What's the Problem?

So tonight we ordered a pizza. I did it online -- same thing I did two days ago. From the same place. However on this particular occasion, I get a phone call from the driver telling me that I gave the wrong address -- how did I do this since it's the same address I gave two nights ago. I reconfirmed it and she flat out told me that the address was actually different. Well really, it's not, but sometimes they give the address to the sales center 1 mile away because GPS tends to have an issue with the real street the condo is on. What ever happened to the customer is always right?

After that "arguement" she demands to know what the room number is. Didn't you get it from the order? She replys the 'address was a mistake.' Once again wanting to argue that point. After I reconfirm the address, she asks what the building number is. Short of walking outside to the front of the building and trying to read the sign at night, I have no freakin idea what the building number is. She refuses to deliver the pizza without it. She won't recognize the fact that we ordered from the same place two days earlier without problem. What is the problem now? Yet she continued to be difficult. I told her to keep the pizza.

We went to CiCi's. Dominos Pizza on International Drive in Orlando, FL sucks!

Fustration, Part 3

Today I drove the car to work and everything seemed fine. Until I left work! I came out to see the lovely Mercury logo. Guess what -- I was standing outside the car! UGH! I got into the car and called the dealership. I was nice, but it was very apparent that my patience was gone. My service rep is desparately trying to get me in right away and have a loaner. He says "I have Thursday." Really, because I'm pretty sure my battery will be dead by that point. Yeah. So, he tells me to come in tomorrow morning and he'll work something out so that I have a car. Guess I'm getting a new radio. Better not jack up my satellite subscription. That's all I have to say.

Wish me luck. Oh, and today is my wedding anniversary. Hard to believe 8 years. What a happy day back then. Miss you Gary!

Frustration, Part 2

Monday morning rolls around and fortunately the car did start. Although it was still rebooting. Annoying, but not nearly as nerve racking as the radio incident on Friday. I headed to the dealership after dropping off the little man at school. I have you know that they almost didn't believe what I was telling them. I invited to look into the car and see for themselves. Wow, amazing! Of course because I didn't have an appointment they didn't have a loaner for me. So, I got a ride home. Fortunately I had a laptop from work. They gave me the impression that they would look at it right away (don't want to wear out the battery after all). So, I waited until 11 a.m. to call. Guess what, they just started looking at it (wow, so much for looking at it when you pulled the car away at 8:20 a.m.). He tells me he should have an update for me in a couple of hours. I call work to let them know that I'll continue working from home. Thank goodness I have that flexibility right now. Time goes by and it gets to be 3 p.m. and I figure -- surely they know something by now. I call and I'm told that the tech just took it on a test drive. My service rep tells me he will call me back in 10 minutes. 12 minutes goes by and he calls me to tell me the service guy isn't back yet. WTF, did he go shopping? At about 3:50 p.m. my service rep calls me to tell me the car is ready. What happened? Well, evidently it was in demo mode (not buying it), and when they hooked it up for diagostic, it came up that it needed a restart or something. He went on a test drive to see if it would act up again and didn't. However, if the problem happens again, I get a new radio. Yippee.

So, a day was pretty much wasted to find out that they probably could have fixed it in a hour. I'm a happy camper, not. As I'm leaving, they tell me that I'll be getting a survey from Ford and they hope they met all my needs. I can't wait to get that survey.

How Much?

On Thursday I was driving to work and my "check gages" light came on, I looked down and the temperature was approaching 260! I'm on the freeway and I'm wondering when I should panic. Then, just as fast as it came on, it went off.

After work, I'm driving home and it does it again, and again, and again, and again. After the fifth time, (on a 30 minute drive), I thinking that I don't want to be driving this car. So, I take it to the dealership. They say I probably need antifreeze, so I tell them to go ahead and do an oil change too. No big deal!

Well, it was a big deal. Come to find out there's a problem with the radiator and the water pump. And when they were getting ready to do the oil change, they noticed a leak, something else, yadda, yadda, and before I knew it, they're quoting me $1,600! WTF?! I ended up checking around and eventually told them to go ahead and do it (I did ponder just getting another car, but it's so nice to not have a car payment).

The classic was when the work was done. I called the cashier to give her a credit card over the phone. She asks if she can call me back. She calls back and leaves me a voice mail that they can't take a cc over the phone. WHAT?! I've only done it four or five times before. Not to mention my car in in Plymouth and I'm in Bingham Farms and I happen to be working later than the dealership is open. I call and ask for the manager. After professionally reading him the riot act-- How many times I've done this. I wasn't told in advance. I'm not in a position where I can get there before it closes. Due to the amount of the services I can't ask someone to cover it and I'll pay them back, that there is a Jeep dealership two blocks from my work and I can give them my business . . . he made an exception! But not before telling me that they are doing this because people were disputing their charges. Then fax them and authorization form! I also pointed out that I've done this before and I haven't disputed charges! Unbelievable!

So, I picked up the car. Haven't been in it much yet, but it had better purr like a kitten after dropping those $$$!

Is Superior Customer Service Gone? Part 2

Back in May I wrote about a bad experience I had at a shoe store. Well, now I have another one. It's regarding getting a new battery. Here's the note I wrote to the company (I blocked out names to protect the guilty and the innocent):

I wanted to share with you my experience in purchasing a car battery. I went online to price batteries because I was advised to get a new battery. While researching, I saw a button that said "pick up in your local auto center". I selected it and put in my phone number where I was contacted immediately. I was then connected with a gentleman named J***. He assisted me in confirming a battery for my make/model, and completed my purchase. He told me that I would need my reference number, photo id, and the credit card number. I was given reference 6******. He told me all I would have to do is go to the auto center, give the three items he mentioned, get my battery, get it installed and be on my way. Sounds easy, sounds efficient. Well, my experience in the S*** Auto Center in Westland, MI was anything but easy and efficient. I went to the store at 10:20 a.m. I walked in and there was a gentleman behind the counter named T**. I told him that I bought the battery online/phone and here's my reference number. He said "I don't know how to do that." I said well, I was told that you need this number, ID, and credit card. He just looked around and said he didn't know how to help me. I asked if someone else could help. He responded that "I don't have a manager in today." I asked him if he could call someone. He looked around at another gentleman in the store named C*** and asked him if he knew how to help me. C*** said that I needed to go to package pickup, that they would need to get the battery from the lobby I was standing in, they would carry it over to package pick up, give it to me to put in my car and drive it back over to the auto center. That doesn't sound convenient or efficient. C*** said that the online/phone service people do not know that the store is not connected to the main Sears building. So, I drive over to customer pickup. When I walk in, I'm told that the computer system is down. Nobody knows what to do with this reference number. C*** who was in the auto store who walked over to the main store was trying very hard to help me and truly appreciate him going the extra mile. He was the only one who showed me true customer service. About 20 minutes later he comes out and says that I should have received an email confirmation. How can I get that when J*** never asked for an email address? I asked C*** if I could get to a computer to show him where I went on s****.com and how I purchased this battery. He took me in the back area and allowed me to go online. Just like I did at home, I put in my phone number and got a phone call. I was connected to J*** again (thank goodness it was someone that knew what I was talking about). He had me put C*** on the phone and then called over to the auto center to speak with T** to tell him how to pull up my order. By the time I drove back over to the Auto Center, 45 minutes had passed. I walk into the store and T** is on the phone with J*** and is holding my paperwork. Finally I feel like we are getting somewhere! He gets off the phone and proceeds to wrap up another customer and then moves on to me. He did apologize for not knowing what to do and for sending me to the wrong place. However he then goes into complaining about why I would purchase online when I have to come into the store anyway. Then a customer comes out of the lobby to ask about his car and Tom proceeds to get defensive, use the word "Hell" and says that he is only one person and can only take care of one person at a time. He then goes back to complaining about why I ordered online. He then hands me paperwork to sign after asking me if I paid over in package pickup. I explained again that I had nothing to do with package pickup other than the wasted trip. I paid online and
proceeded to show him on his own paperwork where it shows that I paid. He then asks if I would like him to carry my new battery to my car. Why would you do that when I paid for installation? He looked surprised and I show him on his own paperwork where I paid for installation. So, he had to do the paperwork again and set it up for installation, while continuing to chastise me for doing this online. I realize that I am younger than him, but I felt he was out of line, however I did not feel comfortable telling him that I didn't appreciate his comments for fear that he would keep me there even longer then I have been waiting (we are over an hour at this point). He gets it all set and I proceed to sit in the waiting area. The service gentleman takes my car and I watch him replace the battery through the window. I did not get his name, but he was efficient. When he finished my car, I watched him drive around to the front of the building. As he was walking in, I asked T** if all I needed were my keys. He said no, there's more paperwork and once again complained about me doing this online. It's been a long time since I have been this frustrated over an experience in a store. If he had only apologized, I could have accepted that, but he didn't. By the time I left I had been there over an hour and half. I was never offered any sort of compensation. (In customer pickup it says you get a $5 certificate if it takes over 5 minutes to get your order -- it sure took longer than that). I originally did not plan to purchase online, I was only shopping around. It seemed efficient, but quickly turned into a nightmare. I have apprehensions about making any purchases related to your auto center, ever again. I would suggest that the employees in the auto store know how to pull up these types of orders, as well as learn to complain somewhere else other than in front of your customers.

Jeep Blues

So sometime last week my left turn signal started acting up. When I say acting up, I mean it looked like it was hyperventalating when I would use it. I knew it must mean that something wasn't working on the driver side since my right turn blinker was normal. Sure enough, I checked and the rear blinker was not working, but the front was. I head off to the auto parts store to get a new bulb. Easy fix . . . right? WRONG!

Before I could get to changing it, both my blinkers stop working. Yes, stop working! Now solid light, not rapid blinking, nothing! So, I spent the weekend with my arm out the window letting people know when I was turning. I think people forgot what they mean because I got some funny looks.

So this morning I head off to the dealership to have them take a look. I was not interested in commuting in rush hour on the freeway without any turn signals. Some people drive crazy enough. When I get there, they tell me they are pretty backed up and I may need to leave it overnight (for blinkers!). I ask them if they could at least diagnose the problem and go from there. Sure! Mind you this was before 8 a.m.

Fortunately in one regard, it was slow at work, so it wasn't a big deal I wasn't there. Elijah and I hung out at home. At 4 p.m. I call to check on the car and I'm told that my car is next. At 7 p.m. I call and they tell me they are just pulling it in . . . WHAT! I was so mad. I get the manager on the phone who gives me a song and dance. I tell them I'm coming to get the car, but then do I play roulette on the freeway in the morning? I really don't want to. Fortunately for me I have a friend I work with that doesn't live too far from me. I've given her a ride to work on a few occasions, so I call her up. No Problem.

So, we shall see what they find out tomorrow. I'm not happy with Fox Hills Chrysler Jeep, but maybe they can redeem themselves on Tuesday. Cross your fingers.

Is Superior Service Gone?

I'm irritated and thought I would vent. On Saturday, I took Elijah to the shoe store to get his "Spring/Summer" shoes as well as some sandals for our trip to Florida. We always to go this shoe store in Garden City because they have Stride-Rite shoes and "the boy" always needs a wide shoe. So, I've been going to this place since 2003 and we get shoes 3-4 times a year when you count the Winter boots, sandals, etc.

So Saturday we go and a man helps us. He measure Elijah's foot and adjusts the side part (indicating wide), and proceeds to go get the shoes Elijah picked out. He tries them on and I ask the man what size they are: 13! I mention the wide foot and he agrees. Needless to say we buy two pairs and leave. I get home and happen to be looking at the box and notice it says 13M, not 13W. So I grab the other box . . . same thing! At this point I'm ticked because they are closed and are not open Sunday.

Yesterday, I call the store and another man says to bring Elijah and the shoes in and he will check them. I rush home from work, get Elijah and the shoes. When we get there, the man that helped us Saturday is there along with the other man I spoke to on the phone. The one that sold us the shoes seems to have an attitude and comments that the shoes are velcro. The other one proceeds to measure Elijah's feet and points out to the other guy that his foot is clearly wide. In the meantime, another customer walks in, so the one that sold us the shoes is busy with them. The other guy says that the shoes will work for him because he has plenty of room. I indicate that considering he has had wide shoes for the last three years, that had the other guy had a conversation with me that the medium would work, we wouldn't be here today. He agrees, but no apology, no nothing! Now I wasn't expecting something free, but an apology would have been nice.

If anyone knows of a kids shoe store that sells Stride-Rite in the Canton area, let me know! I'm looking for a new shoe store!