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.

target-- love it or...hate it?

there is a new target at cascade station, in east portland. i have a love-hate relationship with target and i've been to this new location a few times now.

as they've recently opened, i've found the store to be remarkably clean and full of eerily-eager 'team members.'every five feet a team member is lurking, jut waiting to ask me if i need help finding anything.

except in electronics, where i actually do need help. i don't need help finding anything, mind you, i just need them to unlock for me the flash drive i would like to buy. it's on sale and the main reason for my trip to target this day. i have to search through the aisles to find a team member. i finally find a few, huddled together in one place, talking about what they'll be doing that evening. how rude of me to interrupt this social session. i get a young woman's attention and let her know i need her to unlock a flash drive for me. she asks me what aisle it is on. i don't know, for god's sake! whatever aisle the flash drives are sold on! she seems paralyzed by my lack of knowledge of the exact layout of this store. so i lead her there.

"oh, it's locked," she says. umm...yes...that's why i've spent the past ten minutes searching the store for a team member. (that's ten minutes i'll never get back, by the way.) because it is locked! she needs to call someone with a key.

ok. so i wait. and wait.

until a young man arrives. he must be very important as he is unable to give me his attention right away-- he needs to finish barking orders at the younger men following a few strides behind him. turns out none of these young folks have keys, either. i'm not kidding. so we call for someone with a key (sound familiar?).

finally, another young man arrives. with a key! he asks me if i want red or pink. "pink," I tell him. "or maybe you want red AND pink," he offers. kill me. really? he is trying to upsell me at this point? he's lucky i didn't leave fifteen minutes ago. finally, he unlocks it, takes the pink one down and...doesn't hand it to me. apparently i'm not able to leave the electronics section without paying for the $18 item. even though surrounding me are hundreds of items equally as small and comparably priced. but, you know, that is the policy.

i mention that i want to grab a few more things and that i had actually purchased this same flash drive at this same store just days ago and the young person 'helping' me that day did not require me to pay on the spot. he just looked at me blankly. so i gave him my $18 and got the hell out of there, minus my other purchases.

what a hassle. i wish i could tell you i wouldn't be back because of this ridiculousness, but i would know i was lying. because i have a love-hate relationship with target. i just keep going back.

apparently, comcast cares

i wrote about my experience with comcast and live chat recently (read that post here). the next morning someone from comcast commented on my post.

i had nothing to lose by sending 'him' my phone number. plus, my interest was peaked. so i emailed the address he left (we_can_help@cable.comcast.com).

a couple of hours later i got a response.

it was about what i would have expected. really, i need to send a link to the post? not getting off to a great (re)start. but i sent it.

and the next day, i heard back again.

reach out to me? this is actually pretty funny at this point.

a few hours later (so two days after the original post), chelsea called me. she wanted to 'apologize' for my experience and 'assure' me the situation was being 'reviewed' (review is a popular word at comcast). in my original post i mentioned i thought my monthly charge was going to be $25 but it ended up being $35 because i didn't have any other comcast services. i hadn't read the fine print. as a 'good will gesture,' chelsea discounted my monthly bill by $10 for the next six months.

so i'm $60 richer and glad for it. next time i'll skip the live chat. and i'll read the fine print.

comcast and live chat-- thumbs down

a coworker told me she downgraded her comcast internet service and it continued to work just as well. i was sold. my internet service is pretty lame anyway-- it's slow and timing out isn't unusual-- so why not pay half as much. my service was $55 per month and the economy service i was planning to switch to was advertised as just $25.

so armed with my account number, billing address, phone number, social security number and some stored up patience, i headed to the comcast website to find their phone number. the 'contact us' link brought me to a screen pushing live chat. i decided to give it a try. maybe it would be less painful than a phone call filled with transfers and bad hold music. ha!

so i click on live chat, fill out a form with my name, address, etc and submit the info. i could try to describe the experience, but justice wouldn't be done. it speaks for itself:

oh my god. fifteen minutes later and i still have to call them. nothing accomplished and my stored up patience dwindling.

there is only one more piece of interesting (but not really surprising) information left to this story. when i made it through the maze of "for existing service, press 5...your business is important to us...." and got a real human on the line, he told me i was all set-- my new monthly charge would be $35. $35? the website says $25. turns out the $25 monthly charge is with a bundle. one must have other comcast services to receive that price. i think i'll pass on those.

so i am now the proud new owner of the comcast economy internet service package. for the bargain price of $35 per month. $38.50 with taxes and fees.

hair how i want it

everyone knows hairdressers just do whatever they want. it doesn't matter what kind of cut or color you ask for, you'll get whatever it is the hairdresser feels like giving you. because the hairdresser knows best. right? well...maybe they do know best. i'm certainly not an expert. but that doesn't mean i'm cool with my requests being disregarded or ignored. i am paying for this service after all. opinions are great. advice is welcome. but if, in the end, i want a cut my hairdresser doesn't feel is best for my face shape or hair type, or a color that doesn't do my completion justice, or whatever it is my hairdresser disagrees with-- that's my problem. so just give it to me. right? right!

so to my delight and amazement, i've finally found a hairdresser who actually cares what i want. she cares! she listens to what i ask for. she shows me pictures to make sure she understands. and then she really, genuinely does her best to make it happen. she doesn't make me feel bad for mentioning celebrities names as examples of the kind of cut i'd like. for god's sake-- i understand i'm not going to look like the celebrity (believe me, i KNOW that)-- it is just an example. my hairdresser understands, too. she understands!

and her greatness-- it isn't just a fluke. it isn't! i've been feeling brave and adventurous with my haircuts over the past year or so, and trying different things. she gets it right every time. every time. i've had a lifetime of of bad haircuts and hairdressers who don't listen. but no more.

and as a special bonus, she is fun! and friendly! and affordable! did i mention affordable?

oh, the hair gods must be smiling upon me. and they can smile upon you, too. do yourself a favor and go see julie ann at complete designs. you'll leave with hair how you want it.

¿por que no? yes!

i've been to the ¿por que no? taqueria on mississippi a few times. the food is always delicious--flavorful and super-fresh. but the space is loud and crowded. there's often a wait for one of the very few tables (that are very close together). it's a perfect atmosphere for my younger, hipster friends but no so much for me. i'm not long on patience when it comes to being seated (or in general). i don't love dining on top of the people at the next table. and i prefer to be able to converse with my lunch/dinner mate without having to yell or strain. so if it's ¿por que no? for lunch or dinner-- it's take-out.

until hawthorne.

i checked out this 'new' location many months ago. it was great. lots of space, nice service staff, no waiting. as that is too good to be true in a popular portland restaurant i figured i had just gotten lucky. and i hadn't been back since.

until this afternoon. three of my friends and i decided to brave the crowd and grab some tacos for lunch. at prime lunch time we rolled in. the line was out the door, of course. sigh. just like mississippi. "we're going to be here forever," i thought.

but we weren't.

the line moved at lightening pace. the cashier took our order quickly. AND nicely. even though she was mobbed. she even asked clarifying questions ("will you all be sitting together? paying together?"). she made eye contact. and then she moved us along with a firm but friendly efficiency only seasoned service providers can pull off.

good deal, right? but it gets better.

there were available tables! we found a place in the courtyard. it was quiet and private and we had plenty of space. a lovely woman brought us our (yummy) food with a smile. as service experiences go, this one was a winner.

so perhaps it isn't too good to be true after all. ¿por que no? yes!

the convenience of self-checkout

i went to hollywood fred meyer today. didn't need much-- a few apples, some creamer and a furnace filter. really no big deal. the plan was to run in and out.

who was i kidding?

there were about four checkstands open and about forty people standing in those four lines. ok, maybe twenty people. way too many for any kind of efficient experience. no problem, i'll just use the self-checkout. it's easy and quick.

who was i kidding?

oh, the drama of the weighted apples and the robotic cashier. i tried to convince the machine to sell me the apples. to no avail. it kept commanding me to, "remove item from bagging area." finally, the attendant came to 'help' me. she gave me a quick rundown on all the things i may have done wrong to provoke the robotic cashier, pressed a couple of buttons and dashed off. i hadn't actually done any of those things but..ok..all's well that ends well, right?

oh, who was i kidding?

robotic cashier just didn't want me to buy those apples. the command was now to, "place item on scanner." forget it already, i didn't even want the apples anymore! and oh, geez-- now the attendant was coming back. she shared some new ideas about how i could have caused this malfunction. so helpful. i gave her the apples, paid for my creamer and furnace filter and got the heck out of there! phew, not going back there for a while.

i just went to switch out the furnace filter. it isn't the right style. i guess i'll be returning to fred meyer tomorrow. i'm sure it will just be a quick trip. yes, i'm kidding.