It's long. But must be said.
It is a special torture to attempt to engage with Uli--beyond just the insulting, eye-watering rate of $15 for every golden minute--(as if it's a call with a world-famous neurosurgeon that is providing life-saving brain surgery advice)---we all know just gaining ACCESS is nigh impossible.
BUT...if fate happens to smile on you, and if the stars perfectly align, or in some cases, if you're 'allowed to buy' your spot in the shadow queue, not shown online--and you actually get into the queue...unless your are amazingly lucky--it can be, as it has been in my case--just the beginning of the odyssey to HELL.
It appears, that with in-demand readers, like this--California Psychics frequently will boot you out of your long-waited for, hard fought for, SPOT IN LINE without your knowledge, any alert or explanation, until you call and get into an armwrestling contest about how outrageous the practice is. And MAYBE they reinstate your spot--more often than not, they don't.
They argue with you as if it's the most reasonable thing in the world to penalize YOU for circumstances that have nothing it do with YOU-- or your control...when you've done everything RIGHT.
Customer service all say the same bizarre SCRIPTED thing, they repeat: "if it happened to you, if you missed an appointment (or call dropped or WHATEVER) we would do the same for you and others would be pushed back"--BULL.
Never happened for me.
This is about the most revenue WINS. The ones that buy double time etc--Follow the MONEY--are given the ability to jump line if they miss their call. Sometimes if you push back enough, CP will throw you a bone for a few extra points for this unethical treatment--but you have to raise hell for it.
Is this even legal? Where's the visibly published disclaimer on their site that you are 'not guaranteed your place in line for service'--and 'you may be delayed or pushed back at any time with no explanation or notice'?
This awful policy hammers an honest consumer that has followed extremely rigid rules, and then this utter disrespect and shabby treatment (The answer is 'follow the money'.).
What legit business treats customers like this--with NO WARNING? Plus we don't pay at the 'time' of service--we bank our money there proactively, we can't touch it--WAITING to be served.
I've been pushed back multiple spots in a single day--unceremoniously kicked aside, like some inanimate log in the road, shoved behind, 1, 2 even 3 places backward---after waiting for sometimes 2 weeks --calling religiously to renew the place in line as their rules demand. I've even 'cleared my calendar' moving business meetings as I approached #1--to make sure not to miss the magical 'moment' in what is too often (with Uli) an immovable line? Only to be kicked backward--screwing up my schedule and my colleagues' schedules.
MY MOST RECENT MIND SPLITTING SCENARIO, after days and days of finally making my way to a SOLID 4th spot in line, after wrestling with customer service to get back my rightful spot after being thrown backward AGAIN----of course I think I'm in a safe window to operate my life for a period of time without 24/7 vigilance watching and waiting for Uli--(because as I've previously and painfully experienced, Uli notoriously leaves people to atrophy in her line--taking calls so INFREQUENTLY that 90% of the time, she will only take 1 in a single day---many times going days without taking any --much less more than 1 call in the same day!!) I'm all paid in for my call, well in advabce...
So I relax, since I'm #4, and I see she's already been on for the sacred single call of today, there is no way I'm getting a call today--3 people are in front of me. I am probably 3 days way--at minimum, 2--so I can go about my JOB, schedule a critical 6 person international conference call with business colleagues with my investment of 10 very astronomically expensive minutes with Uli not imminent. And I, knowing she NEVER gets back to anyone at this "speed of light" rate (in my multi-year's worth of experience and observation with her behavior), take the meeting.
THEN, on that day of all days--for some reason that only God himself knows..Uli decides to demonstrate some 'customer-first' consideration of her generous customers (giving of their time and money)--and she decides to power through 4 CALLS IN A 3 HOUR PERIOD.
MISSED CALL.