How To Lose Customers

Mark and I experience horrible service this weekend. Two different types of service, as one place. We like to keep it simple.

We have been meeting with photographers for the wedding, and had made an appointment with a local woman to review her albums. We were supposed to meet her at Hina's Tea today. We arrived about 10 minutes early and decided to go ahead and order.

The woman behind the counter was very short and had a little bit of an attitude. We ordered smoothies (one peach, one mango) and told her they were for "here" since we had planned to meet the photographer. After looking around and realizing that there was really no place to sit, and that we might have to move our meeting to another location, I asked her to change the order to "to go." She YELLED into the backroom - "make them to go!"

Um, thanks.

A few minutes later, our smoothies were in fact in to go cups and being handed to us. However, one of them was only 3/4 of the way full, and the guy said, "I don't remember which one is which" Uh, what? So, being that the general rule for french fries is that the boy usually gets like 5 fries, and the girl gets half a plate, I assumed the full one was mine. And in fact, it was. Yeah me!

We waited a little longer, and didn't see the photographer. We did see a woman that had a bag that we thought might be a photographer...being that one of the others we met with had a similar (not good) look.

We took a short walk, where Mark said, "it's probably that lady with the bag" and I said, "uh, would it be horrible if I said, "if it is her, I want to go home NOW?!" But we decided to go back to the tea house. We stalked the strange woman. She didn't talk to us, and pulled out her homework (whew!)

So, we ended up leaving.

Later, I received an email from the photographer that said, "I hope you're having a nice Sunday afternoon. Our appointment today didn't end up on my calendar, do you have time to meet next week? My treat."

Um, no. Just no. Seriously? Oops, your wedding didn't end up on my calendar! sorry!

(in my defense the woman was wearing a top that did not fully reach the top of her jeans and her belly was hanging out - and while I think my friends would enjoy having someone to mock, I didn't want her distracting the beauty of the day.)

To my bridesmaids: Sorry!
To the rest of the wedding guests: You're welcome.

Nice

I must have been feeling nice yesterday.

Flutter and I went grocery shopping to get some stuff to make awesome cupcakes and dinner last night. One of the items we needed was chicken. So we went to the meat counter to get chicken and we rang the bell and we waited.

and we waited.

and waited.

I finally went up to the front of the store to see if they could page the person at the meat counter.

"Jose, customer service in the meat department"
(dirty!)

But no way, Jose. haha. Sorry I couldn't resist.

So we stood there some more and another customer walked up and she looked at us standing there looking around PUSHED THE BUTTON.

And I, being the nice girl that I am - I refrained from saying, "OMG! Why didn't I think of that!"

Flutter went to get someone else to page someone to the meat counter...and when she came back, she hit the buzzer for fun. And then I couldn't resist making my comment.

Eventually some guy (?) that worked there but who didn't work in meat and who was actually off the clock ended up helping us.

And wouldn't you know it, as we were walking to the register another person wearing the store uniform walked in from outside. And I said, "Jose!" and he was all, "uh?" and I said, "we've been calling for you" and he said, "I was on a break!"

Just like Ross and Rachel.

how nice.

What Kind of Business You In?

for the record, I'm kind of in agreement with the bulk of you. Buying underwear as a guy for another guy, is weird. But, getting lingerie/underwear from anyone as a girl is a-okay. :) But then, I've been known to host porn parties that involve discussions of anal bead rip cords. So, yeah.

Boy, is my site-meter going to go INSANE.

But, that's not why I'm writing. I've been discriminated against (I feel like Eminem). Apparently, because I joined a gym that is not in the best area of town. I haven't had a problem with that - but apparently, that means we're all deadbeats. At least, that's how I was treated today.

My gym is notorious for being just as lame as it's location. They have not billed me and then when I contacted them to pay them, they've told me that I'm not behind or they've failed to return my calls. So, two months ago, they stopped billing me again. I figured I'd take care of it the next time I went in, but frankly, I haven't really been. (ha!)

So this week I went in...and then today I went in again. And apparently, the owner was there and he recognized "my name" but didn't want to "confront" me. So he called, and acted like a jackass. He started off with, I know you haven't paid in 6 months because you canceled your membership - my bank records show that. So I laughed and said, "I have no idea why it would show I canceled and I have bank records to show that you did, in fact, take money out of my account for at least 4 of the months you say I was canceled"

He was a little nicer after that - and explained that the people he hired to do billing were apparently not flagging accounts that hadn't paid - instead they would just delete the account (excellent bookkeepers!) So anyway, I offered to fax him my bank statements showing that I'd paid. But, apparently, I sound honest or something because he said that it wasn't necessary. We worked it out and I paid the two months that I still owed, so not a big deal.

BUT, isn't an "undesirable" customer better than no customer? It's no wonder you can't find honest people to work for you or that you can't stay on top of your business. He needs people skills, I think.

Oh and a shout-out to Laurel, who recommended ING to all of us in blog land. I got a bonus for opening a savings account and I'm already loving it. Yeah!!