Let us speak of the evil...

I have a major problem: I can’t stay awake. I’m in my sports law class trying to pay attention but my eyes are closing and the only thing I can do to stay awake is type. Hence this blog entry. Why, you ask, am I trying to pay attention? Because the wireless network is down so I couldn’t stick to my original plan, which was to spend this class researching articles for my sports law term paper. I think I’m falling asleep because I was thinking about research too much. These days whenever I think about or try to accomplish any kind of research I fall asleep almost immediately. Like I was saying in response to a comment a couple entries ago, I think it's some kind of misdirected defense mechansim. But yeah, the topic today is gender equality in sports, which is actually pretty interesting. Still, it’s not enough to keep me awake.

At least I have my laptop back. I took it in yesterday to get fixed again. When I got it back last week it was still pretty noisy... also the bottom vents hadn’t been put back on right, the sound still wasn’t working right, and that obnoxious alarm sound had been enabled. So now everything is good except for the sound problem. But that’s okay, it would have taken a lot of time to fix and it’s not really that important because when the sound stops working (after the computer comes out of hibernation) I can fix it by rebooting. The main point of taking the computer in was to get it cleaned out and they seem to have done a fairly good job of that.

Besides, there are BIGGER fish to fry. Like Martini’s Restaurant (hereafter referred to as Martini’s). So here’s the story: Last Thursday I ordered pizza at 8pm. The woman on the phone said it would be there in 40 to 45 minutes. Great. So we waited… 40 to 45 minutes came and went. After an hour I decided to phone and check on the order. I had no malice or even disapproval to offer at this point; it was simply an inquiry. So I phoned and the girl who answered put me on hold for a couple minutes. She finally got back to me and said it would be there any minute. Great. So we waited some more… any minute came and went. Finally, at twenty past nine, I phoned again. Phone girl put me on hold again, came back again, and said “yeah it’ll be there any minute.”

Now hold on. That’s what she said last time. Only it never came. So why would it come in any of the next few minutes. I suggested that maybe it wasn’t fair for me to pay full price for a pizza that was so late. Her response? She gave me a nice little lecture on the restaurant business and how delays happen. Now, I have to agree with her on that point. As someone who spent a couple years managing a pizza restaurant I know delays are common. But I thought it was customary to apologize to the customer in these situations and offer… maybe… a free order of breadsticks or a couple bucks off the order or something.

But no, what I got was a lecture. Then, when I reiterated the part about the order being 35 minutes late (at that point) she said “well sir, you were quoted an hour and it really hasn’t been that much longer so far. What argumentative phone girl did not count on was that I have a memory span that is somewhat greater than that of the average goldfish. Not only did she quote me 40 to 45 minutes but the recorded phone message, which I had to listen to every time she put me on hold, was saying “please be advised, orders placed now will take approximately 45 minutes for delivery” or some crap like that.

So after explaining that to crabby phone lady, I pondered out loud the fact that, because the pizza had left the store at least 20 minutes before, it was probably going to be cold. Phone girl didn’t care. No apologies, no regrets. What she did tell me to do was to phone back if it was cold. I said “well I guess if that’s all your willing to do for me that’s what I have to do” to which she sarcastically replied “yep have a good night!.” And hung up.

Okay so I didn’t deserve that sarcastic shit. I don’t even like complaining (I know some people do). And those rare times when I do complain about something, I try to be polite and respectful because really, the delay isn’t evil phone girl's fault. The way she treats me when I phone, however, is entirely within her control and I was a little pissed about that. Anyway, the pizza finally got there after an hour and a half. As predicted, it was cold and it actually stuck to the box.

I wasn’t in the mood to phone back on Thursday night though. Going a round with the phone troll had totally made me miss half of Apprentice! And if I phoned back I’d miss the other half too. Not to mention the fact that we were completely starving by this point. I needed to eat, not fight about late pizza. I had had enough of them for one night. And I was way way way too busy on Friday to phone, so I called on Saturday.

First off, I should say that when I called Saturday I was mostly doing it because I was pissed about the way I’d been treated. The pizza itself? Not the biggest of deals. I wanted an apology and some indication that they cared in some small way that I had crappy, crappy, service. Okay so I called in the afternoon and the guy told me to call back at 6 to speak with the manager. No problem. I called at 6 and she came to the phone. I started telling her about what happened, but before I got very far she cut me off by saying “this happened Thursday and you’re calling now?” I had assumed the fact that I was calling at the present time would have been self evident, but nonetheless I replied to the affirmative. I suspect she wasn't really confused about whether or not we were having a conversation in the present time; she just needed to make a little point by asking a question in that tone people get right before they tell you to take a hike.

Before I could say anything else she put me on hold. Finally she came back and said “I just conferred with the other manager and if you can’t call and complain within a day and a half of when the problem occurs there’s nothing we can do for you.” I see. At that point she was pretty much ready to exit the conversation. I tried to tell her about why I was so bothered but all I was getting in return was “okay thanks bye!” attitude.

And THAT, my friends, is why I don’t like Martini’s Restaurant. If I was making my list of 75 things I don’t like right now, they’d be on top. Even though the things on that list weren’t ranked in order, Martini's would STILL be on top. What I don’t get is why people act like this. When I was in customer service, and I was there for a long time, complaints were pretty common. Even though most of them were stupid and petty, we still put our best smiles on and tried to make people happy. I had some evil, stupid, miserable people to deal with when I worked on the ships, and in the restaurants, and in the hotel. Sometimes nothing could be done; they were haters and couldn’t be pleased. But most the time people can be appeased relatively easily. What they really want is for someone to care that they’ve been messed around. At Martini’s it seems like they just want complaining customers to go away. And they do go, but they also tell whoever will listen and then those people might go away as well.

If my pizza takes an hour and a half to get to me and it’s cold and stuck to the box then obviously someone, somewhere, at some time, has messed up. There has been a mistake. Was it me? No. But in these situations someone will have to pay for the mistake and it will either be the restaurant or the customer. In this case they chose that I, the customer, should pay for their mistake by paying full price for cold pizza and dealing with a bunch of attitude. Which really doesn’t make much sense. They were so reluctant to offer any type of concession as a way of making amends: No discount, no break sticks, no free drinks, nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zip. Niente. In doing so they chose the much more expensive option, which was to give up any future business I might give them and quite possibly the business of my friends who I complain to.

Anyway today I sent off a letter to the owner and I did it for two reasons: (1) I hate getting treated like a chump by some teenager with attitude and (2) anything is better than focusing on what I should be doing, which is studying. I told them that I want the charges reversed on my credit card and if they don’t do it I’ll take further action. And, if I am forced to take further action, I’ll also file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Lame huh? I only sent the letter today so I guess I have to wait a while for any sort of reply. It if get any sort of reply that is. I'll post an update when I have one.

Okay well class is over… it’s time for some fun filled research!