On Friday I signed up for a month long trial membership to Blue Mountain Cards. The rules said that if I didn't cancel by calling a 800 # by the end of the trial I would be charged $19.99 for a year membership. I decided to join the card service because I was looking for a funny card for my son's 25th birthday and my favorite card service Jacquie Lawson isn't really targeted to 25 year old males.
But after reviewing the card offerings at Blue Mountain, I decided they didn't exemplify the kind of humor my son would appreciate and went ahead and sent him a Jacquie Lawson card.
Having not used the service I decided to cancel it today-- one day after I signed up for the trial. A computer generated customer service rep answered my call, gave me five options -- canceling the membership was of course #5 -- no surprise there.
However before I could talk to a live person, I had to give them my phone number, my email and then spell my last name.
Is C*E*N*T*O*R really that hard to understand? Evidently computers playing the role of a customer service rep have a hard time with that name. After five tries of having me spell my name --"letters only" -- they relinquished control and said they would connect me to a customer service rep --- that is what I wanted in the first place. However, we were disconnected and I had to repeat the process all over again.
The second computer playing the role of a customer service rep had even more trouble spelling C*E*N*T*O*R and eventually I was placed with a live customer service rep.
Did I mention that what I detest more than talking to a computer playing the role of a customer service rep is a live one who has been instructed to try to talk me out of my decision to cancel?
Oh yeah, so after dealing with two computers playing the role of a customer service rep and explaining to the live customer service rep that I wanted to cancel he says, " but you just joined yesterday !" and then demanded that I give a reason for the cancellation.
Evidently telling him that I didn't like the cards was not a good reason because he offered me the year's membership for $11.99 instead of the original price of $19.99
Taking the bait because I was feeling pissy , I said, " Now why would I pay $11.99 for cards that I don't like?"
You would have thought that would have been the cue to end the conversation. But the poor guy must have been instructed to try one more time to keep my business.
I was laughing so hard at this point that I didn't record what he said to try to prevent my cancellation
The email, confirming my cancellation just hit my inbox.
As you requested, we've cancelled your paid Membership - all Membership benefits have been de-activated. We hated to do it. Nevertheless, you asked - and at BlueMountain.com, your wish is our command.
On that note, if you wish to come back any time, we'd be all too happy to wave our Membership wand.
To rejoin, simply go to:
http://www.bluemountain.com/members/mwho.pd?TI=ewa18299&Q=59400
and sign-up, using the email address and password you previously used.
My StumbleUpon Page
