The Pains of Moving

One month ago, I made the move to Connecticut from Philadelphia to start my new job, with a company I adore. While I knew moving would present some of the usual challenges, packing, literally moving, I've had some other battles to deal with.

Ironically, this was one of the easiest moves I've ever had when it comes to the actual moving of boxes. I hired movers, who literally packed me up in three hours and had the trailer unloaded in two. Between the packing, unpacking, and driving time, I was in my new apartment in less than eight hours. Seamless! Well, or so it seems.

Despite my frustration with Comcast, I didn't have much of a choice in Connecticut, so I signed up with them again. Since I didn't have time to drop the boxes off in Philadelphia, I mailed the cable boxes back in the Comcast-provided USPS boxes, along with their pre-printed shipping labels. I dropped the boxes off about a week after I moved and figured I was done, nothing left to worry about. Think again. I started to get call after call from Comcast informing me that I had yet to return my boxes. At first I figured they just hadn't received them yet, but after a week and then a letter informing me that Comcast was not only charging me $520 for the unreturned cable boxes, but also reporting me to a collections agency, I realized this was not the case. I made a call to Comcast's customer service department, which transferred me three different times to different call centers between Connecticut, Boston, and finally Philadelphia. I explained my case to the representative who said she'd issue a ticket and investigate the case. A little while later, I get a call and the representative says, "I understand you're having trouble receiving service in your Connecticut apartment?" Umm...what?

Being a lover of social media and absolutely refusing to pay Comcast $520 for boxes I promptly returned, I took to the twitter airwaves and sent a tweet to Comcast's customer service handle letting them know I was frustrated and very unhappy. Wouldn't you know, within an hour I received a new call from an Executive, with a direct line who assured me she'd help me out, even though she had no record of my boxes being returned, nor did she have any record of USPS boxes ever being mailed to me. Interesting. After multiple calls back and forth, I finally spoke with a representative on Friday, who let me know that she had no idea where the boxes were, but since I'd been such a good customer, she was going to remove the boxes from my account and wait for it  . . . issue me a $108 credit. It's amazing what social media can do.

I've also had issues with the post office - delivering my packages to the wrong apartment number and some never arriving at all. I issued a complaint via their website, but wouldn't you know, the Post Office never got back to me. Bank of America also sent my new debit card to the wrong address and thanks to Twitter, within a few days I had a new card. Macy's is my latest issue. I opened their credit card over the phone after I moved, only because I wanted the $100 discount on my new, beautiful couch. Literally, the only reason I opened this card was for the discount. When my bill comes, no discount. Nothing. After calling Macy's they indicate they have no record of me purchasing the couch on the same day as when I opened the card. Really? Thank goodness I'm in PR and have learned that you always keep a paper trail - I faxed my receipt over to Macy's this morning and wouldn't you know, after lunch, a $100 credit appeared on my account.

Long story short - keep a record of everything and when all else fails, utilize the tools you have to create change, i.e. complaining via Twitter is a great solution, especially as companies seek to maintain their positive brand images in a consumer-controlled environment.