Reflections

Well, the first major hurdle of the holiday season is over. The frenzy has begun, the lights are hung on the exterior of the house! Well, almost hung. We have half the house decorated outdoors, none indoors. Scott tested the lights and well, more than half have been tossed in the garbage. What happens from year to year? Does the lighbulb monster come and steal all of the "juice" from the bulbs? I wonder. It seems as if each year we need two or more strands of lights to complete the holiday decorations around here. What the heck? But onward we charge, into the Christmas season. I say charge not meaning the use of plastic, but as in the word, and its meaning.

I must digress here...Has anyone seen the comercials for VISA? Where everything runs smoothly until some fool uses cash or tries to write a check? One was a non holiday comercial, in a cafeteria like place, and the latest, is of a holiday store with people spinning and twirling around with prettily wrapped packages in hand, until the lady tries to write a check, she stops all of the twirling and the spinning in the WHOLE store! Then she looks as if she reaches a revolation, the "OH MY" look, and whips out her VISA card, much to the delight of the cashier, shoppers and the folks in line, pays with it and is on her merry way in no time, amid new spinning and twirling around.

I guess the advertisers are trying to tell us that cash is not a good thing! PLEASE! If I can't pay by cash or check, I don't pay I don't buy! That is the end of the story here.

I had a similar real life experience in October. I stopped at a LOWES store to buy exterior lamps for the house, to complete the exterior, and we picked out two. I waited on line, the cashier was very frinedly and rang up my purchase. I proceeded to begin to write a check for my purchase, driver's license in hand, and the cashier's face dropped. Like a stone. Hiswords to me then were, "Oh, you're writing a CHECK?" And my appropriate response was, "Why, is that a problem?" His retort (big word there) was, "WELL, not for ME, but it will be for the people on line after you." I gave him a quizical look, and said, " Well, we wouldn't want that, now void the sale and restock the merchandise!" With that I walked out the door.

A few weeks later, I emailed the main company. They asked me for my address and my phone number so that someone culd contact me from the store. I waited, was called by the manager of that store and was still not given satisfaction. Her offer to me was to have me come in to ask for her and she would give me a whopping 10% off my purchase! Just to keep my business. In the last year and a half, I have spent close to 6 thousand dollars in the store that I mentioned and in the one nearer to my home. THat is a pretty big chunk of change for one customer, and each transaction was a check transaction. But, 10% of say 60 or 100 dollars is nothing compared to the business that I just described. Especially since I made the choice to shop there. I could have gone to Home Depot which was literally up the street from my home. Maybe next time I will. Lowes certainly won't be getting anymore of my checks! My husband thinks that I am nuts, but it is the principle of the thing, I am a customer, I pay peoples wages and such. I believe that as a customer I should be treated with fairness and respect, as long as I am treating the employee with the same in kind. I was going to pay in an acceptable form of currency, one that was and still is accepted by the store. It isn't and shouldn't be a sarcastic tone that I the customer is greeted with, but a thank you for your business. I told the manager that her employee should receive further training in customer service, and that if I were ever to treat a customer that way when I worked in retail, my behind would have been out on the sidewalk so fast the door would have hit it! I also told her that I would shop at a smaller establishment and pay tripple or quadruple the price for my outdoor lamps before I would set foot in that store again. Her response:" Well, then, I don't know what I can do for you, hope you have a nice day."

Ok, enough ranting. I just thought about the whole scene with the comercial and my own experience, and thought that I would put it out there for all across the country to see. I thought it might make folks think twice about "taking" the sarcasm or snideness of folks in retail establishments. Maybe if enough of us complain, things will change. Don't get me wrong, I take guff most of the time, but this just rubbed me wrong.

But that is all for now, I must get myself together to go to Cassidy's parent teacher conference. Not that things will be bad, they are always good with her! Thanks for listening! I'm outta here!