Say it, Ray

Rain Man learned quickly that "Kmart sucks." You'd think I could have figured it out by now, too, but clearly I haven't.
The Kmart in Rochester is awful. It is poorly managed (and has been for more than a dozen years), it is sloppy, it is chronically understaffed, and, well, it sucks.

Unfortunately it is right across the street from my family clinic, it is on a thoroughfare I travel regularly, and it does carry a few items I can't find anywhere else in this town. So I stop in several times a year, always with trepidation.

Today I went in for folders. Two pocket folders without the prongs for holding looseleaf paper are nowhere to be found. Seriously. Kmart didn't have them, either, but the prong style folders were on sale for 10 cents, whereas other stores are asking 50 cents or more. So I grabbed a half dozen and headed to the checkouts.

It was crazy. There were 3 registers open, lines snaking back close to the middle of the store. The lone service counter employee seemed oblivious, so I asked (nicely, I might add) if she could call another cashier. She unleashed on me and chewed me out saying that 2 people had called in that day and there was no one else to help.

Okay, lady. THAT is not my problem. It's your job to provide customer SERVICE. I have done that job. Yes, I worked the service desk at a Kmart. For years. And if I had even thought of responding to a customer that way I would have been (deservedly) FIRED.

My response to her tirade? Oh, believe me, I gave as good as I got. Did you expect any less? In my typical dramatic fashion, in front of a couple dozen people, I stormed up to her counter, told her she could stick the folders up her ass and that I would be calling her boss later, and marched out the in door.

So, if Kmart has people checking social media and blogs for references to their stores (which would shock me, since they can't seem to get one decent human to run the store in Rochester, Minnesota), they should send the Powers That Be a little heads up; you are losing business daily here, and your reputation as a retailer is as low as it can get. People here like Walmart better. And that is saying something.

Kmart sucks.

ISPs (aka Internet Suckitude Purveyors)

In 1998 I got my first desktop computer. We went with the local cable company (which has a monopoly in our fair city) as our Internet Service Provider.

Keep in mind that my husband is a computer engineer and works for one of the largest computer companies in the world, and that I knew less than nothing about computers and that new-fangled email.

The company then was Bresnan, so our email was at bresnanlink.net. Then the company got sold to Charter (without a doubt the WORST ISP on the planet) and some stupid idiot who didn't know that Minnesota's postal abbreviation is MN made the domain name here at chartermi dot com. Ummm? That's Michigan. Fail. Then we got an upgraded service to enable Rob to log in to work from home. Extra security, extra charges, extra inconvenience. And a new domain name, at magnaspeed dot net. Keep in mind that is 3 emails and we were still with the same company. And there were a couple of other changes, too. Frustrating.

After we moved back from California (where we had Comcast for cable and internet and I LOVED them. People on the west coast rail about Comcast so it says a lot that I thought they were a huge improvement from the assholes that I deal with at Charter Communications). Please click on that link so that they can see how much I hate them. And let me say that when I call their customer service and get the little survey at the end of my call, I always click the option indicating I would not recommend their service to anyone. And they hang up on me. Because, apparently, providing great customer service is asking people if they would recommend your service, not asking WHY they would not and then doing something about it. Again, what idiots. But I digress. After we moved back from California (and yes, I know I left that dangling up there at the beginning but I thought you might have forgotten. I did. LOL). After we moved back from California we switched to Qwest.

They have been ok. No love for the email because it was through Hotmail and, honestly, a company that big should have its own email setup, right? But whatever. It worked, it was fine, and I use my own personal domain name for primary email anyway.

Until the FORCED MIGRATION from Qwest. First, they sent a POSTCARD to tell us that a change was coming. No indication of when or how, but they informed us of an internet change VIA SNAIL MAIL. WTF? And yes, they called it a forced migration. Because those of us who are change averse (hello, my desktop runs on Windows XP and I am married to a computer engineer with 2 extended family members who work for Microsoft) are going to be mellowed by the word FORCED.

So I migrated. Under duress. And their system? Oh my. The interface is AWFUL. Ugly. News links are all from tabloid news shows, nothing reputable. It's slow. It's cumbersome. I have to log in to the mail provider then log in to the email. Aw. FUL. Then? Multiple calls to their technicians, one of whom told me I was an idiot, basically. And yes, I did hang up on him. How did you know? And then I tattled on Chad to his co worker who helped me in online chat.

In the past couple of weeks I have spent close to 10 hours on this switch. I have talked to multiple customer service people and it seems they have had a tsunami of people needing help. Shocking. Poorly planned, poorly designed, and poorly implemented. Whooda thunk?

So I decided to forward my email to Gmail. Except they won't let me do that. Yep. I pay them for a service and they set conditions, like, We do not like those guys at Gmail and we won't play nice with them. The end. Grrr. Fortunately I have the aforementioned personal domain name. So Qwest forwards to it, and it routes to Gmail. A bonus is that Gmail (unlike Qwest mail) will allow me to use that email as my Reply to address as well.

Honestly. Qwest, I would have canceled my service the other day but after spending 2 hours or more on configuring my personal domain and my Gmail to circumvent your stupid system, I'm staying. For now. But do your employees a favor, all you suits ... start actually thinking of the customer and your employees before doing something like this again. I feel sorry for the people who work for you.

Oh, except for Chad. He can suck it.

Minnesota nice, my ass.

I ran to the Goodwill this afternoon. I keep a little bin in the laundry room and I toss in things that Spencer has outgrown as I'm folding laundry. (He has a hard time letting go of clothes, no matter how small.)

So I didn't have a lot but I wanted to get rid of it, as I am in this nesting/cleaning/organizing/tidying/purging phase.

I drove up to the tall garage door at the back of our fancy new Goodwill. There was a car parked in front of me.

I have never had to wait more than a few seconds for the door to open, but there was a big trailer pulled up to the loading dock so I thought maybe they were extra busy. I made a couple of phone calls and decided to call the Goodwill to find out why there was such a wait. (By that time I had been there 15 minutes.)

I had not honked or been otherwise rude because there is a sign near the door that says, among other things, "PLEASE be patient" and I am so very short in supply of patience on any given day I decided to really try to be patient.

When I got a human at the Goodwill on the phone, I inquired as to why I had been sitting there, with a line of cars now behind me.

His response? "Is the car in front of you pulled up all the way so it triggers the door?"

I got out and told the VERY young woman (I estimate 12) in the car in front of me that she needed to pull up. Of course, still in the spirit of "Minnesota Nice,"I refrained from adding that she should probably hang up her freakin' cell phone and pay attention to the toddler in the back seat.

And yes, I think she was an idiot but OH MY GOODNESS, instead of 12 signs asking for patience, how about they put up ONE that tells you how far you have to pull forward to trigger the sensor?

Blah.

This post is garbage

It is. Today I had finally had enough of our crapass garbage company. We don't have municipal waste pickup or recycling -- it is all done by independent companies. Four of them. Which means that every Tuesday, my neighborhood is filled from dusk to dawn with giant, lumbering, rumbling trucks. I hate it.

In the past our recycling has been left on the curb instead of recycled because it has been improperly sorted. We do our best to keep plastic, tin, aluminum, and glass separated-- honest we do. It takes an extra 10 minutes or so every week to sort it all and this morning Rob did it alone and it was COLD out. Like 15 degrees cold.

This afternoon I realized that the main recycling container had been emptied but a cardboard box sitting next to the recyclables had been left. The box was full of cardboard and newspapers. A long box that had held my new curtain rods had been wedged between the containers by Rob so it wouldn't blow away. When they took the recyclables they left the curtain rod box, too, so it had blown into the middle of the street.

I called them and was informed that they had not picked it up because it wasn't properly sorted and I LOST it. We deal with this regularly, and I recycle LOTS of stuff. More than most of my neighbors, more than almost everyone here. We got into the habit in California, where you can recycle almost anything. I can't have my recycling NOT picked up for a week; I don't have room in the tub for what I recycle in ONE week, let alone two. So I told her to cancel my service effective immediately.

I called another company and it turns out they don't require sorting AT ALL. Plus they'll give me a free month of service because I am switching companies. And they said that they heard regularly from Sunshine customers who were sick and tired of the sorting pickiness, among other things.

So if you're in Rochester or are moving to Rochester, you need to avoid Sunshine Sanitation. They are NOT sunshiney. They are a pain in the royal ass. They are picky and ridiculous and they just plain suck.

And I only posted the link there so if they have someone who looks at the statistics they will see that people are coming to their site from here. And then they will see that I hate them. And that will make me have a sunshiney day. So please click on the link above, but I beg you -- don't order service from them. They are the black hole of residential waste disposal. And you can quote me on that.

P.S. When they came to pick up the garbage for the last time (because they use 2 trucks and come at 2 different times), they took the cardboard and newspapers. So much for recycling.

PSA

If you go to drop off computer components at the county recycling facility and you forget your checkbook, they don't take debit or credit cards. And they will be pissy about it. Don't offer your driver's license so they can verify your identity and know when you return with the check. They will keep the driver's license.

PSA #2: If you get stopped by a cop you MUST produce a valid driver's license RIGHT THEN. It is a state statute.

PSA #3: Don't piss me off and take my driver's license and act like you know the law (because, according to the law enforcement center, you do NOT) because if you do I will call your supervisor and report you as an insufferable arse.

Anybody want me to complain somewhere for them? Seriously, I'm on a roll here.

Got a customer service complaint?

Call me -- I'll take care of it.

After much waiting around for my Silestone top for the baking cabinet, (a 3-4 week wait that turned into 5 weeks), I was happy it was all done.

But in mid-December my darling husband found a crack in the top. Not a huge crack, not a major thing in terms of appearance, but MAN! That stuff is not cheap and it should last for more than a few weeks.

So I called the installer, who came out that very day to look at it. He determined it should be covered by the 15 year warranty and said he would notify the manufacturer. (That would be the same manufacturer who made me wait for 5 weeks for the top originally and which does not return phone calls to their installers).

Today it had been 4 weeks since Mike looked at the crack, so I called him and asked for the number of the manufacturer. Left a message for Ronald. A few hours later, having received no call back, I got bitter. I called and left a message asking that he return my call, he could expect a call every hour or two UNTIL I heard from him, telling him I was not going to deal with a company that just didn't return calls -- I'd been down that road before -- and that the BBB was the next number on my list.

Then I called the owner and left a message for him. And I was not pleasant, or kind, or even soft-spoken. Catch more flies with honey than with vinegar, you say? Well, I can tell you you can catch a LOT of flies by threatening to open up a can of whoopass on them! LOL

In minutes the boss called me back. In half an hour he called to assure me that the new top would be manufactured in 10-12 days (ummm, hello? why the hell did I have to wait 5 weeks last time, then?) and that they would call the installer as soon as it was ready for pickup.

I feel MUCH better. And, honestly, yes, this IS a symptom of something else going on in my life that I cannot throw a tantrum about and over which I have little control. I am completely aware of it. Don't care, though. At least one problem in my life is solved.

An unexpected turn

of events. The sewing store called me today. The owner (who was the one I dealt with on the phone and in the 2 previous incidents) apologized profusely. She was very nice. I also told her I was sorry for going off on her, but that my time is as valuable as anyone else's and it was frustrating to have made 2 fruitless trips to her store. She agreed that it should have been handled differently, and I told her the next time I needed something, I would be sure to check there first.

Then she asked if she could send me a 50% off coupon for any item in her store.

Who am I to turn down a good discount?

Woo hoo.

Dear Quality Sewing Machine Center,

(which I would link to except you don't have a freaking website, you asshats). I took a "stained glass sweatshirt" class at your store this summer. I made a lovely sweatshirt from my mom and decided to make another for my sister-in-law, who saw my mom's while I was working on it.

I thought I had saved some of the quilting pattern but I can't find it. So I called the store to ask and you said, "Yes, we have that. It comes on a roll and you can pick it up anytime." So I drove to your store and guess what? It wasn't the same pattern. Not even close. So you said you'd order it for me. To your credit, you DID apologize that time.

Tonight, I made a special trip in the PT Cruiser to pick up the border that you had ordered. It's in a roll, but something didn't look right. I said it was the wrong one. "No it isn't," you said, speaking to me as if I were 4. "Ummm, yes, it IS. " I responded. And look -- upon further inspection you realized it was, indeed, wrong, and you again put me down on the clipboard to order it. That was it. No apology. No "I'm sorry you came all the way down here for nothing." No, "Gee, I made a mistake. I apologize."

So it felt REALLY good when I called you to tell you I had found it online. That I had ordered it and paid an extra freakin' 7 bucks in shipping because at least now I know I'll get the right item, and that, while I once thought you were the *best* and had excellent customer service, you were clearly slipping now and I would not be spending another dime in your sorry-ass store EVER AGAIN.

Plus, I have a blog. And I'm telling everyone I know. Seriously.

At last .....

Here's the dresser/baking cabinet this morning. The wood top has been sanded and it is ready for the new top.

And now, it is done. It has been 5 weeks since I ordered the doggone thing. They told me it would be done in 3-4 weeks. Yesterday I threw a tantrum and here it is. Isn't it gorgeous? I am so happy.

Take your time; appreciate it from all angles. I certainly did.

The color is Absolute Green. I was afraid it wouldn't look right in the kitchen; and we all know if we have too long to second-guess ourselves it is not a good thing, right? But it is perfect. I love it ...

and here is my favorite shot of all. That white rectangle on top is what I've been using since I was married (almost 12 years) to roll out pie crusts and pastry.

I am definitely moving up in the world.