Happy Medium Customer Service

Oops – post fix & repost!

(Posting delays due to work schedule and events below consuming my days off.)

I tend to listen to Korn or Disturbed when I’m irritated. This week, they both filled about an hour and a half drive.

I’m not sure what’s happened to courteous, common-sensible service anymore.

Either customer service now entails smiling brightly even when kicked in the teeth by customers or – it just really doesn’t exist at all. Bi-polar customer service. But where’s the happy medium?

I don’t agree with the forced smile-type (where the service person is expected to beam eagerly and brightly while blood and enamel bits dribble down their chin), but the blank-stare Deliverance type of ‘service’ doesn’t work well, either.

A-1 Tire & Alignment in C*****k, MT. (Yes that’s their real name, I’m tired of being nice.) They put Ms. Vandura on the rack last week to troubleshoot her wandering issues. They were ordering the parts days in advance. An appointment was set up for the next week for the repairs.

“We open at 8, be here as early as you can!”

I told them I was about 80 miles out one way, that I had a specific work schedule and had no cell service and to please email me (emphasis) if there were any issues with the parts they were ordering.

I was up at 5 am and left at 6:30 am for town, glad I was going to have the van fixed. I arrived in town at 8, grabbed some breakfast and headed to the shop.

As I walked in the door, the owner announced he was just checking to see if the parts had come in. Um, just now checking? Surely he should have done that…before? I heard dueling banjos gently wisping above his head.

I knew. I knew right away there were no parts. Sure enough. They didn’t actually get ordered and it must be someone else’s fault. He was sorry…but he could do it tomorrow. Nothing he could do.

Nothing? How about checking ohhhhh, beforehand and emailing me as requested if there was a problem so I didn’t have to drive 160 miles out of my way on a lark?

On the back of his business card it states to “please give 24 hrs notice if you can’t keep your repair appointment.” Mmm-hmmm.

So I drove 160 miles and blew a day off for absolutely nothing. He shrugged, held an apathetic stare and shifted his obviously large gonads by his next question.

Did I still want him to order the parts?

“Why yes. For you to **** yourself with. I’m outta here.”

My waves of disgust surfed me back out the front door.

In retrospect, it’s probably a good thing. Maybe I really didn’t want that shop doing anything with Ms. Vandura if they were incapable of even ordering parts!

On the lighter critter side, one more bear call! But she had wandered off by the time we got down to where she was supposed to be. Guess it was a tagged momma bear.

When there are no bears, I like to chat and chirp on rounds with the friendly population of ground squirrels. These are like prairie dogs, but a little smaller, grey and with more of a tail. We also have a resident fearless deer. She likes to come right up to the lodge and hang out, nonchalantly grazing, unfazed by people.

What kinds of things can I do when not wrangling bears or chirping with critters? Well, I’ve checked in late arriving guests, shut down parties, provided back-up presence in things like power-outages when all the computers went bye-bye and kept people out of a building where a fire occurred.

Speaking of bi-polar service, now I get to complain about the freezing weather! From the 90s down to the 50s during the day. Yikes – chilly! Haaaaaappy medium! Say it with me now: We need happy medium weather! Like 76, low humidity and sunshine!

Until next time….