Not so Faaaaantastic!!!

I am firm believer in taking care of the local economy.  I rarely eat at chain restaurants, I like to frequent local electronic stores such as Percy's and Vin's TV and during the summer I like to buy vegetables from the local fruits stands.  So when it comes to furniture in Central Mass, Rotman's has always been our selection.  Unfortunately, their lack of communication and customer service were not so great the past couple of days and it makes me thinking about never purchasing there again.

Last weekend my wife and I brought our daughters down to Rotman's to get my oldest (4 years old) a new bedroom set.  We walked around and she got to pick it out (sort of).  We purchased the set and the salesman set up Tuesday delivery for us (2/18).  Now, Tuesday comes and we are hit with a snowstorm.  We have broken down my daughter's room and a friend of mine needed the bed for his daughter, and he came and picked it up.  A risk we were willing to take.  The time they were to come was between 1-5 pm.  At 3:30pm I was leaving to go coach a basketball game, which was a different issue in and of itself, and my wife wasn't sure if the delivery guys were still coming.  I told her to call and see.  She got an answering service and the delivery office closed at 4:00.  Now if that doesn't sound foolish.  The delivery office called back before closing and confirmed that the truck was at the previous stop and they would soon be on their way.  She was outside with the kids in the snow and shoveling to clear a way for the deliverers. The delivery driver called at 3:45pm and left a message on our voice mail saying he would be there in 10 minutes.  My wife, still outside, saw them come to the end of our street, pause and then drive off.  She went inside and saw that they had left the message.  She immediately called the driver's cell, no answer.  She called again, no answer.  She politely left a message and asked him to call her back and explain what is going on.  Nothing.

Since the delivery department is now at this point closed she calls the main customer service number and they tell her now it can't come until next week.  Unacceptable!  The customer service rep puts my wife on hold and calls the driver and he miraculously answers the phone.  The driver told the rep that he did not feel he could get down the street and off with the snow because our street had not been plowed yet.  So now, my daughter who had been excited all day that her new bed was coming is inconsolable and had to sleep with her mattress on the floor (not completely Rotman's fault).

Yesterday morning I call up the delivery office the moment they open and I get a lovely girl named Britney on the phone.  She tells me that the delivery will now not come until tomorrow (today 2/20) because that was the first available date.  I vented my frustration and said the first available date was yesterday (2/18) and that they had dropped the ball and it's not my problem when the first available date was and that I wanted delivery today (2/19).  She tells me she needs to talk to the delivery manager and would get back to me.  I responded with "Please have him call me directly as I would like to get a quote for an article I am writing about this on telegram.com's blog site".  Within minutes, Britney calls back and explains to me the exhaustive efforts that they did and that it would now be delivered today (2/19) between 4-8pm.  I politely thanked her and we hung up.

Guess what did not happen between 4-8pm yesterday? At 7:35 pm last evening the "striker" (delivery man) called and had an extremely nervous tone on his voice as he delivered the news that the truck was stuck in Webster.  He was extremely apologetic and I could tell he legitimately felt bad because he told me that I was the call he had dreaded most to make.  Poor guy, I let him loose and thanked him for the call.  I went downstairs and broke the news to my 4 year old.  This time she took it in stride.

I must say that not delivering when they were supposed to because they were afraid of getting stuck and then not coming the next day because the truck got stuck makes absolutely NO sense to me.  I get that the weather the past couple of days has been nasty and I would like to give these guys the benefit of the doubt.  But you deliver furniture, in the Northeast, during the winter, it's going to happen people. They need to be better prepared, this isn't Atlanta (sorry, low blow).  

I'm not upset that they couldn't deliver the bed because of the weather, I'm truly not.  I'm upset that we had to chase the information.  Not one person was forthcoming with what was going on and the information was only available when I demanded it.  It was as if Rotman’s missing a delivery was not big deal and that it was OUR fault that they had made this mistake.  I don't care what business you are in, that is unacceptable.  

Unfortunately for Rotman's they don't get the hometown loyalty any longer.  They didn't lose my business this time but next time we will be sure to shop around.

3D

Take it from me, because you don't want to ask the wife on this one.

It's Not Personal, Just Sports

This past weekend we saw another ugly incident in the world of sports.  Marcus Smart and Jeff Orr crossed paths for the first, and most likely the last, time.  Unfortunately their encounter caused a national stir and once again started the debate of the behavior at sporting events.

Marcus Smart a basketball player on the Oklahoma State University basketball team went into the stands during a play.  He eventually landed at the feet or lap of Jeff Orr, Texas Tech University booster and fan.  The next thing you see is Orr say something then Smart pushing him before being separated by teammates and officials.  The incident had the potential to escalate to something far more serious and I commend the OSU players for getting Smart out of there.

So what was said that made Smart push Orr?  It doesn't really matter.  Who is at fault in this incident? Everyone involved.  Smart as a competitor, and potential NBA player, should know better that the emotions of the game stay between the lines. NBA player Meta World Peace (a.k.a. Ron Artest), who had the ugliest athlete/fan incident in sports history said that Smart can learn from this "...those types of challenges on the court when you're playing and fans are rooting against you -- that was a great lesson learned, so that hopefully when he does become a pro, he'll be able to kind of withstand the fans that are rooting against him on the road."

What about Orr? The argument can be made that he is a paying fan and he can say whatever he wants.  Technically, I guess that is true, but just because you pay to do something or go somewhere doesn't give you the right to act like a jerk.  Just look at all the season tickets the New England Patriots confiscate for behavior related reasons each year.  But Orr called a kid a "piece of crap", really?  If he felt compelled to say that about a college kid, far be it from me to judge.  But what a nerd.

This is the problem with sports fans.  We, as a society, have put so much focus on supporting our teams that nobody can enjoy the game.  I wrote about this a few months back when a fan was stabbed to death outside of a sporting venue.  This pales in comparison, but it's in the same category.  If I had been in Orr's seats and Smart came running at me I would have commended him on good effort.  That's just me I guess.  I just don't get to the point where I need to mock players on the other team or their fans.  My take on it is, don't say something to someone at a stadium that you don't have the guts to say to them in a room by yourself.

There was speculation that Orr used a racial slur.  I am not going to comment on that because it is unfounded and I don't think Smart would have apologized (as he did publicly) to Orr for shoving him if he had.  Smart received a 3 games suspension for his role in incident, which I feel is appropriate.  I do want to point out that OSU, Smart, Coach Travis Ford and Orr have all conducted themselves very well in the aftermath.  As I stated before, this had ugly potential all over it.

To all fans going to games.  Cheer, maybe a little distractible heckling, but NEVER make it personal.  You don't know them and they don't know you

3D

If you don't take it from me, ask my wife.

Happy Returns....or maybe not!

As a parent of two little girls nothing beats watching your children open up presents from Santa.  Unfortunately there may be a time when the gifts that are opened may not make it out of the box or the tags removed.  For example, yours truly purchased a gift for his niece which, unbeknownst to me, was on her list to Santa.  Oops!  Santa was scrambling at 9:00pm Christmas Eve to make it up.

With little ones, chances are they will receive clothes for Christmas.  It may be very likely that the child either has the clothing already or the wrong size was purchased.  Easy fix, just bring it back to the store where it was purchased and get the correct size, correct?  Not exactly, especially for Jessica Falcone of Worcester.  

Ms. Falcone received some outfits for her two boys as a gift and they were too big for the children.  Rather than wait for the children to grow into them she decided to bring them back to "The Children's Place" and get the correct size or store credit if they did not have the right size.  She did not ask for cash.  Her return was "denied".  The reason for denial was not what you think it was.  The denial was because she had made "too many returns".  I have never heard of that and how do they know she made too many returns if she did not have a receipt.  According to Ms. Falcone they knew because they scanned her license and that's what came up.  Creepy!!!

Ms. Falcone decided to call the customer service number and it was the same result. "The man was extremely rude and even had the gall to hang up on me" Falcone said.  "I am supposed to just keep the items now and they don't even fit my children, because I reached a return limit? I am so disappointed."

Ms. Falcone then decided to post her displeasure on Facebook.  The Children's Place responded and asked her to provide more information.  Even though they were very polite, their tune did not change and their request was even more ridiculous.  The representative asked Ms. Falcone to provide:

Store where the purchase was made, date of the transaction, estimated time of the purchase, amount of the transaction and payment method (if payment method was a credit/debit/gift card, please include the last four digits of the card). 

"It is utterly embarrassing to call the person who bought the clothes and ask her soooo many questions about the purchase.  They even want an estimated time of transaction??" she said

Nothing says thank you like getting the third degree about the purchase and if you can please provide me some of your credit card information.

I understand that retail stores need to have stringent return policies because of theft and fraud, but this is insane.  The representative was right, The Children's Place has a return policy that states "We reserve the right to limit returns regardless of receipt." What does that even mean?  When it comes to children's toys and clothes there needs to be some leniency around the holidays, no cash needs to be exchanged, but a swap should be allowed.

In a Christmas season where there was one of the largest credit breaches this country has seen, shoppers will be more on edge next year and if companies want to keep them they need to work with them, not against them.  The Children's Place needs to do the right thing and allow Ms. Falcone to exchange the gifts.  This is about doing the right thing, not Ms. Falcone's shopping tendencies.

They are just lucky my wife wasn't returning anything.  It would not have been pretty.

3D

If you don't take it from me, ask my wife