On a good way to lose customers
I like Christmas, but I also hate how people behave during Christmas. It always seems like everyone is in such a rush to get the holiday over with that the level of obnoxious behavior octuples. Unfortunately, every year I find myself getting frustrated when people are cutting me off with their cars on the road and then their shopping carts in the supermarket. Just the other day I apparently committed a cardinal sin in Giant -- I was trying to decide exactly which bottle of hot sauce to buy, and apparently I paused too long for the cart-driving sociopaths behind me in the condiment aisle. I could feel a woman's glare on the back of my neck for my audacity to actually stop and pick something off the shelf, even as I stood pretty much flush with the shelf. Apparently the effort of pausing and then veering around me was too much for her delicate constitution.
Anyway. I left that behind. I went home to NJ and opened presents and played with my nephews' new toys. I was mesmerized by a clear ball with spinning LEDs and helped put together a pretty neat plastic workbench. Jeffrey and I turned the crank on his new magnetic ferris wheel / roller coaster toy about 100 times in a row. I got to spend the annual few hours with Howie (aka the ChungkingXxpress) and had the traditional Dec 26 sushi lunch at Nikko. I ate prime rib that my sister made, kielbasa that my sister-in-law made (on different days), and I put together my famous antipasto and probably ate as much of it as anyone else.
Then, today we got ready to leave and head back to PA. Before leaving though, my Mom asked me for some help -- she bought my father a nice Toshiba projection TV a few years ago, and it was having some technical difficulties. I googled the problem, and the wisdom of the internets at this site revealed an answer to the identical problem. My Mom called Sears and got an estimate for the repair that seemed reasonable. I had a good experience with our local TV repair folks here in town a while ago, and thinking that we should give her local small business a try at getting the work, I suggested she call a TV repairshop in the phonebook just to see if they were competitive with their estimate. My Mom called and said something along the lines of, "My son found on the internet what seems to be someone having an identical problem on an identical TV -- they recommend that we check some of the components on the convergence PCB -- can you give me an estimate for how much you might charge to check this and repair it?" I could tell by hearing only one side of the conversation that the guy was not very helpful. When she hung up, she said his response to her question was something like, "Lady, I tell everyone who tells me they found the solution to their problem on the internet that they should just call up the internet and have it do the repair."
And if I had been the one talking to the guy, I would have said, "Merry Christmas", suppressed the urge to include, "... a*&hole", and hung up.
My Mom has an appoinment with Sears early next week.
Anyway. I left that behind. I went home to NJ and opened presents and played with my nephews' new toys. I was mesmerized by a clear ball with spinning LEDs and helped put together a pretty neat plastic workbench. Jeffrey and I turned the crank on his new magnetic ferris wheel / roller coaster toy about 100 times in a row. I got to spend the annual few hours with Howie (aka the ChungkingXxpress) and had the traditional Dec 26 sushi lunch at Nikko. I ate prime rib that my sister made, kielbasa that my sister-in-law made (on different days), and I put together my famous antipasto and probably ate as much of it as anyone else.
Then, today we got ready to leave and head back to PA. Before leaving though, my Mom asked me for some help -- she bought my father a nice Toshiba projection TV a few years ago, and it was having some technical difficulties. I googled the problem, and the wisdom of the internets at this site revealed an answer to the identical problem. My Mom called Sears and got an estimate for the repair that seemed reasonable. I had a good experience with our local TV repair folks here in town a while ago, and thinking that we should give her local small business a try at getting the work, I suggested she call a TV repairshop in the phonebook just to see if they were competitive with their estimate. My Mom called and said something along the lines of, "My son found on the internet what seems to be someone having an identical problem on an identical TV -- they recommend that we check some of the components on the convergence PCB -- can you give me an estimate for how much you might charge to check this and repair it?" I could tell by hearing only one side of the conversation that the guy was not very helpful. When she hung up, she said his response to her question was something like, "Lady, I tell everyone who tells me they found the solution to their problem on the internet that they should just call up the internet and have it do the repair."
And if I had been the one talking to the guy, I would have said, "Merry Christmas", suppressed the urge to include, "... a*&hole", and hung up.
My Mom has an appoinment with Sears early next week.
posted by Chris at 10:54 PM
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