How to Get Your Way or What I Learned From My Mom

I guess for Mother's Day everyone has been posting things they have learned from their mom. What have I learned from my mom? To get what you want done. In fact, as I was telling Owen this story, his response was "You are your mother."

I order stuff from the States all the time. I ordered some pants for the upcoming trip to South Africa (because I don't own warm pants) from Zappos. Occasionally, I use my US credit card and sometimes my Singapore card. For this order, I used my Singapore credit card. So I received an email from them a few days ago saying that they are having trouble with my account and if I could give them a US credit card that would solve the problem. I sent them the information. The next day I get another email saying they have already processed my Singapore account and that they need my address in Singapore. So I wrote back and gave that to them. Then I get another email saying they are having problems with my account, could I send the billing address for the US credit card. I send that to them. Then they send me an email today saying I need to CALL them because they are still having a problem with my account and that they haven't heard back from me. Each time they sign their emails with The Zappos Customer Loyalty Team.

This is where I lose my mind. When I lost my mind, I wrote this:

Dear Zappos aka worst Loyalty Team ever,

I have already responded to your last email. Here is a copy of the email I have already sent you. (attached a screen shot of the email) What more information could you possibly want from me. I have sent you ever bit of information I have about myself. No, I'm not going to call you because that would be expensive and ridiculous. Obviously, I don't live in the US, nor do I want to be on hold with your 1-800 number. I order stuff all the time from the USA and never have any problems. I am very disappointed in your handling of this simple order and will be writing a negative customer service review as soon as I can find that on your website. Please respond immediately to this email and let me know what you don't understand about all of the information I have sent you.

P.S. Yes, Singapore is a CITY and a COUNTRY. A simple Google search would have cleared that up for you.

The email I received about 30 seconds later was this.

Thank you for shopping with Zappos. Your order #292342372 was processed and should arrive in 4-5 days.

Thank you,

The Zappos Loyalty Team

Not that my mom would have sent an email as rude as that one. (I had a long day.) But I learned from her that it doesn't hurt to make a few threats (poor customer service review) and explain clearly what you want done. I feel like it's like a Jedi quality to tell people what they are going to do. My mom is not as much of a smart-ass as I am, but she would get do what she could to 'take care of business'. She would also want to know what the problem is and how to solve it. I'm not sure if I learned this or just inherited it. At this point, all similarities between us ends. She is much kinder than I am and more patient with customer service people.