"We have a lot of angry customers out there. This puts us at threat level midnight." --Michael Scott

When do you complain about customer service? It's a question I've wrestled with a lot recently, to varying results. As a consultant, I attempt to give my clients the highest level of service and attention. Not only because that's what I would want as a client, but also because I know I am "representing my firm" (how many of us have heard that speech from a school or camp?).

Recently I had a great customer service experience. Unlike New York, make-your-own-salad places are few and far between in Chicago. I have found one place - Freshii - that I now frequent often. A few weeks ago, I unfortunately noticed a piece of bacon in my salad. I was able to avoid it, but was still pretty grossed out and thought I may have to abandon my new-found salad place. That afternoon, I decided to send in a complaint on their webform, just to see what would happen. One day later, I received an email from the President of the company, genuinely apologizing for the mistake. Granted, they are a pretty small company, and I realize not all restaurants would provide the same response, but I truly appreciated the overwhelmingly nice note. In addition to an apology, he gave me two free meals - for me and a friend - anything on their menu. I wrote him back thanking him, particularly for the fantastic customer service. I'm happy that I can continue to enjoy my salads, but I also really appreciate and admire their customer service.

After work yesterday I ran a few cool shopping errands (eyeliner, socks, underwear...really

exciting stuff). The last errand was Victoria Secret. Since I started shopping at VS a few years ago, I have been pleasantly surprised at their fantastic customer service in stores. They are quick to ask if they can help, point you in the right direction or explain a new line. They gladly measure and remeasure you, and will personally walk you around the store to find items in your size. That's what I call above and beyond, and it's one of the main reasons I continue to return.

Last night I had two unfortunate experiences. First, I asked a sales associate for help finding an item. I had the name of the product (it's not like I tried to just describe it to her) and she pointed me to a completely different product and basically ran away. After finding the item I wanted about 10 minutes later following another search on my own, I was ready to check out. This is where the real fun began. Not only were the line(s) completely disorganized (one of my major pet peeves), there was a group of tourist (Denmark?) who had a very complicated order of sizes, items and which way they wanted this convoluted mess organized and wrapped. The woman directly in front of me must have been paying with pennies because she spent at least 15 minutes checking out for what looked like one bra. By the time I actually got up to pay, I received no apology, no comment whatsoever, despite the 15 minutes I had just spent glaring and rolling my eyes at the sales associates. It was at this point that I debated saying something to the floor manager. When there are additional associates available, I expect someone to see that I am trying to buy three small items, and lead me to another register to pay and get the heck out of there. But that didn't happen. In the end, I decided to not say anything because those tourists seemed really obnoxious and demanding and I felt bad for the girls who had to deal with that cluster. But as I walked away, I couldn't help feeling mad for having my time wasted and upset that their usual level of customer service had taken such a hit.

What would you guys have done? Complain? Or just walk away? Would you have purchased the items? And does anyone ever actually send back soup?

manic monday, woah oh oh.

several things to discuss (or, l'daskes, if you will.)

1. pardon my lateness in bringing this article to your attention! i thought that there wouldn't be a doc jensen article last week because there was no lost last week (sad face!), but i was clearly mistaken. lots of good theories, so i'd read up. and - get psyched up for this week! i feel so deprived, don't you?

2. after my horrible-professor, too-long course this weekend (never take a weekend-long Intro to OD course), i was back with awesome-crazy-suit-prof last night. a few good ones:

"it's easier for me to pay him to do nothing than to deal with him. i mean, it's like a five-act Verdi opera with him."

"i recently had this interview, and i just kept talking and talking and talking, waiting for the guy to interrupt me, like i'm dancing as fast as i can."

3. has anyone seen waltz with bashir? we saw it this weekend and, without any spoilers, i was left very upset and disappointed. i'd appreciate your opinions or comments, if you've seen it.

4. i had a major phone malfunction over the weekend. it's sort of difficult to do anything with your blackberry storm when the touchscreen doesn't work at all. after trying to access my technology genius and fix it myself, i realized it was way broken, and i needed help. last night, i spoke with three different verizon representatives on the phone, and they were all courteous, patient, helpful and friendly. (my dad also called the customer service number - because of course no one knew what our account password was - and had the same guy who helped him call me directly! seemed to really be above and beyond, and i appreciated it a lot.) yet, when i went to the verizon store on 34th street yesterday afternoon, i was treated unbelievably rudely, as if it was shocking that i'd ask anyone to do their job and help me. i really don't understand how these people could possibly have such vastly different attitudes.

moral of the story: verizon has good service, but crappy, crappy in-person customer service. if you need anything, stay home and call them. i'm getting a new phone out of it, so i'm pretty satisfied.

clear out, i'm workin' with pills up here!

cvs is on my shitlist. i decided to fill my new prescription there, since the duane reade across the street is officially run by morons. i dropped of my prescription yesterday afternoon, everything went smoothly. super. but, when i went to pick it up this morning - crisis. allegedly, there was a "problem" with my insurance. i was (rudely) asked to wait while they figured it out. i proceeded to wait close to an hour for them to "sort this out". i stood around with my best "i am extremely pissed off" face on, but that didn't seem to incite them to move faster. i was told repeatedly that "she is on the phone with your insurance" but i could not find a single pharmacist who was on the phone. the only time they did pick up the phone was when someone called to ask about a prescription. they were very quick to answer those calls. so quick that i thought about going home and calling them to bitch about the issue instead of just standing there. anyhow, after waiting around for a million years while every other tom, dick and harry was helped before me, i was graciously handed my prescription. but - problem #1: it was much more expensive than it normally is. problem #2: my Rx is written to get 3 months at a time, but i was only handed a 1 month supply. blerg. i wanted to book it and figure it out later. as i turn to leave, the pharmacist says to me "Thank you," in that tone that really means "Please thank me for my brilliant work with pills." I did not. As I'm walking away, she continues to shout "Thank you" at my back.

Through all of that, here's the best thing I heard while waiting around the pharmacy counter -
Pharmacist Lady #1 to Pharmacist Lady #2: "What's half of a half?"

Do not, I repeat, do NOT go to the CVS pharmacy at 86th and Broadway.

disorganization and other tales of waiting in line.

so, all i wanted to do is have a little cultural outing. what i got was a frustrating, complete lack of organization. ugh.

we wanted to go see a prescreening of milk at the moma, with a q&a with gus van sant. sounds great, right? we thought so. of course, the tickets were just about sold on the first day of ticket sales last week. i went yesterday, for day-of ticket sales. they were going to start selling tickets at 1:00. i got to the museum at about 11:15. there was, of course, already a significant line, but i had a pretty good spot. (what we've also learned from this experience is: new yorkers love to wait in line.) after a while, a little man with a clipboard came around asking how many tickets everyone needed. around 12:30, another man ("Sweater Guy") came out and cut off the line about three people ahead of me saying that everyone behind that spot wouldn't get tickets. what the hell?! we hung around for a bit to see what would happen, but it looks like they had pretty accurately calculated the leftover tickets.

we found out that gus van sant had reserved about half of the seats for his buddies and entourage. good work, man. didn't you want the public to hear you speak? i'm sure your friends think your movie is good, or at least tell you so. we also got to see Pink Lady (short Jewish woman with a firey temper) give hell to Sweater Guy for not having enough tickets. whatever. they told us the standby line would start at 6, and they would give out whatever tickets weren't picked up before the movie at 7.

i got to the moma film office at 5:15. at that time, they wouldn't even tell you where the line was forming. what?! how does that make any sense? Sweater Guy announced to the growing crowd that at 6, he would tell us where the line would begin. ok... sounds like a stampede to me. by the time e got there, we were able to play zones for a few minutes, until Sweater Guy announced where the line would be. again, we got a good place. we stood against the wall in line for an hour, before they decided to tell us there were no available tickets. wow....

in the end, we went to crazy times square and saw slumdog millionaire, which was fan-frikkin-tastic. to entice you, trailer below.

(also - if you want to see any movie screenings at the moma, get there well before what you might consider to be ridiculously early, and expect utter disorganization.)