As some of you know, my wife and I chose to get an au pair to help us with our son after my wife's mother returned to Thailand two years ago. The au pair experience is wonderful but finding the right au pair proved to be trickier than we thought and dealing the company that we went through, one of a few that are approved by the US Department of State for this purpose, to find the au pair turned out to be a completely negative experience. I thought I would share some of our frustration with you in case you decide to go down this path. In the end, it is worth it if you find the right au pair but you should prepare yourself for how these companies operate.
There are only a few companies that are approved by the US Department of State to participate in the Au Pair program. I am sure that the US Department of State has very strict rules and lots of red tape that they have to go through. However, I still find it hard to swallow the way in which they do business. For our purposes, we chose Au Pair Care. From talking to other host families, I am not sure that they are any worse than the other companies.
The first thing you should understand is that these companies only want to act as the middleman. They take very little responsibility for the quality. character, experience, and work of the au pair. While the Department of State has regulations about the experience of the au pair, Au Pair Care deals with companies in foreign countries who provide the infromation they use to prove the experience. When dealing with third-world countries (Thailand in our case), you should realize that US rules and regulations mean little to the foreign companies and documents certifying experience are easily obtainable by anyone. Basically, you pay the au pair company for an introduction and paperwork to get the au pair admitted to the US and very little else. The au pair companies to provide "emergency travel insurance" to the au pair and does check in with you once a month to make sure everything is going okay but they do very little else--even when you have a problem and ask for their help.
During the interview process, you are provided a list of names, contact info, some information that the au pair has provided about themselves, and little else. You must contact the au pairs, speak with them about who you are, what you are looking for, and basically try to get to know them over the phone. Depending on the au pair's English skills (which seem to be less than what you would want--at least for thoise coming from Thailand), this itself can prove difficult. The other big problem is that you don't really know the motivation of these people for wanting to be an au pair. It may be a honest desire to expereince the culture of another country and learn, or it may be just a way for them to get into the country to find a spouse so that they can escape their country. Unfortunately, you have no way of knowing this upfront.
During one of our last au pair searches, we found a girl from Rayong, Thailand who my wife thought was perfect. They hit it off well, spoke virtually every day on the phone for a month, and even called us when she had finally passed her visa interview process in Bangkok about 1 week before her flight to the US. the Thursday before she was supposed to arrive in the US the following Monday, we got a call from Au Pair Care to inform us that the girl had dropped out of the program and would not be coming to live with us. When I asked what they planned to do to help us in this situation, their response was that they would provide us a list of au pair that were currently in the US and looking for new homes. While that might have been all that you could expect, it certainly wasn't very comforting given the fact that we were now forced to scramble to make last minute childcare arrangements with less than a week's notice.
After a few weeks, we found another au pair that was currently in San Francisco so we matched with her and paid for her ticket to Dallas. After a few weeks, it became clear that she was just not going to work out. After much discussion with my wife, we opted to let her go and leave the au pair program. When I contacted the Area Director to let her know, she was cordial and concerned with finding the au pair a new family (which was good). When I asked her about processing a refund of the excess fees we had paid (you have to pay for a year at a time--upfront), she said she didn't know how that worked and would get back to me. She never did. When I emailed her a few weeks alter, she never even bothered replying to my email.
Finally, I called Au Pair Care's main office in San Francisco to enquire about the refund. When I finally got the right person on the phone, she told me I needed to speak with the Area Director, who initiated the refund process. When I explained to her the situation, she started challenging me if I had p[rovided written notice to the Area Director of my intention to terminate and explicitly asked her for a refund (as if I was just going to let them keep the extra money???). After forwarding her email proving that these communication had in fact happened, she proceeded to tell me that the contract I had signed only allows for refunding $275 per remaining month (the fee they charged were $600 per month)--and only if we are in the first 6 months of a new contract (fortunately, we were). The thing that really frustrates me is that it doesn't matter that the au pair they provided was completely negligent in their duties, beats your kid, whatever--they keep the money if you decide to withdraw from the program for any reason.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Windows has Gone Too Far
Today, I am in Hong Kong and decided to leave my laptop at the hotel since I didn't really need it for my customer meeting. Because I have been trying to finish up my new book, I left the chapter I am proof-reading open along with my email and several other applications without thinking anything about it (do it practically every day for the past...er, well way too many years).
Today, when I got back to the hotel, I unlocked the screen saver by logging in. I wasn't really paying attention, even though it was taking longer than normal to get into the computer, until I saw a little balloon dialog from the Windows Update icon in the system tray. The message was informing me that Windows had not only automatically downloaded and installed a security update (unfortunately, Oracle has set it up where I cannot disable this) but that the security updated required an "automatic restart" of my machine--what??? Yes, that's right. Windows just decided that it was okay to reboot my PC, regardless of what state my applications were in, because I wasn't there to object.
I'm sorry Microsoft but that is unacceptable. What gives you the right to force the reboot of my machine without my permission and lose all my unsaved work? Since I have never, ever seen this behavior before, I must assume that this is something new that the big brains in Redmond thought up. I have to tell you, it is a terrible idea and from now on, I will make sure to unplug my laptop from the network before leaving it idle...or better yet, maybe I will finally just make that switch to Linux or MacOS. Microsoft, get a clue...
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Paying for the Privilege of Repairing a Defective Product
It is no wonder that our economy is in the state that it is in. Businesses no longer seem to care about providing quality products and services to their customers. I recently purchased a new BFG Technologies video card for my computer from Best Buy for approximately $250. The card worked great for the first week or so and then I accidentally unplugged my computer while it was running. When I restarted the system, the card no longer displayed the color white correctly -- it showed it as bright yellow and everything had a yellowish tint.
Since I had thrown out the original box, I called BFG Tech Support directly. After waiting on hold for 15 minutes or so, I was finally connected to a live person who spent 30 seconds or so taking my basic information and problem description before coming to the conclusion that I needed a replacement card. They offered an advanced replacement option whereby in exchange for my credit card number, they would ship me a new one and supposedly a return shipping label. The new card arrived and it resolved my issue but then I went to figure out how to return the old card so that I wouldn't be charged for the new one.
The box that the new card arrived in was empty. Finally, I found one of the emails that was sent to me right after I called BFG Tech Support with a link to the return process. I went to the web site, printed out the return shipping label and such and started reading the instructions. Come to find out, I was responsible for paying for the return shipping for this card. To add insult to injury, they have very prominent warnings that I should purchase additional insurance in case the card was damaged during the return (wasn't it already damaged?).
I just don't get it. How do companies feel that it is the customer's fiscal responsibility to pay for shipping back their crappy products that don't last 2 weeks and therefore need to be replaced under their own warranty?
Next, I go to the UPS Store (owned by UPS, right?) to ship the card back. The replacement card came in a standard UPS shipping box so I asked the UPS Store for a new UPS box to use to return the package. Guess what they told me? Oh, we don't order UPS boxes so that we can sell boxes instead. What??? As if the shipping costs aren't enough, they need to charge me for the box too?
Finally, the return instructions told me to inform the UPS Store that I was retuning this card under the BFG Corporate Account program. Having no idea what this meant, I went ahead and told them. Apparently, UPS allows corporate customers to specify their own requirements and guidance for people shipping under these corporate programs. Some of the features of the BFG program were to remind me to purchase additional insurance to cover the cost of their already broken card and to charge me $25 for packaging the card for return shipping. Fortunately, the UPS Store person understood my frustration and simply exited the BFG Corporate Account program and shipped it normally at the lowest possible cost.
So, for the privilege of buying a defective product from BFG Technologies for $250 plus tax, I was granted to privilege of wasting an hour or so of my time, paying for the gas to drive from my house to the UPS Store and back, and paying approximately $10 for shipping and the box. How likely do you think I will be to buy another BFG Technologies card the next time I am in the market for a video card?
Companies these days seem to be run based solely on statistics. If there are , for example, 100 million computer users in the world and if 2% of them use a BFG video card and if 2% of them have a defective card and get poor customer service, that means BFG risks losing 40,000 potential future customers out of their 2 million customers to save themselves approximately $400,000. If the average profit they make on all video cards they sell is $50 per card (probably on the high side), that means that they can afford to lose up to 8000 customers that actually would buy another video card and still break even. For businesses, this is an acceptable way to do business but it isn't fun to be a customer in this sort of environment...
Monday, 17 November 2008
The Land of Opportunity -- but only for some
I usually try to avoid posts that are political in nature but I have been pushed over my personal limit. My political views are mixed, replublican in some ways, democratic in many others, and more liberal than either in a few. So many Americans have never spent any real time outside the US (other than a vacation in Mexico or Western Europe) so it is easy to see how this sort of thing happens...it still doesn't make it right.
As many of you know, my wife is not originally from the US. As such, her command of the English language is not that great, having lived here for only 2 years. Growing up in a country where the alphabet bears no resemblance to what we know as the alphabet, she is still struggling to learn to read English. Even so, she is trying very hard to learn to drive in the US (she already has a Thai and International driver's license).
Today's saga started in June of this year when I found out that Texas actually would allow her to use a translator to help her take the written portion of the Texas Driver's test. We signed her up, found a friend that could be her translator, and she went in to take the test. She got like 18 out of 30 questions right, she needed 21 right to pass. We thought this was great so she went back to study for a few weeks so that we could make sure she passed the next time.
Three weeks later, we go back to the Texas Driver's License office to take the test again. It turns out that the week before, the Agency in Austin had issued a memo that said translators could no longer be used and everyone must take the test in English or Spanish. I was livid but at the end of the day, there really isn't much an ordinary person can do to fight the government in such situations. Fortunately, the test is given by computer in Texas and the computer speaks the questions so we thought that with enough study, she still might be able to pass.
She tried 2 more times with the computer but failed because of the language issue. So we regrouped, she spent several months studying with Thai friends helping her and she was ready to go. Today, we went to the Driver's License office to refile the application (in Texas, you get 3 chances to pass the test then you have to refile the application) so she could take the test. When we got there, we were informed that due to a recent policy change, she was no longer able to apply (for anything) because her greencard only has 5 months left on it.
Just a quick sidebar for those that have never dealt with US immigration, when you are granted permanent residence to the US because of a family connection (e.g., married to a US citizen), they look at how long you have been married at the time the card is to be issued. If it is less than 2 years, they issue you a temporary greencard good for 2 years that is conditional upon you being married. If at the end of those 2 years, you are still married, you can apply for a permanent greencard and remove the conditional aspect of it. When applying to renew your greencard, the US goverment will not allow you to apply until 3 months before the expiration date.
The real kicker here is that this is the State of Texas making policy that goes against the US government policy. From a legal standpoint, she can leave and re-enter the US until the card expires, she can work, she must continue to pay taxes, etc. -- but she isn't able to apply for a learner's permit to learn to drive. Texas says that a driver's license is a privilege not a right -- but they are unable to explain to me what gives them the right to deny her a privilege that according to US law she should be eligible for.
As many of you know, my wife is not originally from the US. As such, her command of the English language is not that great, having lived here for only 2 years. Growing up in a country where the alphabet bears no resemblance to what we know as the alphabet, she is still struggling to learn to read English. Even so, she is trying very hard to learn to drive in the US (she already has a Thai and International driver's license).
Today's saga started in June of this year when I found out that Texas actually would allow her to use a translator to help her take the written portion of the Texas Driver's test. We signed her up, found a friend that could be her translator, and she went in to take the test. She got like 18 out of 30 questions right, she needed 21 right to pass. We thought this was great so she went back to study for a few weeks so that we could make sure she passed the next time.
Three weeks later, we go back to the Texas Driver's License office to take the test again. It turns out that the week before, the Agency in Austin had issued a memo that said translators could no longer be used and everyone must take the test in English or Spanish. I was livid but at the end of the day, there really isn't much an ordinary person can do to fight the government in such situations. Fortunately, the test is given by computer in Texas and the computer speaks the questions so we thought that with enough study, she still might be able to pass.
She tried 2 more times with the computer but failed because of the language issue. So we regrouped, she spent several months studying with Thai friends helping her and she was ready to go. Today, we went to the Driver's License office to refile the application (in Texas, you get 3 chances to pass the test then you have to refile the application) so she could take the test. When we got there, we were informed that due to a recent policy change, she was no longer able to apply (for anything) because her greencard only has 5 months left on it.
Just a quick sidebar for those that have never dealt with US immigration, when you are granted permanent residence to the US because of a family connection (e.g., married to a US citizen), they look at how long you have been married at the time the card is to be issued. If it is less than 2 years, they issue you a temporary greencard good for 2 years that is conditional upon you being married. If at the end of those 2 years, you are still married, you can apply for a permanent greencard and remove the conditional aspect of it. When applying to renew your greencard, the US goverment will not allow you to apply until 3 months before the expiration date.
The real kicker here is that this is the State of Texas making policy that goes against the US government policy. From a legal standpoint, she can leave and re-enter the US until the card expires, she can work, she must continue to pay taxes, etc. -- but she isn't able to apply for a learner's permit to learn to drive. Texas says that a driver's license is a privilege not a right -- but they are unable to explain to me what gives them the right to deny her a privilege that according to US law she should be eligible for.
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
US Airlines - The State of the Industry
Travel today isn't what it used to be. Long lines, antiquated security procedures (have you seen the new X-Ray machines where you no longer need to remove your laptop/camcorder from your bag?), packed flights, and aging airplanes are just the start of the problems facing US passengers trying to get from point A to point B. Given that I fly a lot, I have gotten used to a level of service that people who don't fly a lot haven't seen in a long time and even those of us who do seems to be quickly losing it too.
I recently had the privilege of flying from Dallas to San Francisco for meetings at our company headquarters. My saga began on the return flight. I showed up at the airport around 5:00 AM for my 6:00 AM return flight to Dallas. Not realizing that not only was it Easter weekend but it also was the start of Spring Break for many schools and weather delays the previous day in Dallas and snow in Chicago had made a mess of the airport. Even the First Class and Automated check-in lines were very long so I ended up not making that magic "40 minutes before departure" checkin window. Given that I was sitting in First Class and my top tier status, I just assumed that I would either be able to stand by or get another flight to Dallas later in the day so I proceeded to stand-by on the 6:55 AM flight using the automated check-in machine and gave up my bag to the lady behind the check-in counter.
After going through Security, I proceeded to the Admiral's Club to try to assess my situation. It seems that all the weather delays had clogged the already jam packed system (remember, US carriers have cut back the number of flights so much that virtually every flight these days is completely full under normal conditions). I found out that my chances of making the stand-by flight were not good even though I was number 2 on the list (and the list was 30 people long) because the flight was already oversold. When I asked to find another flight, even routing through one or more other cities, I was told after half an hour or more that there simply were no seats available anywhere that would get me to Dallas that day. So, I decided to try the standby anyway.
Suffice it to say that I didn't make the stand-by flight (they were asking for 8 volunteers to take a later flight so I knew I was in trouble) so I decided that rather than wasting the entire day at the airport, I would just book a flight the following morning and go get some work done. I went back to the Admiral's club to get them to send my bag back up to the front counter. Come to find out, my bag had successfully stood by on the 6:55 flight even though I hadn't. Now, I realize that airlines sometimes violate the TSA policies by sending bags on different flights than the owners but I couldn't believe it. They had no idea when/if I would ever be able to get to Dallas yet they felt like it was okay to just send my bag anyway.
Have you ever seen how they collect these bags? Basically, they wait until everyone has grabbed the bags and then they pick up any that are left and stick them in storage -- there is absolutely no security to make sure that someone doesn't just pick up your bag and walk off with it. Fortunately, I was able to call my wife and have her go to the airport to claim my bag when the flight landed. However, it just amazes me the level of apathy in the US airlines and their employees these days.
I was half tempted to go up to the baggage office when I got back to Dallas the following day and ask them where my luggage was just to see what would happen and what, if anything, they would be willing to do to compensate me for losing my bag...but I decided not to if for no other reason than to avoid the frustration.
Many of you may be unaware but apparently, the US has just eliminated some of the restrictions on our airspace so that it is easier for foreign air carriers to compete with the US carriers for the lucrative international routes (direct flight from Dallas to Bangkok, anyone?). My sense is that this will be the tipping point that will finally either force the US carriers to either change their ways or go out of business. If you have never flown one of these foreign air carriers, I strongly urge you to try them. In general, their planes are newer and their service is better (especially the Asian carriers like Cathay, Singapore, and Thai).
Will there come a day when I have the choice to book my flight from Dallas to Chicago on either Cathay Pacific, British Air or Lufthansa? One can only hope...
I recently had the privilege of flying from Dallas to San Francisco for meetings at our company headquarters. My saga began on the return flight. I showed up at the airport around 5:00 AM for my 6:00 AM return flight to Dallas. Not realizing that not only was it Easter weekend but it also was the start of Spring Break for many schools and weather delays the previous day in Dallas and snow in Chicago had made a mess of the airport. Even the First Class and Automated check-in lines were very long so I ended up not making that magic "40 minutes before departure" checkin window. Given that I was sitting in First Class and my top tier status, I just assumed that I would either be able to stand by or get another flight to Dallas later in the day so I proceeded to stand-by on the 6:55 AM flight using the automated check-in machine and gave up my bag to the lady behind the check-in counter.
After going through Security, I proceeded to the Admiral's Club to try to assess my situation. It seems that all the weather delays had clogged the already jam packed system (remember, US carriers have cut back the number of flights so much that virtually every flight these days is completely full under normal conditions). I found out that my chances of making the stand-by flight were not good even though I was number 2 on the list (and the list was 30 people long) because the flight was already oversold. When I asked to find another flight, even routing through one or more other cities, I was told after half an hour or more that there simply were no seats available anywhere that would get me to Dallas that day. So, I decided to try the standby anyway.
Suffice it to say that I didn't make the stand-by flight (they were asking for 8 volunteers to take a later flight so I knew I was in trouble) so I decided that rather than wasting the entire day at the airport, I would just book a flight the following morning and go get some work done. I went back to the Admiral's club to get them to send my bag back up to the front counter. Come to find out, my bag had successfully stood by on the 6:55 flight even though I hadn't. Now, I realize that airlines sometimes violate the TSA policies by sending bags on different flights than the owners but I couldn't believe it. They had no idea when/if I would ever be able to get to Dallas yet they felt like it was okay to just send my bag anyway.
Have you ever seen how they collect these bags? Basically, they wait until everyone has grabbed the bags and then they pick up any that are left and stick them in storage -- there is absolutely no security to make sure that someone doesn't just pick up your bag and walk off with it. Fortunately, I was able to call my wife and have her go to the airport to claim my bag when the flight landed. However, it just amazes me the level of apathy in the US airlines and their employees these days.
I was half tempted to go up to the baggage office when I got back to Dallas the following day and ask them where my luggage was just to see what would happen and what, if anything, they would be willing to do to compensate me for losing my bag...but I decided not to if for no other reason than to avoid the frustration.
Many of you may be unaware but apparently, the US has just eliminated some of the restrictions on our airspace so that it is easier for foreign air carriers to compete with the US carriers for the lucrative international routes (direct flight from Dallas to Bangkok, anyone?). My sense is that this will be the tipping point that will finally either force the US carriers to either change their ways or go out of business. If you have never flown one of these foreign air carriers, I strongly urge you to try them. In general, their planes are newer and their service is better (especially the Asian carriers like Cathay, Singapore, and Thai).
Will there come a day when I have the choice to book my flight from Dallas to Chicago on either Cathay Pacific, British Air or Lufthansa? One can only hope...
Sunday, 13 January 2008
United Airlines - How to travel without a ticket
In November, my wife and I decided that she and my son would go with me on a business trip to Asia so that they could go visit my wife's family while I was traveling around Asia on business. This was a great opportunity for her family to meet our son and spend time with him plus it gave me a way to spend my weekends, plus an opportunity to grab a few days off in Thailand after my business was concluded.
I was traveling to Asia from San Francisco at the end of Oracle Open World. We decided at the last minute that she and my son would fly to San Francisco and then we would travel together to Bangkok, before I continued onto Bangalore. I called United Airlines Mileage Plus Premier Executive Desk to make my wife's and my son's reservations. The agent explained that my son needed a paper ticket to fly internationally so she would set it up and pay for it using my credit card but that my wife would need to pick up the ticket at the Dallas airport on the morning of the flight.
Since I was already aware of this restriction, having traveled with them to Germany in October, I asked hom much my son's ticket would be. I forget the exact price she quoted but it was between $160 and $170. I was happy to hear that since his ticket to Germany (when we were flying in business class) was over $1100 and told her I wanted to go ahead and purchase the ticket using the same credit card I used for my wife's fare. She said she would take care of it so I thought nothing more about it.
Come the day of travel, my wife (who is still learning English) arrived at the check-in counter and was told that my son needed a ticket to travel. In a panic, she calls me and I get on the phone with the agent. The agent tells me again that my son needs a ticket to fly. I explained to the agent that I was well aware of the fact he needed a ticket and that the Premier Executive desk had told me that they not only set up the reservation but had paid for the ticket. I continued by telling the agent that if they had not already done so, to please set up the roundtrip ticket and have my wife pay for it with her credit card. The agent said she would take care of it so I thought nothing more about it.
When my wife arrived in San Francisco, she handed me the boarding passes for the three flights needed to get her and my son to Bangkok, along with a airline ticket jacket. Since we were in a hurry, I didn't bother looking for the ticket or receipt for the ticket even though my wife told me that she didn't pay for anything at the airport.
We checked in for our flight to Tokyo and off we went toward Thailand. The transfer in Tokyo was also smooth and we finally arrived in Bangkok, worn out but safe and sound in Bangkok. I though nothing more about the ticketing situation since my son obviously must have had a ticket or they would never have issued boarding passes from Dallas to Bangkok, right?
Wrong! When we went to check in at 5:00 AM at the new Bangkok airport to fly home, the agent was asking me for the paper ticket for my son because she was unable to find anything in the computer about his reservation/ticket. After a 5 week business trip, I had tons of receipts, airline boarding pass stubs, etc. to sort through but I finally found the ticket jacket that my wife had handed me a month earlier in the San Francisco airport. It had no ticket!
I promptly produced my son's boarding passes from Dallas to Bangkok and asked the agent how on earth we couldn't have a ticket but yet were able to travel from Dallas to Bangkok with my infant son. The agent was at a loss but said that we would have to purchase a one-way ticket from Bangkok to Dallas or we would be unable to board the flight. After arguing with her and her supervisor, I relented to buy the ticket and sort it out later. The one way ticket price was $7340 Baht, roughly a little more than $220. That made even more angry since the original round-trip fare was over $50 less but it was clear that the United Ailines employees in Bangkok were just not equipped to deal with such a situation so I paid the fare and we flew home.
Once we got back, I promptly contacted United's Customer Service to explain what had happened and ask for at least a refund of the fare difference that I had ended up paying because of their employees' multiple mistakes in handling our travel. To make a long story short, the customer service agent basically told me that there was nothing they could.
In this era of supposedly super tight airport security, how is it that we were able to get United Airlines to issue boarding passes for my infant son and take him all the way to Bangkok without a ticket? It makes you realize that the security process has holes in it big enough to drive a truck through...
I was traveling to Asia from San Francisco at the end of Oracle Open World. We decided at the last minute that she and my son would fly to San Francisco and then we would travel together to Bangkok, before I continued onto Bangalore. I called United Airlines Mileage Plus Premier Executive Desk to make my wife's and my son's reservations. The agent explained that my son needed a paper ticket to fly internationally so she would set it up and pay for it using my credit card but that my wife would need to pick up the ticket at the Dallas airport on the morning of the flight.
Since I was already aware of this restriction, having traveled with them to Germany in October, I asked hom much my son's ticket would be. I forget the exact price she quoted but it was between $160 and $170. I was happy to hear that since his ticket to Germany (when we were flying in business class) was over $1100 and told her I wanted to go ahead and purchase the ticket using the same credit card I used for my wife's fare. She said she would take care of it so I thought nothing more about it.
Come the day of travel, my wife (who is still learning English) arrived at the check-in counter and was told that my son needed a ticket to travel. In a panic, she calls me and I get on the phone with the agent. The agent tells me again that my son needs a ticket to fly. I explained to the agent that I was well aware of the fact he needed a ticket and that the Premier Executive desk had told me that they not only set up the reservation but had paid for the ticket. I continued by telling the agent that if they had not already done so, to please set up the roundtrip ticket and have my wife pay for it with her credit card. The agent said she would take care of it so I thought nothing more about it.
When my wife arrived in San Francisco, she handed me the boarding passes for the three flights needed to get her and my son to Bangkok, along with a airline ticket jacket. Since we were in a hurry, I didn't bother looking for the ticket or receipt for the ticket even though my wife told me that she didn't pay for anything at the airport.
We checked in for our flight to Tokyo and off we went toward Thailand. The transfer in Tokyo was also smooth and we finally arrived in Bangkok, worn out but safe and sound in Bangkok. I though nothing more about the ticketing situation since my son obviously must have had a ticket or they would never have issued boarding passes from Dallas to Bangkok, right?
Wrong! When we went to check in at 5:00 AM at the new Bangkok airport to fly home, the agent was asking me for the paper ticket for my son because she was unable to find anything in the computer about his reservation/ticket. After a 5 week business trip, I had tons of receipts, airline boarding pass stubs, etc. to sort through but I finally found the ticket jacket that my wife had handed me a month earlier in the San Francisco airport. It had no ticket!
I promptly produced my son's boarding passes from Dallas to Bangkok and asked the agent how on earth we couldn't have a ticket but yet were able to travel from Dallas to Bangkok with my infant son. The agent was at a loss but said that we would have to purchase a one-way ticket from Bangkok to Dallas or we would be unable to board the flight. After arguing with her and her supervisor, I relented to buy the ticket and sort it out later. The one way ticket price was $7340 Baht, roughly a little more than $220. That made even more angry since the original round-trip fare was over $50 less but it was clear that the United Ailines employees in Bangkok were just not equipped to deal with such a situation so I paid the fare and we flew home.
Once we got back, I promptly contacted United's Customer Service to explain what had happened and ask for at least a refund of the fare difference that I had ended up paying because of their employees' multiple mistakes in handling our travel. To make a long story short, the customer service agent basically told me that there was nothing they could.
In this era of supposedly super tight airport security, how is it that we were able to get United Airlines to issue boarding passes for my infant son and take him all the way to Bangkok without a ticket? It makes you realize that the security process has holes in it big enough to drive a truck through...
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
United Healthcare and the state of US healthcare industry
Recently, I found out that I needed to travel yet again to Europe and Asia for business pursposes. Because of scheduling, I needed to be away from home for a little over 3 weeks. Since my wife has a cousin that lives in Germany that she had not seen in several years, I decided that I would take her and my son with me and let them stay with my wife's cousin. All that was standing in the way was a VISA for my wife (who is a Thai citizen and therefore needs a VISA to most countries).
The first issue was that Germany now requires all VISA applicants to apply in person. The nearest emabssy to us is in Houston. No problem there, a nice 4 hour drive and a chance for a quick weekend getaway to the beach (in Corpus Christi -- not Houston!).
The next issue was that the German VISA requirements require proof of health insurance coverage for at least $37,500 while traveling in Germany. No problem, we have great insurance through my employeer so I set out to contact United Healthcare (UHC) to ask for a letter for coverage verification for obtaining the VISA...and this is where our saga begins.
On the first call to UHC back in July, I explained what I needed and the person on the other end of the phone said that this was no problem and something that they did every day and the letter would be sent out within 15 working days. This was a little longer than I expected but still within a workable timeframe for us.
Five weeks later, I still hadn't received the letter so I called up UHC to find out what happened. The person on the other end of the phone said that they didn't know what happened but connected me with the "Rapid Response Unit" (RRU) to help me get the problem resolved quickly. The person at the RRU took my information and agreed to get the latter faxed over to me within the next day or so.
A day (or so) later, I received a fax with a generic letter stating that we did indeed have emergency coverage when traveling outside the US but it did not have any dollar amount limits on the coverage. Worried that this was going to be insufficient for the German consulate, I called the UHC RRU back and asked to speak to a manager. The manager was pleasant enough and explained that this was a standard letter that people used everyday to obtain VISAs and reassured me that this letter would be sufficient for the German consulate to issue the VISA. While I was still a little skeptical, I decided that this person must have more experience than me regarding this so I let to go and prepared our VISA application.
On a Friday morning in early September, we arrived at the German consulate to apply for the VISA. The application process went relatively smoothly until we got to the insurance coverage letter. The woman working at the consulate basically said that the letter was insufficient because it did not contain any information about coverage limits. I tried explaining to her what the UHC RRU manager had told me and her reply was that "people applied for VISAs every day with letters from all sorts of insurance companies that contained these coverage limits specified in dollar amounts". So, she accepted our application but told us that we needed to provide additional information regarding insurance coverage before the VISA would be approved.
Once I got back to the car, I called the UHC RRU back. I explained my situation and how we were being caught between UHC and the German governement. The man on the phone was very sympathetic and suggested that they could reissue the letter with the maximum lifetime coverage limits. He promised to escalate this to his manager to try to get it out to us that day, or at the latest by Monday. Excellent, or so I thought, so now we can go onto Corpus for a relaxing weekend at the beach!
On Monday afternoon, I still had not received the new letter so I decided to call them up (being a little anxious since we were scheduled to leave that Friday afternoon for Germany). Once again, I got connected to the UHC RRU and I calmly explained the entire situation to the lady who answered the phone. Her first comment was that there was no record of my call on the previous Friday and that even if there was, the man could not promise to send the letter that same day because it takes a minimum of 48 hours even in emergency situations. I explained to her how I had been trying to get this letter for 2 months (or so) and that I was running into a deadline (flight leaving in 4 days). She was completely unsympathetic but agreed to escalate this to her manager to try to get it resolved.
At this point, I had pretty much given up on getting resolution from UHC so I called American Express Platinum Travel Service to see about getting travel insurance to satisfy the medical insurance requirement for getting the VISA. They conntected me with a thrid-party comapny who, for a fee of $80, signed us up for travel insurance over the phone and faxed the proof letter both to me and the German consulate within an hour.
I felt relieved but was still nervous about whether we would get my wife's passport back in time to catch our flight on Friday afternoon. I went to the German embassy's web site to get the number to call them after not receiving the passport on Tuesday. I found the number, the hours they accepted calls (in the afternoons), and another very disturbing piece of information -- the embassy was closed on Wednesday for a German holiday!
So, I started thinking of the various scenarios for resolving this within our deadlines (including another trip to Houston to pick up the passport on Friday morning and a very fast drive back to the DFW airport to catch the plane) since I would not be able to talk to anyone until Thursday afternoon. I decided to try a longshot and sent them email asking for the status. Fortunately, Thursday morning I got a reply saying that the passport had been sent out on Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive Thursday afternoon. It did and my wife and son had a great time in Germany visiting her cousin.
On our return, we found a rather disturbing letter from UHC stating:
Dear Mrs. Patrick
RE: Foreign Coverage Benefits
Medical services rendered outside the United States are covered at Out of Network Benefits.. All foreign claims should be submitted to P.O. Box 740817 Atlanta, GA 30374
Sincerely,
Transaction Resolution Specialist
What a fitting end to the saga. UHC didn't even try to address our need. It is clear that the person I spoke to last didn't care about solving our problem, only about getting rid of us and marking my case as "resolved" (presumably because her job assessment is tied to resolving cases rapidly).
If I step back away from this situation to look at it objectively, it is clear that the reason UHC does not put dollar amounts of coverage on these VISA letters is for fear of being sued by people looking to make a quick buck and/or exploit the system. It is a sad state of affairs when our country has come to a point where honest people cannot get (very simple) service that they have paid for through our medical insurance industry.
Insurance companies, like every other publicly owned company, are being pushed by unreasonable market expectations to continually increase revenue at unsustainable rates. The only way that most companies can even have a chance at meeting these unattainable goals is to cut services, raise rates, and cut their own costs to the bone. In the long run, it is the consumers that bear the brunt of these changes by paying more and more money for less and less service until we get to the point where we are paying for services that companies never intend to honor.
Where will it all end?
The first issue was that Germany now requires all VISA applicants to apply in person. The nearest emabssy to us is in Houston. No problem there, a nice 4 hour drive and a chance for a quick weekend getaway to the beach (in Corpus Christi -- not Houston!).
The next issue was that the German VISA requirements require proof of health insurance coverage for at least $37,500 while traveling in Germany. No problem, we have great insurance through my employeer so I set out to contact United Healthcare (UHC) to ask for a letter for coverage verification for obtaining the VISA...and this is where our saga begins.
On the first call to UHC back in July, I explained what I needed and the person on the other end of the phone said that this was no problem and something that they did every day and the letter would be sent out within 15 working days. This was a little longer than I expected but still within a workable timeframe for us.
Five weeks later, I still hadn't received the letter so I called up UHC to find out what happened. The person on the other end of the phone said that they didn't know what happened but connected me with the "Rapid Response Unit" (RRU) to help me get the problem resolved quickly. The person at the RRU took my information and agreed to get the latter faxed over to me within the next day or so.
A day (or so) later, I received a fax with a generic letter stating that we did indeed have emergency coverage when traveling outside the US but it did not have any dollar amount limits on the coverage. Worried that this was going to be insufficient for the German consulate, I called the UHC RRU back and asked to speak to a manager. The manager was pleasant enough and explained that this was a standard letter that people used everyday to obtain VISAs and reassured me that this letter would be sufficient for the German consulate to issue the VISA. While I was still a little skeptical, I decided that this person must have more experience than me regarding this so I let to go and prepared our VISA application.
On a Friday morning in early September, we arrived at the German consulate to apply for the VISA. The application process went relatively smoothly until we got to the insurance coverage letter. The woman working at the consulate basically said that the letter was insufficient because it did not contain any information about coverage limits. I tried explaining to her what the UHC RRU manager had told me and her reply was that "people applied for VISAs every day with letters from all sorts of insurance companies that contained these coverage limits specified in dollar amounts". So, she accepted our application but told us that we needed to provide additional information regarding insurance coverage before the VISA would be approved.
Once I got back to the car, I called the UHC RRU back. I explained my situation and how we were being caught between UHC and the German governement. The man on the phone was very sympathetic and suggested that they could reissue the letter with the maximum lifetime coverage limits. He promised to escalate this to his manager to try to get it out to us that day, or at the latest by Monday. Excellent, or so I thought, so now we can go onto Corpus for a relaxing weekend at the beach!
On Monday afternoon, I still had not received the new letter so I decided to call them up (being a little anxious since we were scheduled to leave that Friday afternoon for Germany). Once again, I got connected to the UHC RRU and I calmly explained the entire situation to the lady who answered the phone. Her first comment was that there was no record of my call on the previous Friday and that even if there was, the man could not promise to send the letter that same day because it takes a minimum of 48 hours even in emergency situations. I explained to her how I had been trying to get this letter for 2 months (or so) and that I was running into a deadline (flight leaving in 4 days). She was completely unsympathetic but agreed to escalate this to her manager to try to get it resolved.
At this point, I had pretty much given up on getting resolution from UHC so I called American Express Platinum Travel Service to see about getting travel insurance to satisfy the medical insurance requirement for getting the VISA. They conntected me with a thrid-party comapny who, for a fee of $80, signed us up for travel insurance over the phone and faxed the proof letter both to me and the German consulate within an hour.
I felt relieved but was still nervous about whether we would get my wife's passport back in time to catch our flight on Friday afternoon. I went to the German embassy's web site to get the number to call them after not receiving the passport on Tuesday. I found the number, the hours they accepted calls (in the afternoons), and another very disturbing piece of information -- the embassy was closed on Wednesday for a German holiday!
So, I started thinking of the various scenarios for resolving this within our deadlines (including another trip to Houston to pick up the passport on Friday morning and a very fast drive back to the DFW airport to catch the plane) since I would not be able to talk to anyone until Thursday afternoon. I decided to try a longshot and sent them email asking for the status. Fortunately, Thursday morning I got a reply saying that the passport had been sent out on Wednesday and was scheduled to arrive Thursday afternoon. It did and my wife and son had a great time in Germany visiting her cousin.
On our return, we found a rather disturbing letter from UHC stating:
Dear Mrs. Patrick
RE: Foreign Coverage Benefits
Medical services rendered outside the United States are covered at Out of Network Benefits.. All foreign claims should be submitted to P.O. Box 740817 Atlanta, GA 30374
Sincerely,
Transaction Resolution Specialist
What a fitting end to the saga. UHC didn't even try to address our need. It is clear that the person I spoke to last didn't care about solving our problem, only about getting rid of us and marking my case as "resolved" (presumably because her job assessment is tied to resolving cases rapidly).
If I step back away from this situation to look at it objectively, it is clear that the reason UHC does not put dollar amounts of coverage on these VISA letters is for fear of being sued by people looking to make a quick buck and/or exploit the system. It is a sad state of affairs when our country has come to a point where honest people cannot get (very simple) service that they have paid for through our medical insurance industry.
Insurance companies, like every other publicly owned company, are being pushed by unreasonable market expectations to continually increase revenue at unsustainable rates. The only way that most companies can even have a chance at meeting these unattainable goals is to cut services, raise rates, and cut their own costs to the bone. In the long run, it is the consumers that bear the brunt of these changes by paying more and more money for less and less service until we get to the point where we are paying for services that companies never intend to honor.
Where will it all end?
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