why god hates me

When Adam got stuck on one of Blizzard Beach’s tube rides, he injured his leg and had trouble getting out of the ride. He had to wait over 15 minutes for a wheelchair, and then the medical staff at the water park treated him more or less the way a school nurse would treat someone—with a brochure, some water, and some ibuprofen.

Here’s the letter he sent to Disney describing what happened on his visit last month:

My name is Adam Roca, and I recently visited Blizzard Beach Water Park on August 14, 2008. On one of the rides, I became ejected from my tube and stuck on the ride. In addition, one of my legs became awkwardly stuck underneath me. In attempts to free my leg and move down the slide, I applied pressure on my other leg to free myself. My ankle turned sideways and I fell down the remainder of the ride.

At the bottom of the slide, I called to my girlfriend for help. She told the lifeguard we needed help, and was ignored. Being a trained lifeguard herself, my girlfriend got into the pool to help me away from the slide. She pulled me to the stairs, where she again demanded help. The lifeguard said she was phoning someone. After several minutes, she said that someone would be coming with a wheelchair to assist us.

In the meantime, people kept coming down the slide and haphazardly running into my leg. More time passed, and the lifeguard said the wheelchair had been moved, so we had to wait longer for someone to come and help.

In total, I waited more than 15 minutes, writhing in pain at the bottom of this water slide. Once the person came with the wheelchair, I was assured that the nurse at the on-site medical center would be able to assist me.

At the center, the nurse simply asked if I was able to bear weight on my ankle. When I replied that I was not able to, she handed me a brochure and said I could go there to get X-rays. I told her that I didn’t have health insurance and this wasn’t an ideal solution. She said it was up to me, and that they couldn’t do anything else for me. I told her I was at least hoping for some ice and maybe some ibuprofen, and she complied.

We then drove straight to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, a place where we knew I would be treated regardless of insurance status. They took X-rays and informed me my ankle was broken. I was then referred to a orthopedic doctor and set up an appointment. Within the next business day or two (either 8/15 or 8/18 around 2 pm), I called Blizzard Beach and filed an injury report and issued a complaint against the staff at the park.

At the doctor’s appointment, Dr. Klein confirmed I had broken my fibula, and in addition, I tore my ligament on the other side of my ankle. He said that I would need to get surgery to heal properly so that I could walk again. I had surgery on 8/22/08 at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, and I had a metal plate permanently screwed into my leg.

I have spoken to several lawyers since the accident. They seem fairly confident that at least a claim can be made to recuperate some of the money lost due to my ever-increasing medical expenses (at the moment, they total more than $13,000). Without medical insurance and living below the poverty level, I know this serious debt will mire my possibilities in the future.

I know Disney prides itself in providing entertainment for working families that’s safe and memorable. I would very much like Disney’s help in this time of need. I would particularly hope Disney would take responsibility for its loyal customers while they are on its very property.

Adam, we’re actually surprised Disney didn’t contact you to resolve this. If your letter doesn’t get a response, check out our post on how to write an Executive Email Carpet Bomb, and look here for Disney email addresses.

In response to some of the comments posted on 12 Confessions Of A Home Mortgage Collector, the confessor has sent in a followup letter to answer your questions, and clarify some of his statements.

I have noticed a lot of comments on my Confession from yesterday, and thought I would follow up on some of these.

First of all, anything that I mentioned having to do with bankruptcy was what I learned in investigating bankruptcy laws. I am not a lawyer, I am not in pursuit of a J.D, etc. If you happen to know bankruptcy law I would be interested to learn about it. From experience I have never seen or heard of a mortgage being forgiven by chapter 7. I guess I wouldn’t unless they had called to gloat. I implore anyone to seek legal advice please! Don’t take my word for it at all. I was told that when someone mentions bankruptcy (at all) to stop any collections and cease the call, even if they needed help. That’s the reason I warned against it.

Secondly, it would seem that a majority of people think that I am either a homeowner with a bad experience or a disgruntled employee. I can admit that I was frustrated with Wells Fargo, hence me quitting, but that I did indeed work there. Collections, sixth floor, disaster, escalation, and some loss mitigation (cross trained to help out loss mitigation).

Now I don’t know the site that Stanwell is referring to, but it could not have been my site. In my training class there were 4 people (myself included) that were over the age of twenty. My training class consisted of twenty-some people. Do the math. Out of those 20 or so people me and one other were the only ones with any college experience. Most of the people in that class had graduated high school the summer before. 2 of my 4 supervisors did not have college degrees either. I don’t mean to insinuate that they were not intelligent because of this, it’s just that I would like the biggest investment in my portfolio (the mortgage) to be handled by someone who knows what they are doing and can spell. The last part is no joke: in loan comments there were misspellings that would make E.B. White spin in his grave. One rep wrote “homeowner diseesed as of 05/07.” Really?

Morale is low because, compared to everyone else at my campus, they treated us collectors like crap. The other WFHM collector mentions that time between calls isn’t counted. It was for me. I was a part of a team that blended (because time between calls had been getting extended), which means that in between taking collections calls I was making collections calls. On a typical day I would say that any given “blender” would talk to (not necessarily collect on, though) 100-200 people. A good deal of those were frustrated people that would hang up. I was told that they needed to turn up the speed (how fast the calls come) because I had about 10% down time the day before. There were probably 9 or 10 of us that did this, all the while being paid the same as those of us who didn’t.

As for QA: Wells records all their calls with date and time stamps, however *most of the time* they monitor the calls that they grade live, if it isn’t a busy month. I have no doubt that they monitored a call as late as 9:30. I didn’t mean to insinuate that they NEVER graded anyone after 12pm, they just listen less and less as the day goes on.

Loss mitigation is indeed overwhelmed, but they aren’t doing anything to help themselves out either. I was told on more than one occasion to “just handle the call” when a borrower would call on an active loss mitigation account (which prime inbound collections at my site was told not to handle). I was also given information that I knew to be wrong at least half the time. On a few occasions loss mit reps would place me on hold but forget to hit the mute button, and I would hear them talking about me. This wasn’t common at all, but if it happened to me I would imagine it happened to others.

My supervisors stressed to me that Wells Fargo wants to help your call, so long as it is within the 6-7 minute average handle time. That’s not a lot of time to give customers the individual attention they need. Anything after 6 minutes and I was told “transfer it to customer service.” Customer service was used as the panacea at my site, even though we would frequently transfer calls that had nothing to do with customer service. It wasn’t uncommon to get a call from C/S that had originally gone to collections. It frustrated people, and frustrated people get mad.

There are multiple collections sites. I can tell you that from my experience, mine was the worst. San Bernardino, CA seemed to be the best of them, and as always there are exceptions on both sides. I can only speak for my site, and the experiences that I had with others. I will say that I had a great experience with a rep in CA. She went totally above what she was expected to do and helped me out a great deal.

There are a few things I forgot to mention in my confession as well:

1. Make sure WFHM is reporting your credit correctly. More than once I found accounts where the credit reporting has been messed up by a representative. They aren’t supposed to touch it, but frequently will. WFHM will dispute it for you, but it seems to be a long road.

2. WFHM’s SCRA (Serviceman’s Credit Relief Act) was changed about a year ago to reflect the new policies that they were putting into place. If you have the SCRA active on your account ask what is covered. From the calls I received it would seem that WF did not communicate this. I believe they changed the way the fees were assessed, interest rate, and ability to make collections calls. I am not 100% sure on that though. If you know more about this, Stanwell, please share. I don’t agree with it, but there wasn’t much I could do. I wasn’t a part of Special Loans.

PREVIOUSLY: 12 Confessions Of A Home Mortgage Collector

TAB A: http://www.staples.com/sbd/content/about/media/bios.html
SLOT B: first.last@staples.com

Insert.

You don’t have to believe everything customers say to you when you’re a customer service rep. You don’t even have to actually care. But if you can’t stop yourself from slipping in phrases like “not my problem” when you’re helping out a customer, maybe you need to try a different career. Like, say, parole officer.

This customer wanted to remove his active mobileme address and turn one of his existing email only addresses into his main account. Here’s how the chat went:

Brian: Hi Sheena!

Sheila H: Hello, Brian.

Sheila H: I understand you want to switch your main account and email only account, correct?

Brian: I have a little problem. I need to switch the main mobileme account to an email only account and switch one of my email only accounts to the main account. Is that possible?

Sheila H: Unfortunately, email only accounts are no longer available, so if you cancel your existing email only account, you will not be able to reactivate it.

Brian: I’m talking about current email only accounts. And I’ve been able to reactivate email only accounts since the Mac Plus was around.

Brian: Such as switching making defeatism@me.com into the main account instead of xxxxxxxxxxx@me.com

Sheila H: I understand. However you wish to cancel one account and make it an email only account, that is not possible.

Brian: It’s the main account I wish to cancel. I want to keep the email only accounts.

Brian: Frankly, I’m being harassed and stalked and I just found out I the brain tumor I thought went away didn’t. So my day isn’t really peachy.

Sheila H: Not my problem. Okay. So let me clarify, you wish to cancel your main account (which will cancel your email only accounts), and reactivate your email only account as an Individual account, correct?

Brian: Yeah, um, thanks for the compassion, I just want to get rid of the email address on the main account. If I could convert one of my other email only accounts to a full account, that’d be great. Would that be free under the circumstances or would I just have to buy a whole new subscription to get it done and get started on my email to the Consumerist?

Sheila H: You will need to purchase a new membership because it’s a new account. However, you will receive a prorated refund for your current membership which will be applied to the card it was activated with.

Brian: That would be over six months at this point.

Sheila H: You will be credited for any unused portion of your prepaid membership. Would you like me to cancel?

Brian: Not right now, thanks. I’ll just visit an Apple Store fifty miles away. But thanks for the information and compassion. I hope Steve Jobs reads this.

You stay classy, Sheila!

(Photo: Getty)

Since Katie Holmes and Victoria Beckham have both been in New York City this week, how come they haven’t been hanging out????

In fact, the former best buds haven’t been photographed together in seemingly forever.

We smell a rift!

CLICK HERE for our very very exciting news!

Police have charged Elizabeth Miller, the manager of the Bed, Bath & Beyond in Lexington, Kentucky, who refused to let a couple use the store’s phone to call 911 to report a three-year-old locked in a van, and refused to make an announcement over the store’s PA system. The charge is “failure to report dependency, neglect and abuse, a Class B misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of 90 days and a maximum fine of $250.”

The county attorney quoted in the Kentucky Leader-Herald article points out that common decency should always trump any store policy, misinterpreted or not. In fact, it’s the law!

First Assistant Fayette County Attorney Brian Mattone told the Herald-Leader Thursday that under the duty-to-report statute, everyone has the duty to report dependency, neglect and abuse of a child if they have knowledge of it. Mattone said prosecutors thought that Miller, through witnesses, had knowledge of possible abuse or neglect. Moreover, there is language in the statute that says “nothing should relieve their obligation to report,” Mattone said.

The article also quotes another shopper who says she received a similar response from a different Bed, Bath & Beyond last summer when she saw a dog locked inside a car. Here’s hoping that the company’s “we’re ashamed this happened” response is authentic, and that their employees learn that it’s okay to offer help sometimes.

“Store clerk charged with failing to help child locked in van” [Herald-Leader] (Thanks to Michael and Donald!)
(Photo: Morton Fox)

Just a reminder: you can get free credit reporting services for at least six months by participating in a class action settlement against TransUnion. Carey posted details about it back in June; the deadline to participate is September 24th. (Thanks to Michael!)

“They’ve been downgraded from evil to bumbling.” - Me in FORTUNE about Dell’s online thrusts that attempt to repair their image and listen to their customers more. What do you think? Do you feel any better about them than you did two years ago, or are do their customers still writhe in the eternal flames of “Dell Hell?” Would you add Dell to your Facebook?

Michael Dell ‘Friends’ his customers [FORTUNE]

The next time you’re disputing a 900 number call to a sex hotline and the CSR tells you nobody else could have made that call, remind them of this story. Over the past 10 months, a Verizon technician made 5,000 calls to sex chat hotlines, totaling 45,000 minutes of dirty talk at a cost of $220,000. He placed the calls from over 950 tapped residential and commercial accounts throughout Bergen county in New Jersey. He has since resigned, and been charged with theft by deception and theft of services.

Joseph R. Vaccarelli worked for Verion for 10 years but only started making the calls within the last 10 months, which makes us wonder what exactly happened last November or December to make him launch his non-stop telephone orgy of fraud—and how he got any work done during that time.

Verizon would like everyone to know that not all of its employees regularly call phone sex hotlines and charge the fees to customer accounts:

“We believe this was a highly isolated incident by an errant individual,” Young said. “It should not reflect on the overwhelming majority of our workforce, who bring pride and respect to their jobs every day.”

“Verizon Worker Charged in 5,000 Illicit Sex Calls” [redOrbit] (Thanks to skokieguy!)
(Photo: ernop)