Bad Service

Grr. Two bad service moments in 15 minutes.

Over 4 weeks ago I bought a futon. The one I bought came with frame, futon, custom cover, and 2 pillows. Because I needed it immediately, I took the futon home and waited for the cover and pillows, which were supposed to be in the following Monday. Ha ha ha. The next week, they didn't show up and the manager was very apologetic, saying that they'd for sure be in the following Monday. Well, that wasn't much use, since I had to fly home for a week. I got back a week later and called them. Nope, the cover and pillows weren't in. They're very sorry. They did check with the supplier and it's coming. They're being pokey - we don't know why, and we can't do anything about it.

Well, yes you can. You can call them and FIND OUT why it isn't here, over 2 weeks after it's supposed to be. But they promised that it would be in for sure on Monday (yesterday) - they just weren't sure at what time the truck would arrive so come by Tuesday.

Ok. So, I came by today. Nope - no cover and no pillows. Same song and dance. They don't control what the supplier puts on the truck. They were told it was coming. They haven't forgotten about it. See, here's the order form. It should be in on the truck tomorrow, so check back Thursday.

That's where I got a bit irritated. I asked him, when I've been told that they KNOW for CERTAIN that it would be on the truck 3 weeks ago, then 2 weeks ago, then yesterday, and the merchandise is still somewhere else, WHY I should believe that really, truly, it'll be here tomorrow by the end of the day. Why shouldn't I be smelling a rat?

Gee, we're really sorry, we don't control the truck, yadda, yadda, yadda. Yes, dude, you do. It's YOUR supplier. YOU put in orders. YOU depend on them to get those orders. If you are regularly having them send shipments 3-4 weeks late, you have a huge problem. Either way, YOU can call THEM and tell them to get a package that's 3-4 weeks late on that bloody truck, or send it to you overnight at their expense for screwing things up so thoroughly.

If it's not there tomorrow by the end of the day, I'm having words with my credit card company. I can't afford to have paid that much more money for cover and pillows, and have them never show up, with only "gee, we're sorry, we can't control the truck" to show for it.

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I had to join, because I'm seriously annoyed and need a place to rant about this -_-

I spent most of my afternoon being jerked around by the medical community. I have a specific kind of cyst/abcess, and it has to be packed with gauze. I had two referrals, to a general MD and to a surgeon. Well, I had to see one or the other today, and I call the MD's office. We're not seeing new patients for at least a month, she says, even though you have a referral from the ER. I call the surgeon, and he's out of town until at least Thursday. Now I'm worried, because I really don't want to have to go through the phonebook, which is what I ended up doing anyway. I called a walk-in clinic, and explained what I needed done, and they said "Yeah, no problem! We can do that!"

In case you've never been to a walk-in clinic, usually the wait is horrendous. After about an hour and a half of waiting, which I expected, the nurse calls me back for vitals/diagnosis. I started to worry when she had no idea what I was talking about, and she didn't even bother to write it down. Uh-oh. After another half hour, the doctor comes in and says "there's no way we can do that here! We don't have anything for THAT." It's not a complicated thing, though. It requires some 1/4" gauze and a gauze pad. Most general MDs have things like that in office. This is the first time I've EVER been somewhere that didn't. They were nice enough to call the other two walk-in clinics, but since they hadn't written down what was wrong, all they could ask was "Can you pack some kind of thing for this young woman?" which just confused the hell out of the various nurses and receptionists and they all said no.

So then they call the ER. I don't want to go back to the ER, they're much more expensive and this really isn't an emergency. I feel bad wasting an ER doctor's time when they could be seeing to people who are actually in an emergency situation. The ER faxes over my chart, and says that it's fine for me to come over and they'll do it for me. The nurse hands me my ER chart, and then says "Make sure you take this with you, because they couldn't find it." What? If they couldn't find it, how'd they FAX IT TO YOU? Please don't blame another doctor or nurse for something to make yourself look better! After two hours, I can finally go to the ER, and at least the doctor's office was nice enough to tell me that they guessed there was no charge. Gee, thanks.

All this resulted in me having to miss work again, since I would have got there 3 hours late for a 6 hour shift. At least my coworkers aren't affected if I have to miss, or I'd be even more pissed.

Dear Starbucks on McCarran and Mae Anne:

1. If you don't offer the "traveler" size coffee (i.e., the ten-pack designed to take to meetings, etc.), why is it on your menu?

2. If you really don't have that size available at your store, it really is OK to tell me that RIGHT AWAY. Not ten minutes (yes, ten: I counted them) after I place the order. Now I have to go down the street and start the waiting process again.

Six month boycott. I'm afraid I have no choice but to find another place to get my coffee (like the Starbucks down the street at McCarran and Sierra Highlands) until August 21, 2006. Or until you apologize.

Normally, I don't have any problems with getting items delivered via UPS. But today was an experience!

I had ordered some fabric from a supplier on eBay that I've dealt with in the past, but not since I moved into my current house. When I contacted her after the sale, I very specifically told her my new address, and she promised to ship it to the new address.

I got a UPS notification yesterday, that they had attempted delivery--to my former address-- but the house was vacant, so they took it back to the local center. Call UPS, get through the looong AVR system, and, when I finally reach a human, explain the situation. At this point, it's no big deal, and actually the fault of the shipper, not UPS. UPS takes down my new address, and promises to deliver today between 1 and 3 p.m., which makes me skip with glee for new fabric.

I receive a delivery notification today--that the fabric has been delivered to the front door of the address I told them yesterday was no longer valid! My husband offers to stop by the old house and pick it up, but calls me from work and says it wasn't there. Call UPS again. They delivered it to an apartment I moved out of FIVE YEARS AGO! The CS rep apologizes profusely and says he will arrange to have it picked up and delivered to the RIGHT address today, and someone from the local center will call within an hour.

Wait two hours, call UPS AGAIN. I got a very rude CS rep this time, who informs that it's not UPS's fault that the shipper put the wrong address on the package, he doesn't care what the other rep said, it
s not their problem and they're not going to fix it. Well, YOU pulled up this ancient address, despite a phone call from me giving them the correct information, and yes, you jolly well ARE going to fix it! I hung up, fumed some more, calmed down, and called one last time, and asked to go directly to a supervisor. I explained the situation , and whaddya know, she had absolutely no trouble getting the problem remedied.

I got my fabric twenty minutes later. I just wish I had taken down the name of that little cretin I had spoken to in the second call, so I could complain about him. Jerk/

On a couple of your suggestions, I just called them and mentioned the incident from this morning. The manager personally apologized, and said that because they are a store inside a Supermarket they do not carry everything that a regular Starbucks does. She agreed that the "traveler size" should not have been on the menu after they discontinued the traveler size, and she will correct it.

Everything is cool. As far as I am concerned, this incident is now behind us, and nothing will stand between me and my coffee tomorrow morning. I guess I was just grouchy because I hadn't eaten. Boycott over.

Also, in the future, I'll wait a day or two to see if it's really that big of a deal before posting about it and/or initiating a boycott.

Thanks for your suggestions. I feel better now!!! (And the number of establishments I am currently boycotting once again stands at zero. Hopefully, it will stay that way.)

I've been a member for a while, mostly lurking, occasionally chiming in. Now I have my own tale of woe to share.

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