Customer Disservice

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Wow, I've have some bad customer service experiences in my day...quite a few actually (more on that in a second); but I've never had some unprofessional asshat decide to post my real name and address on Twitter for all to see.

That happened to Gina, thanks to management from an establishment called Flavor 180. My friend A, who knows all too well about my customer service horrors, posted the link to Gina's blog, Gina's Rantspot, on my fb page, and I also saw it posted on author Jen Lancaster's page. Follow the link above to visit her post about the incident. Crazy.

Side-note: Jen Lancaster is freaking hilarious. Seriously, if you haven't already read her book Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do The All Live Next Door to Me?, you should. If you have read it, then read it again and again. Too hilarious.

Regarding my customer service issues, a lot (but not all) of them stem from bad food service. Not all of these ended poorly, but I won't say that the service was up to par, by a long shot.

There was the time I bit into my pizza slice only to find a large screw. They offered me another slice of pizza from the same pie. No thanks.

There was the fingernail in the Dunkin Donut. Offered another donut. No thank you. I was off donuts for a while. Thank goodness I broke the donut apart and saw it. After the experiences I've had, I've learned to tear my food apart and examine it first. Believe me, you'd do the same.

There was the metal in my Subway sandwich. Customer service was decent, but come on, it's a piece of metal.

I'm dredging up too may buried gross memories, so just one more. The most disgusting, I think - so you've been warned. There was the TGI Friday's experience where I (thank God) again decided to closely examine my food before eating it, and found a pile of chew-up steak in the middle of my mashed potatoes. Yes. CHEWED UP STEAK. I don't even want to know who that happens and slips by a line of employees. In-house customer service was a joke and I ended up taking that one on the letter-writing/phone-calling road to higher ups.

The most recent non-food related occurrence happened when P and I left the office to get some lunch. We passed a man giving out fliers for a local business. When I passed, I said 'no thank you', he nodded and turned to P. Well, my 'No' must have been one too many, because when she said the same 'no thank you' he flipped out. I mean he freaked the heck out and started yelling 'Why?! WHY NOT?!". No, P can be quick to lose her temper, but that day she actually stayed calm and said 'I just don't want it'. We were stuck at a light, surrounded by tourists, waiting to cross the street, so what followed was pretty awkward. The man proceeded to follow us, screaming 'F*** you! F*** your mother! F*** you!' over and over again before giving us the evil eye, and telling P to go to hell. The tourists looked so scared. Some of them were probably scared off of NYC for life :) The light finally changed and he just kept right on screaming at us until we couldn't hear him anymore. P grew increasingly upset, and called the manager for the place when we got back to work. She left a lot of what actually happened out though, so I called and let the manager know everything. Turns out we must not have been the only ones complaining as he had already pulled him off the street, and had him in his office. He asked the guy if he actually screamed and cursed at us, and he admitted to it. It wasn't the first time this had happened. I was on the phone when he fired the guy. It was awkward. Awkward turtle. And it really put a damper on the rest of the day. You can't act that way - especially, if you're the face of a business - but I still hope that guy landed on his feet and ended up okay.

What are some of your customer disservice stories?

Have a good Monday everyone! Here's to a better week than the last one :)

The two-hundred-and-thirtieth day...Can someone please explain why my cell phone company and UPS are against me?

This is how my phones arrive? Really T-mobile? Really UPS?

What the h*** is wrong with you people? I seriously cannot deal with the customer service reps from either two companies anymore.

This is ridiculous! My letters to the respective headquarter offices will be mailed off this week.

I really hope you all had a better day than me :)

Enjoy the rest of the night!

The hundred-and-fifty-fifth day...

My commute to work and back usually takes about 1 hr 45 min to 2 hours, each way. I believe that's long enough, don't you? 4 hours a day. Well, this morning, due to signal malfunctions, stalled trains and idiots who don't get that they can't stand in doorways when those doors are trying to close, it took me 3 and a half hours to get to work. It makes it even worse that since I was underground, I couldn't call anyone to let them know what was up and that I was going to be late. When I finally managed to catch a train that let me off in the vicinity of my job, I called my boss. Her response? To tell me that my ears must have been burning as she was just talking about me (never good) and to remind me to stop by her office when I arrived to let her know that I was there. I was an hour late for work. It was a craptastic morning.

During lunch, I foolishly tried to do what I thought would be a simple 10 minute task. I tried to return an item to Best Buy. The problem arose because I purchased two items at the same time online. I did a store pickup for one and had to have the other shipped. The item that I picked up in the store was broken and I wanted to take it back - for a return not an exchange. Now, even though I had asked if i could return the items individually (I actually asked three times, once when I did the store pick-up and then during two subsequent phone calls to the store), and was told that I could, the machine would simply not allow it. It seems that I needed to bring both items to the store...even though the shipped item has not been delivered yet...and the 14 day return period for the picked up item is almost up. I was basically told that the situation 'sucks for me'. I wasted my entire lunch hour (and then some) there while the cashier and her assistant/a manager/someone who never identified herself messed around with the computer. They looked up every so often to say sorry and then went back to accomplishing nothing. I was there for 1 hour and 20 minutes. At the end of that time they had still accomplished nothing and I had to settle for an exchange. Total bull! The cashier I was dealing with was pregnant and managed to groan and rub her belly before she looked up at me - every time. I couldn't yell at her - she's pregnant :) I see a scathing letter being written to Best Buy Headquarters in my future.

Good thing? A few pictures that I managed to take as I trekked to work this morning.

I hope everyone had a much better day than I did :) Enjoy the rest of the night!

The hundred-and-fifty-second day...

I must have been super tired while I was writing yesterday's post because I didn't mention the amazing lunch that my family had on Friday. We went to Quaker Steak and Lube, and the food was Delicious (yes, the capital D is in order). I have been a bit obsessed with eating at this place ever since I saw it on Man vs. Food and Sis 1 informed me that there was one right by her (and Sis 2's) school.

I knew that the restaurant was famous for its wings, and the selection did not disappoint. There were so many different kinds that it took a while for us to decide what to get.

We all got something different so we could share, but I wish I'd been able to taste all the flavors - yes, I am a wing fan :) I'm a sucker for spicy sweet mixtures, so I ended up getting the Thai "R" Cracker sauce. Amazing!

I stayed far away from the Atomic Wings though. Any food that requires a release waiver to be signed before ingestion does not get invited into my stomach.

Our appetizer was a sampling of huge crunchy onion rings, mozzarella sticks, soft pretzels and breaded pickles with a trio of sauces.

It was gone in a flash :)

The Wall of Flame listing all those that braved and conquered the Atomic Wing Challenge.

It was such a great lunch and great time out with my family, and our waitress was hilarious. She invited us to come back for all-you-can-eat-wing night. Apparently, if you eat 500 wings, you don't have to pay. If I ate 500 wings, paying for the meal would be the least of my worries. She told us that she was up to 91 wings in one sitting. I had about 10 for lunch and I was done. True, that was along with the appetizers and the additional pretzels that came with my order, but still 91 wings in one sitting! Wow :)

Well, now I'm hungry :)

Have a great night everyone!

The hundred-and-fifteenth and hundred-and-sixteenth days combined...

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend :)

My weekend was pretty low key. I stopped at Cinnabon on Saturday to get another Caramel Chillatta (yum!) and noticed their mission statement sign on the back of the register.


The Chillatta I received was definitely worthy of a "Wow"! It was that good, but I figured it would have looked and sounded sarcastic to say it after I so blatantly took that picture. You never piss off the person making your food or drink. I'll just have to say 'wow' next time :) I pretty much rested and watched TV today - it was too hot to do much else.

So, did anyone have any "Wow" moments this weekend?

Enjoy the rest of the night everyone - Monday's almost here.

The hundred-and-fourteenth day...

So, I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince today! It was amazingly great - it just had so many great parts in it :) I really liked that Luna had some more screen time - she's delightful. That Gryffindor headdress was too much.

Anyway, after the movie, my man, Sis 1, Sis 2 and I went to catch a quick bite at BK, then headed back to the theater (of course :) to catch Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (the Sisters hadn't seen it yet). On the way up the escalator, it made a slight screeching sound and then came to a rather hard and seriously unexpected stop. We were just about at the top of this picture:

My sisters were standing in front of me, and my man was standing behind me. Sis 2 stumbled a bit, Sis 1 had to grab onto Sis 2 to keep from falling forward, and I would have fallen all the way down to the bottom of the escalator if my man hadn't been there. There were also three other kids on the escalator at the time. It was ridiculous. The people walking down the down escalator (that wasn't working) all gasped and stared. Did I mention that it was ridiculous?

We had already had a customer service issue at BK, so needless to say, I was already in a fighting mood. I stomped up the stairs and immediately demanded to speak with a manager. The conversation started civilly enough, but it quickly turned into something filled with evil eyes, raised voices, anger, and tears when the Manager tossed me a look of fake concern and said "I've never heard of such a thing happening. Which escalator was it? This one?" Huh? Which escalator? What? How about the one leading up to the theater!

Anyway, after a while, I was drawing quite a bit of attention, and several patrons began to look back and forth between the Manager and the escalator so she finally answered one of my numerous questions (I was firing questions at her like a freaking machine gun, one of which was what she intended to do about the steel deathtrap) and she informed me that she would inform both the general manager and the maintenance company, and the escalator would be shut down. I didn't drop my gaze until she swore to call them and shut it down immediately. She then asked me if we had come to see a movie. I answered that yes, we had, as we were in a theater. She comped us the tickets for the Transformers 2, but I left her my name and number and told her to call me with the contact information for the General Manager - who I followed up with when I got home.

It's sad, but truth be told, this isn't the first time that the escalator has been shut down. One of the questions that I asked the Manager was what she would have done if someone had been seriously hurt, but (no surprise) she had no answer. I think I'll follow up with them again next week.

When did common sense become such a rarity?

Have an excellent night everyone!