatant crime against you, so many companies choose to treat you so badly. Haven't they done like 100 studies that have showed that in times of stress if you treat your customers with superb customer service, they will become lifelong customers?