ONE - Failure
I spent the whole morning on the telephone, courtesy of systems that almost work the way they should.
We are going to Australia in a few weeks. Australia demands visas for visiting US citizens, and will kindly issue electronic visas via the airlines. Last week I called United, and after about 50 minutes, the transaction was completed. Why so long? The agent to whom I spoke seemed to have been trained on a non-QWERTY keyboard. Whatever information I gave him was entered one keystroke at a time. Rather than the usual clatter that that one hears when giving an agent information, I heard "click" ... pause ... "click"... pause ... "click" ... pause... "click"... pause... "click"... pause... . That would just get my first name entered. And so it went.
At the end of the conversation I was assured that all was well, and that I would be getting e-mail confirmations.
Sure enough, within minutes I got a confirmation. One confirmation. I was expecting two. My wife and I have separate PNRs for this flight (don't ask - its another long story), and different e-mail addresses, so two would be expected,
Being naturally skeptical I checked my credit card account the next day - only one charge from United (for $20) had come through. I had been told that the visa issuance charge would be $30. The weekend was busy, so today I checked again. This time three charges for $20 had come through from United, all dated the on the same day.
So, I called again. Interminable menu hell for a while. Music on hold for 45 minutes or so. Agent comes on line. I explain the story. He checks, puts me on hold. Agrees that I have been charged for two visas. Checks visa status. Only my visa had been issued. He puts Hilda's in again. Says its OK now. I get two confirms by email. Now I will wait to see the credit card charges.
TWO - Failure
I transferred stock from one brokerage account to another with an after-hours online transaction last week. Received an email confirmation. When I checked my accounts on Monday, neither account showed a pending transfer, and the stock was still in the first account. I left it for another couple of days - maybe it was settling, or something like that. Today, still no sign in either account. Called the brokerage - got through quickly. Was told that they had no record of the transaction. They said to try again, so I did another transfer online. This time, it shows as in progress in both accounts, so maybe it will happen.
THREE- Success
A few months ago I bought a Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS, with a sexy FM receiver that receives real time traffic reports. The receiver is built into the power adapter that plugs into what used to be the cigar lighter in the car.
An odd engineering decision, but I can see some sense in it. Within a couple of days, the power adapter started falling to pieces whenever we unplugged it from the car. The pragmatic solution was not to unplug it, simply to avoid the telephone hell that occurs when one tries to get a manufacturer to repair something under warranty. Today, I could put it off no longer, so I called the manufacturer. Wonder of wonders, the phone was answered after a couple of rings, I was given an RMA with no protest, and the adapter will soon be gong back for a new one.
This is the second time I have been given great service by Garmin. The first time I bought their stock, held it while it went up, and sold when Nokia bought a major map data provider and it became obvious that pretty soon all phones and cars will have GPS's embedded in them. Garmin's position of dependence on a large, competent competitor for its maps put them in a pretty awkward position. I made enough on that trade to keep me in GPS units for life.
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