The Special that Wasn't

I just returned from a four-day mini vacation in San Diego. Without going into too much detail, my trip was the perfect blend of nightlife and tourism. Future blogs will elaborate on my trip to attractions such as the San Diego County Fair, the Zoo, Balboa Park, Hotel Del as well as Old Town San Diego. However today I want to share with you about my outing to a bar in Pacific Beach (PB) called Tremors.

On 4th of July I went to Tremors—a bar which appeals to the post college kids in their early to mid twenties. The large menu offers many specials with fine print and exceptions. For example, Happy Hour specials are not available on Holidays. Which seems fair. Yet, my Dutch eye was drawn to the “Beer of the Month…July” offering Sam Adam’s Summer Ale for $2.50. In black and white with no disclaimers. My cheap self knew what I’d be getting my drink on with for the birthday of our country.

I order my drink from our waitress to be informed that the “Beer of the Month” is not available on the 4th of July.

“It doesn’t say that on the menu.”

“Yes, we didn’t print anything to change it out.”

“Well, then you should honor the price you advertised.”

“I can’t.”

“Can I see your manager?”

“Sure”

A few minutes later a 25-year-old punk wearing a Boston Red Sox cap approaches my table. Combative from the start he says, “You wanted to see me?”

Hint: Say you are sorry.

“Yes, you are advertising a beer for $2.50 but I understand that is not available at that price.”

“Yes, but we cannot change those out every week.”

Every week? You have only had this special for a few days.

“Well it’s false advertising?”

“Well if you wanna make a legal issue about it go ahead.”

Hint: Don’t say that unless you are 100% certain you are not 1) talking to a lawyer or 2) talking to someone with a lot of time on their hands.
He follows it by saying, “What do you want me to do about it?

“I want you to make it right.”

“If I made it right for you I would have to make it right for 500 other people who are here today.”

“Well then you should do that.”

Hint: This would be a good time to offer a round on the house.

“I cannot do that.”

“Well then I plan on fully reporting this incident” (because I have a lot of time on my hands and I know lawyers).

At which point he responded, “Do what you want to do,” and walked away from our table.

Nice.

We stayed at the bar for a number of reasons. First and foremost, I was determined to see how it played out. Also, we were meeting friends. I ordered the “Beer of the Month…July” at the full price. I enjoyed my first pint; however when I ordered my second one I was informed they were out of that draft.

Really?!? You don’t even stock enough of the beer of the month to get you through the first week of the special? Really?!?

People need to stop tolerating BS like this. Hold businesses and managers accountable to keep their promise however big or small. I stayed at Tremors only as a source of mischief. If I had not seen to opportunity I would have left. I invite you all to join me in not exposing all things unworkable. What are you putting up with or stepping over in your day-to-day life?

Too Stupid for a Job. A Statement not a Question

Last week I posed the question, “too stupid to work?” Today, after a conversation with my Doctor’s office, I wonder how some people can manage to get up in the morning or navigate their way to work let alone hold down a job.

Following a hunch, I phoned the office to double check they had filled the prescription.

Good thing.

“You called in a prescription? For what?” Pause. “For Prozac?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know who you spoke with?

“The person that answered the phone when I called last week Wednesday.”

“Ok. Let me check with the nurse. Did you want us to call this into the Pharmacy or where you gonna stop by the office and pick it up from us?”

“No, when I called last week I specifically stated that I wanted a three month supply via mail and provided a website per the Doctor’s instruction.”

Subtext: If I wanted a one month supply from CVS I would have phoned in the refill and saved myself this whole annoying process.

“Ok, well I have to check and see who took this.”

“Great, my insurance expires on Friday so I really need to get this taken care of.”

A few hours later, they call back. “Hi Alyssa we have the prescription. Do you have a phone number for us to call this in?”

Oy vey…

“No, I wanted a three month supply I provided a website last Wednesday.”

“Well it would be much easier if you had a number to the Pharmacy. We are not members of that website and it will take a few days.”

“I do not have a few days. My insurance ends on Friday.”

“It would be really helpful if you could just give us the number for the Pharmacy.”

“I don’t know it.” Pause. “I called this in on Wednesday of last week. Why…Can I please speak to you office manager?”

Unphased, “I will have her call you back.”

Five minutes go by.

“Hi Alyssa, this is the Doctor’s office. The website you provided is for the patient not the doctor. We tried calling the number on the site and that is for patients only too.”

“Why are you just dealing with this now? I called this in last week.”

“We just got the prescription late yesterday afternoon.”

“But, I called on Wednesday.”

“The Doctor was unavailable Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.”

Ok, I assert “unavailable” means we forgot. Please refer back to my original conversation from this morning.

I respond, “Here is what you are going to do. You are going to call Blue Cross/Blue Shield. You can find the number on my insurance card, which you made a copy of in my file. And you are going to call them and figure out how to get three months of my prescription the drug I take to for anxiety. If you had called me about this problem last week I would have been more than happy to assist you. I called in to double check on this because I didn’t trust the ability of the person who answered the phone. So you go do that and call me back to confirm that this is done.

Never did any of the people I spoke to say any variation of the word sorry. They deflected blame to the Doctor for being unavailable to me for providing the wrong website. In fact if they even alluded to an apology, or a comprehension as to why I was upset, I might not be writing this blog. Not only did they not understand they wanted me to solve their screw up.

Sadly, they didn’t posses enough pride to call Blue Cross/Blue Shield to avoid 1) looking completely incompetent and 2) irritating an already high stung patient.

In business, as in all of life, please do not make your screw up my problem. Rub two brain cells together and THINK to find a solution. Also, when you do err say you are sorry.

The Bartender Who Did Not Know Her Job

Overall, I have been impressed with the quality of customer service in Southern California.

Last week, I met a friend to watch the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim play the Detroit Tigers at a Sports Bar. Upon sitting, I inquired, “Do you have any specials?” No. “What do you have on draft?” The female bartender responds, “We only have bottles.” Oh, so I ask the next natural question, “What do you have in bottles?” What one would expect here is for her to rattle off their pathetic list of Macro Brewed options or provide me with them in written form.

That didn’t happen.

Her response was, “We have most everything.”

First all, they only carried 10 beers. I have been to places that serve up to 500. So no you don’t have “most everything.” Clearly this bartender is not employed due to her knowledge about drafts. Maybe she is more of a mixologist.

Second of all, she could not be bothered to inform me what my choices, as a paying customer, were. I had to guess. Does she realize she works for tips?

I would understand if the bar was busy but it wasn’t. I would forgive if I was absent-mindedly looking at the selection that was right in front of me but it wasn’t. I would appreciate if I were a frequent customer who asked the question every time I patronized the establishment but guess what…I wasn’t.

I worked as a Café Manager at Barnes and Noble and know how annoying it can be to answer the same question all day long. I think the types of bagels we carried are forever ingrained in my mind. (Plain, Everything, Cinnamon Raisin, Veggie, Sesame Seed, Poppy Seed, and Asiago Cheese). However, I’d answer because they were customers and my job (as in what I got paid to do) was to serve them. Doing anything else would be odd.

Back to the bartender. What does she think her occupation is if not to serve people such as me? She wasn’t wearing a low cut shirt therefore, one can assume, she wasn’t relying on her chest to obtain her tips. She seemed to spend some time flirting with owner or manager. Maybe that is her accountability? I did not stick around to figure it out. I went in to watch the Tigers’ game not to play 20 questions and be annoyed by the bartenders guessing game.

Can anyone tell me what the bartender’s job was? What are your thoughts on how to handle bad customer service? And for those who do or have worked in customer service. What are were your pet peeves? And why do people tolerate bad service?