Day 3: I'd like a refund please

My dear readers, this has been a hell of a week. From the pinnacle of helping my new grandson make his way into this world (story yet to come) to the tears of frustration I cried this morning over a couple of difficult obstacles ... it's just been a roller coaster of a week.

And because I'm a compulsive complainer letter-writer, I used up my writing time tonight penning a pathetic and at the same time angry letter to my insurance company, USAA, about their airline ticket service.

To set it up, I'll just say that my little brother talked me into flying to Iowa this month instead of driving, something I'd considered and then decided not to do because I'm simply too cheap. And I have a new van that I was looking forward to taking on a road trip. Although, to be honest, if I could choose any road trip, it wouldn't be the one that takes me across Indiana, Illinois and most of Iowa. I've probably seen those corn and bean fields at least 40 times.

I changed my mind though when he reminded me it wouldn't cost that much more, and I'd save 24 hours or more of driving time. It didn't take me that long to come around.

I set out to buy my tickets last night -- a first for me. LtColEx always did that kind of thing, and I haven't flown anywhere since we divorced years ago. My brother told me to go to Orbitz, but I thought I should shop around. I'm cheap. I shop for bargains.

Turns out there are no bargains. The prices were the same on every site. So I decided to go with USAA, because I've been a customer for decades, and they provide me with excellent service.

Not this time. And speaking of time, I'm going to stop telling this story now and let my pathetic, angry little letter finish this post for me. And then I'm going to drink a glass of cold Chardonnay and watch at least part of an episode of This Is Us before I head to bed for too few hours of sleep before I have to go to work at 8:00 am.

(Note: I promise I'll write about vaginas soon!)

My letter to USAA:

Let me tell you a story. Last night I went online to buy airline tickets for my 6-year-old granddaughter (who lives with me) and me so we could fly to Iowa for my mother's 80th birthday party. I haven't been home since May, 2014, so we're all pretty excited. Since all the prices were the same, I chose USAA, because I prefer doing business with a company I trust and that has taken care of me for decades now.

I decided on 2 tickets ($288.10 each), ordered them up, chose seats, and put in all of the information. I used my USAA American Express credit card because I never use it and it seemed like a good time. I hit the final button and received a message that said "our system has experienced an issue" and to "restart my request." I sent the request again. Same message. Did it again. Got a message that the purchase failed and I should call USAA. No reason given. I went all the way through that process again. Same result. Called the 800 number. Office not open.

This morning, less than 8 hours later, I tried again. The cost had gone up $140 per ticket! I called the number until the office opened at 9:00 EST and spoke to Caroline in the call center. She informed me the problem was not their system, but that I had used the 3-digit number on the back of my card instead of the barely readable 4-digit number on the front.

The problem was not a system issue at all. It was an input error that could have been corrected if their website had simply said that number was wrong. Like every other credit card website in the universe does! I thought I couldn't buy the tickets because their system was having problems. Instead all I needed to do was put in the right number OR use my debit card, which has the stupid security number in the right place.

All they had to do was give a message that I needed a 4-digit number or even that my card could not be accepted. Pretty simple coding for a website that does transactions like that. Except they made it look like it was a problem with the system, which is something I can't control.

By the time I was able to buy tickets I had to pay $859.20 !!!! instead of the $576.20 I should have paid last night. I paid $283 MORE than I had to because your contractor's website didn't flag an obvious error. Not only that, they pinged me for $1.00 on my credit card every single time I tried to send that through. So they knew my card was good. What the hell is wrong with this picture???

Now $283 might not be a lot of money to some people. It wasn't to me before I was a single grandmother raising my 6-year-old granddaughter. But it is a lot of money to us now. I could have purchased another ticket with that money so another family member could go with us. I could have bought my mom a hell of an 80th birthday present. I could name a hundred different ways I could have used that money for things we NEED.

But paying for your contractor's crappy website isn't one of the ways I should be spending that $283.

I don't expect any satisfaction from writing this complaint, but I will tell you this. Next time I order airline tickets, it will not be from USAA. I can order from about a dozen different companies from Orbitz to Google. The only reason I came back and ordered tickets today was to check and make sure the security number was really the problem. And apparently it was.

But it didn't have to be. The loss of my business won't hurt you. I know that. But I'm about to hit my social media sites and my blog, and .... even after a couple thousand people read about my story, it won't hurt a big company like USAA. It won't even satisfy me much.

The situation did hurt me though. And that's the only reason I'm writing this and getting it off my chest.

That's my letter. I've had to write several difficult letters recently. Sometimes someone listens to me, like Chewy did. Sometimes my letter becomes a way for someone to twist a situation to suite their agenda. And sometimes it's a tree falling in the forest. I don't care. I write because I need to tell my stories and my truth.

I'd like to note that I didn't have to sell plasma to buy those tickets. Also, I found out I'm not going to have to pay the kennel fees I expected, because my daughter-in-law offered to keep Crow even though she has new baby and a new puppy and I should write a letter about how wonderful she is, so I've already recouped some loss. That is not the point though.

The point is that people should just fucking do things the right way. And that's the truth.s

Reticula out.