Starbucks

Scene opens with Tom walking into a Starbucks chain coffee house. He walks up to the counter and is confusingly looking at the menu while waiting in line behind a slightly larger, balding man in a similar winter coat. The man finishes his order and then, almost as if human nature provided him with the knowledge of knowing where your recently ordered product appears before you, went to the "pickup area". This is the location at which you meet your destined drink and depart to your table of choice or exit the store, making sure to wrap your now "to go" beverage with the appropriate, free, cup sleeve. This man reaches this location as Tom walks toward the counter, still unsure of the proper drink to summons from the magical "pickup area". He pause for an acceptable amount of time before asking the clerk:

"How's the light mocha?......does it taste ok?"

The clerk, trapped in an awkwardly long pause, only responds with noises that insinuate that he in fact does not know the answer to the question.

Tom then interrupts the "caveman noises" coming from the clerk and says:

"What's good?....In your opinion."

The clerks attitude changes, as if his human body was just encompassed by an alternate spirit. He quickly says:

"Do you want my opinion? Or Starbuck's opinion?"

Tom pauses for a very brief second, and in this second he has determined and judged this clerks character. He has concluded that he has no desire to be in the current establishment and that his opinion may be, if not accurate, then at least somewhat amusing. So he decides to hear the clerk out. He says:

"Well...your opinion."

The clerk quickly, as if he already knew what Tom's response would be, says:

"I don't drink anything on this menu."

Tom, being somewhat amused by the clerks comment and failure to contain any loyalties to his current employer, chuckles under his breathe and says:

"Ok then, should I go to another coffee shop?"

The clerk says:

"Sure, if you want to."

Tom, kind of blown away with the last "cherry-on-top" comment, thinks to himself: "I wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for this stupid gift card". Then Tom, as if he has just been defeated in an arm wrestling match, says:

"Just give me a Cafe' Mocha...Thanks"

".....for nothing" are the next words that Tom mutters in his head.

The clerk continues to ring up the order and then moves to the bar area to Tom's left and begins talking to what appears to be a regular in this self proclaimed crappy coffee house.

Tom then instinctively moves to the magical "pickup area" and awaits his settled upon beverage. Then prepares the cup in it's "to go" garb and carries it to his vehicle. The entire journey to his car he thinks of a witty way of writing about this on his blog....but comes up blank.

Order# 15614

Happy Saturday Everyone,

For some reason I love releasing my customer service debacles on this blog. I hope that its not boring for the 13 readers that I have.

I own a business and I strive for 100% customer satisfaction - It's not an option for a good business, it's a requirement. It makes me so angry when companies that you feed your money to wont give you the time of day - or they are rude - or they just don't care. It's insanity.

This is my latest fight: I ordered four HP 92 ink cartridges - I received four HP 94 cartridges. All that I want is the correct order.....not too hard right. But this company that I order from (at least once a week, sometimes more) doesn't have a phone number (I know, rediculous right?) so they will only communicate via email. Stupid, that's what that is. Well they just wont respond to me, and in the mean time, it makes me look bad because my clients are waiting.

Here's the thread:

On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:13 AM, Thomas Hagaman wrote:

Hi - I ordered four HP #92 and I received four HP #94. Are they the same cartridge?

Thanks for your time.

- Tom Hagaman

_______________________________________________________

On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 7:25 PM, Thomas Hagaman wrote:

Hi,

I emailed you about this order at 11:13am this morning - I have a client waiting on this order and if its wrong, I need the correct order ASAP. I ordered four HP 92 and received four HP 94.

Thanks

- Tom Hagaman

___________________________________________________

On Sat, Jan 22, 2011 at 1:42 PM, Thomas Hagaman wrote:

Good Afternoon,

I have done some research on my own and found that these cartridges are not the same and cannot be used in my clients printer. I would like the correct cartridges sent to me as quickly as possible.

I use your site almost exclusively for ink purchases, but with this lack of quick response to your clients I am considering going with one of your more expensive competitors because they will respond to emails in a timely fashion and they have a phone number.

If your only means of communication is going to be email then you need to respond to it quickly. Within a few hours would be acceptable, thats not a ridiculous request - that's good business. I respond to my clients, via email, within an hour - in this age of technology thats not very hard.

Please let me know that this matter is going to be handled.

Tom Hagaman

Am I being too hard on them? - I mean if you called a company on Friday morning and left them a message wouldn't you expect that they would call you back that day?

What do you think?

The Flip

Just because I love bashing companies that screw over the consumers....Here's the latest Tom vs. The World:

I got a Flip Ultra HD for Christmas.........Christmas 2009. Well it's not working right all of a sudden, and wouldn't you know it - just weeks after the warranty expired. Awesome.

Here's the online chat (for those of you who have nothing better to do)

Lindy Pres S. (29971) has joined this session.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
Hi, I have a Flip UltraHD and the battery died while I was filming - when I recharged it the video that I was filming is not there and the amount of time that the video was is missing.....if that makes sense.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
I have deleted everything off of the device and it only has 1hr 02 min left - which is way less than it used to have.... Can I reset the device to factory defaults somehow?

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
So, your concern is to regain full record time of the camcorder, right?

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
yes

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Alright.

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Let me help you with this one.

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
By the way, is this your first time to contact us regarding this device or question?

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
yes it is

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Thanks. May I know what State or Country you're from?

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
Michigan, United States

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Kindly look underneath the device, look for the model number and the possible version. Also, include the serial number.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
Flip UltraHD (2nd Generation) Model: U2120B

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
Serial: MB0921805990

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Thanks for that.

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
What operating system or version of Windows is used on this computer?

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
Windows Vista

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
Service pack 1

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Thanks.

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
I would like to give you a link that gives you the steps on how to fix this problem.

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Is that alright with you?

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
ok

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
yes

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Here is the link:http://www6.nohold.net/CiscoFlip/ukp.aspx?vw=1&docid=56112267de184b20a70ff485759361
d2_KB20625_EN_v1.xml&pid=4&respid=0&snid=1&
dispid=0&cpage=search

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
I have already tried that

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
it didn't fix the issue

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Okay.

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Are you willing to delete the contents of the camcorder?

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
I have already deleted everything

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
so yes

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Okay.

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Please plug it into your computer.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
ok - done

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Now, click on Computer and look for the Flip drive.

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Please delete everything inside the Flip drive.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
ok

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
thats done

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Now, unplug the camcorder and check the record time.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
now it says 1hr 03min

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
gained 1 min

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
it used to be almost 2 hrs

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
I plugged it back in and it said that it needed to update the camera software and it started installing it automatically

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
after that ...it now says 1hr 02min again

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Have you powered it on and off 8 times alternately?

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
yes

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
If that is so, then the device may already be defective.

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
When did you purchase the device>

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
just a little bit over a year

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Do you still have the receipt of the device?

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
I probably do, I don't know where it is at the moment

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Because the device may already be defective.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
ok, but I thought that it only has a 1 year warranty

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
Yes, based on your serial number, it is already out of warranty.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
so there's nothing that you can do?

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
If you still have the receipt showing it is not more than a year old, we can have it replaced.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
I just told you that it's over a year old - but just barley

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
which is usually when devices stop working - about the minute that they are out of warranty

from Lindy Pres S. (29971) to All Participants:
We have actually tried all the possible solutions.

from Thomas Hagaman to All Participants:
yes - I understand. I'm the one stuck with a faulty device that's out of warranty. Here's a solution: make a better product.