The death of customer service

Well, it seems that customer service really is dying out. I've had three experiences in the past two days that convince me of this in varying degrees. One I can file under the heading "the death of common sense".

Poor value
An optician I use, Pearle Vision, has caught my attention and ire today. Six months ago I bought a pair of glasses (frames and lenses) and I've just noticed that where the arm attaches to the frame, a part of it has broken off. It's likely that in a few weeks, the arm will detach completely. So I called them and their response is that they will be willing to give me a 50% discount off the price of another identical crappy frame. Generous! Dr Pearle will be rolling in his grave, I'm sure. Back in the day, something you bought generally was guaranteed for a year. Not with them - 60 days and after that, unless you bought their frame insurance, you're screwed. Indeed it's them who are screwed since not only am I not going to be giving them $180 (half the cost of the frame) but I will not be going back. I'll also be telling anyone I know (including you) that they suck.

Sure this practice may be more common place than we think but a 60 day warranty?


Foolish
Like many people here, we love Netflix. It's a service that allows you to receive DVDs by mail for an exceedingly low monthly rate (much less than renting from a local video store).

Netflix introduced a feature allowing people to have one account but multiple queues. Each member can manage their own queue of movies and Netflix sends movies off each queue in turn. In their infinite wisdom, they have decided to abandon this feature and will be deleting the non-primary profiles on September 1st. Note, this is a deletion so if your spouse has 100 movies in their profile queue, they will be deleted. Not merged. Not only does this not make sense but it will be bound to harm their business. Like many, I'll be reviewing whether I like them enough to keep them and this goes a long way to cutting them off at the knees.

This is a link to another disgruntled customer...

Idiotic
A restaurant near my office specializes in rotisserie chicken. It's great and for $6 you get four large pieces and more bread than you can shake a butter knife at. So I went there on Wednesday and the conversation goes like this:

Server: "Welcome to Roasters, can I take your order?
Me: "Yes, I'd like a four piece dark please."
Server: "I'm sorry sir, we only sell chicken. We don't have duck."
Me: "No, I want a four piece dark"
Server: "Sir, we only sell chicken, we don't do dog."
Me (frustrated) "I would like a four piece D-A-R-K".

Right on their menu it specified dark meat or white meat. You think they'd be used to that by now. To further my amusement, she didn't look like she'd worked at a Korean restaurant where such a dialogue would be perfectly understandable.

On a positive note
Target stores often have a pharmacy. For years (13) I have used Walgreens because they are also convenient and you can order refills of prescriptions online. Recently Walgreens have just become a pain to deal with (mostly due to insurance influence) but I'd had enough and transferred mine to Target.

So far, Target have done a great job. Fast, efficient and they are good at getting my insurance issues resolved. To top it all, my monthly bill has dropped from $150+ to about $70. Target (Walmart has a similar scheme but I don't like the great unwashed feeling) have $4 prescriptions instead of the $25 I'd pay at Walgreens.

So Target gets my vote for a good job done this month.


Curiosity says hello...

From Herding Cats ...

Blocking cellular spam

For those of us receiving annoying spam on our cellular phones, here's some ways to reduce it. Spam on your cellphone can be offensive for a couple of reasons:

1. It costs you to receive it (typically), not the sender.
2. It smells on a hot day and makes the keyboard sticky.

So here's the link. Spam

Enjoy!

Outdoor adventures

It's been an interesting couple of days. The cats have gotten on better than we'd expect and are settling in for the long haul.

Tinto has decided that the basement/garage holds many delights and brings a rare find up to share with us - a leaf that had blown in. Apparently this provided many more hours of entertainment than the mice/balls/cat accessories combined. If only I could work out a way to sell them.

From Herding Cats ...

Sleeping seems to be a common trait. He's monopolizing the igloo although can be too large to completely fit in it at times.



He's been out a couple of times onto the balcony and chased the local insect population. His inexperience with the outside world shows though as he's somewhat timid. Earlier he jumped off the balcony to the ground (only a couple of feet where he did it) and then demonstrated that claws are useful by leaping a good five feet or so and scrambling back onto the balcony using claws, crampons and an ice pick (I'm joking about the ice pick).



He has certainly recovered from his horrible morning during which I stuffed him in a cat carrier and drove him to the vet for a check up. Now he's home again, he's going to make the most of it.



Those of you wondering when I am going to stop writing about dang felines probably wish for the prolonged radio silence earlier in the Spring. Tough - cats are fun and provide us with many hours of entertainment.

Other stuff.... We might be going to Toronto in August for the 2008 AMCIS conference. A chance also to consume some frequent flyer miles and see Canada (barely). The conference is taking place at the Sheraton so it shouldn't be too shabby. Possibly also going to San Francisco in September for the Oracle OpenWorld 2008 conference.

Some progress

After a quiet night without much in the way of incident, they appear to be getting on or at least to have reached an agreement.



Having baited the environment with catnip, both cats were able to be within a couple of feet of each other without any problems and hardly a growl.



Tonight, they both disappeared upstairs and sat there looking out of the window. Mutual understanding perhaps. Perhaps cats are the solution to the middle east unpleasantness.

More boring cat photos to follow.

... and more of Claudia :)

Herding cats.

So it's official - we have a new cat. Well, new to us. Adopted Pepper from the cat rescue (wonder how effective cats are at rescue? Climbing ladders must be interesting). He's being renamed Tinto which is black coffee; quite appropriate for us. He's also a domestic American Shorthair and is about a year old (and a couple of pounds heavier). He is nutless, just like his cousin.

He and Curiosity are circling each other with very few issues. He's very sociable and after I gave him some special cat food, he became so much more so.

Herding Cats - Tinto Arrives

No doubt there will be other photo opportunities soon.