Category: Rants & Observations

Poor Customer Service Week

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It seems like companies just don’t give a shit anymore.

Example # 1

I emailed our association on July 25th about leaking we heard over the front door, inside the wall, when it rained really bad a few days before. They replied a day or so later saying they contacted the property manager and I’d hear from someone. Once a week had passed since my original email, I emailed them again to ask why I hadn’t heard anything. I got the same response, but the next day received a call from the vendor directly who basically asked me to describe the issue which I had already done in my original email. I had even included pictures. Was that information not forwarded to them? In any case, after that I was told by A (the representative I’ve been dealing with at the vendor) that she’d call me back to schedule a time for them to come out.

Yesterday she left a voicemail stating they would be out next Wednesday and to call back to confirm. I called her to let her know we wouldn’t be available and she was like, “well, can you have someone there?”. I told her no and that we’d be available Thursday and Friday. She said she’d speak to the scheduler and get back to me. This morning she called back to tell me they’d be out on Tuesday. Once again, this will not work for us, which I told her. She sounded frustrated with me and pointed out I said my husband works from home. First off, I don’t recall saying that, but I told her this doesn’t mean we don’t make plans. Furthermore, what kind of company just tells you when they are coming out and doesn’t at least give you a few options? I told her their scheduling is ridiculous after she told me that they have to “go where the work is” and made it like *I* was being unreasonable by not being available when they want to come out. Are you kidding me? You are providing a service. I get that they want to try and group jobs together geographically but it’s not like they are driving hours to get here. The call ended with her saying she’d check with the scheduler about another date/time.

While we were in the movies this morning she left a message basically saying since we aren’t available those two days they won’t be able to come out and would call me once they put together a new schedule. What kind of business operates that way? Fed up, I called the association about it. They called the vendor who basically told them the same thing so L (the rep at the association) said she’d speak to the property manager to see if there’s another vendor they can use. I sure hope so because I already hate this one and they haven’t even come here to do the work yet! I cannot wait to post a Yelp review for these people.

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Example # 2

Last year I received a sample of Oscar de la Renta Flor perfume in one of my subscription boxes. I liked it so much that in January I purchased a full bottle on Amazon.com. Within less than three months, however, the smell changed, and not for the better. Now I feel like I wasted my money on a scent I don’t like anymore. I kept it in the box in the bedroom so light/moisture couldn’t damage it, so WTF? I have perfume that is years old whose scent hasn’t changed. I contacted the company through their website and a representative replied asking for the purchase info. I sent them a screenshot of my Amazon order and didn’t hear back, so I emailed them again. At that point I was told they only deal with orders placed through their website and I’d have to call their corporate office. I called them this morning and when I asked if I had reached customer service the girl asked me what my issue was. I told her I just wanted to make sure I had the right department before explaining and she insisted I tell her. So then as I start telling her, she cuts me off (which is what I was trying to avoid), and tells me I need to call a different number for the place that makes the perfume without giving me the company name. You’d think someone who works at the corporate office would be a little more professional! And of course when I call the number she gave me I get a fast busy signal like it doesn’t even work.

Example # 3

We’re planning a trip to Indiana Beach in the near future and I’ve been trying to call them to find out whether we can go back to the car and re-enter the park. That way we can bring food and not have to eat multiple meals at the park (although we’ll still get tacos). The problem is no one at that place answers the phone when I call to ask.

Garage Sale

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Friday and Saturday we held our garage sale. Even though we were very organized and posted on Craigslist & Nextdoor, we didn’t get as much traffic as we were hoping.

The very first thing to sell, however, was my old Kenwood Stereo I purchased for $400 twenty years ago.

KenwoodStereo

It had it all (at the time) – dual cassette deck, 3-CD changer, and radio. The speakers were huge and sounded great (still do, actually) and it was in fantastic condition. But due to its size and how we listen to MP3s these days, it had been collecting dust in the garage for years. Imagine my surprise as the guy who bought it was putting it into his car and I felt this overwhelming sense of panic. I literally had to go inside to calm down – I thought I was going to vomit. I felt seriously bummed and overly emotional afterwards. I had no idea I had formed such a sentimental emotional attachment to it or I might have not sold it. I’ve tried to rationalize the feelings away with logic – it’s too big, I never use it, etc. but I still feel sad about it, although I’m sure that will get better over time. I don’t necessarily like having such a strong attachment to physical objects. Other than the blanket my grandmother knitted for me which I have slept with every night for the last 25 years, I didn’t think I’d feel such a loss without an item in my life. Oh well. I will never see it again (sob), so it’s best to try and get over it.

Anyway, shortly after that “traumatic” event Friday, my coworker called asking for help since our boss was off and he was being asked to do something he had never done before. Walking him through it over the phone wasn’t helping so I drove over to get it done since it’s less than ten minutes away and I really needed the distraction. I ended up working an hour so that will make my next paycheck a little higher which is nice.

Despite everyone telling us that Fridays are super slow and that Saturday would be much better, it really wasn’t. Overall we ended up making a little more on Saturday but not until 4 pm. We had shut down at 2 pm on Friday but extended the hours until 5 on Saturday in hopes we’d get more interest. When all was said and done we made a little over $100. I would have made more working an extra day at work so that’s not really worth my time. Plus we still have a bunch of stuff left that we’re going to donate and try to offload on Craigslist, including the stuff my dad asked us to sell for him that no one wanted.

One cute thing that happened was the neighbor across the street purchased a few old bookbags on Friday and her daughter (who I guess is around 12) came over Saturday with her friends and was wearing one of them. She also told us how much she loved it which was nice. It’s a mini bookbag I’ve had for over twenty years and really loved when I was younger. It was still in excellent shape because I take really good care of my things. Even one of the people who bought some stuff from us mentioned we had really nice stuff. I just wish it would have sold!

When I was lamenting on Facebook about the futility of having a garage sale one of my “friends” told me how it was because we should have had our sale in April and that when her organization had one they earned $1500. Um, how is that even helpful? I’m sure her organization had a lot more things for sale since multiple people contributed. I was so very tempted to “thank” her for her oh so helpful advice and let her know that I’ll just hop into my Delorean and go back in time to April to have my sale then. I am *this close* to unfriending her. Most of her comments are just irritating know-it-all things anyway and ain’t no one got time for that.

So will we ever have another garage sale? That would be a no. Even though the thing I dreaded most – people haggling – didn’t happen too much, I still didn’t enjoy it. Although this one lady got a steal on this purse I had that was brand new and sells for $79. I’ve been trying to sell it online for a year so I lowered the price to $25 for the garage sale. She wanted $15 even though I said $20. I gave in because a) I didn’t pay for it anyway and b) I just wanted it gone, but I’m kinda pissed about it nonetheless. And this is why I hate selling things and garage sales. Never again. I’d rather do Craigslist and sell stuff one at a time.

Memorial Day Weekend

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Friday we decided to see X-Men Apocalypse. It was ok, but not as good as Captain America – Civil War. Afterwards we went to Red Robin so I could get my free entree which was expiring on June 1st. I swear none of the people working there ever have any idea how the rewards work. Last time the waitress tried to tell me you had to buy two burgers to get one 50% off which was completely untrue. I had to read her the fine print on the email. This time the waiter told me the free entree never expires. Wrong again! On top of that, I had pulled up my account on the computer at home to make sure the free entree was showing next in line to be redeemed since the 50% off deal would also be in there, but the free entree was the only thing showing. I figured that was because we already took advantage of the 50% off and maybe you can only do it once. Yet once the waiter pulled up my info on the kiosk it was showing the 50% off deal. So while he and the manager tried to figure out how to switch it to the free entree, I logged into the website from my phone and was able to switch the order of the rewards since both were now appearing. Joe is skeptical but I swear they weren’t both there when I checked that morning! In any case, after that I was able to use my reward.

Rant time – Why can’t you adjust which reward you want to use directly from those kiosks? That’s so annoying! And why can’t they train their staff to handle these things? The guy was really nice and thanked me for teaching him something new (when I told him how I logged onto the site and was able to choose my reward) but come on. And lastly, are those kiosks really necessary? I’m supposed to tip someone for taking my order and checking on me once? They don’t bring out the food most times, and they don’t take your payment, so what the heck? Next thing you know there won’t be waiters at all and you’ll just have to get your food yourself. Yet the kiosk suggests I tip 20%. Oh, and I just loooove having to deal with those dirty touchscreens that probably haven’t been cleaned or disinfected ever. Ugh!

Anyway…

Saturday we took a trip to Costco to return the LED bulbs we purchased because it turns out they are too bright and the lighting from them couldn’t be less flattering. I’m not necessarily a fan of gazing at myself in the mirror to begin with but those LEDs really screwed with my self esteem. On top of that they had a low frequency hum that was driving me nuts. For now we’ll just stick with the CFLs.

The main reason for our visit to Costco was to enjoy the free samples. I like going around noon so I don’t have to eat lunch, plus I don’t want to buy anything in bulk there that I haven’t already determined is good, so the samples really help with that decision. People act like such animals, however! I’m standing there waiting for the lady to put out a tray of samples and the second she sets it down there are people behind me reaching over me to grab one. Calm your tits, people, it’s not that serious! I refuse to act like a barbarian just to try some brownies and ice cream. These people should be ashamed of their behavior. It’s why I refuse to go out on Black Friday. We are supposed to be an intelligence civilized species but some of us turn into animals when something is free. It’s disgusting.

Sunday we went to Target to take advantage of the free $10 gift card when you spend $50 on groceries. After dropping the food off at home we went to Savers since clothing and other items were 50% off. I’ve never seen it so busy! We arrived only 10 minutes after it opened and it was already packed. We actually had to stand in line for the dressing rooms, and being the bossy person I am I was directing the people behind me the proper way to form a line so we weren’t blocked foot traffic, or the ability for anyone to look at the row of purses nearby. Joe hates lines and actually suggested we just buy everything we had picked out (even though you can’t return stuff) but I said no way. Glad I did because I brought 8 items in to try on and only purchased 1 of them. He’s much better at picking out clothes; he bought both pairs of shorts he had chosen. I also got two fleece blankets for the rats since they are chewing up the ones I already have.

Sunday afternoon we headed to my parents house to celebrate Memorial Day early. B wasn’t there as he’s in Tennessee with his girlfriend. We mostly chatted but did end up playing Wits & Wagers which is a game I brought over. We left around 9 pm so we could be home by 10 and in bed by 11. I’ve been trying to go to bed at the same time every night even on the weekends which seems to help me sleep.

Monday we did some grocery shopping in the morning and spent the rest of the day sitting on the patio reading, snacking, and playing Disney Tsum Tsum on our devices (yep, I got Joe addicted to it now). Joe put up the big umbrella my mom gave us with the concrete stand which we had to keep re-positioning so we’d remain in the shade. Surprisingly, none of the neighbors had company over for the holiday so we were literally out there for 4-5 hours without being annoyed (if you don’t count the dog next door barking a lot since no one was home).

At one point one of the neighbors came over to gossip, which is amusing, since she’s deaf! She speaks, but it’s a bit difficult to understand her (although I seem to understand her better than Joe does). She also reads lips. It cracks me up that she knows more about what’s going on this neighborhood than we do, but then again we really don’t care either.

We grilled burgers for dinner on the George Forman since we ran out of propane and didn’t feel like running out to get more. We didn’t use buns since I’m trying to cut out unnecessary calories and lose weight. In fact, I had my burger wrapped in lettuce at Red Robin on Friday! I’ve also upped my usual 20 minute elliptical workouts to 30-45 minutes. Unfortunately my back has been bothering me a lot lately and working out makes it worse. I put arch supports in my workout shoes so I’m hoping I can continue to work out without any pain. That being said, today was $1.31 scoops at Baskin Robbins so I have to wrap up this entry to have some ice cream. Diet? What diet?

Panera Gift Card Hacked

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Yesterday we decided to have lunch at Panera so I grabbed my “new” gift card to pay for it since there was only $8 left on an older card. Imagine my surprise when the cashier told me the $50 card had a $0 balance! WTF? He was going to keep the card but I took it back because I was pretty sure I hadn’t used it and I wanted to look into it further. It’s been sitting with our other unused gift cards in the house because a) I don’t have room in my wallet for all the gift cards we have and b) we don’t eat at very Panera often.

This morning I went online to check the balance and saw that someone used the card within two days of each other last month. It only shows the store # but not the location, and there’s no way to search Panera’s site by store # so I can’t figure out where it was used. I searched several cities around here and even in other states hoping I’d come across the store # (since it’s only listed in the search results) but I couldn’t figure it out.

I called Discover and explained the situation and they were kind enough to reimburse me the $45 in cashback I had used to purchase the card back in 2014. I’m glad we’re not out any money but I’d love to know who stole the # and used it. Unfortunately, it will forever remain a mystery.

I don’t know if I’ll order another Panera card anytime soon since we visit so infrequently (obviously) and I don’t want to let any future gift cards sit around for so long again. I’m guessing whoever hacked their gift card system specifically targeted cards that had been dormant for over a year thinking maybe they were lost and they could get away using them. As it is I have gift cards from Red Robin and Bahama Breeze to use anyway.

Too Much Death

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An aunt passed away this week and her wake/funeral was on Friday. In case anyone is keeping track, that’s four deaths in less than a year – uncle, aunt, friend, aunt. Is this what I have to look forward to as I grow older – more and more people I know shuffling off this mortal coil? It’s depressing.

The wake was held at a funeral home in Frankfort and my aunt was buried in Chicago, so that made for an hour long funeral procession. I’ve never been in such a time-consuming procession before and it made me nervous, especially since some of the public weren’t paying attention and almost hit a few cars that were continuing through the red lights as one typically does in a funeral procession.

There were more than few bizarre things that happened during this event:

1) The more I reflect on the pastor’s eulogy, the more I dislike the guy. He spoke about how everyone is going to die some day (thanks, bud, I already have a massive fear of dying and do not need any further reminders) but that our spirits will live on in heaven. He also made a big to do about how we shouldn’t forget about my uncle since he has many lonely nights ahead of him, which is true, but insensitive. In addition, the pastor said he just couldn’t imagine losing his wife of 45 years. Uh, rubbing it in much?!?! Nothing this man said was any solace to me, but maybe it helped others. I just don’t buy the whole concept that our spirits live on forever, and I was raised Catholic! All of it rings false to me. Trust me, I would love it if I could get on board with the idea because it would certainly ease my mind about not existing one day. Unfortunately, I think once you die that’s it; you go back to nothing, spiritually and physically. It will be great if it turns out I’m wrong and God doesn’t hold a grudge against me for not believing, though.

2) At the grave site, while the pastor was saying some final words, my uncle was casually leaning against my aunt’s casket with one hand.

3) After the service, as we were leaving the cemetery, I saw my uncle standing by his limo drinking a beer.

4) The place where the luncheon was held had a dove aviary in the front of the building. It was so odd. But what was funny is that I was one of the few, if not only, people who even noticed it immediately as we walked toward the banquet room. Most people didn’t notice it until leaving the restaurant.

Dove Aviary

I don’t know what any of my uncle’s behavior means, or if it even means anything; people grieve in strange ways. He was married to my aunt for 35+ years (his third marriage) but I have no idea what their relationship was like. I rarely spoke to her because we usually saw my uncle at my grandparents’ or parents’ house and he never brought her along. Her heart belonged to animals, not people, from what I knew of her – she worked at a humane society and they had the equivalent of a zoo in their homes. It only grew larger once they moved to their most recent home which had a ton of acreage and a barn. I’ve heard stories about the number of animals living on their property but the last time we were invited over was literally a decade ago, so I don’t know much other than what my cousin has mentioned. Maybe my uncle is one of those people who has a hard time expressing his true feelings. He has always been known as the one who cracks jokes so who knows.

Anyway, it was just a weird day. It was nice to see certain family members but I wish it was under better circumstances.