Yeah, so if you read about my recent rant about Citi and their dumb ThankYouNetwork policy on shipping to Hawaii or Alaska, you know that they:

  1. Sent me the wrong gift cards.
  2. Had problems with processing orders for Amazon.com gift certificates.
  3. Are pretty UNfriendly when it comes to customer service.

Well, the story gets better.  They did call me back, but it doesn’t end there.  I really want Amazon.com gift certificates if you didn’t know already.

I called yesterday to place my order for Amazon.com gift certificates since they told me to call back in 7-14 days, after they’ve got their “system” problems resolved.  So I did.  Well, I explain my situation to the lady and she says, “I can handle that for you, no problem sir.  I’ll get those gift certificates mailed out to you right away.”

I knew something would come up…it’s happened 3 times already.

A few minutes later she says, “I’m sorry sir, we cannot ship gift certificates to Hawaii or Alaska.”

This time, tired and frustrated, I’m thinking to myself, ”Wait, what??  Didn’t you just ship 4 gift CARDS to me a couple weeks ago?”  So I tell her, “Well, that doesn’t make sense.  What’s the difference between gift cards and gift certificates?”

She replies, “I don’t know sir.  I don’t think it makes any sense either, but according to our contracts with our vendors who ship these rewards out, they have to use UPS ground.”

UPS ground ships to Hawaii…a little more expensive, but the service exists…I’m fine with that though…a lot of companies exclude shipping UPS ground to Hawaii because of the additional costs.  So I say, “Can’t you just use the Postal Service?  It’s cheaper, and that’s how my gift cards were shipped to me.”

“Sorry sir, Amazon.com gift certificates are handled by a different vendor and they must ship via UPS.”

At this point I’m getting a little pissed.  Not only did I get the wrong cards, pay for return shipping myself, waited a couple of weeks, called a few times, used the ThankYouNetwork Credit cards for a couple YEARS, which already ships NO merchandise to Hawaii or Alaska, only “gift cards,” and now I’m being told these gift certificates cannot ship to Hawaii.  I could careless if they have to ship via UPS.

So I tell her everything I just wrote above…No response, except, “Sorry sir, there’s nothing I can do.”

So I say, “Well, I guess I’ll try and figure something else out then…”

She then has the audacity to ask, “Sir, do you want to leave any feedback for the ThankYou network?”

WHAT THE HECK!?!??!?  Is she a robot??  Did you not just hear our entire conversation?  At this point, I’m even MORE pissed.  So I ask to speak to her supervisor.

“Sir, my supervisor can’t do anything…”

“I don’t care, I’d like to speak to him please.”

“Hold on a minute sir.”

….

“Hi, This is Ricardo, Missouri office supervisor.  How can I help you?”

I explain everything AGAIN.

“Sorry Freedumb, our policy for Amazon.com gift certificates is that they must ship via UPS.”

I ask, “Why can gift cards be shipped via the Postal service, but not Amazon.com gift cards?!”

“Policy, sir.”

“Well, the policy is dumb!  What can I do to get it changed?”

“Freedumb, you can write to:

ThankYou Service Center
ATTN:  Center Manager
1900 Meyer Drury Dr.
Arnold, MO 63010

OR

Fax to:  636-282-6506″

I say, “Great Thanks.”  Like I’m going to send a letter there to get placed in the “feedback box,” aka shredder.

{click}

Man, I can’t believe it.  Why couldn’t they have just told me that a few weeks ago??  All this back and forth, only to find out I can’t get these certificates shipped out to me.  Anyway, I ended up getting the certificates shipped to my friend.  He’ll relay them to me or email me the codes.

Bottom line:  Hawaii and Alaska are a part of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA damn it!!!  Include us.