Companies that change policies to your detriment but acting like it's a favor to you

[Harmonious Discord]

Coke Rewards is my pick for the day.

Relevant parts of the email:
Great news: we've made big improvements.
No More Daily Code Limits

Starting on February 16th, there's something refreshingly new at My Coke Rewards. The 10 code entries-per-day limit is gone. Now you can enter your codes when you want — up to 120 points per week.*

And with the new Weekly Points Tracking Tool it's easy to see how many points you've already entered and how many more points you can still earn for the week.

My addition:
1. Point redemptions are 3 pts. for bottle caps all the way to 20 pts. for 24 pack cartons.

2. Under the old system you could enter 10 codes a day.

3. Under the old system that would be 70 codes per week.

4. 70 * 3 is 210 pts for caps or 70 * 20 is 1400 pts for 24 ct cartons.

5. Entering the maximum number of codes per week under the old system you could get 210 to 1400 points a week.

6. Under the New Coke system which is so superior to the Old Coke system you can get 120 points maximum each week.

No More Daily Code Limits results in you can only enter from 6 to 40 codes a day and then you can't enter any for a week. That really isn't a removal of the daily code entry cap. Please don't give us this spiel about how wonderful you are lifting the daily code entry limit and how we need to be so thrilled with the change.

The reason I personally got pissed about this was the snow job they tried on me. Just give the new terms and don't try to convince me that getting less in the bargain is going to be so much nicer.

[fluiddruid]

Yeah, I definitely noticed the Coke thing. "Look, we're now less convenient!"

I worked for a company that once tried to say that people working after 4pm getting a shift differential bonus only if their shift started after 4pm was somehow good for workers. The memo was phrased like "Good news! We've changed our pay policy!" When we asked for a single example of how an employee could make more under this policy, the silence was deafening.

[Scarlett67]

Copps (regional grocery store chain) did this a while back:

"To better serve our customers, we will now be open from 6 am to midnight."

Trouble is, before that they were 24 hours.

[Furious_Marmot]

My employer went from 2 paydays per month, on the 1st and 15th to a paycheck every other Friday. This sucks, since you used to be able to coordinate your bills to arrive on or near paydays. Now, you get paid on any old date and everything is out of synch. Its not a big deal, but still, it's worse than the old system.

HR pitched it to us in several gushing emails as "Now you get paid more often!" Well yes, but it's all the same money.

[interface2x]

I worked for a company that once tried to say that people working after 4pm getting a shift differential bonus only if their shift started after 4pm was somehow good for workers. The memo was phrased like "Good news! We've changed our pay policy!" When we asked for a single example of how an employee could make more under this policy, the silence was deafening.To be fair, they didn't say it would be good news for you. If you chose to infer that, that's your fault ;)

[zweisamkeit]

My employer went from 2 paydays per month, on the 1st and 15th to a paycheck every other Friday. This sucks, since you used to be able to coordinate your bills to arrive on or near paydays. Now, you get paid on any old date and everything is out of synch. Its not a big deal, but still, it's worse than the old system.

HR pitched it to us in several gushing emails as "Now you get paid more often!" Well yes, but it's all the same money.

No one likes their pay period. :) I'd much rather get paid every other week. It's the same money, yeah, but I can budget my entire month of bills on the slightly less money without issue. Then, a couple of times a year, I get a bonus monthly check! Woohoo! It feels nicer saving, say, a $500 chunk at one time than $100 spread over 5 pay periods.

[BlinkingDuck]

GM Card way back...changed their rewards to eliminate the caps. You used to be capped at $500 per year and 7 years...which means you could get $3500 max off your new car.

They changed it to eliminate the caps! WOW! However, in very fine print you find out that they maxed out the amount you can apply to a certain car (that I was interested in) was $1000.

Gee...thanks. I dropped the card.

[gigi]

This wasn't a change, but a bizarre wording of a policy:

In order to provide better customer service, deposits of loose change will be credited within 48 hours.

What they're really trying to say is, we can't immediately credit your account for loose change and you will have to wait up to 48 hours for it to be credited to your account. But they seem afraid to state the policy in straightforward terms because it might sound negative?? I don't blame them for the policy, but it's hardly better customer service to not run the change when the person brings it in.

[runner pat]

People, you're missing something here. "Customer Service" does not mean what you think it means. Think of how a bull "services" a cow.

[muldoonthief]

American Express ads where they say "No preset spending limit!" as if that's a good thing. With a preset spending limit on a credit card, and a few brain cells to keep rough track of how much I've spent in a month, I never have to worry about hitting a limit. With Amex, you never really know if a purchase will go through until it does.

Also, I remember getting a mailing from a local shop that started "We have exciting news!" They were closing down. They weren't even having a going out of business sale, since they were moving all their stock to the other store, 30 miles away.

[gigi]

American Express ads where they say "No preset spending limit!" as if that's a good thing. With a preset spending limit on a credit card, and a few brain cells to keep rough track of how much I've spent in a month, I never have to worry about hitting a limit. With Amex, you never really know if a purchase will go through until it does.

I thought it meant it will always go through, because it's a charge card, not a credit card.

[muldoonthief]

I thought it meant it will always go through, because it's a charge card, not a credit card.

From their website:

"The American Express Card has no pre-set spending limit, which gives you purchasing power that adjusts with your use of the Card and other factors. No pre-set spending limit does not mean unlimited spending. Purchasing power adjusts with your use of the Card, your payment history, credit card record and financial resources known to us, and other factors. "

Which I read to mean that every time you use it, they decide whether or not to allow the charge.

[gigi]

Ah, thanks for the info.

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

At my buddies office they have to meet a minimum threshold for billable hours in order to qualify for their yearly bonus. One day, as an incentive to retain employees, HR decided that anyone who had worked there for five years automatically got an extra week of paid vacation. Your two weeks of paid vacation were upped to three weeks of paid vacation! Joy!

Except... they didn't pro-rate the threshold for billable hours. The percentage of your billable hours was based on a 5 day week for 50 weeks and if you took all of the vacation time to which you were entitled, you couldn't meet the cut-off. So my buddy could have three weeks paid vacation, but if he actually took the third week, he'd lose his $2,000 bonus, making it a really expensive holiday.

[tdn]

The percentage of your billable hours was based on a 5 day week for 50 weeks and if you took all of the vacation time to which you were entitled, you couldn't meet the cut-off.

That's not wonky, that's pure evil. Wow.

At one large company I worked at, there was a complete overhaul of the benefits package. They hyped this thing for months, and were so very proud of it. Instead of getting a standard package, you got "Benefit Dollars." You could spend them any way you wanted. Don't care about term life but want more vacation time? Great, spend your Dollars on vacation time. Don't want dental but want hookers and blow? Great, there's an option for that, too! (OK, not really.)

The problem was, there were not enough Dollars to buy back what you had before. No matter how you cut it, you were getting less.

[BlinkingDuck]

At my buddies office they have to meet a minimum threshold for billable hours in order to qualify for their yearly bonus. One day, as an incentive to retain employees, HR decided that anyone who had worked there for five years automatically got an extra week of paid vacation. Your two weeks of paid vacation were upped to three weeks of paid vacation! Joy!

Except... they didn't pro-rate the threshold for billable hours. The percentage of your billable hours was based on a 5 day week for 50 weeks and if you took all of the vacation time to which you were entitled, you couldn't meet the cut-off. So my buddy could have three weeks paid vacation, but if he actually took the third week, he'd lose his $2,000 bonus, making it a really expensive holiday.

...and they knew what they doing to...it was not a mistake.

[BlinkingDuck]

That's not wonky, that's pure evil. Wow.

At one large company I worked at, there was a complete overhaul of the benefits package. They hyped this thing for months, and were so very proud of it. Instead of getting a standard package, you got "Benefit Dollars." You could spend them any way you wanted. Don't care about term life but want more vacation time? Great, spend your Dollars on vacation time. Don't want dental but want hookers and blow? Great, there's an option for that, too! (OK, not really.)

The problem was, there were not enough Dollars to buy back what you had before. No matter how you cut it, you were getting less.

Every change in benefits (especially medical) in my life has been a cut of some sort. Every one.

Company announces change in policy == something being cut.

This was especially bad when teaching when I would try (unsuccessfully) to explain to people that getting the same insurance this year that you had last year IS NOT A RAISE!

[Tastes of Chocolate]

At one company I've worked for, a very high percentage of the employees were paid at least partially on commission. Usually 10-30% of their pay. The employer purchased another company, and a notification went out announcing that, in order to make sure that the employees weren't taking hit to their commission checks during the assimilation of the purchased company, everyone would be on straight salary for a while. How nice of them. Except for the fact that this was during THE most profitable period in history for that industry. I have no idea how much the employer saved by not paying out commissions during that time.

Strangely enough, several years later, during a much worse market, there was no similar action when a second company was acquired.

[Jragon]

Yeah, I definitely noticed the Coke thing. "Look, we're now less convenient!"

I worked for a company that once tried to say that people working after 4pm getting a shift differential bonus only if their shift started after 4pm was somehow good for workers. The memo was phrased like "Good news! We've changed our pay policy!" When we asked for a single example of how an employee could make more under this policy, the silence was deafening.

I read this post in Professor Farnsworth's voice "Good news everyone! We've changed our pay policy... you're all fired!"

[ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness]

Every change in benefits (especially medical) in my life has been a cut of some sort. Every one.

Company announces change in policy == something being cut.

GM pulled this crap when they owned Hughes Aircraft. They combined vacation and sick leave into "Personal Time Off" and advertised it as a great blessing because now we had "more flexibility!!!" I guess we weren't supposed to notice we went from 12 sick days + 15 vacation days to 20 PTO days.

We could probably create an entire pit thread on the various changes eBay has made to their seller's fees, like dropping the insertion fee (flat, set amount) but almost doubling the final value fee (percentage), and advertising it as a great savings.

[Critical Mass]

Living in Manitoba, I'm obliged to purchase vehicle insurance from the government. I can not purchase private insurance. This used to be ok given that premiums were reasonable and service was adequate. I'm satisfied with the insurance plan for my car.

Some time ago, the government started increasing motorcycle premiums disproportionately to other vehicle types. I now pay about $1,800 per year for full coverage on my bike (factored in is a 25% discount for a good driving record). Private insurance would cost well under half that amount.

What gets me is that I used to be able to purchase insurance for the year and then cancel the policy at the end of the riding season. I could ride for 6 months at a cost of $900 and then pay another $100 for storage insurance for the winter.

A few years ago the government changed the policy on motorcycle insurance by demanding payment of 100% of the premiums during the summer season.

They tried to sell it as only needing to pay premiums for 5 months and then having free insurance for the remainder of the year. Now I have to pay $1,800 for having my bike insured for 5 months. To me this represents a 125% increase in premiums.

The following quote is straight from their website.

Pricks.

As with coverage for other vehicles, motorcycle
coverage is year round. However, unlike premiums
for cars and trucks, motorcycle premiums are priced
over the typical season from May 1 to September 30.
That means you don’t need to pay your premiums
until May 1, and you only pay during the riding
season, even though your coverage stays in force
all year.

The politics of the situation works in favour of the government of the day to continue to screw the motorcycling community. The public as a whole are not opposed to motorcyclists paying more to ride especially when it means that their share of responsibility for the collective pool of premium proceeds is reduced.

[Cyberhwk]

When the private Driver's Ed programs started coming into town the schools started touting their "4 hours observation time" as one thing that made their program better than the private programs.

Observation time = sitting in the back seat waiting for your turn to drive while other students damn near kill you.

[Mudshark]

Being told we had to go to direct deposit on our paychecks, to save us time and to save the company on paper. Thing is, I didn't wan't direct deposit, as my bank used to charge a fee on direct deposit items. When I brought this up, they told me, go direct deposit, switch banks, or don't get paid. Oh..and it's actually using more paper now, as they send me a pay stub, and a deposit slip every two weeks. Way to go.

[chromaticity]

When I moved to Tokyo to a sister organization of my parent company, they combined the worst of both polices and tried to sell it off as a big favor to me.

Look! You get all your money in yen! (What about the taxes?? huh? what about them?)

My parent company had a home visit every 6 months, and it was changed to a year, and my HR had the nerve to tell me "But you love Japan, why would you want to come home?"
(Because I like holidays, dammit)

[Swallowed My Cellphone]

...and they knew what they doing to...it was not a mistake.My buddy thinks that in all honesty they weren't trying to be assholes, they were just stupid and didn't think it through. Vacation is one issue, the bonus is another issue, and in the pea brain of the HR director, never the twain shall meet. I'm not sure how the issue was resolved, I should ask.

[mbh]

"Because you are such a wonderful customer, we are upgrading your Visa card to a Gold Visa card!"

"Because you are such a wonderful customer, we are upgrading your Mastercard to a Platinum Mastercard!"

In both cases, the premium card had a lower credit limit, and a higher interest rate, than the vanilla card.

[Mahna Mahna]

A couple of years ago, my then-manager called me into her office to discuss my salary. Turns out that they'd reassessed me and decided to give me a 5% bump on my base. Woo hoo!

Two days later, they presented a restructured bonus plan, which cut my variable pay in half. That spontaneous raise suddenly made sense... not that the 5% extra on my paycheque came anywhere near the amount that was cut from my bonus.

They assure us that they this was a good thing, because it meant that our income would be "more predictable". Apparently, bonuses aren't actually real income at all, even though I'd yet to miss a bonus in the four years I'd been there till then. :rolleyes:

[control-z]

Comcast: "We have exciting new channel packages available for you!" Translation: higher cost, fewer channels.

[Llama Llogophile]

"Because you are such a wonderful customer, we are upgrading your Visa card to a Gold Visa card!"

"Because you are such a wonderful customer, we are upgrading your Mastercard to a Platinum Mastercard!"

In both cases, the premium card had a lower credit limit, and a higher interest rate, than the vanilla card.


In my case, when they pulled this stunt they also changed my account number. Which meant I had to go back to every damn vendor I deal with on a regular basis and change the information with them.

I told the credit card company that seeing as how I'm changing account numbers anyway, I may as well change companies too. I don't care how that affects my credit rating - FUCK THEM if they're going to put over this kind of crap as a supposed convenience to me.

[Shoeless]

"Because you are such a wonderful customer, we are upgrading your Visa card to a Gold Visa card!"

"Because you are such a wonderful customer, we are upgrading your Mastercard to a Platinum Mastercard!"

In both cases, the premium card had a lower credit limit, and a higher interest rate, than the vanilla card.

And in one case (for me anyway) an annual fee that I didn't used to have.

Which is why I will never have another Capital One credit card as long as I live.


My response to the OP was going to be, pretty much any time two banks or airlines or other such large companies merge, they always seem to spin it as "better for the customers". Yeah, two airlines merge, half the flights get cut, how is that better for me?

[LurkMeister]

Strictly speaking not the company but still detrimental, at least in my case. The Federal Employee Union (or whatever they called themselves) decided that it wasn't fair to the employees at my office to get numerical ratings on their job performance. So one year when they negotiated the contract they managed to include a change in the ratings system so thatr everyone would receive one of two ratings - Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory. The thing is, under the old system if you got the top rating of Excellent the managers were for all intents and purposes required to write you up for an award. Under the new rating system they had to set up an Awards panel, consisting of both managers and non-managers; anyone could nominate anyone for an award, all awards had to be reviewed, and all it took to have a nomination rejected for for a single person on the awards panel to veto it.

So suddenly, instead of automatically getting an award every year (because I had always gotten an Excellent rating) I stopped getting them unless I was lucky enough that no one on the panel didn't like me - and I was not exactly Mr Congeniality, since my tolerance level for stupidity and bullshit was extremely low.

[Shirley Ujest]

So suddenly, instead of automatically getting an award every year (because I had always gotten an Excellent rating) I stopped getting them unless I was lucky enough that no one on the panel didn't like me - and I was not exactly Mr Congeniality, since my tolerance level for stupidity and bullshit was extremely low.


And here you are, a doper for life.

[LurkMeister]

Ah, but online I can chuckle and move on. I don't have to spend my time cleaning up after the stupidity and bullshit.

[AllWalker]

Not a company but my university...

A while back my uni invested in some grand project which failed. HARD. In hindsight it was obvious why it failed, as it always is, but I can't imagine why it wasn't obvious beforehand.

Shortly after this, they announce a rearrangement to the timetabling. Instead of having two sessions of 14 weeks per year, they decided to give us three sessions of 12 weeks per year, the third being over the summer break. They said this was to get us "in sync" with the other universities. Er, thanks, but:

1) It didn't put us "in sync" with other unis, no matter whether you define that as same amount of coursework, breaks at the same time, etc
2) A lot of people came to this uni because of its 14 week session - this is more than competing universities, and even one extra week can give you an edge in understanding a course. Hell, you could cover a whole new topic in one week, thoroughly in two weeks.
3) The new summer session was bullshit. It added a huge amount to your fees, the on campus accommodation shoots up in price and only a few courses were available. Considering that a lot of students work over summer to pay their fees.

All of this was pointed out to the university's bigwigs. The student body opposed it. The staff opposed it. There were protests and strikes and demonstrations. And this was before it was widely known that the exam period would be cut as well, meaning you have less time in class, and now less time to revise before exams. The move was almost universally unpopular, but they went ahead with it. All the while saying how great its going to be being in sync with the other unis. :rolleyes:

Right now the timetabling is in flux, and I have no idea where it will come to rest, but for now it seems like the sessions are getting longer again. Not as long as they were, but getting there.

[zenith]

My employer went from 2 paydays per month, on the 1st and 15th to a paycheck every other Friday. This sucks, since you used to be able to coordinate your bills to arrive on or near paydays. Now, you get paid on any old date and everything is out of synch. Its not a big deal, but still, it's worse than the old system.

HR pitched it to us in several gushing emails as "Now you get paid more often!" Well yes, but it's all the same money.

I deliver magazines every 2 weeks. Prior to this year, I got monthly direct deposits every last Thursday of the month. I set some of my bills up for 1st of the month payment out of the account these deposits went to.In fact, this account goes within $50 of dry each 1st.

With 10 days' notice back in December, the company started paying every 4 weeks, touting the fact that we get an extra payday every year.

All well and good, but we were started at the point in the cycle where our Feb and March checks come on the 3rd.

Thus, I've had to do a lot of money shuffling to make sure that there's money in that account on the 1st of those two months to cover auto-withdrawal commitments.

If I'm still doing this job by next Feb-March, I'll have money in the accounts by the firsts without having to scramble, but this year's a bitch.

[Mangetout]

We could probably create an entire pit thread on the various changes eBay has made to their seller's fees, like dropping the insertion fee (flat, set amount) but almost doubling the final value fee (percentage), and advertising it as a great savings.
Yup. Things are better because you're forced to accept PayPal. As a seller, feedback is made entirely a positive experience by removing the possibility of leaving neutrals or negatives.

[MissMossie]

Similac baby formula recently changed their packaging so that there's an easy place to grip the canister and a spot to place the scoop so that it doesn't get lost.

They also cut the number of ounces that came in each container while keeping the price the same. Woohoo...I'm sure so many parents are thrilled about the new package. I know my sister (the mother of the world's cutest little six month old girl) loves paying the same amount for less food.

[brazil84]

You know, I think I've never seen the phrase "to better serve you" before an actual improvement in service.

In my opinion, the phrase usually falls in the same category as "your call is very important to us"

[jellyblue]

I was working part-time for a university a few years ago and the pay was crappy. The director called me into her office in December and told me they were having some budget struggles - she'd like to offer me full (full time) benefits in exchange for a cut in my (already) laughable salary. I laughed and said thanks, but no thanks. A month later, I received full benefits without a salary cut as the result of employee union salary negotiations that I know she was fully aware of when she made that offer.:rolleyes: How slimy is that?

[Hyperelastic]

We don't get sick leave at our company, so if you're sick, you have to take it out of vacation, which is the industry standard 15 days a year until you get some seniority. Once, a guy asked whether the company would consider providing sick leave.

The VP pretended to be taken aback, saying "Why would you want to limit how you can use your leave? Isn't it better that you can use it for any reason, not just when you're sick?"

Obviously, and the VP surely must have realized this, the suggestion was to provide sick leave in addition to vacation. I can almost picture him sitting on his fat ass back in his office congratulating himself on how well he finessed the question, when in reality we were all standing around talking about what a toolbag he was.

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

The fine folks at a moderately well known software company in Seattle, dedicated to removing features to make you buy more for nearly 20 years.

This is what you can no longer do with pictures in Office:


Photo Editor editing features not supported by Picture Manager

Effects Sharpen, Soften, Negative, Despeckle, Posterize, Edge, Chalk and Charcoal, Emboss, Graphic Pen, Notepaper, Watercolor, Stained Glass, Stamp, Texturizer.
Tools Smudge, Sharpen, Set Transparent Color.
Image Acquisition You cannot create a new image from a scanner or a camera. (In Microsoft Windows XP, the capability to create a new imagine from a scanner and a camera is built in Microsoft Windows Explorer.)
Image Fewer color correction options are available in Picture Manager 2003 than were available in Photo Editor. Specifically, there is no Gamma adjustment, and you cannot apply corrections to only one of the three color components, red-green-blue (RGB).
Properties You cannot explicitly specify the image resolution dots per inch (dpi) or the color depth of images in Picture Manager 2003.


I think somewhere in there is converting a photo to a monochrome line drawing, that I used to be able to do, dammit!

[Mama Zappa]

From their website:

"The American Express Card has no pre-set spending limit, which gives you purchasing power that adjusts with your use of the Card and other factors. No pre-set spending limit does not mean unlimited spending. Purchasing power adjusts with your use of the Card, your payment history, credit card record and financial resources known to us, and other factors. "

Which I read to mean that every time you use it, they decide whether or not to allow the charge.
Yep. A friend of mine was deliberately spending less, in order to save up for a vacation. Then when she went to buy tix for said vacation, the charge was declined because it was outside her "normal" spending limit.

Fortunately she had another charge card she could use for the purpose.

[control-z]

Yep. A friend of mine was deliberately spending less, in order to save up for a vacation. Then when she went to buy tix for said vacation, the charge was declined because it was outside her "normal" spending limit.

Fortunately she had another charge card she could use for the purpose.

That's amazingly stupid. Amex is a bad deal from the merchant's point of view too, they take a higher percentage than Visa/MC/Discover, and from what I've heard it's hard to calculate exactly what the merchant transaction fees will be.

[RealityChuck]

I loved when down in the Bahamas, all the menus said, "For your convenience, a 15% gratuity was added to the bill."

Of course, the service was uniformly lousy in every restaurant that had that line. Waitstaff had no reason to do a good job so they took forever.

About that time, I noticed that some stores had signs that said, "For your convenience, please check your bags when you enter the store."

These helped me formulate RealityChuck's Law #17: "When a business says they're doing something for your convenience, they're actually doing it for their convenience."

[BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed]

Being told we had to go to direct deposit on our paychecks, to save us time and to save the company on paper. Thing is, I didn't wan't direct deposit, as my bank used to charge a fee on direct deposit items. When I brought this up, they told me, go direct deposit, switch banks, or don't get paid. Oh..and it's actually using more paper now, as they send me a pay stub, and a deposit slip every two weeks. Way to go.

That bank policy blows ginormous throbbing veiny donkey dong.