The Twitter hammer

[bill_schubert]

I don't follow any more of social media than is required in a first world country especially since I'm retired and don't have to.  But I keep my Twitter account.  And Reddit.  And LJ.  And try to have them serve me rather than own me.

Twitter is a great tool my sister susandennis taught me how to use to good effect when dealing with companies and I've got an excellent example.

We have a cooperative electric here.  They did really well in last winter's grid collapse and are dependable and reasonably priced and I like them.  But I had a payment bounce recently.  An oversight by me.  I had over $3k in an adjacent savings account but did not have overdraft set up.  So for a day or two my electric payment was bouncing around.  It got covered soon as I knew about it.  

Then today I get a letter in the mail threatening disconnect.  I knew it was an automailer thing the computer spit out but after nearly 200 payments without a hitch I get a disconnect threat when one is a couple of days late.  

So I hit them on Twitter saying they might want to reconsider their process.

And got a phone call from a manager type who agreed with me, saw my point, and at least said they would consider a better way to do it.  My point to her was that the policy as currently running was just mean and unnecessary, especially now days (actually I might have also used the word draconian but don't tell anyone).  She said they would refund my penalties ($39 worth) and look at the policy.

I went back out on Twitter and thanked them.

The way things should work.  Every now and then.

Comments

[susandennis]

nice and classy all around...

[sleepybadger.livejournal.com]

I love good stories like this! Though I hate that sometimes it takes publically shaming a company on twitter to get them to do anything.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was perhaps another process I should have brought up. A method of redress. I first called customer service but of course the person who answered did not know or have power to discuss it.

[anais-pf.livejournal.com]

Nice!

I never used to use Twitter until I took over partial responsibility for our state Green Party Twitter feed as part of my State Committee work. It can be very depressing to scroll through the party's feed. But then I'll switch over to my personal Twitter account that I never used to use, and I can both read and write to the likes of famous authors and musicians. It's kind of cool.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

I love the series "The Expanse" and have exchanged Tweets with the actors directly. It is pretty neat.