does free stuff = good service?

i ordered some leggings online at discount dance supply a couple of months ago. they were inexpensive and comfortable. perfect. but they started to fall apart right away. not good. so i sent a note to the customer service folks on the

discount dance supply website:

Comment...hello. i'm writing in disappointment. a couple of months ago i bought a pair of leggings from this website. they arrived promptly, and i was happy with the look and feel of them. they seemed to be a good bargain. however, after wearing them only one time, the seams have started to come apart and there is a run in the same place. i treated them with care and followed washing instructions recommended. it isn't a good bargain if i can only wear them once before they come apart. i look forward to your response. thank you.

within a couple of hours i got the standard, "we've received your message" reply:

a couple of hours later i received another message from them:

hmm. maybe they were sending me a new pair? hard to know as the message was automated and made no mention of my specific situation.

and a couple of hour later still:

a new pair seemed to be on it's way. but how odd they seemed to be sending without any actual contact with me. perhaps their automated systems were getting ahead of themselves.

fast forward a few days-- a package arrived for me. could it be a new pair of leggings? it was. i never heard another peep from discount dance supply. but whatever. they replaced my leggings.

good service? you decide.

dinner and a show

i had dinner at veritable quandary (vq) in downtown portland last night. the food was yummy (and pricey). this isn’t a restaurant review, however. it’s a service review. and the service was just that little extra that one remembers. it isn’t the service i got while at the restaurant that impressed me (the wait staff were pleasant but nothing to write home about). it's what happened when i called for a reservation that stands out. a friend and i were planning to see the nutcracker at the keller auditorium and decided to go to vq for dinner beforehand. the restaurant tends to be busy on show nights so i called to make a reservation.

this is how it went down:
me: hi, can I make a reservation for monday evening, please?
hostess: sure, for how many and at what time?
me: for two at 6pm, please.
hostess: ok, will you be attending the ballet after dinner?
me: umm…actually, yes.
hostess: would 5:45 work for you? that’s the latest we recommend dining with us to make a 7:30 show. just to be safe.
me: yes! 5:45 would be fine. and thanks so much.

what a difference a simple question and a change of fifteen minutes can make. my friend and i didn’t have to rush and worry about making it to the show on time. the folks at vq didn’t have crabby and hurried customers trying to get out of there to make the show time. everyone wins.

and the ballet was great, too.

get less at ross dress for less.

i finished most of my christmas shopping this weekend. it wasn’t so bad. most places actually had it together-- i guess they were expecting lots of business and planned for it. how innovative. there was one place, however, that seemed to have not planned for it. i guess they didn’t know christmas was coming. or they didn’t care. either way, i stood in line at ross dress for less in the cedar hills crossing shopping center for what felt like forever. (admittedly, the small child with a big voice in line in front of me didn’t help it feel shorter.) i understand this is an extremely busy time of year for shopping and i expect to stand in line. but there were seventeen people in line in front of me. seventeen. and there was one (not particularly efficient or excited to be there) cashier. one. it doesn’t take a math whiz to realize that just doesn’t add up. the prices at ross dress for less are less indeed. problem is, their service is also less. much less this past weekend. so if you’re heading out to ross dress for less in the coming weeks, bring a snack as you’ll be there a while.

delta + northwest = disaster (part three)

i've written about a disastrous experience with delta + northwest over the past couple of days (read those posts here and here). and the tale of poor service concludes:

so i went to the gate. instead of waiting for a problem i decided to ask the gate agent about the flight coupons. good thing i asked as it turned out i no longer had a seat assignment for either flight. again. for real. i convinced her to give me a seat for the first flight (she acted like she was doing me some sort of big favor) but she told me there was nothing she could do about the second flight. i was going to have to deal with that when i got to minneapolis.

i was traveling on faith at that point. faith in delta + northwest. too bad i had zero faith in them. i was really hoping i wasn't going to be spending the night in minneapolis. really hoping.

when i landed in minneapolis i went to my gate, determined to get a seat and make it home. but there was no agent there. well, of course there wasn't. my flight didn't leave for three hours or so. fun.

a couple of hours later a gate agent arrived and on my request, assigned me a seat. it was a good seat but the damage had long been done at that point.

i arrived in portland exhausted and so glad to have made it through trip disaster. and sure i wouldn't be using delta + northwest again.

the service isn't worth the cost of a ticket. delta + northwest = disaster!

delta + northwest = disaster (part two)

i posted about delta + northwest yesterday (read that post here). and the story continues:

i tried to check in online a day before my flight but couldn't for some reason. i got an error message telling me i needed to go to the airport to check in.

so i went to the airport. there were three women at the delta + northwest counter but they were all talking to each other and none of them had time for me. that's cool, i was pretty much over this company by then and preferred to use the self-check-in kiosk anyway. but i couldn't. the kiosk found my reservation but told me i needed to speak with a delta-northwest agent. oh, lord, they were making this hard.

i got a woman's attention. she asked me my last name. i told her. "sadie?," she asked. yep. "you don't have an electronic ticket," she told me. "do you have a paper ticket?" nope. electronic. as of an hour ago i had confirmed seats, too. geez! what is going on with these people?! i told her i was on the second leg of my trip and had gotten this far on an electronic ticket. "oh, it was a one way ticket?," she asked me. NO! is she serious? sadly, i think she was. i was quickly losing my patience but let her know my ticket was electronic. apparently there just wasn't anything she could do to for me unless i could prove i had a ticket. this was the worst service i'd had in a long time.

luckily i had the ticket number in my email which i was able to access from my phone. i gave it to her and she disappeared for five minutes. when she came back there was obviously a problem (shock). she had a couple of other women with her. they were all staring at the screen together. "oh!, she's going through atlanta!," one of them said. i let them know i HAD been going through atlanta and in fact preferred to go through atlanta but had been rerouted through minneapolis. this was just getting worse and worse. aren't the airlines supposed to know who is traveling on what plane to what city? a little thing called security? wow, delta + northwest can not be trusted.

finally, finally, they gave me these weird 'boarding passes.' the passes said, "flight coupon required" on them. they told me not to worry, to try to board and if there was a problem to just let the gate agent know they said it was ok to board without these flight coupons. oh, ok -- i wont worry. because this has all gone so smoothly so far. right.

on the edge of your seat? i'll be back tomorrow with the conclusion of delta + northwest = disaster.

delta + northwest = disaster

i purchased a ticket to florida many months ago. i made sure i had seat assignments, too. aisle seats at the front of the planes. i don't like flying and having a bad seat makes it that much worse. the trip there was pretty uneventful. that's a good thing. i guess delta + northwest was just saving up their graces for the disaster that was the trip home.

a few days before i was to fly home i got an email with a change in schedule. this happens often and is usually just a change of a few minutes or a change in aircraft. so i didn't think much of it.

until i looked at it. instead of flying through atlanta as planned, i had been rerouted through minneapolis adding several hours to the trip. i was really disappointed, but i understand operational changes need to happen sometimes. this one seemed a bit extreme but i was going to roll with it (as i didn't really have a choice).

until i realized they has also assigned me a middle seat at the back of the plane for both flights. umm...you're going to cancel my flight, send me on a completely different route, add hours to my travel time AND give me crappy seats? i'm SO not cool with that.

so i called. i got a woman who apparently hates her job. that's too bad for me as she was rude and had no interest in helping me at all. i hung up being even more annoyed than i had been fifteen minutes earlier when i had embarked on the mission to get a human on the phone.

but i wasn't giving up. so i called again. this time i got a man who actually did want to help me. but couldn't. apparently as delta and northwest merge their systems don't communicate with each other. i had called delta but i needed to speak with someone at northwest. he offered to transfer me. at this point i was invested and i figured i didn't have anything to loose (except more time and energy..).

the woman at northwest was actually pretty nice. she offered me a slightly better seat on the first flight and an aisle seat toward the front of the plane for the second flight. i thanked her and felt much better. that mission was a big hassle but it was worth it for a good seat if i'm going to be traveling for twelve hours.

too bad she didn't (or couldn't) keep her word.

this sad story is a long one and has been split in three. i'll be back tomorrow with delta + northwest = disaster (part two).

treated right at rite aid

i don't expect to be particularly engaged by the staff at the cully neighborhood rite aid in east portland. eye contact, yes. greeted, maybe. but the service ends there.

or so i thought.

so imagine my surprise this weekend when i encountered friendliness AND initiative. twice!

this is how it went down: i headed to the register with a round brush and some halloween candy. one of the two cashiers (isn't it a miracle there were two cashiers?!) was just finishing up with the person in front of me so I went to the second cashier. as the second cashier began to help me he realized a previous customer had left a couple of bags on the counter. he started calling after the customer but she didn't hear him. so he grabbed the bags and went running after her. he really wanted to make sure she got all her stuff. that's friendliness and initiative encounter number one.

as my cashier had just dashed off after a customer, the first cashier called me over to her register. she noticed i was buying a brush and mentioned she thought there may be a coupon for that brush. she got out the weekly circular and (quickly) went through it, trying to find a discount for me. it turned out the brand i was buying wasn't the brand the coupon was for. she asked me if i wanted to switch out my brush for one i could use the coupon on. i didn't, but it really was nice of her to notice and offer. friendliness and initiative encounter number two.

now, i'm not going to get my hopes up that rite aid is going to treat me right every time, but i was certainly treated right this time.