Monday, March 26, 2012

Customer Disservice

Monday, March 26, 2012 0

Love Savage Chicken. Check out the site here.

Wow, I've have some bad customer service experiences in my day...quite a few actually (more on that in a second); but I've never had some unprofessional asshat decide to post my real name and address on Twitter for all to see.

That happened to Gina, thanks to management from an establishment called Flavor 180. My friend A, who knows all too well about my customer service horrors, posted the link to Gina's blog, Gina's Rantspot, on my fb page, and I also saw it posted on author Jen Lancaster's page. Follow the link above to visit her post about the incident. Crazy.

Side-note: Jen Lancaster is freaking hilarious. Seriously, if you haven't already read her book Bright Lights, Big Ass: A Self-Indulgent, Surly, Ex-Sorority Girl's Guide to Why it Often Sucks in the City, or Who are These Idiots and Why Do The All Live Next Door to Me?, you should. If you have read it, then read it again and again. Too hilarious.

Regarding my customer service issues, a lot (but not all) of them stem from bad food service. Not all of these ended poorly, but I won't say that the service was up to par, by a long shot.

There was the time I bit into my pizza slice only to find a large screw. They offered me another slice of pizza from the same pie. No thanks.

There was the fingernail in the Dunkin Donut. Offered another donut. No thank you. I was off donuts for a while. Thank goodness I broke the donut apart and saw it. After the experiences I've had, I've learned to tear my food apart and examine it first. Believe me, you'd do the same.

There was the metal in my Subway sandwich. Customer service was decent, but come on, it's a piece of metal.

I'm dredging up too may buried gross memories, so just one more. The most disgusting, I think - so you've been warned. There was the TGI Friday's experience where I (thank God) again decided to closely examine my food before eating it, and found a pile of chew-up steak in the middle of my mashed potatoes. Yes. CHEWED UP STEAK. I don't even want to know who that happens and slips by a line of employees. In-house customer service was a joke and I ended up taking that one on the letter-writing/phone-calling road to higher ups.

The most recent non-food related occurrence happened when P and I left the office to get some lunch. We passed a man giving out fliers for a local business. When I passed, I said 'no thank you', he nodded and turned to P. Well, my 'No' must have been one too many, because when she said the same 'no thank you' he flipped out. I mean he freaked the heck out and started yelling 'Why?! WHY NOT?!". No, P can be quick to lose her temper, but that day she actually stayed calm and said 'I just don't want it'. We were stuck at a light, surrounded by tourists, waiting to cross the street, so what followed was pretty awkward. The man proceeded to follow us, screaming 'F*** you! F*** your mother! F*** you!' over and over again before giving us the evil eye, and telling P to go to hell. The tourists looked so scared. Some of them were probably scared off of NYC for life :) The light finally changed and he just kept right on screaming at us until we couldn't hear him anymore. P grew increasingly upset, and called the manager for the place when we got back to work. She left a lot of what actually happened out though, so I called and let the manager know everything. Turns out we must not have been the only ones complaining as he had already pulled him off the street, and had him in his office. He asked the guy if he actually screamed and cursed at us, and he admitted to it. It wasn't the first time this had happened. I was on the phone when he fired the guy. It was awkward. Awkward turtle. And it really put a damper on the rest of the day. You can't act that way - especially, if you're the face of a business - but I still hope that guy landed on his feet and ended up okay.

What are some of your customer disservice stories?

Have a good Monday everyone! Here's to a better week than the last one :)

Thursday, March 22, 2012

And so it begins...

Thursday, March 22, 2012 2
The exodus has begun.

I always wondered who would be the first to leave 'Project X'.

For a while I thought it would be J. J has had a few issues in the past (not sure what they are, and it's really 1) not my business and 2) not relevant) that have caused him to be out of the office more than he's been in for the past year and a half. He had, in fact, only been in the office for about 1 - 1.5 months (non-consecutively) between January and March. The question of if he would actually be let go was becoming more 'will they won't they' than an episode of "Moonlighting"/"Friends"/"Law & Order: SVU" - when Stabler and Benson were still on it.

They finally did it though - they let him go. The spin they told us was that he'd decided not to return, but it seems the decision was less in his power, and more ball-in-their-court. Either way, he's not coming back. Not a surprise, but still sad.

The real surprise though, came a couple of days before they advised us that he would not be returning, when other J packed her bags and moseyed on too. A lot of us where blindsided by that one. But, I have to say it doesn't surprise me either. Workers can only be pushed so far and under appreciated so much before they decide to pursue other opportunities.

J and J, you will be missed. Especially you other J, as now I and 1 of my other co-workers have acquired your work load. What's 120 or so new projects to work on, right? That's 120 or so new projects EACH. I'm literally drowning in paperwork, emails and phone calls.

The stress is getting to me. The right side of my neck has hurt for a few days. In fact, it hurts so much that I can barely turn my head, and my husband actually had to help me sit up out of bed this morning as I couldn't lift my head at all.

And I'm not the only one. Lately at work, I've heard more slammed doors and phones, seen more people burst into tears, and witnessed more people taking sick days than ever before. Stress is a cruel b*tch.

But moving on to another topic, today is tomorrow is Friday. I just have to keep repeating that to myself :) Not only is tomorrow Friday, but it's The Hunger Games Friday. Everyone is raving about this movie already. I haven't read the books, but my sisters gave me a thorough rundown, and I must say, I'm excited to see how Hollywood pulls off some of the subject matter in a PG-13 film. No midnight showing for me, but opening night? Yes, please :)

Anyone else plan on seeing The Hunger Games tonight or this weekend?

Well, have a great Thursday everyone! Stay as stress-free as possible :)
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