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This is a second-generation blacklist. Enough persons whose opinions I respect have told me horror stories about Bank of America (my parents being on that list) to justify placing them on my blacklist, even though I have not had any first hand experience with however it is they do “business.”
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Back in 1998, I got a call from Ron Smith, of Bear Stearns. He had a hot tip for me about a stock that was expected to quadruple in the next four years (his words, not mine). The stock was EA Industries. At the time, I had some discretionary income from a previous stock sale and wanted to invest it in something else. Granted, I did not do my “due diligence” and research the stock myself but, instead, took Mr. Smith’s word for the expected future performance of this particular stock. I bought 100 shares at 8¼ a share. Cost me $867 and some change after commissions and fees and such. Not only did the stock NOT go up, it promptly did a nosedive to its current value of $0.0005/share. Yes, you are, indeed, seeing that correctly. That is 0.05 CENTS. No, that’s not half a cent, it’s half of a TENTH of a cent! My entire holding of this stock, all 100 shares, TOGETHER, are worth half a cent. Until this stock is worth what I paid for it, Bear Stearns is blacklisted. Incidentally, Mr. Smith does not work for them anymore. Nevertheless, they had folks of less-than-scrupulous morals working for them then, how can I trust them now?
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In August of 2006, I took my 2000 Honda Accord to Buena Park Honda for routine maintenance. The original quote was for $82 and change. The service work order read:
Perform 7.5, 22.5, 37.5, 52.5, 67.5, 83.5, 97.5. Replace engine oil & filter, lube, ck tire pressure, insp front & rear brakes, insp suspension, exhaust, fluid level, underbody, wiper blades, lights. Rotate tires, & 21 point inspection.
When the work was done, the dealer recommended:
This totals over $1,100. Needless to say, I balked at a 1,325 percent increase in the cost of the repairs (particularly since Norm Reeves Honda has repeatedly replaced the motor mounts on the cars of others with whom I am acquainted). Knowing the battery was questionable, however, I authorized that portion of the recommended maintenance.
Since that time, I have taken my car to two other, trusted, mechanics. While they confirmed the A/C pollen filter, the power-steering fluid, and the fuel system cleaning, both of them refuted the motor mount and rear brake pad replacement (two of the most expensive items on the list) and one of them did the power-steering fluid flush for half of what BP Honda was asking.
Furthermore, while the rear brake pads still have 90 percent remaining, the front brake pads are down to 15 percent. Buena Park Honda did not mention this.
The bottom line is that Buena Park Honda recommended two service items that were unnecessary and did not recommend one that was. This is, at the least, extremely bad customer relations. It makes Honda in general (and Buena Park Honda in particular) appear untrustworthy.
Now, I should mention that I love my car and I do plan on purchasing another Honda (especially if they step up their hybrid and alternate fuel offerings - I would love to have a hydrogen model, provided the hydrogen infrastructure is in place when the time comes for me to replace my current vehicle). But Honda seems to be willing to sacrifice potentially thousands of dollars worth of future maintenance on my car for the one-time chance of getting a few hundred out of my wallet. Short-sighted, to say the least. While I still plan on buying another Honda, any future service on my current car and all service on my next car will be going to another mechanic. One I feel I can trust.
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This is a second-generation blacklist. Enough persons whose opinions I respect have told me horror stories about Capitol One to justify placing them on my blacklist, even though I have not had any first hand experience with however it is they do “business.”
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In December of 2002 and January of 2003, twenty-four (24) flagrantly fraudulent checks were processed by Citibank against my account totaling $3968.28. When I say “flagrantly fraudulent” I don’t mean badly forged checks. I mean checks that made virtually no attempt to hide the fact that they were bogus. I mean checks with the wrong names (Tiana Pennington, Jearlin Ball, & Pauline Turner), wrong addresses (1653 Poplar Street, Alhambra, CA 91801, 626-571-4828, CDL# B8500522 for Tiana; 5217 Benner Ave., Apt 12, Los Angeles, CA 90042, 323-751-0263, CDL# M0762760 for Jearlin; and 2049 S. Harcourt Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90016, 323-751-0268, CDL# D1390184 for Pauline), wrong handwriting, and wrong signatures. The only aspect of these checks that matched my account was the account number. Even worse, many of the checks had the same check number as valid checks that I had written that same month (there were 2 check #1507, for example)! Now Citibank advertises, “Nonsequential check number monitoring” in their “Ways we protect you” flyer. Why didn’t they catch this? Did these checks not raise any warning flags? Did they not check the signature on the checks? Did they not compare the name on the check to the name on the account? Worse, why didn’t their computer spit out the checks because those check numbers had already gone through? But wait! There’s more! Thanks to the insufferable brilliance of the United States Postal Service, who, for some unfathomable reason, was (again) holding my mail, I didn’t get my statements for months. When I finally got my statements and went through them, I found the bogus checks. The first thing I did was to call Citibank. They told me to take the checks into my local police station and file a report, then take the report to my branch for them to pursue. I went to my local police station and filed the report (which they refused to give me a copy of, but did give me a case number). I took the case number, statements, and bogus checks into my local branch, where I was told I would have to go to the branch at which I had originally opened the account. Apparently, there is not sufficient inter-branch communication for something of this magnitude to be handled at any Citibank location (be careful not to slip in the sarcasm, I just spilled a big puddle of it all over the floor in front of your computer). I went back to the original branch spent an hour or two filling out the forms and the Affidavit of Fraud (or whatever it is they call it), and getting all the appropriate papers notarized. The Citibank representative took the paperwork and sent it to the appropriate people. A month later, I still had not heard back from Citibank (who also advertise “Rapid fraudulent claim response” on that same flyer I mentioned earlier)… not even a “we received your claim and are looking into it” form letter. About that time, the aforementioned Citibank representative called me at home to ask if I had heard anything. I told him I hadn’t and he suggested I come back in to file the claim a second time. This, I did. Another month passes. As I still have not heard anything and am getting a bit steamed about not having that four grand in my account, I start calling around trying to find out the names of the head of Citibank’s Fraud Investigation Division and the Lord-High Muckity-Muck CEO-President (whatever) and their mailing addresses so I can start firing off letters and see if I can light a fire under someone’s… er… feet. It happens that, right when I’m on the phone with my local reference librarian getting the information I need (Citibank refused to give me that information and couldn’t give me a straight answer as to why they wouldn’t), the manager of the branch I’ve had to go into twice now, calls me and says that they are (probably) going to give me my money back, but they need the original checks and can I bring them in? I sit down and take high-res scans of all of the checks (front and back), then take the checks back in to the bank (third trip). A week or so later, I get another call from the branch manager saying they now need copies of the statements as well before they can pay me back and can I bring them in? Again (fourth trip), I take the statements in to the bank, where they are photocopied. Now, a week later, on 25 June 2004, I finally got $3968.19 of the $3968.28 back. I’m not going to quibble about 9 cents when we’re talking about four grand. Still, it took two and a half months to correct a mistake that Citibank should have not made in the first place. I have to ask myself, “Do you trust Citibank with your money after this incident?” My answer to myself should be pretty obvious. I credit Citibank with doing the right thing and replacing the money in my account, but the bottom line is, they shouldn’t have taken it out in the first place, and that’s why Citibank is on my blacklist.
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I do not believe their business practices are honest. Here’s the story:
26 January 2004: An eBay auction closes in which I won Item #3072920005, “Lot: 281105 SONY MZNE410 MINIDISC PLAYER/RECORDER.” The seller is Dealtree. Since they are local, a mere 2 miles off of a freeway I travel regularly, I make arrangements to pay in person and pick up the item instead of having it shipped.
2 February 2004: I make a quick stop at Dealtree on my way to my partner’s house and pay for the item. The cost is $73.29 (including tax and the “shipping” charge, which they halved because I would be picking the item up). The item was on one of 11 pallets of stuff that they had to catalog and I should call in a day or 2 to see if they had found it and I could pick it up.
4 February 2004: The item is available! I make another stop at Dealtree and receive my purchase. When I return home that evening, I discover that, of the 4 things on the “Items Included” list on the invoice, 2 of them are missing – the “Fontopia Headphones” and the “CD-ROM – SonicStage Ver1.5 w/ Net MD Simple Burner.” I think, “No problem, I would probably use higher quality headphones than would have been included anyway, that’s not a big loss, and I can get the driver from Sony’s web site.” Well, not exactly. After an
hour of searching, I manage to find the driver on one of the drivers web sites, download, & install it. That’s when I discover that the driver doesn’t work without the SonicStage software. It shows up in Device Manager with a splat (the yellow circle with the black exclamation point), indicating the device has a problem. I write to Sony asking about the SonicStage software.
5 February 2004: I get a response from Sony – “It is the responsibility of your retailer to provide you with all missing parts or accessories from their sale. We recommend you speak with the vendor from whom you purchased the product to obtain any such items.” I call Dealtree and speak to Kristen. She tells me that I should send an email to auctions@dealtree.com with a list of the missing items. This I do, with the message flagged for a return receipt so
I know when they got it (and I still have both the original soft copy AND a printout with all of the headers). I do not get the return receipt. I do not get a response. The message does not bounce.
9 February 2004: Having received no response to my first message, I phone Kristen again. She checks the auctions@dealtree.com account and does not find my message. She asks me to send it again. I go back to the original message in my “Sent Mail” folder, edit the message as new, ensure it is still marked for a return receipt, and send it again. I do not get the return receipt. I do not get a response. The message does not bounce.
17 February 2004: Having received no response to either my first or second messages, I phone Kristen again. She checks the auctions@dealtree.com account and does not find my message. She asks me to send it again, while we are on the phone. I go back to the original message in my “Sent Mail” folder, edit the message as new, ensure it is still marked for a return receipt, and send it again. We chat for a few minutes while waiting for the message to work its way through the mail servers. It does not arrive while we are talking. She tells me to send it by regular postal mail and she will watch for it and route it appropriately. I write a letter detailing my efforts to acquire the missing items from my purchase, drive over to the post office, and send the letter CERTIFIED MAIL RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED. For those of you not “in the know,” this costs $4.42, but I want the evidence that they did, indeed, receive my letter as I am beginning to think their plan is to screw me. Some time later, I receive the receipt. It is about this time that my father becomes very ill and spends quite some time in the hospital. I have more important things on my mind than a shortchanged purchase and put this issue on a back burner.
2 July 2004: My father is improving steadily and will soon by coming home. I turn my attention back to the Dealtree issue. I phone Kristen again and refresh her memory regarding my case. She tells me she will have Damien write back to me with the tracking number for the shipment of my missing parts. Finally! We seem to be making some progress. Later that afternoon, I receive an email from auctions@dealtree.com requesting my shipping address – “What is your shipping address so we can ship the missing parts to you?” I send back my shipping address.
7 July 2004: I receive another email from auctions@dealtree.com asking, “I am very sorry but I need a list of the parts you are missing.” Now, let’s not forget, I have mentioned the missing parts EVERY SINGLE TIME I have contacted these people. That is EIGHT (8) times, FOUR (4) times via voice telephone, THREE (3) times via email, and once via postal mail. Nevertheless, I write back with the list of missing parts.
23 July 2004: It has been 2 weeks since my last contact with Dealtree. They have had sufficient time to find my missing parts and ship them. They could have acquired the missing parts directly from Sony in this time. I should have gotten an email with my tracking number. I write yet another email to auctions@dealtree.com asking, “So... what’s the shipping number for my parts? It’s been 2 weeks since I sent you the list.”
26 July 2004: I receive an email from auctions@dealtree.com saying, “Iam [sic] very sorry please send me a list and will make sure they get out.” I reply with the list… again… 10 times, now. Later that afternoon, I receive a reply from auctions@dealtree.com saying,
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Somewhere around 2005, someone I knew who was working for Mortgage Pointer called me about refinancing my mortgage. He was able to give me a rate that made it profitable for me to refi, so I did. Mortgage Pointer immediately turned around and sold my mortgage to IndyMac. I didn’t have much of a problem with that, it was completely within the parameters of the contract; but I thought they could have been a bit more communicative about it so I would know who to send the first check to. Them dumping my loan off on another lender caused a bit of a hiccup in the payments because I had already sent the payment to them instead of IndyMac.
I though it was a bit rude, but not enough to get myself in a snit over. Anyway, starting somewhere around May 10, 2007, they started calling me to refinance. Repeatedly. Over and over. I’d get home from class and find I had three or four calls from "800 Services" in my Caller ID. Finally, they caught me at home. I told them I was not interested in refinancing. I though the calls would stop. How foolish. No, they continued to call. The third time I had to tell them I was not interested in refinancing, I also pointed out that they had spoken to me twice already and they should update their records. The very next day (i.e., immediately before I began writing this entry), they called again. I pointed out that this was the fourth time they had spoken to me and that I had reminded them to update their records during the previous conversation. Their failure to do so makes them look sloppy; not a quality I esteem in a mortgage lender. Before I could tell them I would blacklist them if I had to refuse again, the rep hung up on me!! Not good customer service and certainly not the way to make a sale.
Needles to say, I decided on the spot to add Mortgage Pointer to The Blacklist. They are sloppy and rude. Either is enough to warrant a spot on this list. Both make your inclusion a certainty. I will never do business with Mortgage Pointer and I encourage my loyal readers to follow my example.
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Two or three times over the course of my residence in Orange County, California, I have subscribed to the Orange County Register. It’s a descently written rag with the right comics on the weekends (there are several comics they could do without, but I can easily skip those) and a workable crossword puzzle. The problem is, every time I have subscribed, they have screwed up the delivery, and the billing, and the cancellation. Then they have those annoying telemarketers call at all times of the day and night as well as the door to door pushers who ignore the “No Soliciting” signs. I don’t answer my doorbell anymore, because the only people who ring it unexpected are those selling something, so I have avoided them. The telemarketers I finally stopped by asking for a supervisor and telling them that I would never be interested in subscribing and they should take me off of their list. That’s when they started sending me postal mail. <heavy sigh> Land Spam at its worst. It’s a shame they can’t do anything but the writing right. If they hadn’t repeatedly screwed up the delivery, billing, and cancellation, they wouldn’t be on this list.
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Back in the early 1990’s, I drove a 1979 Chevy Malibu that I had bought from a girl I went to college with. When the time came for one of the DMV renewals, I took the car into a Purrfect Auto Service a mile or so from my home. I told them I wanted the Oil & Filter Change, Major Tune-Up (spark plugs & wires, timing, distributor cap & rotor, and idle speed), and then the smog check (required in California). They did the work… well; they claimed they did the work and then the smog check. The car failed the high-rpm emissions test. They said it was probably the doohickey (I have forgotten what their first claim was, though I probably still have the paperwork if I cared enough to look it up), which would cost $X to replace. Since I couldn’t reregister the car without the smog certificate, I told them to go ahead. Again, the car failed the high-rpm emissions test. They said it must be the thingamabob, which would cost $Y to replace. Again, I was forced to have them proceed. Again, the car failed the high-rpm test. They said it must be the catalytic converter (I remember that one)… $Z to fix. Again, fail. After $300 worth of repairs, they finally got my car to pass the high-rpm test when they discovered the timing was off. Now, go back in this paragraph and look at the list of things included in the Major Tune-Up… Do you see “timing” listed there? I do. So… either they didn’t do the tune-up they claimed they had, or they botched it, or they deliberately mangled the timing so that the car wouldn’t pass the high-rpm test and they could gouge me for $300 worth of repairs that I didn’t need. In any of these three cases, they were not honest. Bottom line, this is why Purrfect Auto Service is on my blacklist.
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Pending.
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On August 9th, 2004, I flew out to New York to audition for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (no, I didn’t make it… I missed passing the test by a couple of questions). My flight out was a one-stopper from Orange County’s John Wayne Airport (SNA) connecting through San Francisco (SFO) on United Airlines. So far, so good. Unfortunately, since the last company I worked for sent me all over the country… several times… on several different airlines… I had eight different frequent flyer memberships. It had gotten to the point that I just didn’t take all of the cards with me when I flew. Instead, I’d call the airline afterwards and figure out what affiliated frequent flyer club I could credit my miles to from the comfort of my own home.
Now, on the evening of the 10th, being bummed that I had just missed passing a test that I had been so sure of, I decided to take care of the miles then and see if I had enough miles built up to upgrade my flight back to first class. I wanted to get something good out of the trip. It turns out that I do not have a United frequent flyer membership, but they are affiliated with U.S. Airways, with whom I do have a membership… and I happen to have 17,893 miles already banked (this I find out when I call U.S. Airways to get my account number)! Excellent, Smithers! Excellent! Let’s pop these 2,945 new miles into that account and get myself upgraded! Surely, if United will accept miles that I flew on U.S. Airways into their club and let me put United miles into U.S. Airway’s club, they’ll let me use my U.S. Airways miles to upgrade my United flight! Nope. You can only buy the miles from either of them, not spend the miles with either of them. But that’s not the problem. Normally, I call the airline I flew on, give them the frequent flyer account number, and my miles get credited. Not this time. You see, this is United and U.S. Airways, not America West (where you can make a single phone call to a toll free number and have the thing done in five minutes). Jeremy at United tells me that they could have credited the miles when I checked in at the gate, but, since this is after the flight, I have to call U.S. Airways to get the miles credited. OK, I call U.S. Airways. They tell me that I have to give the frequent flyer account number to United, who will then credit the miles to my U.S. Air account. I call United again. United tells me that, since they cannot access the frequent flyer club account, they are not able to credit miles after a flight and I have to call U.S. Air, give them the flight information, and they will call United to confirm my presence on the flight, then credit my miles. Again, I call U.S. Air. Cindy, a sweet southern girl, asks me for the confirmation number for my reservations. I don’t have one because I booked the trip through Expedia. I have an Itinerary Number, a Booking ID for the flight, and a Booking ID for the hotel. No confirmation number. She asks what stock the ticket is printed on, United or U.S. Air? I have no clue what she is referring to. She asks if there is a number on the ticket starting with 011 or 016. I look at one of my ticket stubs. There are several numbers on it: UA28 (the flight number), 10:20pm (departure time), 9:40pm (boarding time), 18B (seat number), and an unidentified number at the bottom of the ticket, 16 1168087376. No 016. No 011. She asks again for the confirmation number. Again, I tell her there isn’t one. I’ve read all four pages of the email I got from Expedia and there is no confirmation number anywhere. I look at the other ticket stub: UA830, Gate 4, Departs at 7:35pm, Boards at 7:05pm, Seat 10C, 016 1168087376… Whoa! Wait! 016! There it is! The other ticket stub had been printed slightly off and the 0 hadn’t been on the stub! She tells me that 016 is United ticket stock and because of that, she can't pull the flight information up on her computer. I have to call United and tell them to look up the ticket number (the 016 number) and they’ll be able to credit the miles from that ticket to whatever frequent flyer account number I give them. Again, I call United. I speak to Linda. I tell her this entire story, including the parts about not passing the test and not being able to upgrade the flight to first class, and not even being able to switch carriers so that I can use the miles, and that the whole trip has been a bust, and I have now spent almost two hours bouncing back and forth between the United and U.S. Air customer service lines trying to get my damn miles credited. She says she is going to call U.S. Air and get two airline personnel heads together to figure out why I’m doing such an excellent impersonation of a human ping pong ball. She comes back and tells me that the U.S. Air frequent flyer customer service department is closed, but that their phone number rolls over to the reservations line after closing time so that someone is always answering the phone. The reservations people don’t have the same computer access that the frequent flyer folks do, which is why they kept bouncing me back to United. I need to call U.S. Air’s frequent flyer line the next morning, when they’re open, and give them the flight information for them to credit my account. Unfortunately, at the time they will be opening, my flight home will be leaving the tarmac. I’ll have to take care of this when I get home. Still, as long as I have United on the line, I need to try to get my seat assignment changed, so can I be transfered over to reservations? She says they’re not supposed to transfer, but, owning to all I’ve been through tonight, she’s going to do it anyway (this is, quite possibly, the one bright spot of the entire experience). I get transferred and I speak to Bart. He says that the emergency exit rows are held back by the airline because they have to visually inspect the passenger to verify that he or she is physically capable of handling the potential exigencies of assisting in an emergency (e.g., hefting the 40lb airplane door), but they can do that as early as 90 minutes before the flight when I check in at the airport and get my boarding pass. I ask if the agent at LaGuardia can seat assign me for the second leg as well. He says yes. I double check, to make sure that the agent at the beginning of my FIRST leg can seat assign me for my SECOND leg. He says yes. I have now asked this twice.
You think this nightmare is over, don’t you? No, it’s just beginning. If you order now, we’ll send you this free Ginsu Knife for you to slit your wrists with! Wednesday morning, at some ungodly hour, I arrive at New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA). As is my custom, it is a full two hours before my flight is supposed to leave. Good thing, too, ’cause there is a line. It’s not like the lines you see at LAX, and a similar length line at SNA (Orange County) would be done in 20 or 30 minutes. This is LaGuardia. United only has two agents working the line. It takes almost an hour. If I hadn’t had to check my bag because of ONE item in it that has been considered a weapon at many airports (nail clippers), I would have done the self-check-in and been in the line for security a good half hour earlier. Nevertheless, I get to the front of the line, check my bag, and ask for the emergency exit row over the wing. She tells me that she can’t do that here. Only the agent at the gate can give me that row and then, only 20 minutes before the flight. This is in direct conflict and mutually exclusive with what the reservations customer service agent last night told me. Nevertheless, I go to get in line for security. That line crawls along for 15 or 20 minutes until they open a second station, at which point I zip through pretty quickly. I’ve done this quite a few times and I know all of the tricks. I’m prepared. Even my cowboy boots didn’t slow me down much.
No, the nightmare is not yet over. I get to the gate. The woman at the LECTERN (it is NOT a podium… a podium is a raised dias upon which a speaker stands! The stand upon which you place your notes, which usually has a slanted top is called a LECTERN!) (Editor’s note: We apologize for Mr. Knepper’s lapse in patience, he has been severely traumatized by this experience and is seeking qualified professional help at Mexican, Jamaican, and Hawiian beaches and bars.) Back to our regularly scheduled gripe: The woman at the lectern is a tall, grey-haired, black woman… with attitude. I approach her and ask for my new seat assignment. She peremptorily replies, “Come back at 7:40.” I tell her about Bart giving me a time of 90 minutes. She says, “Well, he wasn’t your friend. It’s 20 minutes before the flight. Come back at 7:40.” Fine. I sit down. Where I can see the line. I’m going to time it so that I’m at the front of the line at 7:40 so I’m the first person capable of getting those seats.
It is at this time that a well-dressed businessman approaches the lectern. He also wants to get emergency exit row over the wing. She gives him the same nasty-toned response she gave me. “Come back at 7:40.” He asks about upgrading to first class. She tells him he can’t because he doesn’t have “Premiere” status. He asks if that is a new policy. She says, “You can only upgrade to first class if you have Premiere status.” He says that there was no problem upgrading his flight out, which was the same as the flight back, and is this a new policy put into place in between the two flights. She says, snippily “You can only upgrade to first class if you have Premiere status.” Which, of course, completely ignores the man’s question. He says, “I’m not trying to argue with you, I just wondered if it was a new policy.” She says, ”And I’m just givin’ you the information. I’ll upgrade you just this one time, but I ain’t gonna do it again.” She then charges him $350 for the reservation change plus another $500 for the first class upgrade. He says that’s fine. At no time during this incident did he lose his cool, raise his voice, or return her attitude. He was a model of restraint. Once he got his boarding pass, I guess he mumbled something I couldn’t hear because she said, ”Don’t you give me any attitude, I’ll bump you back to coach.” Those were her exact words: I’ll bump you back to coach. Exactly the way you imagine it being said, with the stereotypical rubber-neck head motion and all.
Since I was not about to let Ms. Attitude cramp ME on a 2 hour flight, I did not let her intimidate me. They called the first class passengers to board. They called Seating Area 1. They called Seating Area 2. They called Seating Areas 3 and 4. They called boarding all passengers. Still I waited. Standing six or seven feet in front of the lectern. Waiting. Patiently. When I want to, I can out-patience a machine. Come 7:40, she called me up and changed my seat assignment. I summoned my Chutzpah and asked about the second leg. She snapped at me that I’d have to check in at the gate in Chicago 20 minutes before THAT flight for that. I said, ”Whatever. Let’s just get this done.“ She handed me my boarding pass and I got on the plane. It was then that I discovered that there were people already sitting in the other emergency exit row over the wing. How did they get their seat assignments? Ms. Snippy Little Attitude certainly wouldn’t have assigned them before that adamantine 20 minutes before the flight, and I was the first one she dealt with then. Nevertheless, I got what I wanted. And I sat down, got out a piece of paper, and started taking notes on this blacklist entry. I knew then that United had made it to my blacklist. Ms. Attitude guaranteed that.
On a slightly lighter note, when I got to Chicago, something unprecedented happened. My arrival gate was C20. My departure gate was C21!! I not only did not have to cross the entire airport, I had only to stroll across the concorse! I got to the other gate almost 90 minutes before the flight and asked to change my seat assignment to the emergency exit row over the wing. The woman at that lectern smiled and said, “Certainly!” and she took my ticket, made the change, and gave me my new boarding pass. I smiled and winked and said, “You put me next to a beautiful redhead, right?” She laughed and said, “Of course!” As it turned out, she was half right… it was a staggeringly beautiful blonde.
But wait, there’s more! If you order now, we’ll send the following books absolutely free: Eat, Run, Stay Fit, and Die Anyway!; How to give a King a Really Hard Time; I Suck, You Suck; and Six Ways to Screw Up Before Breakfast. This afternoon, I sat down to finally call U.S. Air and get my miles credited. It turns out that I now have to send copies of my ticket stubs to U.S. Air along with my receipt (since you don’t get a “receipt” from Expedia, they said a copy of the confirmation email would be sufficient) and my Dividend Miles account number.
So. Bottom line: United Airlines makes it onto my Blacklist because of the horrid check-in at LaGuardia combined with Ms. Attitude at the gate and the refusal to take my U.S. Air miles to upgrade to first class, and the fact it would have cost me $850 to buy the upgrade, where I bought an upgrade from Hawaiian Air for a mere $250. U.S. Airways makes it to my Blacklist because they made it such a headache to get my miles credited, because their Dividend Miles customer service line is not a toll free call, and because the V-Tree on that line is such a nightmare.
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