I Wrote An Angry Complainy Email...

... I'm not usually the type of person to complain about customer service, I mostly don't care. I hate those people who are all 'Let's complain and see what we can get for free...' I've worked in Children's retail (okay, retail in general, who am I kidding?) and I know how that goes. Now first I think there are seven simple rules customers should follow:

1. Don't be rude to the sales associate for greeting you, telling you about current promotions, and offering a hand. It's their job, don't shoot the messenger.

2. Please don't unfold an entire table of t-shirts looking for a size. It takes a long time to fold those puppies and if you ask someone will be more than happy to grab a size for you, thus not ruining someone's hard work.

3. If you try clothing on, please bring it back out with you. If that sounds like too much work, atleast turn it back right side out and put it in a pile off the floor. This isn't your Mama's house and a pile of messy clothes on the floor is most not appreciated.

4. Please keep your children out of the display windows. We supply drawing tables and toys for their enjoyment. If you cannot control their window impulses please don't get bent out of shape when the promotion sign falls on their head because they kept punching it in the window. Secretly we're all laughing and are glad something is keeping your goober in line. Even if it is an inanimate object.

5. Please don't be that purchase-return-repeat customer. It is not cool to make large purchases, allow you children to pick out their items, wear them at home, and then bring the whole slew back. The sales associates will know you by name and have a serious hate-on for you. We understand returns happen, but not like this.

6. If you're the above customer please don't complain to head office about lack of customer service when the associates choose to help other customers in the store who actually need help, before you. Everyone knows you'll be returning and doesn't want to waste their customer assistance on you.

7. So not enter any stores 5-10 minutes before closing and then proceed to stay in the store 30+ minutes after closing. It is unacceptable reguardless of your reasoning. These people have families they want to go home to and you're stopping them from doing that. They are not enjoying your presence (even if it appears that way) they have to let you stay in the store and be friendly. GO HOME. There are atleast 12 shopping hours a day, fit one of them into your busy schedule and let the poor people go home!

So, if everyone just follow those rules the world would be a better place. This is where sales associates get their crappy customer attitudes from. It's by no means an excuse, but I'm sure it would help morality if people followed those simple rules.

So while I was pregnant and hormonal (read: very hormonal) I bought a sleeper for the LBP and the first time I washed it (on gental, in cold) the pictures peeled off. I was livid. Seriously, I was ready to blow. Over a cheapy sleeper. Did I mention I wasn't pleasant to live with in the last month of my pregnancy? I so wasn't... I was so mad I couldn't sleep until I wrote the company an email letting them know how annoyed I was. I never heard back from them and assumed they were jerks. I'm good like that. This morning I received a package from said company containing a three pack of sleepers, a three pack of hats, a bib, and $40 worth of free coupons. Oh. My. God. Can I tell you how bad I felt for complaining?! So bad infact that I emailed them and thanked them and asked if I could send some of it back! I feel like such a jerk! But that was amazing customer service.

Again, while pregnancy and hormonal I went into a popular kids chain store and received the worst customer service. Ever. No one acknowledged me for the hour we spent there. They asked me to move out of the way so they could fold shirts. The cashier threw my purchase at me and didn't even acknowledge me while I was paying for it. Rude. Rude. Rude. From my inside experience in Children's Retail this was not good. If I were a mystery shopper some jobs would be lost. I was livid yet again (I seriously don't have anger problems, I promise!) and tried to forget about it for a few days. After a few days I was still livid. I wrote an email. I received a call from their DM the next day apologizing for their crappy service. That was good! Today while I was getting my package out of the mail I also received an envi. It had three 25% off vouchers for this store and a hand written card from the DM apologizing again. While the vouchers were nice, the card was an excellent touch. It really shows that they care and took the time to make things right and acknowledge the problem. But, again, I felt SO bad for complaining. I emailed them and thanked them for their kindness and apologized for being such a snot. I hate Pregnant-Jenn, she's nasty. Now Post-Pregnant-Jenn has to go around apologizing to everyone on her behalf. It's not fair, I'd like to kick my own rear-end!

So I got free stuff in the mail today, and I feel like crap about it. I apologized to companies with bad customer service and offered to send stuff back because it was too much. I think maybe there's something wrong with me...

In addition my cat caught a baby mouse this morning. I took said mouse away from the cat, wrapped it in a blanket, put it in a warm shoe box on my dryer and have been syringe feeding it all afternoon. There's a funny farm somewhere with my name on it... If someone finds it let me know!