BFS and BBB: New BFFs

A while back, one of my favorite bloggers, Budgeting in the Fun Stuff, wrote about her (bad) experience with Fedex. She complained to the Better Business Bureau, got satisfaction from Fedex, and even a gift card. I was impressed. I had always thought of the Better Business Bureau as a do-nothing organization (why, I wonder).

As you may know, I have been ranting and whining about my experiences first with Chico's (which was mainly annoying) and then with Virgin Mobile, which was truly a through-the-looking-glass experience. Last you all heard, we had--at Virgin's urging--reversed the reversal on our credit card, so that our daughter could get her service back. Well, of course she didn't. When Mr. FS called Virgin, the rep said there was no record of any of our dealings OR of our daughter's phone. THAT WAS IT! We called Amex and asked them to reverse the reversal of the reversal, which they did. (I love you, Amex.)

Then I read Fun Stuff's post and realized that I, so proud of my customer service spine, was actually kind of a slacker. Plus it was around Father's Day, and my late father, difficult to deal with for most people, was a scourge of bad customer service: he would NOT GIVE UP. So, in honor of Father's Day, I wrote a complaint on the BBB website about Virgin's service.

And guess what? Today we got a call from a lovely and competent Customer Service rep, who apologized profusely. At the end of our chat, shse asked me if I wanted my daughter's service re-connected. I said that, while I loved dealing with her, I would NEVER use Virgin again, unless they offered a free year of service. I told her that Mr. FS and I had wasted many hours dealing with incompetent people.

She called back 15 minutes later with an offer of three free months! We haven't decided what to do yet.

So, folks, use the Better Business Bureau. And thank you to BFS: you are my new BFF.