Debanter

So.

You get a blog topic formulated in your mind. It’s not an atypical one (shoddy customer service), but in a relatively brief period of time multiple interactions have arisen which bring the “wtf, why don’t they care — who are these people?!?!” grumbling to the front of your mind.

Then someone out there has to go and do something like “care” and it all goes out the window.

Abbreviated version of former topic goes something like this: Aldo shoe saleswoman texts someone on her cell phone instead of noticing I’m standing in front of her holding one shoe, then basically calls me an idiot/loser for shopping in Aurora when I live in Los Angeles (like, omigod…). Then the next day “The New Air Canada - less people, more profits” (disgruntled but humourous guy at the counter’s words, not mine) introduced us to ridiculously long lines, the dysfunctional process of mandatory ‘kiosk then counter’, and a surly woman manning the line. She scoffed when we said “Hey, it’s 7am and our flight’s at 7:55…should we be worried 30 people are still ahead of us?” and told us we were crazy - first flight’s at 10am. She then wouldn’t make eye contact while I glared sleepily/grumpily at her from the counter while confirming our seats on said 10am flight once we’d missed the 7:55 cut off time…at 7:25.

We’ve all been there, we’ve all wanted to inflict pain (or at least annoyance and an earache) on one person in the service/retail industry at one time or another. [I’ve been there, I understand both sides, customers do really really suck sometimes too].

Which brings me to the caring part.

Adam and I are having the big ol’ happy formal wedding next year, August to be [more] exact. Since it’s a while til then and lots of out of towners are expected, I wanted to have ’save the date!’ cards printed up — in the process of checking them out, I wen to Papyrus and found ’save the date!’ cards…WITH MAGNETS. And the ability to put a photo of us on there. Photos + Magnets = Uber Giddy Me.

First, the order was done in two weeks instead of four. Wow, great! Then I picked them up, scurried to my car and peaked in all the boxes and bags. In the process of adoringly inspecting the cute/cute/cute magnets, I noticed the envelopes were blank. Hmmm…I placed this order a while ago, so I can’t quite remember if I splurged on the return address already being on there…

I called them up, after running different scenarios in my head (I don’t really need the return address on there…it’s not that difficult…but the hand cramps…). The woman on the phone was super nice, checked my order and calm but totally apologetic about the mistake — They’d get new ones printed up ASAP, and no need to return the envelopes. Wow…how easy was that? And enough time to spare to actually finalize a guest list…woohoo!

Having gone with the “always get 25 or so more than you think you’ll need, just in case…” I was prepared to have 24 extra magnets of our smiling mugs laying around when all is said and done. Well, apparently the printer dozed off and forgot to count because there’s 75 more magnets than I was expecting. Not perfect, but 100x better than the opposite scenario. And hey…Halloween is coming up…

Quick to rectify mistakes, overcompensating instead of undercompensating, and just a generally pleasant experience. Nicely done, Papyrus…nicely done. I’ll be back for napkins, formal invitations, and more.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 at 11:17 pm and is filed under Personal, Toronto, Traveling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.