A line of argument that my credit card company and my father’s insurance carrier both could have pursued, and could have done so more persuasively, since the monetary stakes were considerably higher.
Having said that, I’ve certainly expressed a willingness to cough up a reasonable late fee, which is how most companies prevent this sort of rush by their consumer base.
Further, does anyone really think this is a problem? That hordes of charters are going to start harassing the poor admins? This kind of argument *can *be true, but more often than not it’s just a way of avoiding the customer’s request.
Seriously, after seven years in customer service, I still don’t get this. What’s with the whining? What’s with the “Here’s some friendly advice on customer service” shtick, which every single time really means “Do everything exactly as I say or I will complain about it until you do”?
And what is this about? Your title being “Member” instead of “Charter Member”. Well boo-hoo.
I wish they’d make us all members, just to shut people like you up. How the fact that you lose charter member status when you’re late with paying has managed to evade your attention is a mystery; this is not exactly the first “what happened to my title?” thread.
I for one do believe that yes, if your little public tantrum were to result in a status change, then the poor admins would most certainly be harassed by hordes of ex-charters looking to get their status back. This is not the first thread of its kind, sadly, I’m certain it won’t be the last.
I do not constantly monitor every thread in these forums – indeed, as noted earlier, I have been inactive for long stretches as of late – and I should not have to in order to be aware of this particular consequence.
And politely but firmly asking for a courtesy, and countering flimsy rationales for avoiding such courtesies, is not “whining.” Nor (on preview) is it a “tantrum.” If you really think it is, I feel sorry for you – you must get hosed an awful lot.
There is a huge difference between a messageboard and a credit card company or whatever. When the company cuts you a break, you feel good that you were satisfied with the service, and the company doesn’t risk a lot of loss from other people finding out and trying the same thing. By posting here, it is made public, and all other users know that you can whine and get your way successfully, and cry foul if they don’t because they know that someone else got it to work.
“Constantly monitor every thread”? It was made clear from the start, and the subject has been up several times since.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me” is polite?
“Flimsy rationales” - jeez. There’s a rule in place. You didn’t bother to know it, and as a consequence you fell foul of it. Now, you cannot understand why an exception shouldn’t be made in your case, and every attempt to explain it to you is by definition a “flimsy rationale”.
I mean, do you really not understand the concept? You seriously believe that this is a matter of, as you put it, a “five second operation”? If so, please open an “Ask the typical customer” thread, 'cause I have some questions to ask you.
But above all: why do you care? What’s so important about the word “charter”?
Dewey. Just throwing this is as a minor possibility.
Has your email address changed in the last year? From the one you keep on file with the SDMB. Or have you had the same email address for the last year, the one on file, and continued to read emails to that address? I know that I have more than one email address and might not always read an email to one of them.
Wait a moment… Dewey is a lawyer, right? So we have here a lawyer complaining that the rules were followed, and he doesn’t think they should have been? I don’t get it.
I remember when the board went from no dues (free!) to annual dues. At the time, there was an IMMENSE amount of discussion on Charter Members, including the fact that if you lost that status, for any reason whatsoever, that was just too bad. I was a lurker at the time and debated joining up, and sort of regret not going for it. But the rules were clear.
Now, you can’t have become a charter member unless you were around that time. So your claim to be ignorant of the rule isn’t going to garner much sympathy; it’s not a new rule. Maybe you didn’t pay close attention, but whose fault is that?
I wish the HMO hadn’t cut you a break. I wish the credit card company hadn’t waived the late fee. They have created a monster: I shouldn’t have consequences, I was only a little late. I shouldn’t have consequences, I didn’t know the rules or didn’t pay attention to the rules. I see this sense of entitlement all the time, and I’m tired of it. There was a deadline and you missed it.
Customer service has nothing to do with it; customer services is about the solution of a customer’s problems, and perhaps a little kindness. They are being kind, they’re just not being weak and giving in. There isn’t a problem; you are still a full member of the SMDB.
If you’d like, you could change your user name to Dewey Cheatem Undhow Who Is Really a Charter Member but Due to an Evil and Unfair Policy by the Wicked SDMB Has Unjustly Lost That Label and Must Hereafter Be Incorrectly Listed as a Mere Member.
The SDMB doesn’t have late fee’s.
You’re either a Charter Member or a Member.
Because of an unintended oversight, you lost your Charter status.
Life is tough.
You could continue to whine and throw a tantrum about that loss, but I think the only thing that would happen is that somebody might call a waaambulance.
So your excuse when you were a teenager was that you didn’t understand the consequences of your actions. Your excuse now that you in your, what? forties? fifties? is that you are not responsible for you own actions. I sure hope you don’t have a job that entails telling anyone to admit responibility for what they’ve done IRL.
FTR IMO any thread where the OP complains 20+ times about something toally asinine is (IMO) throwing a hissy fit.
We did do it last year, for quite a few people. That was the first renewal, and some bewilderment was expected. After a couple of weeks, the line was drawn - oh well, sorry, you are SOL. This year, we didn’t expect bewilderment. Nor did we expect someone renewing four months late to pitch a hissy. Our fault, no doubt.
“Constantly monitor every thread” blinks and reads again “[B]Constantly monitor every thread**”??
I will repeat: Notification of the renewal period was put up as an announcement. Not a single regular thread. Not even as a sticky in every forum. As an announcement!!! Like the one currently up by Dex about rules and etiquette. An announcement shows up on the top of every forum, labeled Announcement, above even the sticky threads, and set apart from them with a gray bar. You can’t open any forum without seeing the announcement at the top, and as far as I know, you can’t post a new thread without first going into the forum. If you were so focused on solving your computer problem that you couldn’t be bothered to read the official announcements at the top of the forum, that is the administration’s fault? Not to mention that was discussed in a thread you started the day after you posted to the Amazon.com pitting (Amazon.com pit post: 8:09 pm on 4/22, Linux thread started: 4:42 pm on 4/23).
Incidentally, TubaDiva posted last year a list of everything they did in 2005 to make people aware of the upcoming renewal. I couldn’t find such a list this year, but I doubt that they did less, knowing what happened last year: which was several threads from people saying “I missed the renewal cutoff, can I pleasepleasepleaseplease get my Charter Membership back?” Some missed the deadline by a few hours, some took a few days and Tuba sent in names to request the status change back to Charter Member, and more and more people jumped onto those threads. Eventually, the decision was announced that it wasn’t going to happen anymore.
What’s the point of even having a cutoff date when people are going to expect to get the same deal after it’s expired?
Well, other than the fact that what being a charter member would entail – in terms of the reduced rate and the distinction in status line – at the time we originally went PTP. If you’d been around and paying attention then … oh wait, you say you were. My bad.
Hi Sam, no, the email address I use here is a forwarding account from my law school alma mater, so it dumps into an account I do read. Dunno what happened here though, because the renewal email is definitely not in there.
After four months, might it have been deleted automatically? And perhaps you should change your contact info to include an email account that you do read.
