Ethics, Wherefore Art Thou?
Ah, ethics, how we once loved thee. Ok, not all of us loved you. One only has to look at the lynch mobs of the past or sadly of today, and see that ethics did not exist for everyone. But truly, it does seem that for everyday interactions with service providers, it wasn't quite the uphill battle it is today. As the years have gone by, I am more and more disgusted with how companies, corporations, money making entities treat us - the little people, and I'm not referring to height. If you pay someone for their service, as Shakespeare would say, "Something wicked this way comes."
My most recent examples:
My husband went in for his yearly skin check. I told him before he went how much he should pay (high deductible plan), but of course that was not near the amount the office charged him. Sure enough, here comes the Explanation of Benefits. I pull out his receipt. We now have a credit balance of $84.41. Now will they move that over to another member of the family when we visit? Nope. Will they let us know it exists? Nope. Will we receive a statement noting the credit balance in the same timely manner that we would have gotten a bill if we owed THEM? Heck no. And those bills - I'm always amused when those bills show up within a day or two of receiving the explanation of benefits and indicate that the amount due is 30-60 days late (huh?). How can I be LATE on something that was JUST calculated, and the FIRST bill was JUST received? One of those shake your head amusing irritants of the world.
So two months pass - no notice from them whatsoever. But our older son has a skin check, so off we go, me with all the documentation necessary to GET OUR OWN MONEY BACK. I present the information and am amused to hear, 'oh, do you want your money refunded?' Silly me, why, yes, yes, I do want OUR OWN MONEY RETURNED TO US. Three phone calls later I finally have the money. Any guess when I would have gotten it if I had not pursued getting OUR OWN MONEY? Frankly, our personal physicians are scrupulously honest, but that has been the exception rather then the rule.
Next let's talk about the phone company. My mother's phone/internet suddenly and very firmly went out. This was discovered by my brother and I after an increasingly anxiety filled day unable to reach her. Now coincidentally, her phone line died on the same day that her neighbor's was being repaired. Of course, I'm quite sure that it was a complete coincidence. After all there is no way they could have cut her line...accidentally...and certainly if they did, they would admit to that, right? And repair it right away upon learning that this woman really needs her phone. Except they didn't admit it, and they didn't make it the priority they said they would. Now isn't it interesting that I resorted to calling billing (they were in Oklahoma versus the overseas location I kept ending up with for repair, and she understood me quite clearly versus constantly repeating myself to repair.) I demanded a refund for the TWO WEEKS without service. Then it became a true priority, and was fixed in one hour on the very next business day. Look away, no conclusions there. Certainly we shouldn't conclude that they were content as long as our automatic draft kept paying to keep taking the money even though it did not work, but once they realized that we would NOT pay, it reminded me of a release the kraken moment - MUST FIX IT NOW.
While I am greatly enjoying my rant, let's talk about automated attendants. I would PAY for one of Daenerys Targaryen's dragons to burn to ash every automated attendant system on the planet Earth (without injuring a human, of course). Truly, Dante would include working your way through an automated attendant's phone tree as another circle of hell if he were writing today. It does seem like their overriding purpose is to make you just give up. Then someone alive actually finally answers the line after losing so many minutes of your life to unrecognizable, but formerly great music interspersed with announcements that you now have memorized better then your kids blood type, and all I can think of is which way to go - grateful or pissed. Usually it's both. I start off as one and end up as the other.
It just feels like a part time job - getting our money back, straightening out bills, keeping companies honest. One more quote from Mr. Shakespeare - "No legacy is so rich as honesty." Just a thought to all these corporations trying to fatten their profits on the backs of the rest of us.
My most recent examples:
My husband went in for his yearly skin check. I told him before he went how much he should pay (high deductible plan), but of course that was not near the amount the office charged him. Sure enough, here comes the Explanation of Benefits. I pull out his receipt. We now have a credit balance of $84.41. Now will they move that over to another member of the family when we visit? Nope. Will they let us know it exists? Nope. Will we receive a statement noting the credit balance in the same timely manner that we would have gotten a bill if we owed THEM? Heck no. And those bills - I'm always amused when those bills show up within a day or two of receiving the explanation of benefits and indicate that the amount due is 30-60 days late (huh?). How can I be LATE on something that was JUST calculated, and the FIRST bill was JUST received? One of those shake your head amusing irritants of the world.
So two months pass - no notice from them whatsoever. But our older son has a skin check, so off we go, me with all the documentation necessary to GET OUR OWN MONEY BACK. I present the information and am amused to hear, 'oh, do you want your money refunded?' Silly me, why, yes, yes, I do want OUR OWN MONEY RETURNED TO US. Three phone calls later I finally have the money. Any guess when I would have gotten it if I had not pursued getting OUR OWN MONEY? Frankly, our personal physicians are scrupulously honest, but that has been the exception rather then the rule.
Next let's talk about the phone company. My mother's phone/internet suddenly and very firmly went out. This was discovered by my brother and I after an increasingly anxiety filled day unable to reach her. Now coincidentally, her phone line died on the same day that her neighbor's was being repaired. Of course, I'm quite sure that it was a complete coincidence. After all there is no way they could have cut her line...accidentally...and certainly if they did, they would admit to that, right? And repair it right away upon learning that this woman really needs her phone. Except they didn't admit it, and they didn't make it the priority they said they would. Now isn't it interesting that I resorted to calling billing (they were in Oklahoma versus the overseas location I kept ending up with for repair, and she understood me quite clearly versus constantly repeating myself to repair.) I demanded a refund for the TWO WEEKS without service. Then it became a true priority, and was fixed in one hour on the very next business day. Look away, no conclusions there. Certainly we shouldn't conclude that they were content as long as our automatic draft kept paying to keep taking the money even though it did not work, but once they realized that we would NOT pay, it reminded me of a release the kraken moment - MUST FIX IT NOW.
While I am greatly enjoying my rant, let's talk about automated attendants. I would PAY for one of Daenerys Targaryen's dragons to burn to ash every automated attendant system on the planet Earth (without injuring a human, of course). Truly, Dante would include working your way through an automated attendant's phone tree as another circle of hell if he were writing today. It does seem like their overriding purpose is to make you just give up. Then someone alive actually finally answers the line after losing so many minutes of your life to unrecognizable, but formerly great music interspersed with announcements that you now have memorized better then your kids blood type, and all I can think of is which way to go - grateful or pissed. Usually it's both. I start off as one and end up as the other.
It just feels like a part time job - getting our money back, straightening out bills, keeping companies honest. One more quote from Mr. Shakespeare - "No legacy is so rich as honesty." Just a thought to all these corporations trying to fatten their profits on the backs of the rest of us.
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you so much for visiting, and commenting! We really appreciate it, we really do. We publish comments as soon as we are assured that you are not a robot or a spammer - in other words, low lifes need not apply.