So on Wednesday night after I’d opened some girly lotions and manicure stuff, he sat down in front of me and handed me a velvet jewelry box (don’t get excited, it was bigger than *that*, more the size you’d find a necklace in). I pried the box open and found myself looking at this:

To say I was a little confused would be accurate. I tried to think of what to say, my mind was racing. I think I had come up with “Oh! A whistle!” and “for safety…right?” before he said “Look at the sides”.

On one side is engraved:

To Lara

And on the other:

Just Whistle

Tonight, I’m doing that in front of the computer instead – can you imagine if I had a record of all those birthday-eve thoughts from years past? It would be amazing, so here is my new tradition – writing them down.

This year, my 39th, had it’s ups and downs as any year does, but it was mostly good. I have everything pretty much everything I need to make me happy, as previously noted. My birthday falls so late in the year it’s hard to remember back to the summer, but I know I had a wonderful summer – I hiked (including the Chief and the Grouse Grind), I swam in lakes (one secluded and quiet, the other full of slashing dogs and children). We spent sunny days in Squamish and Whistler and lovely evenings on patios – home and away.

I’m anything but materialistic, but I have a few things on my wish list I’d like to purchase before this time next year, and a few non-material goals too:

• I’d like to move to a bigger apartment, one with LAUNDRY (This is how I know I’m old).
• I want a new car. Not an upgrade, but a new-to-me car. My first car was a 1969 Volkswagen Bug, the same vintage as me, and ever since the new Bugs came out I’ve wanted one. I drive probably once every two or three weeks so I do NOT need a fancy new car and can’t justify the expense, but I’m going to sell my boring reliable Corolla and buy a used Bug this year, damnit.
• A VACATION! It has been WAY TOO LONG. Between moves and new jobs and recessions, vacations have fallen down the To Do list and they need to be moved to the top of the list this year, no matter what.
• I want to swim more. I took swimming lessons twice this year but have dropped off of them since the last session ended in mid-October. I love being in the water, it helps with my stress level and it helps keep me fit – I have no idea why I stopped.
• Add the two above and you get…snorkeling. I LOVE snorkeling and I haven’t snorkeled since the day of the tsunami, five years ago. No excuse for that. I will snorkel this year.
• I need to get myself back in better shape. I always say I gain weight when I’m unhappy (“oh screw it, my life sucks anyways, I’m ordering pizza and drinking wine”), but apparently I do it when I’m happy too (“let’s cuddle on the couch and eat pizza and drink wine, k?”). I need to dedicate two or three months to knuckling down on the food and wine and exercise fronts and just get ‘er done.
• I want to buy and learn to use a REAL camera. This is something I’ve wanted to do since high school (not kidding) but have been thwarted by the lack of money to buy a decent camera. I need to make it a priority.

Now that I’ve written it down, this is my 40 list and I won’t edit it. Come back next year to see how I did.

• Rogers made me lose my shit and I started talking smack about retarded three year olds. Also: I blew up their website
• And then I was like “I’m gonna tell Twitter on you” and they were all like “I’m not allowed to play with Twitter” and I said “Ya well, you suck”
• So then Rogers said “I’m not listening LALALALALALALA” and I was like “NO SHIT, SHERLOCK”
• Then Rogers said “Ya well, you OWE ME MONEY, pay up or else” and I said “No YOU owe ME money” and they were all “I know you are but what am I?”
• @RogersHelps stepped in and said “Hey, hey, what’s going on here, kids?” and that night the principal’s office, I mean the president’s office, called and promised to give me back my lunch iPhone money

Yes, that’s about where I left off.

So. I spoke to someone in the president’s office on Tuesday night and he said he was actively looking into the matter and would call me back the next night. I (very calmly, I may add), reiterated my concerns with their customer service:

• I was given misinformation about the best way to place an order
• Their e-care system allowed me to order a back-ordered item without any indication (or follow up) that there would be a delay
• They screwed up canceling the port request on the e-care order
• I had to speak to multiple people to find someone who could correct the port request issue
• I was given misinformation about when I could expect to receive my refund
• Their phone system assumed I was a Pay As You Go customer, making it hard to reach the right department
• Their phone system repeatedly cut me off
• They passed me around to multiple customer service reps, none of whom could help
• No one could find any evidence of the e-care order or its cancellation
• The fact that I had an e-care order prior to being a customer Blew.Their.Damn.Minds
• It took over 45 minutes to ultimately be told “umm, can’t help you. sorry.”
• Their customer contact page bombed out when I tried to contact them through their site
• The responses I received in reply to my emails were devoid of any useful information
• Their customer service staff had a complete lack of understanding regarding the implications of me taking my complaints to Facebook and Twitter
• Their own staff is unaware of the @RogersHelps Twitter account
• Their system failed to keep a complete record of their dealings with me, which led to their accounts receivable department demanding payment from me while the credit owing to me was still in dispute

He agreed that the things I experienced were neither appropriate nor in line with the kind of customer service Rogers wants to provide its customers.  He acknowledged there is a need for work to be done on some of their “back-end” processes, especially surrounding e-care, and he told me he’d call back the next day.

Early Wednesday morning , Miranda at @RogersHelps sent me a message on Twitter, asking if the matter had been resolved.  I let her know I was expecting to hear back sometime during the day, and I did – that evening I received a voicemail leting me know that they would know the “timeline” for when I could expect my refund by Friday.  Not super impressive, but a step in the right direction.

Miranda continued to follow up with me on Twitter and on Thursday afternoon, I received a final call from the president’s office – he said the refund had been processed the night before, (on Wednesday, September 23) and I should expect to see it on my credit card statement within a few business days (it showed up on Saturday – only two or three days after it was eventually processed). He apologized for the experiences I had with Rogers, especially given that I am a brand new customer.

Additionally, in order to somewhat compensate me for the significant amount of time I spent trying to resolve this matter, and for the frustration and roadblocks I faced along the way, my first month’s bill has been written off. That and the acknowledgment they had, indeed, dorked me around was enough to satisfy me and bring this matter to a close.

Am I terrified I may have to contact customer service in the future? Yeah, a bit. But I’m hopeful Rogers is trying to reach out to their customers in new ways, including Twitter, and I know they have at least one awesome customer service rep, Miranda at @RogersHelps.  I am positive that without Miranda’s help I would still be trying to storm Rogers’ customer service brick wall with email and phone calls and swear words.

Finally, I need to emphasize that this matterwas ultimately resolved using Twitter, and I’m delighted it was – but I have another post brewing in my head about that.

Prizes:

1. A bottle of champagne and a movie ticket – winner is JANICE!
2. A movie ticket – winner is ME!
3. A box of Theatre Style popcorn – winner is Gail!

For the first place winner, just so you know, I would totally share with you.

And yes I can enter and yes, I can win. Why? Because I’m making the rules.

Good luck, here is the link:  Oscar Pool