Showing posts with label Bureaucracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bureaucracy. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Dealing with a Bureaucracy: APSU was wrong for that!!!!
Have you ever had a trying time with a bureaucratic establishment? Well I did and it happened at Austin Peay State University during the winter break I had the time off ticket and classes paid for and I was ready to study abroad. It was wonderful and busy when I touched down in Mexico to extend the school during are winter break little did I know my first day of school was maybe my last day. The alarm clock sounded and I was rejuvenated and excited to see the campus where I would be learning Spanish. The first thing I did was get my tour and when I found the computer lab I immediately checked my email and what did I see. Attention students who are attending study abroad Mexico, It read dear student if you are in the study abroad Mexico you will not be receiving credit from the University. The first thing that came to mind was WTF!! I was mad I immediately got the other Apsu students and told them what Dr. Hoppe had just sent. Mind you that she sent the email the same day are flights left so Cleary no one had saw the email until we arrived. I was so mad that I nominated myself as the spokesperson, everyone said she’s not going to take your call, But I knew better. I got on the phone got her secretary and explained that I needed to speak with Dr. Hoppe regarding an email I just received she immediately got the president on the line. I spoke with Dr. Hoppe and she began to ask so many questions that I had to stop her and say aren’t you the president of the university why are you asking me all these questions. I just wanted to know why we were not informed before we left. She advised me that the trip wasn’t to have been sold I told her that there were flyers everywhere up to the moment I left. Clearly she wasn’t walking the campus. She explained that it was the TBR decision so I asked for the head person in charge there. Before hanging up the phone I asked should I cash out get the money that’s owed to me and leave or should I stay. Here response was I can’t advise you on that but that I am to know that credit will not be accepted by the university another WTF moment. So I get the rep on the phone from the TBR he began to investigate and ask it seemed like 30 questions I stopped him and was like look, tell me something. No one wanted to tell me anything. So I got with my classmates and we decided to stay in Mexico and fight that battle when we got back to the states. Fight we did I remember being in a room filled with people including the Spanish teacher, there drilling him and us. There were so many questions being asked and I only wanted an answer to if I was going to get credit. Of course us students won. That experience was crazy because I had to speak with so many people before I could get what I earned and most of all PAID FOR. Austin Peay was wrong for that!!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
My problem with...
I highly recommend you do not rent property from Crye-Leike in Clarksville. My roommate and I were screwed out of half of our rent deposit. We made a verbal agreement with our property manager ANGIE SEXTON in order to vacate the residence early and have our last months rent prorated. That was back on Dec 12th, it is now Feb 11th and we are just now finding out that we will not receive the other half. She admitted in a 3way call to her supervisors that she learned a life lesson using OUR mula!
Dealing with any bureaucracy the lesson is to always have paper proof!
Walmart and Verizon Screwed My Family
I work at Walmart. My job is to sell cell phones to people. Walmart is a bureaucracy because there is a chain of command. They actually assign numbers to workers as well. Your number level determineshow much you make. I am a level 5 in the cell phone department. Department managers are level 6's, and it goes up from there within the store. The next level past department managaers are zone managers, assistant managers, co-managers, store manager, district managers, and at the top are the children of Sam Walton.
For the most part, the connection center(cell phone department) is an easy job. I get paid more than other people who work constanly in the store. All I do is stand in a kiosk and wait. At most, I had five customers in a day. However, there was a situation that caused me to just get angry with the bureacracy sytem of Walmart and Verizon.
Verizon has another system. I receive help from a guy who is the verizon represenative. Back in August 2008 my family came in as a customer. They set up a new line with verizon. At the time, verizon had a promotion going on. It was set up a new line, receive a $50wlamart gift certificate. They had some fine print stuff. Such as must have line for a month before receiving the certificate. The reason for this is b/c verzon has a 30 day return policy. So they did not want someoene to get the gift certificate for free. Then they said it may take 4-8 weeks to receive the promotional item.
Three months pass and my family did not receive a certificate at all. I txt message my verizon rep and he never answered back. My deprtment manager tried to get intouch with him and he never responded. One day he came into the store and I broght up the situation to him. He acted as if he was annoyed. He was bothered that I txt him for something lilke that. He told me he reponded to my txt already. I told him he did not. I showed him my received messages from him. I received none. So then he goes through his phone to prove to me that he sent me a txt. He never found it.
Then he tells me he will get on to the problem and fix it. A month pass, nothing. I see him again and he tells me that it is silly I bring this up. I am angry we did not get the $50. This amount may not be much to corporate world such as walmart or verizon who are dealing with millions and possibly billions, but for average people like my family, $50 is alot. This amount could feed my family for two days.
So my verizon rep, name drew gives me a number to call. i call the number. It was the rebate department for verizon. They said they did not handle this situation because the phone was purchased at walmart. They recomend me to speak with walmart. I spoke with my managers and they said that was verizon's reponsibility. I spoke with Drew and he told me to talk to customer service. Customer service told me they have no record of any such promotion. They then told me to speak with Drew. Drew told me there was nothing he could and and said to tell the customer to call customer service at verizon.
THE CUSTOMERS WAS MY FAMILY!
If i could not resolve the situation for them, how the hell are they suppose to do it? I am the one who is suppose to "specialize" in this area.
So basically Walmart and Verizon have collected money from my family. They Have alot b/c of the monthly phone bills. Walmart keeps any comission I make. I get none. I feel that my family have been screwed out of $50 which is alot of money for us, and not much to them.
The case is still pending. I will not give up.
-Nhatdanh
For the most part, the connection center(cell phone department) is an easy job. I get paid more than other people who work constanly in the store. All I do is stand in a kiosk and wait. At most, I had five customers in a day. However, there was a situation that caused me to just get angry with the bureacracy sytem of Walmart and Verizon.
Verizon has another system. I receive help from a guy who is the verizon represenative. Back in August 2008 my family came in as a customer. They set up a new line with verizon. At the time, verizon had a promotion going on. It was set up a new line, receive a $50wlamart gift certificate. They had some fine print stuff. Such as must have line for a month before receiving the certificate. The reason for this is b/c verzon has a 30 day return policy. So they did not want someoene to get the gift certificate for free. Then they said it may take 4-8 weeks to receive the promotional item.
Three months pass and my family did not receive a certificate at all. I txt message my verizon rep and he never answered back. My deprtment manager tried to get intouch with him and he never responded. One day he came into the store and I broght up the situation to him. He acted as if he was annoyed. He was bothered that I txt him for something lilke that. He told me he reponded to my txt already. I told him he did not. I showed him my received messages from him. I received none. So then he goes through his phone to prove to me that he sent me a txt. He never found it.
Then he tells me he will get on to the problem and fix it. A month pass, nothing. I see him again and he tells me that it is silly I bring this up. I am angry we did not get the $50. This amount may not be much to corporate world such as walmart or verizon who are dealing with millions and possibly billions, but for average people like my family, $50 is alot. This amount could feed my family for two days.
So my verizon rep, name drew gives me a number to call. i call the number. It was the rebate department for verizon. They said they did not handle this situation because the phone was purchased at walmart. They recomend me to speak with walmart. I spoke with my managers and they said that was verizon's reponsibility. I spoke with Drew and he told me to talk to customer service. Customer service told me they have no record of any such promotion. They then told me to speak with Drew. Drew told me there was nothing he could and and said to tell the customer to call customer service at verizon.
THE CUSTOMERS WAS MY FAMILY!
If i could not resolve the situation for them, how the hell are they suppose to do it? I am the one who is suppose to "specialize" in this area.
So basically Walmart and Verizon have collected money from my family. They Have alot b/c of the monthly phone bills. Walmart keeps any comission I make. I get none. I feel that my family have been screwed out of $50 which is alot of money for us, and not much to them.
The case is still pending. I will not give up.
-Nhatdanh
Federal Student Aid
When I started going to college I was 17 my mother had just passed away and my father did not talk to me. As if that was not bad enough, I was not able to receive federal student aid. Until you are 24 years old you are considered a dependent of your parents. You can bypass this by proving you are estranged or by getting married.
Proving you are estranged is a difficult task. It usually involves using some kind of legal document. This can range from you having been a ward of the state or some legal document saying that your parent(s) gave up on you.
In my case I could prove my father was the only living parent, but I could not prove that I was ‘estranged.’ If I had had enough money I could have gotten a lawyer and had an investigation done, but obviously I could not afford the cost.
After I finally found the person I needed to talk to at the financial aid office at UCLA, I was there constantly. Every time I came in the counselor needed some other document of information. Then when I would get a packet up to send to the board they would turn it down. I did convince a lawyer who I had known for many years to write a notarized memo on my behalf. That was the final piece of documentation I could come up with.
In the end without a court document there was nothing anyone was willing to do for me except show me how to take out private loans. I did learn an important lesson when dealing with bureaucracy, and that is to always have your paperwork in order, and try to learn as much about the system as possible before you enter. If at all possible known names of the people who have any connection to what you are trying to accomplish.
This is actually made much easier in the Army. Knowing how to write an Army Memorandum makes life so much easier when you are trying to get something done, because if you know how to write the memo you can just give it to your superior to sign, and they are always more willing to sign something if you have already done the paperwork.
Proving you are estranged is a difficult task. It usually involves using some kind of legal document. This can range from you having been a ward of the state or some legal document saying that your parent(s) gave up on you.
In my case I could prove my father was the only living parent, but I could not prove that I was ‘estranged.’ If I had had enough money I could have gotten a lawyer and had an investigation done, but obviously I could not afford the cost.
After I finally found the person I needed to talk to at the financial aid office at UCLA, I was there constantly. Every time I came in the counselor needed some other document of information. Then when I would get a packet up to send to the board they would turn it down. I did convince a lawyer who I had known for many years to write a notarized memo on my behalf. That was the final piece of documentation I could come up with.
In the end without a court document there was nothing anyone was willing to do for me except show me how to take out private loans. I did learn an important lesson when dealing with bureaucracy, and that is to always have your paperwork in order, and try to learn as much about the system as possible before you enter. If at all possible known names of the people who have any connection to what you are trying to accomplish.
This is actually made much easier in the Army. Knowing how to write an Army Memorandum makes life so much easier when you are trying to get something done, because if you know how to write the memo you can just give it to your superior to sign, and they are always more willing to sign something if you have already done the paperwork.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)