Dealing with the U.S. Mint

I’ve had trouble with mint for years, and sometimes it’s been worse than today.

Back in 1984, the mint sold the LA Olympics three piece coin set in two parts. One year you got one of the silver dollars. Then you got the other dollar and the $10 gold piece, which priced at over $300. At that time, $300 met something.

To make the story shorter, they lost my order for the gold coin. After several calls where I got nothing but the run around from low level people. Then I got through to a big boss. He explained to me that the mint had farmed the accounting function out to a private party, and that that group had mishandled the ordering function. People who had ordered coins had been dropped from the system.

I had paid by check, and fortunately I still had the concealed check. That’s how I finally got the coin. If I had not followed up, I would have gotten nothing.

 

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This has been a unique year without a doubt. They sold a lot of product that they didn't have "ready to go" for shipping. Best case it seems to take weeks to get anything from them. The rest is yet to be seen. They raised prices and lowered packaging quality. Their website can't handle demand. Its every man woman and child for themselves when something goes on sale. Their customer service sucks. If you have no internet, their CS may be able to help you. Otherwise they never know anything that you aren't capable of finding on their website yourself.
The products have to be outstanding and not only retain value but increase in value, to make the rat race "kind of" worth it. They've re-written the playbook on how to lose customers.

 

I don't know what your experience has been with France, but mine was first hand. I lived in Verdun and a small town and base. While in Verdun, I had no contact because I did everything on the base. However, when my father was transferred to a small base on the outside of a small town of Brienne La Vie (I'm not good on spelling French names). Due to the lack of housing on base, we had to live on the "economy" as the military called it. My father found a house that was split in two. We lived on one side and a French family lived on the other. My parents had to deal with 4 teenage children a 14 year old boy 15 year old girl, a 17 year old boy, and an eighteen year old girl. There was a constant battle between our home and theirs. I know we were loud sometimes, but the youngest 3 were in school at Verdun, 90 miles away. They call the French Police on my family several times. At 16, I had to sign up with the French draft, so that if I was still living in France when I was 18, I would have to serve in the French Military. President/General Degaulle (sp?) decided that they wanted autonomy while we were living there. He would not sign up with NATO (as I recall). He cancelled all debts of funds that the United States had loaned them. Finally, he closed all the U.S. bases in France. We were forced to move to Germany the night of my high school graduation.
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