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?
Laura J says:
Arrgh, I’m so frustrated for you. You’re right about the customer service too. We went through the same crap when our car was broken in to. Thankfully our premium did not go up. I still think its ridiculous when you do nothing wrong, and you buy insurance for all kinds of things, you still have to pay hundreds of dollars because someone else was EVIL!
Hugs to you….deep breaths…lots of them!
November 24th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Sonja says:
ahhhh, finally some compassion today. APPLE = compassion. My favorite line of the day from the apple manager I dealt with:
“We can do anything we want, cause we are Apple”.
as he didn’t even think twice before going through the necessary steps to get me a new phone at the price everyone else pays.
I hugged him….and I’m now officially rejoining the tweeting/texting/phone calling world.
November 24th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Nicole says:
Oh my word! This whole thing is so awful — I can’t believe how crappy people can be, from the thief who broke into the car to the insurance people (isn’t that what you pay for?) to the customer service people. I’m glad to hear you got a little help from Apple at least, but what a sucky way to start a week. Sorry to you and Tyler both:(
November 24th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
RunColo says:
That totally sucks!
We once had our car broken into at a trail head and they stole Kelly’s cell phone and wallet, ran up the CC’s. Been there and it blows! Trail Heads are popular places to break into cars
Check Ebay for iPhones, probably find a better price.
November 24th, 2009 at 11:02 pm