That is the flaw in thinking: That since they are in business to make money, the Mint would provide "customer service."

When I received the mailing about the Bald Eagle coins on Saturday, I immediately went online to look (and even try to order). On Saturday afternoon, the 13th, the coins were online, to be "for sale" on 01/15/2008 at 12 noon, Eastern Time. So, I waited.

Now, it seems to me that IF the Mint ACTUALLY planned the outage of the site because it was switching providers, it would OR could have said so on its web site, planned with the mailing, since it was so CAREFULLY timed with the release of a new, WILDLY POPULAR, LIMITED EDITION, coin! But alas, they did not. That would make sense. So, was the outage planned?

Then, when you call the mint, you go through one, even two prompts, THEN you get told that they are too busy to take your call and to try again later. Lovely.

When you finally get through, and are on hold for a long, LONG time, the Mint has the AUDACITY to refer you to their web site at www.usmint.gov if you are calling to order the new Bald Eagle coins! Is something amiss? Does one hand know what the other is doing?

When you finally get through to a live rep, then that rep puts you on hold, immediately. Then, during the order process, that rep puts you on hold not just another time, but a total of 3 more times, for a total of FIVE times during the ordering process. Now, I worked in customer service for a long time, but is it really that complicated? I have the item numbers, descriptions, quantity, and everything ready and waiting -- no mystery, no work , nothing "exceptional" to be done.

I've had a lot of poor experiences like this with the Mint recently. When I call them and something required a "Senior Rep" (actual customer service beyond an ordering rep), even though I select the option for that from the phone menu, I am directed to a front line rep, who, invariably is unable to help me. However, they do ALL the verifying of the information, you know, name, address, phone, email, blood type, social security number, favorite food, favorite color, eye color, hair color, drivers license number, passport, that sort of thing.

Then after they realize they can't help you, which you knew from the start, they transfer you to a senior rep who goes through ALL of that AGAIN. When you ask why they didn't share this information with the next person? They ACTUALLY answer "Because we're the government, and we have to do it this way." Once when trying to explain logically to the front line rep that this is exactly what was going to happen, and couldn't he just please transfer me to the Senior Rep, he insisted he needed to verify the information. I asked if the Senior Rep would then have to verify all the same information, to which he replied yes. Then why can't he just transfer me? "Because we're the government" was again the answer -- BELIEVE IT, OR NOT. When I tried to refuse, I was actually told "So, you're going to be difficult about this." I responded "Actually, it's YOU whose being difficult about this." When I relented and finally started giving him everything he wanted, in a slighted frustrated tone, he screamed "QUALITY CONTROL: CUSTOMER ANGRY! DISCONNECTING CALL" and hung up on me. Now, I use that same line when dealing with them. "Quality control, customer angry, CUSTOMER disconnecting call!" I just HOPE it one of probably RARE FEW calls that gets recorded/monitored.

BANG HEAD HERE!