McDonalds

A few weeks ago, I went through a McDonalds drive through a little bit past 10pm. I'd closed that day and really wanted a frappe. I pulled into the drive through and got an automated greeting saying Welcome and would I like to try one of their new frozen McCafe beverages. Yay, that's exactly why I stopped.

When the order taker got on the intercom, I ordered a Quarter Pounder meal with a caramel frappe as the drink. The girl then said "We already cleaned the machine". Um, but you just asked if I wanted a frozen McCafe drink..."We cleaned the machine already. There's no coffee drinks". Now, the posted hours of this drive through say it closes at midnight during the week, 1am on weekends. Why would they close down the coffee drinks 2 hours before closing? So I cancelled the order and went up the street to Wendy's. They were able to make a frosty-cino at 10:30pm.

When I got home, I sent a complaint to McDonalds via their website and told them I was offered a 'frozen McCafe drink' but when I tried to take them up on their offer I was told no because the machine had been cleaned. I also said that I went to Wendy's who served me a frosty-cino 30 minutes before closing.

The next day I had a voice mail from the district manager to apologize (he left two messages, because of course they always call when you're not at home), and in yesterday's mail I got a letter of apology from the owner and a coupon for a free small frappe. I'm thinking I'll save it for Saturday, the next day I close to see if I can get one at 10pm.

Yeah, it's been a while

Why has it been so long? More of the same stuff that's been so aggravating I've wanted to scream, or chuck it all and join a convent (and I'm not even Catholic).

The car issue: The car is fixed. Turned out NOT to be the alternator, but the alternator belt was gone. Not broken, just not there. Apparently it broke and fell off somewhere. Also, the serpentine belt was near rotten so I had to replace that too. Good news, instead of $500 for alternator, it was $150 for belts. While I had the car in, I told them to put in a new battery since I had no idea how long that rebuilt one was there, might as well change that while I had it. So, $300 later, my car was running with 2 new belts and a new battery. The next day, it started thumping when I turned left. Not good. Brought it back in, both front axles needed to be replaced...$500. Only problem I've had since was the serpentine belt came loose and started to squeal, but that was under warrantee so they fixed that no charge.

I'm still dealing with the insurance about dropping the old car and adding the new one. I had gotten a letter right after the accident that said I had 30 days to replace the car to keep my insurance current. I bought the new car 29 days after the accident. When I called to get the new car insured, the girl on the phone said I couldn't drop the old one until the adjuster closed the claim. Um Ok, but I don't own the car anymore...she said to call the adjuster and have him close the claim. For 2 weeks, I paid premium on the wrecked car, then for 2 more weeks I paid a double premium. I'm still trying to get a straight story from somebody at MetLife on what's going on. First, the girl who took the information to insure the new car said they could pre-date the end of the first car to the day after the accident. The adjuster said they could only go back to the day when I returned the rental car, and I did not need to keep the wrecked car insured after I accepted their total loss offer. I called back, talked to another girl about dropping the wreck, she tried to say I couldn't drop it until the claim closed, so I told her what my adjuster said, I don't own it so I can't insure it. She finally dropped it, but for the wrong date. In the mean time, my new car is insured as "car 2" and not getting the discounts that should be applied. Now they're saying that if the pre-date the drop on the wrecked car and add the new one, the premium will be higher because of a "lapse" in coverage...2 weeks? They gave me a month to replace the car and now they're going to penalize me for using 2 weeks? I'd love if somebody at MetLife would get their head out of their butt long enough to come to some conclusion and get the story straight.

Work wise...new policy now forbids me from mentioning the company name in a negative manner, so while I can say they suck, I can't tell their name. However, if anybody's been keeping up with business news, you'll figure it out *g*

The corporate fat cats have decided that in order to cut payroll costs (so says the guys with the $100,000 salaries) they would "streamline" the store management. Where we used to have one manager over grocery and one manager over drug (we do have a much larger drug section than most grocery stores) there would be one manager over the entire store. Of course that would mean that at least half the store level managers would be losing their jobs. Good move! Also, instead of telling one manager "you're fired" and letting the other one take over, they changed management in just about every store. My store got a former drug manager who knows nothing about managing grocery. Some stores have a grocery manager who knows nothing about managing drug. See where this is going? Stores are now managed by somebody who doesn't know diddly about what he's doing. I rarely see my manager because he's over in grocery learning how they do things, so my store is being run by the assistants. To top it off, we lost the best assistant to another store and got one who knows less than a clump of dirt. So basically, we have no leadership and corporate fat cats wondering why customer service scores have dropped to about 30%.

Corporate fat cats, I dare you to work just one month at store level and see what your moronic decisions are doing to the people who are doing all the hard work for minimum wage while you sit in your cushy offices pocketing $100,000 a year.

More Car troubles

Well, the car needs an alternator and since I bought it "as is", I have an $1850 lawn ornament. Actually, as soon as I get my tax refund deposited, I'm taking it to be fixed. Going to replace the alternator, get a real battery (it has a Bear Cat battery...never heard of them? Me neither. It's reconditioned), and have them look at the brakes because there's a slight whistle. I'm hoping to get this fixed soon with my income tax refund, otherwise it's a nice little car.

I'm still fighting to get my money back from Enterprise, and I'm thinking I'm probably out what they stole. I got a letter from my bank that confused me, I need to call for clarification. It reads like I'm getting money back, but where there are supposed to be amounts and dates, the spots are still blank. They included a copy of letters received from Enterprise claiming that I gave them the OK by signing the contract...then they included somebody else's contract (which was for what Enterprise claims I had), and the kicker...they included the other person's credit card number! I was shocked! I have this other person's name, address, telephone number, and their credit card number. No, I'm not going to do anything with this information, but not everybody is honest. I'm glad I canceled my debit card and got a new number because who knows who Enterprise is giving my information to!

Work has been the same. Unfortunately this is the time of year when retail sales drop so our part time workers are barely getting any hours. Thankfully my being full time guarantees 40 hours, however with less part timers, it's also meaning I'm doing more work that's not mine so once again, my department is suffering because I'm not there. Oh well, I've told the managers that I need the time in my department, and if I'm not in it, I can't work it.

Insurance, banks, credit ratings, and car dealers

I think I'm close to the end of the car accident nightmare. Finally got the check from my insurance company last week, banked it this past Monday. Went to another car dealer that afternoon. They tried to get financing, but because of my repo last year, nobody's giving me financing..actually according to the letter saying why it's because of a wage garnishment that is 7 years old (it drops from my credit report in September)...which was for my ex-husband's credit card (that he put my name on the account without me knowing). Wednesday I went back to the dealer after work, he was trying another lender trying to get me financing, but that one said "not without a cosigner" but he did have a few "cash buy" cars...older cars that were low-priced and meant as a "cash and go" purchase. He had a 1997 Suzuki Esteem with only 78,000 miles on it (not a roll over, the odometer has 6 digits) and I could have it tax, title, new plates for $1850. I test drove it, bought it and took it home.

The only problems so far hve been a need to replace the wipers (total crap, didn't even hit the windshield), gas cap (previous owner had a locked cap on it, not good in Chicago winters), and possibly the battery. I'm hoping it's not needing an alternator, It needed a jump Wednesday when I bought it, dealer said it was because the car sat in the lot for 3 weeks in the cold, had to charge the battery last night, this morning it started, but I'm taking my parents car to work instead.

I love my bank :)

Nope, this is not a rant, and they're not giving me anything to say this...but National City Bank is the best.

I called them this morning to find out how to keep Enterprise Car Rental from getting into my account. Basically, I have to close out my current debit card and be reissued another one. I can live with that, just have to change my online billing information for my home phone company and my cell phone.

They are putting through disputes on the two additional charges from Enterprise due to me not authorizing them. They said it will take their dispute resolution team about 4 days to decide if Enterprise was wrong to take money out of my account. I explained that I had received no notice of the charges nor was I phoned in advance to authorize them. If found to be in my favor, I get that money back plus the overdraft fees. They are also waiving their $8 per day 'continuous overdraft fee' for the trouble (I will get those fees back too).

Update on insurance and car rental

I'm still in car insurance hell. I FINALLY was able to get somebody on the phone to let me know what was going on. They sent out a packet of documents on the 18th, which will probably show up in my mail box tomorrow (I hope), which I need to sign, and return with the title for my car. The return will be via FedEx 2 day, once they receive the documents, they'll issue me the check. Of course this means I won't have the check until probably next week. I work until 6:30 tomorrow so it won't be until after then before I get the documents, send them back on Wednesday, 2 days is Friday..Christmas Day, no delivery. Next day is Saturday, nobody's there on weekends, it won't be received until Monday, and I probably won't have my check until Wednesday. So 3 weeks after I total my car, I'll finally be able to replace it.

As for Enterprise, I returned the car tonight before they decided to attack my bank account again. They wanted an ADDITIONAL $120 in fees. I fought it, told them they owed me for the overdraft charges on my bank account, we fought it out for a while, them standing behind their farce of a "contract", only pointing out items hidden in fine print after I disputed them. They were willing to cut the fees to $60 as a "sorry we stole your bank account" measure. They kept saying "you didn't read the contract?"...well when you're standing outside in 30 degree weather and it's blizzard conditions....no, I signed where they said and went home. They completely took advantage of my situation and the weather conditions to screw me into a contract that was going to cost me a couple hundred bucks out of pocket. We'll see how long they're willing to wait for their $60, however now that they have my bank card number, I might have to have my bank reissue a new one.

Never rent from Enterprise, you'll get screwed.

The joy of snowstorms

The Midwest got hit with a big snowstorm on December 8. Weather reports were saying the worst would fall overnight into Wednesday morning, so I figured I'd be OK going to work on Tuesday. There was already about 3" on the ground and this was the first time I was driving my car on snow. It was also the last. This was the Saturn I got in March from a local church. I was doing OK until I got to where I had to make a left turn onto another street. I started to slow down as I went into the turn lane, but the car kept going. I collided with a Dodge Dakota truck. The Dodge was able to be driven away, but my car had to be towed. The policeman who took the report was nice enough to take me the rest of the way to work, which was closer than going back home. My boss was nice enough to let me use the phone in her office to make my phone calls. My insurance covered a rental, and referred me to Enterprise. Here's where the trouble starts.

First off, it took my insurance a week for my insurance to even look at the car to determine it was totalled. I finally got to talk to them on December 17 to accept the offer. I was supposed to get a call from their total loss department within 24 hours, it's been 48 and no phone call. So it'll be 2 weeks in a few days, and I'm still owning a totalled car.

Now, the rental. Enterprise picked me up from work (since I had no car) to get the rental. They told me I needed a credit card. Since I don't have credit cards, I asked if I could use my Debit, they said sure. They said there was a $50 deposit which would be refunded when I returned the car. I figured that was it. Well, they showed me two different coverage options and had me under the impression I had to pick one, so I picked the cheapest. They never said I could have turned down additional coverage since my insurance company was paying for this. I told them several times that was my debit card, it was coming out of my bank account, and there wouldn't be any money in it until I got paid on Friday. They charged the first deposit on Thursday so it overdrafted. When I checked my account yesterday, I had a balance of $-23 even after my paycheck was direct deposited. When I checked account activity, I saw that Enterprise charged me $50 again on the 14th and on the 17th. When I called them and asked why, they told me then that the initial deposit was only good for 3 days because of the cost of the additional insurance. The guy on the phone said I could go back and sign off on the additional insurance. I was not happy because they had me under the impression it was required. It would have been nice if they would have 1) disclosed at the time of the rental that the deposit would only last 3 days and 2) notified me when there would be additional money taken from my bank account.

I told the guy that with the addition of the overdraft fees they caused ($108) plus their multiple charges for deposits, they got my entire paycheck. I now have no money for food, and no money to put gas back in their car before I return it, which will be another charge. I thought they did not bill additional charges until the car was returned...which they did not disclose either.

This accident has ended up costing me much more than just my car. I'm still going to be without transportation until after the new year at the rate the insurance company is going to settle the claim. If it weren't offered via payroll deduction I'd probably change companies, and definitely NOT renting from Enterprise again.