Don't Back Down

Yesterday, I tried to order Vonage service. Mainly because I think Bellsouth stinks. I might get into that more later, but suffice it to say that I've about had my fill of local toll call nonsense. I want back on the unmetered bliss of my cell phone. To be fair, I don't think it's just Bellsouth. I think it's most local land-line telephone companies.

So I spent at least 40 minutes on the phone with them because they are offering a $9.95 special, but you have to talk to someone. That makes no sense. It costs more to talk to someone. Why not provide the special online, to pass along the savings and encourage online sign-ups?

Anyway, I did it and no go - I didn't receive diddly. So I called back today and spent another 30 minutes on the phone to actually order service. I'm beginning to think that the $50 or so I saved just wasn't worth it for this hassle. Of course, there may not have been any better experience with the online process, but still.

Then today, I tried to order a trip through Yahoo! Travel. They actually have some really sweet deals on flight/hotel combinations, and I've used the service before and had nothing but good luck with them. Yet when I submitted my request, credit card and all, I received a 500 error.

I get an email a few minutes later saying that everything checked out and to check the details of the email I just received for reservation info. Hmm. That's odd. No such email. Luckily, there was a link in the email to check the "My Travel" section for reservations. So I did. And lo and behold, there it was, under "Purchased Reservations". Yet I couldn't select it. I tried again because it told me I should. Nada.

So finally I resorted to calling the 800 number. Just about sixty-three minutes later, I managed to (hopefully) cancel the trip so that we don't get billed and can spend our money elsewhere. This is insane! Don't these people realize that they are supposed to be making it easier to do business online, not to spend such ridiculous amounts of time on the phone?

Update: Today I bought airline tickets on the USAirways web site, and that went smooth as it usually does. My faith is (somewhat) restored. Incidentally, for this trip at least, the same exact flight on Yahoo! cost $10 more. That would indicate to me that that amount is their markup. But what do I know?