Pondering the world

Office Max and its "cart strategy"

When the doors at Office Max opened, we were confronted with two shopping carts side by side blocking the entrance, and it looked like they were closing.  When we asked the young man on the other side of them, he said, "oh, yes, we're open."  We had to go around the shopping cart maze to get into the store, and then he moved the carts back over to the cart corral. 

As we were checking out, a young man walked by, calling out to the first guy that it wasn't worth it to lose his job over the "cart strategy."  Eh?  Then he walked over, pulled two carts out and parked them squarely back in the entrance again.  All right, enough.  We asked to speak to the manager and told her how annoying it was to have those carts in the way when we came in.  All the employees gathered around, agreeing with us as the manager tried to explain the "corporate cart strategy," which is to have two shopping carts in the entrance so customers don't have to wrestle them out of the cart corral.  It's been that way for two years (actually, it used to be THREE carts), no matter that they tell the corporate office how annoying it is for customers.  I may have gotten her attention when I pointed out that they have a handicap access issue, since the way they have the carts makes it impossible for anyone in a wheelchair to get into the store past the carts.  We also realized afterwards that in case of a fire the carts are blocking the exit.

I always thought that one of the ways businesses (and corporations) improved was by listening to their customers and being responsive to them. 

I guess corporate policy is more important.

P.S.  I wrote this in April.  We went to Office Max the other day.  They're still not listening.

Qwest: "Are you our customer?"

I hate Qwest as much as I hate cold calls by businesses or telemarketers.  Today it was a combination of Qwest AND a cold call.  Here's the gist of the conversation.  I don't have snappy answers at my disposal, so I have to work on that.  Some might say I'm too nice; maybe it's just because I'm too slow with those answers. [My thoughts--what I SHOULD have said--are in brackets.]

Qwest:  Hi, my name is Heather and I'm calling from Qwest.  We have a new program for our small business customers where we can save you money by giving you a wholesale rate on your phone service rather than a retail rate.  Are you a customer of ours?   (she really did ask that) [If I'm a customer of yours, wouldn't you know that?]

me:  I think so.  [We're with ValuTel.  What are you up to?]

Qwest:  If you have less than 20 lines, we can give you a better price on your local phone calls.  How many lines do you have? [If I'm your customer, why can't you tell ME that?] 

Me:  Two.  What do I have to do?

Qwest:  Nothing.   [then just give me the cheaper rate and leave me alone.]

Qwest:  If you're paying more than $80 a month, we can help you save money.  How much are you paying in monthly phone calls?   [If I'm your customer, why can't you tell ME that???]

Me:  What???

Qwest:  Let me look that up for you.   (and she proceeded to put me on hold!)

Qwest:  Thanks for holding.  Hello, my name is Chris and I'm a supervisor here at Qwest.  It looks like you're paying about $85 a month and...  (liar!  I am not!)

Oh, no!  I've been "warmed!"  Heather was the warm-up person who then handed me off to the "closer."

Me:  I don't have time for this.  [click]

adventures in Comcast-land

We finally got Comcast to come install cable at our new digs. They had to install another line because the one already there went into the guest room. 

Needless to say, as when dealing with any utility, it was an adventure. First the guy called during breakfast saying that our appointment was for 8-10:00 a.m. rather than the 10-12:00 that we were told. Then he threatened to send us back to square one for rescheduling since we couldn’t be there. It helps to throw a hissy fit now and then, so they did show up at 10:00.

Then they didn’t have the right equipment, ran out of battery power for their drill, and borrowed our tools. They also weren’t prepared for a job in Old Town where the adobe walls can be anywhere from 12 to 24 inches thick. Sorry, an 8-inch masonry bit is not going to go through a 12-inch wall. Comcast actually only has one 14-inch masonry bit, and the installers had to go get it from the supervisor. 

Finally, the guy started telling us how much extra they were going to charge for the installation. “No, you’re not,” said Steve. “Comcast promised me the installation of this second line at no charge. They knew it was a new installation. They knew it was through an adobe wall. You’re not going to charge me anything.”

Maybe this is why people dislike moving so much. They have to deal with all of the utilities all at one time. I guess we’re lucky since we have all of our mail sent to the bed & breakfast. At least we didn’t have to deal with the Post Office.

U-Haul was a moving experience, all right

I seem to have more gripes about poor customer service lately than usual.  Sometimes I worry that I'm becoming one of those old people that do nothing but complain all the time.  But then I realized that we moved and we've had to deal with a bunch of people all at once--Comcast for cable, the power company, and good old U-Haul, "America's Moving Adventure."  So we have more stories than usual about either poor customer service or those companies who can't even do the work you hire them to do.

We had hired a couple of people just for Monday morning to help us move the big stuff from the apartment to the townhouse--sofa, bed, dressers and all that.  Accordingly, we had reserved a U-Haul truck just for the morning so we could do it in just a couple of trips rather than 20 trips in our pickup truck. 

We had scheduled to pick up the U-Haul at 7:00 a.m. when they opened.  However, when we arrived, the young-man-who-shall-remain-nameless (hereafter "Noname" because he was smart enough not to wear a name badge) informed us that he didn't have his cash drawer in and to come back at 7:20.  Does this make sense to you?  A company that specializes in renting local moving vans and opens at 7:00 should know that people want to get there early, pick up the truck and get it done, especially when they're hiring people to help.

So off we go to get some breakfast and we returned promptly at 7:20.  I dropped Steve off since I was taking care of guests for the day and he was supervising the move.  Here's what he told me later:  The first thing he had to do was inspect the truck for existing damage.  "That's your job, not mine," said Noname.

The day started off rather poorly with the hired people not showing up until nearly 9:00 instead of 7:45.  First they were just plain late (and I don't want to hear about how hard your day was yesterday that made you late today) and then they got somewhat lost, so in the middle of making and serving breakfast I received several phone calls I didn't need to get.  (Hint:  call the person you're working with, not the person who contacted you.)

After that, all went reasonably well with the move ending around noon and Steve was anxious to return the truck before they popped us with a fee for overtime.  We returned the truck, and Noname was obviously in no hurry to complete the transaction and let us go.  He wandered over to the truck for his part of the ending inspection to make sure we hadn't caused any new damage, checked the gas and mileage and counted the furniture pads.  Then he came out and told Steve that he would have to put all the furniture pads back in the plastic bags.  Did I say that it was in excess of 95 degrees and the furniture pads were all neatly folded and stacked.  When Steve questioned whose job it was to do that, Noname said, "That's the way I dispatch them and that's the way I expect them back."  By this time we were both irate.  It wasn't just those little incidents but his whole attitude.  Everything he said and did was smug and sneering; this guy is obviously a peon and is assuming all of the power and control he can possibly get.  And the only way he can do that is to make the customers miserable.  Back inside to finish the transaction.  I was primed for a fight should he even mention an overtime fee.

Later on, our new neighbors commiserated with us about moving, having just done that themselves about three months ago.  When Steve started talking about U-Haul, Bruce interrupted, "Wait, let me guess--the U-Haul on 6th Street?"  The same thing happened to them, except that the guy made them wait until 7:20 so he and his co-workers could have their morning coffee before starting the day.  If they mean 7:20, then why don't they just say they're open at 7:20?

Well, maybe I am getting to be old and cranky.  We're definitely calling the U-Haul 1-800 number to lodge a complaint.  He may not have been wearing a name badge, but his employee number is all over the receipt.

Tomorrow:  the saga continues as we deal with Comcast.

mixed messages

The other day we were driving by a little cafe that has recently opened in the neighborhood and noted that although it said it was open until 9:00 p.m., the chairs were all up on the tables and they were mopping the floor at 8:23.  I really dislike when places do that.  What does that say?  "We're still open but we're focusing on getting out of here just as soon as our shift ends right at 9:00 p.m. and you'd better be out, by golly."  I won't even go into a place that's already started its closing routine by doing things like that.  Their focus is always on getting you served and out as quickly as possible.

And what's the deal with putting the chairs up on the table, anyway?  Other than sending a really clear message that "we're closed."  Do they think it's more efficient to mop the floors all at one time because the chairs are out of the way?  I've found it to be much more work to lift up the chairs and turn them upside down on the table than to just pull them out of the way, mop and push them back.  Then the next morning you have to take all the chairs down again. 

Wouldn't it be much nicer to  mop the floor a little bit at a time and leave the chairs down so you'd have a place to sit and eat?  Oh, wait.  Then they wouldn't have an obvious way to tell you not to come in because they're getting ready to close. 

commentary from a former Delta Air Lines passenger

If at all possible, that's what we are now--former Delta Air Lines passengers.  We flew to Myrtle Beach and back on Delta and, if any way possible, we will never fly Delta again.  Every plane we took was late leaving.  The plane from Myrtle Beach to Atlanta was so late that we missed our connection on the last flight back to Albuquerque, and they knew we would miss our connection before we ever even landed.  Did our plane leave at 8:45 as our tickets said?  No, it left at 8:28.  We ran through D terminal, took the stupid train, and ran to gate B30 only to find a plane getting ready to load for.... Savannah.

So we found ourselves making our way to the line at the Delta customer service desk near gate B19 at Atlanta airport.  When we got there, there was a machine at the entrance to the line where optimistic idiots such as ourselves could scan our tickets and perhaps miraculously find that we had been rescheduled to another flight.  If so, it would spit out a paper with the revised flight information.  However, for us it simply spit out a slip saying "see ticket agent."

A really nice Delta customer service guy, Terry, was working the line trying to field some of the problems.  When we explained what had happened, he guaranteed that unless there were several hours between connections at Atlanta, we would ALWAYS miss the next plane.  I told him we had tried the scanner option and it basically said we were "S.O.L." 

He took the slip and looked at it saying, "Where does it say that?" 

When I laughed hysterically, he got a sheepish look on his face when he realized that S.O.L. means "s--t out of luck."

Terry is a decent guy working for a crappy company in an untenable position.  Terry needs to find a new company to work for.