Sometimes the helping hand you need is the one attached to your own arm

Thank God for this blog, or else I would put my foot in my mouth on a routine basis. I would speak my mind and say things to people that probably should be left unsaid. I would hurt people’s feelings without blinking an eye, and it wouldn’t bother me one bit.

I have a Facebook friend, and I use the term ‘friend’ loosely and lightly. We all have those ‘friends’ don’t we? Those casual acquaintances, those people that add us as friends, that we don’t talk to anymore, but we keep them on our ‘friends’ list just because we are too lazy or too busy or too whatever to delete them.

Anyways, like I said… I have this Facebook friend. She’s one of these people that is constantly in need. (Feel free to read about my previous mention of her “need”.) She can’t keep a job, she’s always struggling financially. She has too many kids to count, and one or all of them are always having problems. Her Facebook statuses consist of prayers asking God to lay His hands on her and heal her, heal her kids, take care of her, give her more hours at work, find her a new job, find her husband a job, blah, blah-blibbidy-blabbidy-blah.

*sigh*

It takes everything in my power to just ignore it and move past her posts on Facebook and ignore her. I don’t know why I don’t just delete her as a friend (and I think after writing this post, I probably WILL). I don’t believe that begging God for help needs to be broadcasted in a Facebook status update to hundreds of people.

But today’s status was the last straw. Today’s was the one that prompted me to lose my cool. Rather than unleashing my political diatribe onto this person, I’ve decided to write it here– semi-anonymously. HA!

This morning her status reads:

Can’t believe in sevens day my daughter will be an eighth grader. How am i suppose to buy everything to get her ready for school when I haven’t worked in a month. Then they had to go to stupid uniforms. Another expense I CAN’T AFFORD. WHERE IS MY STIMULAS PACKAGE MR. PRESIDENT!!!!!

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and freakin’ tired of our nation being in the freakin’ toilet. Pardon my language boys and girls, but since when did it become the duty and job of our President to bail our asses out of the situation we’ve put ourselves in? We as a nation have gotten GREEDY. We have gotten greedy and corrupt and we need to stop it. NOW. If this person can’t buy her kids school supplies, she needs to get a job or find some stuff in her house to sell. Please don’t drain any more resources from MY TAX DOLLARS to STIMULATE YOUR HOUSEHOLD INCOME!!!

Have we really gotten to a collective point in time that when we as a society get in a bind and we simply cry out “Help!” Then, this stimulus check arrives in the mailbox and everything is OK for another month or so? Isn’t that kinda like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound? Yet, here’s some person asking our President to bail her out because she needs school supplies for her kids.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but studies may have shown that logging off of Facebook and actually looking for a job have resulted in one actually finding said job and earning some MONEY to pay for those needed school supplies.

Maybe if everyone in our country started helping THEMSELVES rather than relying on the Government and our President to bail them out, we wouldn’t be in such a mess right now. Like I said, the helping hand you need might just be the one attached to your own arm.

Note: I have a heart, people. I truly do. If I thought that this person was truly in need, I would go out right now and buy this family a whole truckload of school supplies. But I know in my heart that if I walked in their front door, I would see a $50 carton of cigarettes on their kitchen counter and a case of beer in their fridge and that negates my willingness to give. When people have money to buy ALCOHOL AND CIGARETTES, I do not feel sorry for them.

Now I’m going to to into Facebook and do some deleting.

If I had balls, they’d have me by ‘em

Dish Network, why do you torment me so?

We are a family addicted to television. I will tell this story of the horrible customer service experience I had recently, but I will say this. Oh readers, hear this: I refuse to give up my TV. I can’t boycott the almighty digital powers that be and refuse to buy their services. They have me by the proverbial balls, so to speak. It’s simply a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. Or here in Central Iowa, the lesser of three evils. That would be Dish Network, Direct TV, or Mediacom.

We chose Dish Network a long time ago, because its was least evil of the three. We like to have a bazillion televisions in our house, so we Direct TV was never an option, as they make you buy a receiver for every single TV. Call me crazy, but even I think thats obscene. Then we considered Mediacom, except that all we ever hear on the news is that they are always involved in contract negotiations and are in danger of losing certain stations. And I will tell you, the moment my husband sits down to watch a sporting event, and turns the TV on to see a message that the channel is not available will be the moment we’ll all run screaming for the hills. Therefore, Mediacom equals NO.

That leaves Dish Network. It’s been good to us, good reception, never any problems. We have it installed on (I’m ashamed to say) six televisions right now in our house, and it’s billed along with our phone bill every month, which gives us a whopping $5 monthly discount. I dont ever even look at my bill, and usually just use the online bill pay option through my bank and pay the same amount every month. Hence, this is where my ignorance came back to bite me in the arse.

The other day, I actually opened my bill, which is something I never do. I noticed out of the corner of my in big bold letters, the words “PAST DUE.” Knowing I always pay my phone/satellite combo bill on time, I yanked it out of the envelope and noticed that the amount that I have been paying for months, all of a sudden wasn’t enough to cover the bill. I was short by about $18 and I had therefore been charged a late fee and gotten a “Past Due” warning.

I looked through to see where the extra charges had come in, and noticed that the monthly access fee on the two extra receivers we have had gone from $5 each per month to $14 per month, making my bill go up $18 more per month. Now I don’t know about you, but that seemed like a pretty hefty increase all at once.

So I called them. After wading my way through the automated phone system, I finally found someone that could answer my question, which was pretty much, um, WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO MY BILL?

Their response?

Customer Service Rep: “Well, we determined that are, in fact, charging much less than our competitors, and therefore, deemed it necessary to impose a modest rate increase.”

Me: So let me get this straight. Because your friends want to punch me in the gut, you think its OK to do the same?

Customer Service Rep (chuckling): Yeah, that’s pretty much how it is.

Me: I’m not finding this funny.

Customer Service Rep: We do value your business, so we are willing to offer you $5 off your bill for the next 6 months.

Me: When was I notified that this rate increase was going to happen? Was I sent a letter in the mail?

Customer Service Rep: Oh, Ma’am, we notified all of our customers. It was posted on our website.

Me: It was? Was I notified in writing to go check your website? Because I don’t normally just pop in and check your website out just for the heck of it.

Customer Service Rep: Oh, no. It’s nothing new. It’s always been on our website. There’s a statement on there that says “Prices subject to change.” That’s the notification to our customers.

Seriously, people. That was the response I got for the 280% increase on service fees? I would have laughed had I not been so ANGRY. Throughout the rest of the conversation, I figured out that we are under contract with them through the end of May, and it would cost me a whopping $10 to back out of it prior to then, so basically I’m OUTIE anytime I wanna be– it’s just a matter of WHERE DO I GO NOW?

I’m speechless. So now I am sitting here with 3 satellite receivers, two of which I paid $199 apiece for, and I am sending $120 a month to a company I loathe. It physically pains me to fund their ignorance for one more month, but like I said, I refuse to give up my TV. I don’t drink and I don’t smoke and I don’t spend lots of money on frivolous hobbies, I JUST WANT MY TV.

We should have turned around and walked out.

I’ve decided that my family and I are magnets for poor customer service.  It doesn’t matter where we go, restaurants, jewelry stores, wherever… we can be the only ones that experience bad customer service.    I could write a book about the awful Customer Service we have received from various businesses in the Des Moines area.  

It’s really quite sad.  To be honest, I am considering branching out and starting another blog, devoted entirely to Customer Service.    (Seriously, would anyone read that?  Would it be worth my time?)

Saturday afternoon, Husband wanted to drive over to Bass Pro Shop in Altoona, Iowa (approximately a 35-mile drive).   We shopped for a while, looking at all the latest and greatest fishing and boat equipment.  Truly, he could lust over this stuff like I lust over books.  Or shoes.  Or purses. Or clothes.

Ahem.  Anyways.

 While we were shopping at “outdoors nirvana” I mentioned to my husband that we might as well eat dinner there since we weren’t going to get back home anytime soon.   While husband was shopping, I walked to the other end of the store to Uncle Bucks Fish Bowl & Grill (bowling alley & restaurant).   I waited my turn at the hostess station, where customer service rule #1 was broken. 

I was not greeted.  The hostess, rather than saying ”Can I help you?” just looked at me and waited for me to do the talking.  I asked how long the wait was, and without even looking at me, she snipped off the response “Thirty minutes.”   I put our name in, and I was handed a pager.    I asked if the pager would work all through the store, because we were still shopping.

Her response?  “Um, YES.”

That experience alone should have made me just hand her the pager back and say ‘never mind.’  

But we waited.   I walked back over the other side of the store to where my husband was still drooling over fishing lures, and waited.  I turned the pager over, and noticed it wasn’t doing anything.   Usually, when we go to a restaurant and get one of these pagers (you know the flat roundish ones that look like a coaster?) they have a small light on the bottom that blinks every 10 seconds or so, just so you know the pager is actually working. 

This one wasn’t blinking.

After about 20 minutes, we decided that youngest daughter and I would walk back over to the restaurant while Husband went through the checkout and took our purchases out to the car.

When we got back to the restaurant, I walked back up to the Hostess station to see where we were at on the list.   I saw our name at the top of the column (party of 3), and was glared at by the hostess for apparently trying to sneak a glance into their super-secret operation.  Daughter and I stood and waited for a few minutes thinking we’d be called next.    Four parties of people (with 4 or less in their party) walked up with blinking beepers and were seated.

After a few more minutes where we appeared to be at the top of the list, I asked the Hostess about our pager:

“Is this supposed to have some blinking light on it to let us know it is working?”

The hostess ROLLED HER EYES AT ME, and said (in her best snotty high school cheerleader voice), “It will blink and vibrate when we it’s your turn.”

Um, not the question I asked, but whatever.   We kept waiting.

When they paged us, we were taken to a booth. Within a minute or two we were greeted by our server, who was very pleasant. She took our drink orders, and she brought them back quickly to our table.

Note the time was 7:00pm.

She asked if we were ready to order, and we were not. We told her we needed another minute, so she asked if would like to order an appetizer. We asked for an order of hot wings.

The menus are already at the table in a little container, but I noticed they do not have a Kids menu. Daughter was planning on ordering the Fish & Chips with a $10 price tag because we were never given a kids menu.

After about 10 minutes, our hot wings arrived, being delivered by a different server. She set the plate down and walked away.

Here’s where I will interject with yet another one of my pet peeves. It is my belief that anytime you order ANY appetizer at a restaurant, they should always bring enough small plates (and extra napkins) for each person at your table. That should be a given, and not something that we need to ask for. ESPECIALLY when appetizers are typically finger foods.

We waited and waited for the server to come back, while we cautiously all three tried to share the plate of wings sitting in the middle of the table without making a mess. The waitress stopped back and asked how the wings were, and we asked for some small plates and napkins. After a few more minutes, she finally brough them back.

We expected her to take our order at this time. She didn’t. She set the plates and napkins down and walked away. Husband and I just started at each other.

We sat there for quite a while, waiting to see when she would come back and take our order. It was 7:35 at this point, and we had finished our appetizer and our drinks.

We decided to give her one more chance to see if she would remember to take our order. Yes, we could have gotten up and tracked her down, but it became more of a game at this point, just to see how bad the service could possibly get. We saw her chatting with other servers, waiting on table all around us, and taking care of her other customers. For example, the party of 5 sitting in the booth next to us ordered after sat down and already were in the middle of eating their meal, WHILE WE HADN”T EVEN ORDERED YET!

At 7:40, we saw her heading our way again, FINALLY. We thought this would be her moment of redemption. She walked up to our table, and rather than asking if we were ready to order, she simply said, “Here, let me get these plates out of your way.” She grabbed our appetizer plates and started walking away.

That was when my husband, who had remained quiet as long as he possibly could (and it was literally killing him to keep his mouth shut one more second), asked the server to please get the manager for us.

After about 5 minutes, we finally had the manager come to our table. He was very puzzled, as I am sure the server had no idea why we needed the manager. (I actually think she didn’t even realize she hadn’t taken our order yet.) The manager was very polite, and asked if there was a problem. I had already ordered my husband to be quiet, because he doesn’t always keep his cool in these situations. I explained to the manager that we had now been seated for over 45 minutes, and we had yet to have our order taken. She had brought us drinks and appetizers, but that was it. He apologized and offered to comp our whole meal, drinks and appetizers. We declined, because we hate being THAT type of customer. The one that gripes but is perfectly willing to accept the crappy service if it comes with a free meal. The manager even offered to get us a different server, but at this point, I was tired, crabby and not in the mood to be in that restaurant any longer.

We offered to pay for our drinks and appetizers, and the manager told us it would be taken care of. We walked out of the restaurant cvery disappointed. It’s a store we enjoy going to, but a restaurant we will not go to again.

On our way home, we drove down Interstate 80 to the west. We drove past all the exits, contemplating where we could stop and eat. Daughter was starving, and husband’s blood sugar was starting to get low.

We decided on Okoboji Bar & Grill in Johnston, where we received excellent and fast service. We had immediate seating, and we were in and out of the resturant in less than an hour.

To recap…
1. Rude Hostess
2. They either do not have a kids menu or they just didn’t give us one.
3. Appetizers were delivered without extra plates or napkins.
4. We never did get our order taken.

It is my firm belief that every single time a server stops at your table, whether its to refill drinks or deliver food, they should ALWAYS NO MATTER WHAT 100% OF THE TIME ask one simple question.

“Is there anything else I can do for you?”

Photo credit:  BassPro.com

JewelryGate 2010

Almost two weeks ago, I wrote a pretty detailed account of my daughter’s  experience with four jewelry store chains while trying to purchase herself a purity ring.    I think after everything that has happened, it would be better to now refer to the whole ordeal as “JewelryGate 2010.”

After posting our story, I received several comments.  Some through my blog, and some of you emailed me directly.  Many people suggested that I contact each of the stores and let them know about my experience– the good, the bad, and the ugly.   

 So, on Monday, February 22nd, I did just that.  I went to each of the store’s corporate websites (Rogers, Greenbergs, Helzbergs, and Zales) and posted my contact information with a write-up of my review, exactly as it appeared on my blog.  I also included a link to my site, should they wish to see the post themselves.    

And then I waited.

That same day, I received automated responses from both Zales and Helzbergs, both indicating they had received my comment and “someone will be contacting you shortly.”

On Wednesday the 24th, I received another automated response from Zales, as follows:

 Dear Jenni,

We have received your concern, please provide the store location in which you had your experience as well as some detail on what occurred. Thereafter, we can forward your concern to the appropriate executive.

Should you have any further questions, or require additional assistance, please contact us at 1-800-311-5393, or email us at customerservice@zales.com and a Customer Service Representative will be happy to assist you.

Sincerely,

Zales Customer Service

That same Wednesday, I received my first REAL reply from a store. I received a call on my cell phone from Kevin, the store manager of the Helzberg’s store we visited. He had been contacted by his district manager, who had been contacted by their Corporate offices as my complaint made its way through the company. 

Kevin, also being the father of a teenager, was appalled at the treatment my daughter received in his store, and promised that it is NOT how they do business. He indicated that he believes every customer should be treated with respect, whether they have $1 in their pocket, or $10,000 and whether they are purchasing something or not. I explained to him that while I do not suggest people boycott their store (I hate to have a repeat of the recent local Legends restaurant saga), I will make sure I visit Rogers first should I ever be jewelry shopping again. Kevin also informed me he would be sharing my review at their next employee staff meeting, as a training tool for how to deliver great customer service. (Go Kevin!)

A few minutes later, I also received a call from Art, the store manager at Rogers, the only store in which we had a GREAT experience. He thanked me for my blog post, and told me that he very much appreciated our honest review of their store. He indicated he printed off the review and had it framed, and proudly displayed it in their store window. Art told me he was also contacted by Jody of Iowa Geek to inquire about their store participating in the 2010 Moms Nite Out coming soon. (See what good customer service gets you?).  

I had planned on writing this follow-up several days ago, but I wanted to give all four stores the chance to respond first. As of today, I have yet to receive any further response from Zales, and I have not received ANY response at all from Greenberg’s.

I did, however, get another phone call from Art at Rogers Jewelers on Friday, February 26th. He let me know that if I should happen to stop into their store, I would no longer see my review posted outside their store for all to see. Apparently, some of the other jewelry stores complained about it, and mall management asked them to take it down. If you’d like to see it, though, it’s now posted INSIDE the store, in a display case.  (I’m sure it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that one of the jewelry stores in question — HELLO ZALES!– is located right next door.)

Sometimes I think people underestimate the incredible buying power teenagers have.   They do have disposable income, and they are more than willing to spend it.  While my daughter may have walked around with the intentions of spending $50 that day,  she also sat in the jewelry store and texted all of her friends, letting them know she bought the ring, and also WHERE SHE BOUGHT IT.   Word of mouth is a powerful tool, and it doesn’t matter how old you are.  If anything, its more powerful with the younger generation, as I am sure her friends would be more than willing to just go to the exact same place my daughter went to, simply based on her suggestion.

Bottom line, like cars, jewelry is not something that we go out and purchase every day.  And with the current state of the economy, every company is fighting even harder to earn your business and mine.  The best way for them to do it is by providing excellent customer service.  It might be the advertising or the sales that draw people in, but when it comes down to it, it’s all about how they treat you.  

Disclosure:  While I was not compensated for writing this, I was informed by both Rogers and Helzberg’s that their Corporate Offices would be sending me “something” in the mail.    This did not in any way influence my review, especially since I dont even know what they are sending me. 

I should have gone all “Pretty Woman” on them

Sometimes the best posts come to me during a simple conversation with some friends.  Last weekend, my husband and I were at the mall when we ran into Shelby and her husband, who are some very good friends of ours. We sat outside the Dairy Queen at Jordan Creek Town Center and chatted for an hour or so.

Shelby and I began discussing the purity ring my daughter got. After telling her about the experience we had, I decided it would make a good blog post. Because I am very insistent on receiving good service at places I give my business to, I decided to share our experience with all of you.

When my daughter first mentioned wanting to go look at rings, she said she had researched them online and knew exactly which jewelry stores at the mall carried them: Zales, Greenberg’s, Helzberg’s and Rogers.

Our first stop was to Helzberg’s where there were NO customers,  and three employees working. My daughter walked in, looked in the cases for 2 minutes and no one ever asked if they could help her. When I walked into the store to check on her, they immediately approached me and asked if I they could help me find something, and my response was to point to my daughter and say, “No thank you, I am with HER.”

My daughter asked the employee (who had food stuck in her teeth–YUCK) if they sold purity rings.

Employee: No, we don’t have those.

Daughter: OK, well, I saw them on your website.

Employee: *sigh* Well, when you looked at them, did they say “Online only”? If it does, we don’t have them here.

(Yes, she really did SIGH at my child.)

Daughter: I don’t remember it saying that.

Employee: Well, when you go home, look at the website again and if you can remember to, write down the item number. Because it’s probably something you can only get online.

Daughter: Um, OK.

Oh yes, this really happened.

Seriously, they work for the jewelry store! They couldn’t look up their own damn website and see what she was talking about? Do they not have any of those fancy newfangled computer doo-hicky things in there? Not only would the employee not go to any lengths to help her, she also wasn’t even going to suggest seeing if they had something similar to it in the store. Her suggestion was to “go home and look at the website.”

Walking out of there disappointed, I told my daughter we’d head to Greenberg’s. That was where husband and I had bought my wedding ring, and hopefully they’d be able to help her. Again, my daughter walked into the store several steps ahead of me, and again, she waited for someone to ask her if she needed anything. There were two customers in the store and four employees, so like the other store, NOT BUSY. Once again, not being approached by anyone, she went up to one of the employees who was just standing around. Upon asking about a purity ring she had seen online, the employee responded:

“Um, no. We don’t have those here.”

End of discussion, apparently. Because the employee immediately dismissed talking to her, looked over to me standing at the other end of the jewelry case, and said “Is there something I can help you find?”

Again, I responded with “No thank you. I am with HER” while pointing at my daughter.

By this point, I was getting plenty upset, to put it mildly. We began walking to the other side of the mall, where the last two jewelry stores were.

The next jewelry store to be put to the test was Zales. Again, another store that had NO customers in it the weekend before Valentine’s Day. (Are we seeing a trend here?) There were a couple employees working, but after waiting for them to finish their conversation with each other, we again were told they didn’t sell purity rings, in the store OR on their website.

Really? Then they must not be familiar with their own website. Because it’s FULL OF THEM.   <==Seriously, go take a gander.

Finally, our last stop was Rogers. I had never even heard of Rogers Jewelers before, let alone bought anything there. They had a few customers in there, and four employees working. When my daughter walked in, she was immediately greeted.

Immediately. 

My husband and I stood outside the jewelry store to see how things went down, because I was getting to the point where I wanted to scrap the whole shopping expedition, except that the reason we were there was very important to my daughter.

Within seconds, an employee came over to her and asked if they could help her. Here’s how the conversation went down:

Daughter: I am looking for a purity ring. I have seen them online but wanted to find some in the store I could actually look at and try on.

Employee: Well, we don’t have anything in the store specifically called a “purity ring” but we have this entire section here that people have purchased as promise rings or purity rings. What’s more important is that you find a ring you like, and YOU decide what the reason is you are wearing it for.

*Me (thinking): Score one for Roger’s Jewelers.*

Daughter: OK, that sounds good.

They asked my daughter to sit down in one of their comfy chairs, and they proceeded to treat her like a queen. When another employee was done waiting on a customer, even he came over to help.   She had two employees waiting on her, making her feel very special.    They showed her ring after ring, and I swear they spent a good 30 minutes with her, as she debated which ring she liked best. What originally started out as a $50-$60 purchase turned into a ring on sale for $199. A customer in the store donated her $50 coupon to my daughter, which brought the price down to $149. Honestly, it was a lot more than I was initially planning on spending, but she picked it out, was happy with it, and the customer service was STELLAR.

While I was sitting with my daughter looking at rings, my husband mentioned looking at rings for ME since our 10-year anniversary is coming up. The employee helping my daughter (whom we later discovered was the store manager) motioned for yet another employee to go over and start helping my husband. 

Bottom line, to keep this long story from getting any longer, not only did Rogers Jewelers make a sale to my daughter, but their excellent customer service prompted my husband to buy my ring there, as well. And it was NOT a cheap ring. We were NOT treated as if we were a bother, and my daughter was NOT made to feel stupid or insignificant.  

The other stores failed to realize that my daughter was wanting to buy something very important to her, and whether the store carried the ring she was looking for or not, they could have offered to show her something similar or CHECKED THEIR DARN WEBSITE! (That one still bothers me!)  Not a single one of them even asked her what the ring looked like that she was referring to.  They saw a 14-year old girl come into their store, figured the sale would be small, and decided they weren’t wasting their time on her.  

Amount we originally planned on spending that day? $50-$60

Total amount of money we actually spent that day at Rogers? $3,889.11

The experience my daughter had in that jewelry store? PRICELESS.

It reminded me of that scene in “Pretty Woman” where Julia Roberts’ character Vivian walks back into that chic Rodeo Drive store full of snotty women that refused to help her only a day before:

Shop assistant: Hello, can I help you?

Vivian: I was in here yesterday, you wouldn’t wait on me?

Shop assistant: Oh.

Vivian: You people work on commission, right?

Shop assistant: Yes.

Vivian:Big mistake. Big. HUGE.   Well, I have to go shopping now!!!

Note:Obviously, I wasn’t compensated to write this post.   The opinions are mine, and the experiences are mine.  However,  if you are ever in the Des Moines, Iowa area and are looking to shop for jewelry, stop in to Rogers’ Jewelers at Jordan Creek before going anywhere else.  We had a great experience there.