Drama.. such a funny word… I use it for so many things.

Well, After my little visit with the Ashley Furniture Home Store, they promised me my chaise would be delivered on Tuesday… Yesterday. Apparently the salesman that helped us was “new”… umm didn’t your store open up just 4 days before we went in there?? Yeah, he’s new and so is just about everyone in it… anyway… He somehow messed up someone else’s order too. Someone who happened to order the same exact couch as us, on the same exact day… except he needed the chaise on the side we received and instead GOT the chaise on the side we needed… so hey! How about giving me his chaise, and giving him ours??? Yup.. so that was what was happening. Otherwise I’d have had to wait until sometime after the 15th for it to be delivered… some “rush”… Well, the manager, whose name also happens to be Ashleigh, just spelled differently, told me I would receive a call on Monday to let us know what time our chaise would be delivered… Did that happen? Hell no.

So Tuesday morning, I had already thought they forgot all about me. I had errands I needed to run, and in the hopes that they would at least call me before they showed up, I took to the roads to get things done before our storms on Wednesday. When we were about 1/2 way done with our errands, I called the store and spoke to Ashleigh. She sounded perplexed as to why I didn’t get a phone call. I really wasn’t surprised. She told me that they had me scheduled for between 12 and 4pm… Well, that’s a pretty big window, and I was only 20 minutes away from the beginning of that window. The bad thing was, I still had 2 places to go, and they were 30 minutes away from where I was. I called Daddy and asked him to log in to Vonage and make sure phone calls would come to my cell phone if I wasn’t home. We rushed through the last two errands and ran home. On our way home, we happen to see an Ashley Furniture truck passing us, in the opposite direction. All I could think was great.. we just missed them… I got home and just waited. We waiting until 3:30pm, and I finally called the store. Just as I was getting off the phone with the store, my phone beeps. It’s the delivery guys calling to make sure I was home. They were here within 10 minutes… phew! It was finally here! Now, my couch is complete… Thank goodness.

Lesson from all of this?? While I am extremely pleased with my couch, I am quite dissatisfied with the service I received after the mistake was realized. The salesperson that helped us was very apologetic, and I appreciate that. I’m just upset about the lack of the phone calls I received despite all the promises.

Needless to say, we didn’t purchase the girls’ mattress sets from Ashley Furniture… but it wasn’t because of this situation. It was because they couldn’t tell us when we would get them. They told us 2-4 weeks. We wanted to make sure the girls had them before Christmas. Instead, after an afternoon of shopping around, we purchased them from Rose Brothers Furniture on Bell Fork Rd, here in Jacksonville. The service was exceptional, and they helped us find the perfect sets in our price range… Oh, and we were able to pick them up right away too… The girls are now in their “big girl” beds… but I’ll save all of that for a new post!

This has been weighing on my mind, and I’m sure it’s not the first time this has happened in the world, but it’s bugging the hell out of me.
Since our move to NC, I’ve had a helluva time trying to find someone that lives up to the guy that cut my hair back home… If you’re in Sacramento, CA go to see Brett at Salon 701… He’s amazing! Anyway, just like having to find new doctors and dentists, you have to find a new hair dresser and for me, that’s hard. I’m so picky, but after several haircuts that made me cry while in Japan, I think I have the right to be! I’m the one that has to walk around with my hair! LOL
I’ve been to a couple of salons here in Jacksonville, and didn’t quite get the results I wanted, so I kept looking. Well, just before I went to BWE, I decided to check out a salon not too far from my house called J Thomas.. It’s the only Aveda concept salon in the area.. Well, I went in on a Saturday morning, and it didn’t seem busy at all. I figured if the lady did my hair well, I’d be happy!
When I went in at my appointed time, I found out that they had given me the wrong time when they called to confirm my appoinent and I was actually late.. Lovely. Well, they got my haircut in, got me in for a couple of other services and shifted things around for me.. All in all I ended up spending a couple of hours there. BUT I was very pleased with my haircut! She got it just about spot on. Woohoo!
Ok so now you’re wondering why my title says what it does. Well, I called yesterday to get appoinents for my girls to get haircuts. I figured, if my hair was done well, she’d understand how I like the girls’ hair too… Daddy is going out in the morning with a couple of guys from work, so I figured it would be a good time to take the girls out for some pampering. I learn differently. When I called I was informed that they no longer accept children appointments on Saturdays. Their reasoning? Because the higher value customers come in on Saturdays, and they don’t want children to interrupt their spa services (that are all upstairs).. Really?? What if Saturdays are the only day I can bring my kids in? They asked me, “well can’t you bring them in after school?” Well, first of all, what if I worked outside the home? What if I couldn’t bring my kids after school? They’re closed on Sundays, so that day is out.. Anyhow, I’m certainly glad that’s not the case, but what if it were? I just wanted to treat the girls to a fun morning out while Daddy went out too…

What’s your experience?  Have you ever been told something like this? I’m just curious…

** Update**

Ok, I can quit whining.. I called back this morning and spoke to someone else. They told me the same thing, and playing dumb, I asked why they have such a silly rule. If all the spa services are upstairs, how would a child getting a hair cut interrupt spa services? She told me that if the child cries, they could hear them upstairs. I told her that my children were no stranger to getting their haircut! They love being pampered, and especially love getting their nails done LOL. Yes, I’ve taken my girls for mani/pedi’s a few times. It’s fun… and they feel so grown up… I love it… Anyhow, after assuring the gal that my girls will most definitely not cry, she scheduled them for a 9am haircut appointment with Jennifer.. the same gal that did my hair.. Thank goodness…

I’m still curious if anyone else has ever heard such a thing though.. It really stuck on my mind all day yesterday and was one of the first things I thought of this morning while I was getting ready…

Today was pretty cool. The girls slept in since they were up so late last night.. it was so worth it though.. I was able to get up, shower, get dressed and be ready for Church all before the girls woke up! We had to go in and wake them up to get them moving. It was so cute. Luckily I had already set aside their dresses last night, so dressing them was super easy. I just had to worry about fixing their hair. WOOHOO!! I got them a bowl of cereal and they ate as much as they could before we left. 

We rushed out the door at 845, and mass started at 900. We got there just in time.. Well, almost. We snuck in the side door, found Meemaw and Peepaw and crept into the seat… Hey.. at least we were there! The girls went straight over to Meemaw and Peepaw… They didn’t want to sit with us at all.. LOL.. it’s ok.. They actually behaved pretty well for them. Monkey Do got restless quicker than her sister though. Towards the end of mass, she started insisting on a snack.. Luckily I had packed their favorite “Winnie the Pooh” cookies. It kept them quiet until the end of mass.. PHEW! 

We hung out for little bit basically so everyone could see the girls. Is it bad that I only go to church to show off the girls anymore? Seriously… If I had enough time in the world to do everything I need to do.. I’d probably go more, but there’s just no way. Not until the girls are a little more independent. 

We finally left the church and went out to breakfast at Baker’s Square in West Sacramento. We were seated fairly quickly, which was nice. Breakfast was pretty good. We had a great time laughing about the girls at church, and talking about random geek things… We gave Meemaw her Mother’s Day gift, and Meemaw & Peepaw gave me one too… They really didn’t have to do that… It was a great morning… 

After breakfast, we drove home, stopping in at Bel Air on the way.. We had to get a few things for dinner. Grandma T was coming over, and I was cooking dinner. Yes.. I volunteered to cook. Just like I volunteered to shop for her Mother’s Day gift and put everything together. 

As soon as we got home, we put the girls down for a nap and I fell asleep.. I didn’t even know I had fallen asleep.. but I woke up and ran downstairs to start cooking, and help clean up. Gma T got here and I was still cooking… No sooner had she walked in the door than she started calling the girls “Monkey Butts”… I just cringed… I heard the funniest thing come out of the mouth of one of my girls though… She said “I’m not a Monkey Butt… That’s not nice.” I just about spit out my drink… I was laughing so hard… I have no idea where she got that… but it was just too perfect… Gma T asked them if they didn’t want her to call them that, and they said “No, that’s not nice.” Laughing even harder now… Unfortunately, she decided that was going to call them that anyway.. so.. I guess I’m going to hear it even if the girls don’t like it… Oh well… Poor babies… I really just hope they don’t call anyone that when they reach school.. I can just imagine that call from the principal’s office.. UGH… 

She came in to say hi to me, and I wished her a Happy Mother’s day.. No response… I thought that was kind of weird… but oh well.. Anywho.. I got dinner done.. Chicken Parmesan, with bruschetta topping, steamed vegetables, and a sausage angel hair pasta alfredo.. Yummy! It turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself… and I do.. tee hee… 

She left soon after we finished eating and we took the girls up for bed… The evening was over… Thank goodness… I have a huge mess in the kitchen to clean… I’ll get to it… probably tomorrow… 

Seriously!?!?!

I just do not get it. I worked for several years in customer service. I started out as a lifeguard at a local water park in high school, moved on to a laser tag arena, then to retail at 3 stores at the mall, and finally to a customer service call center for FedEx. That’s all before I got married. At FedEx, i heard stories about how a package should have reached its destination, regardless of that tornado, flood or hurricane that hit the area that it was going to. I once got a call from a shipper that was mad the package didn’t make it because the FedEx station wasn’t operating… The ROOF was torn off in a hurricane!! I didn’t expect them to understand because to everyone, their package is super important, and needs to be where it needs to be when it needs to be there. If they got to a point where no amount of explaining by a “lowly customer service agent” would do, and they asked for a supervisor, we politely obliged, placed them on hold, and called our Manager Assist Group. It wasn’t difficult, and the “MAG” as we liked to call them, were always willing to help out.

More and more these days, I call a customer service call center to deal with an issue. Sometimes the CSA is able to help me out, and sometimes the call ends with me more confused than when the issue first started… I ask for a supervisor more often than not, and rarely get one. I just don’t understand it.

Case and point. We had received a call from a telemarketing company on behalf of Comcast Communications, offering us the fastest cable internet speed they have along with their basic cable for less than what we were paying for the slowest internet speed alone… We got an appointment scheduled for the following Thursday and were pretty excited at the prospect of a faster internet speed. The next Tuesday, we got a phone call from Comcast offering us a different deal that was more expensive. I told the agent that we already had an appointment scheduled, and we were good. Then I hear.. “Yeah, about that.. it’s been canceled.” No further explanation. I was livid. So I call back and ask the agent that answered the phone what happened. He said he didn’t know why it was canceled or who canceled it, and there was no way to get that particular deal again. End of story. I asked for a supervisor, and was told he would send a request through, and I’d receive a call from a supervisor within a couple of hours. No call ever was made so I called the next day and again asked for a supervisor. The agent gave me the run around and kept trying to dodge getting me a supervisor by offering me other various deals they had going on. I wasn’t having it…

After almost an hour of holding and declining any other alternative, I was finally passed to a supervisor who made all kinds of promises. She ended up offering me a deal that was comparable, and promised to call me back the next day when all the changes had been made to my account.. I never received a call back so I tried calling her back several times, and left a voice mail for her each time. She never called me back.

Finally after 2 weeks, I called back and asked for another supervisor. This time, I refused to tell the agent anything until I got a supervisor. At this point I was tired of repeating my story time and time again. Why didn’t they just get my account number and pass me on to a supervisor. If they really wanted to know what was going on, they could read all the notes that had been typed up in my account from every other person that I talked to.

Long story short, it took a whole lot of time and a whole lot of calling to get something worked out with a supervisor…

Just today I had an issue with Apple that was really getting to me, until I finally got a supervisor who restored my faith in customer service! Last Thursday, I bought an iMac, and then Monday they upgraded the iMacs. I called yesterday and spoke with an agent that told me the various options that were available to me. We ultimately decided on me just refusing the shipment so Apple would refund me as soon as they received my order back in the warehouse. He told me to just call back to Apple once the shipment had been refused so they could note my account and start processing… So this morning I called, and was then informed by another agent I spoke to that I HAD to go through the returns process which would then take 3-5 business days before I could get a refund. I was confused about the correct process so after I ended my call with this person, I decided to call back and speak with a supervisor.

I called back and yet another agent asked for my info, and when I asked for a supervisor, she continued to go through my order and tell me that everything was going through ok for delivery today. I advised her that was not the reason I was calling, and she asked me to explain… so I did. Then she told me that Apple requires the customer to go through the proper returns process, and that she would send a mailing label through to me. I asked her why the different messages, and she began telling me that she and her colleagues are very sincere to the customers, just that sometimes they get their information mixed up. Basically telling me that the first agent I spoke to was wrong. She was ready to release me from the call, but I insisted that I speak to a supervisor. She didn’t sound happy. All I could think was “Well, if you would’ve given me a supervisor to begin with, like I had asked, you wouldn’t feel like you wasted your time with me.” I didn’t say it, just thought it.

Finally I was put through to a supervisor who told me he was a little confused as to why I was calling. I explained everything to him, and he then told me that he understood why I was so confused with the return. He told me that the first agent was indeed correct, and that the way we had chosen (refusing the shipment) was actually better in my situation. The return label route is taken when the customer has already taken possession of the shipment, and since I have not, just refusing it works better. Finally, someone that could understand what I’ve been flustered about.

He was actually really great. I told him that this was my first time ever purchasing an Apple computer, and I really had heard a lot of great things about Apple, that this just couldn’t have been this difficult to exchange the computers out after their upgrade! He helped me out with the whole situation, and let me know that he was personally going to watch the account and the current shipment, and as soon as the RTS tracking number was placed on the package, he was going to credit my cards, and give me a call so I could re-order the new iMac…. WOOHOO! I’m so happy now!!! So Thank you Apple, and Thank you Arturo for finally restoring my faith in Customer Service..