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I'm Kicking Ass and Taking Names

February 24, 2008 11:08 PM

'm not sure if people would describe me as a pushover, but there have been a lot of times in the past when I haven't stood up for myself to the extent that I probably should have. I'm not talking about interpersonal situations so much, but rather about my dealings with institutions. For some reason, there have been many situations in which I take someone's word for something or just let something go without fighting as hard as I could or should. Regardless of my personality with my peers, I've always been less than assertive with respect to authority figures. Or, well, some authority figures. But that has apparently ended. Lately, I've apparently adopted this take-no-prisoners attitude that I've really enjoyed and that, frankly, has netted me excellent results. Here are a few examples.

I have all of my bills set to be automatically paid every month. Charter Communications, otherwise known as the Yoke of Oppression, knowing that my card had expired, decided that they were going to try to charge it, anyway. When it didn't go through--which they knew would happen--they charged me a $25 fee, even though I still had a couple of weeks before the payment was actually due. "I'm not fucking paying that," I thought when I read their little letter informing me of the charge. i called up the customer service people and explained that I've been a customer for almost four years, have never missed a payment, and have never been late with a payment. No dice--the woman refused to remove the charge. So I laid it on the line: I told her that either she removed the charge or I went the way of Mr. Vice and ditched Charter in favor of satellite. She still refused, but explained that she didn't have the authority to remove the charge (even though I had specifically asked to speak to someone with the authority to remove the charge) and that, besides, there wasn't a good reason for her to remove it. So I hung up on her and went to the local Charter office the next day where a very nice woman was able to remove the charge for me. Sweet.

Next, my bank decided that they were going to charge me $4 per month for two months worth of statements I needed in order to prove that they owed me $3,000. "Under no circumstances am I going to do that" I said, and they relented. And I might add that I got most of the money they owed me back, albeit from the UW, who craftily decided that I owed them a smaller amount and then sent me the difference. They're going to be hearing from me about that fairly soon.

Then that whole thing with Best Buy and the Blackberry happened. First off, I was able to get my phone company to waive my cancellation fee and let me out of my contract with them three weeks early by--get this--asking nicely. Then I got the non-Best Buy phone store to match the Best Buy price after Best Buy refused to port my old number over by, again, asking nicely.

Then--and this is by far the most fulfilling one for me--I got to be a hard ass towards one of the district attorneys in one of my cases. Take my word for it: it was awesome.

I remember when I was a kid, some guy I didn't know told me that you'll never get what you want if you're afraid to ask for it. For some reason, I've always been afraid to ask for things. It's been my attitude that if some company's policy is to charge for a failed payment, then that's their policy and you're fucked. And if some store has a certain price on an item, that's the price. But this new thing I've been doing has opened up a whole new, awesome world. I'm never paying full price for anything ever again. I can't wait to buy a car! I'm never taking anyone's shit again, ever.

This could be a very, very bad thing.

4 Comments

estefanita said:

yea good for you! now will you please call this lame company that has ripped me off and get me a $14.95 refund to my american express?

February 25, 2008 8:51 AM

tRJ said:

When faced with stupid charges, I have had excellent luck with, "I am not paying that." I think there's a point, especially with small charges, where it's not worth the hassle for them to argue with you.

February 25, 2008 9:21 AM

honeybunches said:

I won't lie. This definitely increases your masculine appeal.

February 25, 2008 8:36 PM

kristin said:

As a follow up to our Charter story, I received my final bill from them today. Contrary to popular expectations, the bill was correctly backdated to February 8, the date our service was supposed to be shut off, even though our service was not actually shut off until February 15 or 18. This is due solely to the reasonableness and competence of the Charter employee who helped us in person at the Charter office. Maybe if all of their employees were that reasonable and competent, instead of only the ones you get when you are pissed off enough to go into the store and start shit with them, Charter wouldn't have such a reputation as a bunch of asshats.

February 26, 2008 9:45 AM