QL_714

I guess they do not know this crowd. Even after they receive their 5k some will still complain about the 83k.

QL_714

If it wasn’t for the audience there would be no show!

uszkanni

Another data point. 2nd set of 2,500 miles posted to my AA account today, about a week or so after they first showed up on the eshopping site. Didn't have to send any e-mails to Catera or anything like that.

When I made my purchase I did so to get the miles, but I can accpept that the 83,000+ figure was a mistake. Still, I'd sure like to hear their expanation of what happened (not that I ever will) and the actual number of miles that Verizon intended to give out for the items in question.

jonny1

Eshopping is taking too long to give me the second 2500 miles

Marathon Man

oh yes, one day you/we will all know what exactly happened. You can count on that.

MM

Firewind

I wonder if there's an additional explanation. Not a replacement for the Grand FUBAR one that's already obvious. Not to give an inch to Cartera.

Some of this reminds me of the Budget-Delta fiasco of about 2008. 5,000 mi./rental if you added a GPS, minimum 1 day. The poor guy at SBA actually asked me if I had a job for him, because he was practically working for me. Amp that up a few orders of magnitude back at Budget's home office. We were a tsunami. It looked as though the miles would never show up. Two years, a few thousand FT posts (and a large number of BBB complaints) passed... they began to show up.

A little insight, perhaps: Separately, I once contacted Dollar CS to follow up on miles that hadn't shown up at an airline. The person who answered said, "Oh, let me forward you to the person who handles that." ...

The 83K will never show up, but I'll bet there might be some parallels in the backstory. Staff up, and hire people with judgment. No, first hire people with judgment, then staff up - with smart people.

[Then there was the CO => Amtrak => ChoiceHotels => Southwest alchemy. Another day for that story...]

Marathon Man

I couldnt agree with you more my friend... and this gig reminds me of many things I have seen over the years in here.

Sadly, however, this Carterian blunder and the United MoM Carterian blunder are the ones finally making me throw in the towel with all things mall.

the simple sad fact is this:

They will probably NOT hire smart people with judgement because they want to save money. They make money by crimping on everything around them in order to create the belief that this is saving it.

And like so many things, they simply do not see that one of the ways to have saved money would have been to have hired smart people with judgement in the first place. A little up front cost would have saved them a boatload in the end!

Again, I cite the wondrous example from a poster yesterday who basically did nothing but sit back and buy ONE iTune for $1.29 and ended up with 5k AA miles. Cartera's stupidity caused them to take a bath.

Sadly, the people who may ultimately pay for it will be the you and me of the future:

~lessened mall offers (ie, a store that would have offered 5 miles per dollar now offers 2 or 3)

~longer wait times for miles to post (they get paid on commissions. If they hold the funds longer they can work with those monies more and more before paying out, just like many of us have done in the past when buying coins with our CCs and using the money for things until we need to pay the CCs back on a certain due date. So in order to lengthen the amount of time these Careterians can float that commission money and pay out money, they simply slow down the post time and further delay the processes that pay out our miles!)

~possible further devaluation of miles. Right now, it is said that Cartera views a mile as being worth $0.03. Imagine if this changes for the worse!

~less people to solve issues (as if the ones in place now do anything--if you can even reach the right ones!)

~the hiring of less experienced personnel that cost less to employ... and this results in badly designed and presented pages, like, oh, the new United mall that, when it rolled out, looked like something we might see in a beta test!

~Further farming out of jobs and tasks, so that malls and other features may be created or managed by people who arent even part of the parent company (similar to when a company hires a CS department overseas only worse, because at least those companies actually do train those people to some level)

~And more.

then again, I'm one of the drama queens in here so what do I know?


Here are the FT lyrics for a popular 70s Abba tune you all may know and will now hum no matter what

You can scan, you can buy
Having the mileage time of your life
Ooh see that promo, watch that FT scene
Dig in the forum drama queen

Friday night and the lights are low
Not looking out for a place to go
Sit where you play the right music, at home alone by your PC
You come in to look for an award king

Anybody could be that guy
Night is young and the music's high
With a bit of CC savvy, everything is fine
You're in the mood for an online mall dance
And when you get the mistake fare chance

You are the forum drama queen
Not so nice or sweet, only seventeen [posts]
Drama queen, feel the click-and buy scene
From the mouse and keyboard and screen, oh yeah

Firewind

1) +1! Moreover, it compounds itself. Once the failure begins, it gets worse [insert "squared" sign]. And the repair more and more difficult, taking a higher and higher level of customer relations skill.

2) Thanks for the ear worm... *Dancing into the kitchen trying to shake it*

krishna

Yes, let us fight together. Also, I did not have a chance to return the three $59 headphones. They should do better than 2500 miles. Moreover, I received only 2500 miles. I bought 3 headphones, and two cell phone protectors.

Thanks
Krishna

MilesTalk

From all the recent posts it seems like a sweep was done. Yet all that happened for me yesterday was that my Staples purchase from 10/1 finally showed up ;-) So I hope there are more sweeps to come.

No second miles yet and no response at all from CS when I asked for an estimate.

Marathon Man

While the fight continues, I will repeat to all parties watching that fixing issues, quickly handling all customers, and communicating where things are as they happen is most important at this conjecture. PR is, therefore, must have in the world of Cartera. It needs work. But they can do it if they try. Otherwise a whole lot of people just don't shop through the malls no more!

That said, I emailed them this just now to: [email protected]:

Hi again Petra,

I had mentioned some issues with the 2500/2500 miles that are to come in both my own and my wife's AA accounts.

I would like to confirm that as of now, my AA account #xxxxxxx, shows this: ESHOPPING MILEAGE COMPENSATION 2,500

So you are aware, I did also make two purchases through the mall. One is from BestBuy on 8/15 and that has yet to post (they always take 2 months!) and the other was from Staples on 8/13. This has already posted to my AA mall account for a confirmed 142 miles on 8/30. It has yet to make its way over to my AA mileage account. This purchase and/or the BB one ought to trigger the second 2,500 Eshopping compensation.

*********

For my wife's AA account, #xxxxxxx, the story is a bit different. She too performed the same attempts for Verizon product purchases - buying the very same things I bought in fact, and in the same way, with the same type of card on the same date. This information was supplied to you/AA at the same time as mine was. Her AA mall account currently shows no eshopping pending or other reference to the first 2,500 miles.

As well, she too performed two transactions: One from BestBuy on 8/31, so it may still take some time since those are so slow, and a second one at Plow & Hearth on 9/21, which posted on 9/23 for 239 miles. This is still pending in her AA mall account. While there may be some waiting to do on seeing her second 2,500, we have no idea what's up with her first 2,500 and while you have many people to go through on this, we were just curious how to proceed.

**************

FYI: I sent in documentation on my Delta account Verizon order and my Priority Club Verizon order by mail but have yet to see any postings on those either. I mailed them in late September, however... but I thought I would bring it to your attention again.

Thank you,

ME

Gamecock

Just received the second bolus of 2,500 miles.

bitachu

got my 2nd 2500 miles....now i'm not going to monitor this thread..to much..i'll just wait for my class action lawsuit settlement post card

MrHalliday

Wiki: In digestion, a bolus (from Latin bolus, ball)
is a mass of food that has been chewed at the point of swallowing.
Once a bolus reaches the stomach, digestion begins.

Cheapskate Travels

And, what happens to the bolus after digestion? It turns into a steaming pile of...