Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Double DUH!

Okay, it's been a long time since I've written a good old fashioned rant here.  Just within the last couple of days, I've come across some really stupid corporate moves.  Here goes.........

I left my job with the State of Maine at the end of June.  I was eligible for COBRA benefits, which I thought I was going to need.  Much to my delight I was covered by my new library's policy after just a week.  Thank goodness.  Why?  Because I just received a letter from the State, dated August 22nd, about picking up COBRA.  Well, that's a little late, ain't it?  Hello.........almost two months have gone by.  Oh, and the best part???!!!???  I had to respond by JULY 15th to prevent my benefits from being dropped.  (I will be honest and say that if I had really needed the coverage, I would have been on the phone bugging them about it long before the 22nd of August.) No wonder bureaucracies and bureaucrats get such a bad rep. DUH.

Ineptitude is not limited to state agencies.  We got a call a couple of weeks ago from Downeast Energy, who has been our oil/propane company for several years.  They wanted to know if we had gotten our quote for this year's contract.  I called them back on the 22nd (was there something in the water that day???? See above.) and they said they would send something along.  They never said when and they never gave any sense of urgency to the request.  I picked up the mail on the 24th and there wasn't anything from them.  I didn't pick up the mail again until the 29th and there is a letter with our quote telling us that the offer was only good for TWO days.  Um, it took longer than that for the letter to get to us and I had no need to pick up the mail between then and Thursday.  I called the company and they told me that they would probably honor the price (the CSA said that prices are changing every day....) if I mailed them a check right away, which I did.  If an offer is only good for TWO days, don't ya think ya should tell people when you're on the phone with them?!?!  DUH!

1 comment:

Mamie said...

Deja vu all over again. Got the annual Downeast Energy contract offer. Two-days to accept from the date of the letter: 8/5. Mailed: 8/6. Received: after 8/8. Fortunately they honored their commitment. What a dumb policy. Unrealistic!