Below is yet another example of just how super mature I
am. Or maybe it is a brief look into the
mind of a seriously deranged middle aged woman.
Either way, it was this or a stroke.
I chose this.
For those of you who
do not want to read the string of emails below, (the best parts are at the bottom)
I will give you a brief summary. In early July, I got a sales phone call from a company selling SAT Prep materials.
They said they got my name from the College Board or Fastweb website I
had used to sign up my son,Winston, for
college information.
For some reason, I broke my cardinal rule and purchased
their materials over the phone. The
salesman assured me their policy was 100% refundable for ANY reason. The materials arrived a week or so later and after two weeks
of my son not showing enough interest to even open the package, I decided
to send it back and get my refund.
Thus began the saga below:
THURS. JULY 25
I begin calling the 1-800 number I find on the unopened
packages of study materials. Over the
next few days, I call at different times asking to speak to a supervisor so I can get information on how to get my refund. Each time, I am told that there is no one in the office right now, but that they will take my number and have someone call me back. I never get any phone calls back, so I look
up their website and find a customer service email address.
____________________________________________________________________________
SAT. JULY 27
From: reenietalk@gmail.com
On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 9:22 AM, Reenie Collins
wrote:
To whom it may concern:
I need to be contacted immediately by your company or I will
file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau as well as the College Board
and the schools. I have been trying to
return the materials you sent me and cancel all charges associated with your
company and any of your products. I
can't get anyone to return my calls or give me information. Please send me
contact information for who to talk to at your company and how to return the
materials and get full refunds and cancel any possible recurring monthly
charges.
Sincerely,
Irene "Reenie" Collins
_________________________________________________________________________________
TUES. JULY 30
On Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 11:46 AM, Customer Service
wrote:
We have found your account.
It was under xxxx Collins and the email that was used xxxx@gmail.com.
Please send the package back to PO Box 848 Solana Beach, CA,
92075 on the outside of the box put RMA # 212133548
-_________________________________________________________________________________
JUL. 31-AUG.14
Due to my severe ADD and my inability to complete anything,
I promptly forget all about it until suddenly on Aug. 15 something (Who knows what. Could have been a picture of a kitten or the
taco I had for lunch) must have reminded me that I never followed up on this
and I want my $185 dollars back, Dammit!
So I promptly get back on it.
______________________________________________________________________________
THURS. AUG. 15
On Thu, Aug 15, 2013 at 4:44 PM
To: Customerservice@prepme4less.com
From: reenietalk@gmail.com
Hello.
I am sending you the package today in the mail requesting a
full refund and want to make sure there will be no ongoing charges to my credit
card.
The products that I am returning are two discs from
University Prep Center. One is Marked
SAT/ACT and the other is Scholarship College Guide. Both are unopened.
Can you please confirm to me what credit card will be
refunded and what is the full amount that will be refunded?
Thank you,
Reenie Collins.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
AUG.1 5-SEPT. 3
My ADD, or my wine induced black-outs, or perhaps
just my plain disorganization take control and a few
weeks pass before I suddenly remember that I have not heard back from my new
friend, Mr. Wittle, in Customer Service at Prepme4less.com. So I begin to call the 1-800 number at odd times
during the day - I now have their 800 number on speed dial and
whenever I am driving around running errands, I give them a call.
Finally, deciding that calling 10 times a day or more is not
going to get a response, I resort to sending another email.
________________________________________________________________________________
WED. SEPT. 4
On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 8:47 AM, Reenie Collins
wrote:
I have called your phone number repeatedly. I never receive a return phone call. The answering service has informed me that to
their knowledge they do not EVEN HAVE THE OPTION to transfer a call to a live
person. I am supposing this is because
you have all your staff doing sales calls.
I need a return call to get the refund I was promised.
My number is (xxxxxxxx.
The product was sent under the name of my son: xxxxx Collins. I have
called, emailed and sent the package back, yet I have not gotten any return
information other than the above email dated July 30.
I just called again and the answering service is only able
to take a phone number for a return call that I never get.
Sincerely,
Reenie Collins
_________________________________________________________________________________
From: customerservice@prepme4less.com
On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 7:44 PM, Customer Service
wrote:
Reenie,
We have our return department at our local P.O. Box. Sorry
for the confusion, but I have gone ahead and issued your credit via certified
funds. Please allow 5-7 business days to arrive. If you have any questions,
just refernce my name.
Ryan Wittle / Manager
________________________________________________________________________________
THURS. SEPT. 5
To: Mr. Ryan Wittle, Customer Service
From: Reenie Collins
Please confirm what credit card number and the amount you
are refunding. I may have already
canceled the credit card you have on file.
___________________________________________________________________________
THURS. SEPT. 12
On Thu, Sep 12, 2013 at 8:46 AM, Reenie Collins
wrote:
Dear Mr. Wittle,
This will now be the sixth email I have sent regarding your
product and the supposed refund that I am to receive. I realize you must be very busy. With what, I am not sure, since whenever I
call there is no one available at your company.
You have assured me no less than three times in an email
that this refund would be sent. To date,
I have not received any refund.
I was supposed to have been issued a full refund. I have requested that this refund be made via
check or money order as the credit card it was issued on is no longer valid, I
have canceled it.
As I told you in earlier emails, I will now begin
proceedings to report you to the Better Business Bureau. But more importantly, and honestly, more fun.
I am going to use my blog, Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram status to inform everyone in our community about how your
company will take my calls and return them within hours if I call and leave a
message asking to PURCHASE your product.
And about how when I talk to your sales people, they start out nice and ASSURE me
that the product is 100 percent refundable, but as soon as I tell them I want a
refund they become surly and rude and say that ” this is not their department. “
I am appalled that your company is allowed access to College
Board and other websites that most High School Juniors and Seniors and their
parents access. I am going to notify the College Board and Fastweb about how wonderful your sales department is and how they will
immediately call back anyone who wants to buy your product, but how sadly, as soon as
there is a complaint or a request for refund, your company apparently has only
one person to respond. I would guess
that would be you, Mr. Wittle?
I am sorry you must be so busy with your other requests that
you cannot seem to find the time to refund our money which your company clearly
stated ( in their recorded phone call to me) was 100% refundable if we were not
satisfied for ANY REASON.
And, since I could not even get my son to open the package, I would say we were not able to use the product and thus were not satisfied.
Because I sent your packages back via registered mail, I am able to see that you have not even bothered to pick them up!
I sure would appreciate a phone call back to let me know that the check is on the way, as my mail box is kind of far from my door and I walk down there multiple times a day in hopes that the check will appear. However, to date, I have been sadly disappointed.
And, since I could not even get my son to open the package, I would say we were not able to use the product and thus were not satisfied.
Because I sent your packages back via registered mail, I am able to see that you have not even bothered to pick them up!
I sure would appreciate a phone call back to let me know that the check is on the way, as my mail box is kind of far from my door and I walk down there multiple times a day in hopes that the check will appear. However, to date, I have been sadly disappointed.
Please send me the check today or just email me back and
give me some more false information and empty assurances.
Still Waiting to find a person in your company who can help
me,
Irene Collins
_____________________________________________________________________________
FRI. SEPT. 13
Reenie Collins 2:01 PM (4 hours
ago) wrote:
From: reenietalk@gmail.com
Dear Mr. Wittle,
I am sending my 7th email correspondence regarding my
request for a refund from your company.
I can only assume that you must be astonishingly busy doing
"manager type" things and that is the reason that you have decided to
quit responding to me. I am also
assuming that because you are busy doing
all this superintending and overseeing, that this is also the reason that I
have not received my refund of $185.00 for the return of your product, as promised by you in your email of September
4, 2013.
As I promised in my last letter, I have now notified the Better Business Bureau
of your company's fraudulent practices. In addition, I have continued to call your company,
requesting a real live person. Funny
enough, I only get this answering service that does not seem to know of any
regular business hours or of how to transfer a call to a live person in your company.
In addition to the above, I will also continue calling your 1-800 number regularly, telling them that I
want to buy your product as it has become one of my favorite past times -
seeing how quickly someone from your company calls me back to SELL me the
product versus how NO ONE from your company will call me back to discuss my
refund! In fact, I love reporting it to
my Facebook, Blog, Twitter and Instagram followers. (I love how I put that in there like I have a whole bunch of followers, but it sure made me feel powerful!)
I must say, I am giving your your company, Prepme4Less and
UniversityPrepCenter some strong recognition and publicity. I wonder if perhaps you would consider
sending me $185.00 for all the PR and advertising efforts I am putting out on
your behalf?
Here is a link to my blog and Facebook so that you can see how
much publicity you are getting! https://www.facebook.com/reenie.collins
I am sure you will be hearing from my many friends pretty
soon. One of which is the Better
Business Bureau. The others you can see
from some of my Facebook comments have also asked for your information so that
they can contact you ... or Not!
Mr. Wittle, I have been super busy, writing to you and
calling you regularly trying to get my $185.00 and walking to my mailbox to
check and see if your check is in there, so I have not yet had time to start
contacting the College Board folks or the school counselors where you have such
a large advertising presence and who appear to endorse your product, but it I
am hoping that will be able to get to that shortly. I really want to share with them how easy it
is to get through to a sales person in your company and how quickly they will
call you back to sell you something. Oh,
and I will also let them know how much more challenging it is to get through to
someone for a refund!
Your Friend ( I hope I can call you that since I have been
writing to you and calling you so regularly I feel very close to you!),
Reenie Collins.
PS: Just in case you
lost my other 7 emails and the 30 or so phone call messages I left for
you. Here is the information regarding
the refund.
___________________________________________________________________________
FRI. SEPT. 13
Customer Service
4:15 PM (2 hours ago)
From: customerservice@prepme4less.com
Your refund check has been issued, and sent! It should be
there next week latest.
Ryan Wittle
(don't you just love his little ! like he is super friendly and all?)
____________________________________________________________
Reenie Collins
6:05 PM (33 minutes ago)
To: Customerservice@prepme4less.com
From: reenietalk@gmail.com
To: Customerservice@prepme4less.com
From: reenietalk@gmail.com
Dear Mr. Wittle,
Thank you for your response today. As you can imagine, I am ecstatic to hear
from you.
I am so grateful that
you have given me a time frame of next week, for that refund check as it will
certainly save my legs over the weekend from walking to my mailbox several
times a day to check to see if my refund has come. I think it will also free up some of my phone
time from having to call your 800 number repeatedly and leave messages.
I am off to celebrate!
Thank you so much for your assurance that the “check is in the mail!”
Your Friend,
Reenie Collins
,
--
