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[Erin]

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[Kirsten]

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[coloradohermit]

Contacting the White House
Mailing Address

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

 
Phone Numbers

Comments:   202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

 
 

[Roy J. Tellason]

just have them dial eight six seven five three oh niiieiiinneee

Phone companies dont use that number because of the song, so just throw on a random area code and say 867-5309 with a straight face. Nobody ever gets it.

Actually there's a town in this area that uses the 867 exchange,  and reportedly when that song was being played a lot there were some folks that had the number and had to get it changed because of idiots that'd call it...

[enemyofthestate]

just have them dial eight six seven five three oh niiieiiinneee

Phone companies dont use that number because of the song, so just throw on a random area code and say 867-5309 with a straight face. Nobody ever gets it.

I've used it before,.  If I say it with a different rythm than the song people don't seem to catch on.  Eight-Six-Seven <pause> Five-Three <pause> Zero Nine.

How about 867-99-5309 when some busybody asks for your SSN.

I support monkywrenching.  The more bogus data there is in the databases the more mistakes will get made and the more people get screwed over by the state.

How's that saying go?  A conservative is a liberal who's been mugged.  A libertarian is a conservative who's been arrested.

[Libertyordeath]

I had a similar experience at an Albertson's store a couple of years ago.  I worked 40 miles from home and commuted back and forther everyday.  I used to stop at the Albertson's once a week on  my way home from work as there are no stores close to where we live. One day the clerk rang up my grocery's and I wrote them a check.  She preceded to ask me ''what was doing on their side of town? '' ''Why I was shopping so far away from my home ?'' Where did I work so they can verify I have legitimate business in their town? ''   

  I was floored by the questions and refused to any of them. I told her that the last time I looked this was still America and not communist Russia and I had a right to shop where ever I choose.   She called over her manager and he asked me the same questions. I told him the same thing I told the clerk. ''It is none of your business ! ''  He told me it was their policy to ask these questions when they get a check from someone so far away.  I advised him that I had been shopping at their store for 3 years and they ought to know me by now or be able to check their system to see if I have ever written a bad check.

 At that point he said I either had to answer his questions or they would not take my check. I told him to hand me back my check and I would go somewhere else.  He handed it back to me and I told them to put away all their grocerys. 

 I left them with several bags of stuff to put away and went 2 blocks down the street to King Soopers. They took my check without the slightest bit of complaint and absolutely no intrusive questions.

  The next day I called the Albertson's main headquarters office and spoke to a manager.  I told him what had happened and that I was outraged at being treated so badly when I had been a customer of theirs for several years.  His response to me was '' I am glad they are following MY policy. ''  I pretty much went off on the guy at that point and told him what a Nazi I thought he was, ect. I advised him that he had lost a customer at that point.  He did not respond to that.  I gathered he could not care less.

  I had been stopping at the same store for 3 years and never had to answer questions like that. I gather it must have been a new poilicy for anyone who writes a check and lives in another town. I have not shopped at another Albertson's store since.

  Most of the Albertson's stores here are now out of business. Hardly a surprise since they started hassling their customers. Even one's they KNOW.

  Any company that asks for intrusive information I stop shopping at. If more people would do that, they would quickly change their policy or go out of business as Albertson's did.

[Roy J. Tellason]

I wish I had that kind of a choice when it comes to cheap broadband...

Right now the choices I have here are three:  The deal verizon is offering,  which is "$14.95" (actually $16 and change) a month, which ain't all that far from the $14.95 (actually) a month I was paying for dialup before.  Then there's the cable company.  For some reason,  Comcast wants to charge you *way* more for broadband if you don't happen to already be a cable subscriber.  Fifty-something bucks a month?  I can't afford it and I can't justify it.  Third choice is one of the DSL resellers,  but they're more expensive.

So anyway I've been going round and round with Verizon.  They've "billed" me for three months now for my DSL service.  And the payment was supposed to be done with this debit card I have attached to my checking account.  Only they haven't managed to do so to date.  There's some stuff about it on my home page (click on the little thingy over there on the left...  :-).  Only it gets better.  I'm about to update that sometime soon,  I think,  as soon as I get caught up with some other stuff.

I saw the third invoice listed on the "my account" stuff on their page.  And nothing happened.  They've got the card number (twice now,  in case there was some kind of an error in entry the first time),  the money is there.  So I wrote them:

Is there a problem with my account?

I have provided the necessary information for this account to be billed to a card,  more than once.  I see now three months worth of unfulfilled invoices on the web site,  and am wondering what the heck is going on here.

Please feel free to contact me in this matter so that we can resolve it.

And here's the first form letter reply I got:

Thank you for contacting Verizon Online.  We have received your message and will respond within 24 business hours.

In future correspondence with us on this matter, please refer to the tracking number that appears in the subject line of this e-mail. When replying back to us via e-mail, please use your mail program's reply function to maintain this tracking number in the subject line.

You may also visit your My Account area located at
https://netservices.verizon.net/portal/site/myaccount for detailed information about your Verizon Online account.

Well,  guess what,  I didn't receive any reply within 24 hours,  nor 24 "business" hours.  The bill date was the 22nd,  that was sent on Friday,  the 25th.  I get another form letter from them yesterday,  and then this,  pertaining to this matter:

Thank you for your recent email.  We appreciate your inquiry and understand your concerns.  Unfortunately, we are unable to resolve this issue via email.  In order to assist you, we request that you please contact our Billing office at 1-800-567-6789.  This office is open 8am to 6pm EST Monday through Friday.  We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to helping resolve your issue.
       
Sincerely,

William Withers
Customer Service Representative
Verizon Online Broadband Sales and Services Center

Here we go again...  (If you looked at the stuff on my home page you'll see that this is the exact same pattern that went down before.

My reply?  Well,  I could've left it at one word but I didn't,  quite:

No.  We've gone round about this one before,  and I'm not going to do it again.  Please refer to earlier emails or advise me if they are not available and I will be happy to forward copies.

This issue will be resolved via email or it won't be resolved at all.

It's MY time,  that's the one thing that's uniquely MINE and they want me to waste it,  trying to deal with idiots that think I'm going to talk to a bloody machine to get into their stupid system in the first place (and I won't!) and then sit there on hold so that the next thing that happens is at the convenience of their staff,  so they can optimize their call center operations,  and screw ME in the process.

Fuck 'em.

This is supposed to be the 21st century,  right?  This is supposed to be a time when businesses know WTF email is and how it's supposed to be used,  right?  One more form letter,  ostensibly from the same person:

Thank you for your recent e-mail message.  We appreciate you taking the time to provide us with your feedback. We are sorry to hear that you have had a less than pleasant experience with our company. We hope that you will give us an opportunity in the future to make it up to you in some way.

Verizon Online is committed to delivering high-quality Internet service.

Should you have any additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Despite the experience you have had, we appreciate your business and value you as a customer. Thank you for choosing Verizon Online as your Internet Service Provider.

I've responded to that one-line paragraph in the middle of that before with two words:  "Prove it."

We'll see where this goes.

[bill_IN]

i like to give old jennys number 8675309

[spidey]

I had a similar experience at an Albertson's store a couple of years ago.  I worked 40 miles from home and commuted back and forther everyday.  I used to stop at the Albertson's once a week on  my way home from work as there are no stores close to where we live. One day the clerk rang up my grocery's and I wrote them a check.  She preceded to ask me ''what was doing on their side of town? '' ''Why I was shopping so far away from my home ?'' Where did I work so they can verify I have legitimate business in their town? ''   

  I was floored by the questions and refused to any of them. I told her that the last time I looked this was still America and not communist Russia and I had a right to shop where ever I choose.   She called over her manager and he asked me the same questions. I told him the same thing I told the clerk. ''It is none of your business ! ''  He told me it was their policy to ask these questions when they get a check from someone so far away.  I advised him that I had been shopping at their store for 3 years and they ought to know me by now or be able to check their system to see if I have ever written a bad check.

 At that point he said I either had to answer his questions or they would not take my check. I told him to hand me back my check and I would go somewhere else.  He handed it back to me and I told them to put away all their grocerys. 

 I left them with several bags of stuff to put away and went 2 blocks down the street to King Soopers. They took my check without the slightest bit of complaint and absolutely no intrusive questions.

  The next day I called the Albertson's main headquarters office and spoke to a manager.  I told him what had happened and that I was outraged at being treated so badly when I had been a customer of theirs for several years.  His response to me was '' I am glad they are following MY policy. ''  I pretty much went off on the guy at that point and told him what a Nazi I thought he was, ect. I advised him that he had lost a customer at that point.  He did not respond to that.  I gathered he could not care less.

  I had been stopping at the same store for 3 years and never had to answer questions like that. I gather it must have been a new poilicy for anyone who writes a check and lives in another town. I have not shopped at another Albertson's store since.

  Most of the Albertson's stores here are now out of business. Hardly a surprise since they started hassling their customers. Even one's they KNOW.

  Any company that asks for intrusive information I stop shopping at. If more people would do that, they would quickly change their policy or go out of business as Albertson's did.

I had that happen to me quite a bit in the Montana/Wyoming area at the Flying-J's.  Their policy was to ask questions or for a government issued ID if you lived more than 40 miles away.  Strange coincidence...

My response was pretty much the same as yours

[anachronism]

No- Epilogue.

I went to Target yesterday, bought a similar TV, at a lower price- go figger, paid cash and left with it. No questions, no drama, nothing. They did ask if I wanted to apply for a Target card, but took "no" for an answer, without any kind of fuss.

[Rarick]

I had a similar experience at an Albertson's store a couple of years ago.  I worked 40 miles from home and commuted back and forther everyday.  I used to stop at the Albertson's once a week on  my way home from work as there are no stores close to where we live. One day the clerk rang up my grocery's and I wrote them a check.  She preceded to ask me ''what was doing on their side of town? '' ''Why I was shopping so far away from my home ?'' Where did I work so they can verify I have legitimate business in their town? ''   

  I was floored by the questions and refused to any of them. I told her that the last time I looked this was still America and not communist Russia and I had a right to shop where ever I choose.   She called over her manager and he asked me the same questions. I told him the same thing I told the clerk. ''It is none of your business ! ''  He told me it was their policy to ask these questions when they get a check from someone so far away.  I advised him that I had been shopping at their store for 3 years and they ought to know me by now or be able to check their system to see if I have ever written a bad check.

 At that point he said I either had to answer his questions or they would not take my check. I told him to hand me back my check and I would go somewhere else.  He handed it back to me and I told them to put away all their grocerys. 

 I left them with several bags of stuff to put away and went 2 blocks down the street to King Soopers. They took my check without the slightest bit of complaint and absolutely no intrusive questions.

  The next day I called the Albertson's main headquarters office and spoke to a manager.  I told him what had happened and that I was outraged at being treated so badly when I had been a customer of theirs for several years.  His response to me was '' I am glad they are following MY policy. ''  I pretty much went off on the guy at that point and told him what a Nazi I thought he was, ect. I advised him that he had lost a customer at that point.  He did not respond to that.  I gathered he could not care less.

  I had been stopping at the same store for 3 years and never had to answer questions like that. I gather it must have been a new poilicy for anyone who writes a check and lives in another town. I have not shopped at another Albertson's store since.

  Most of the Albertson's stores here are now out of business. Hardly a surprise since they started hassling their customers. Even one's they KNOW.

  Any company that asks for intrusive information I stop shopping at. If more people would do that, they would quickly change their policy or go out of business as Albertson's did.

I had that happen to me quite a bit in the Montana/Wyoming area at the Flying-J's.  Their policy was to ask questions or for a government issued ID if you lived more than 40 miles away.  Strange coincidence...

My response was pretty much the same as yours

Flying J's are truck stops. WTF?  They are going to find the guy going elsewhere real quick, a lot of truckers are in that job for "minimum Hassle".  Don't bug the dots

[coloradohermit]

Who's agitating the dots?

[Rarick]

Flying J's is mucking with the dot's!

Then again they are the Wally World of truck stops...........

[gaurdduck]

I once had an... ummm... experiance, with Dick's Sporting Goods. I wanted to buy a filet knife and a bandolier.
They wanted to see my driver's lisence, another form of ID, they wanted my SSN, my phone #, and my address.
Firstly, I don't have a driver's permission slip, secondly, I don't give any of that info out except my phone# and adress, and then only to my buddy M who delivers my chinese food. M is a fellow freedom lover, and almost an anarchist, and I've known him for more than a year.

A sporting goods store is another thing entirely, Showing them my state issued non-liscense ID just weren't enough. It wasn't like I was buying a gun, or ammo. They wouldn't let me buy the rather expensive knife but they would let me buy the ammo belt, so I bought it because I was gonna go hunting and diddn't have time to get one elsewhere. Though I recall that I made a big scene out of it and called the moronic manager a nazi enabler. I told the rather annoying cashier and manager that the guys who ran the gas chambers at the nazi deathcamps were just doing their jobs too, and not to feel bad that they were undermining privacy rights that so many of our soldiers fought and died for.

I just might be part jewish mother. LOL.