What's happened to customer service?

It seems to me that in the past 20 years or so that customer service has suffered a huge crack in it's definition. I remember when people would tell you, the customer is always right. Now it seems the customer doesn't matter all that matters is the bottom line.

Make a buck, then make another and don't worry if your product isn't as good as it used to be or isn't as good as it could be or is just plain crap. Sell, sell, sell.

I've had several run ins with terrible customer service in the past few months and it just makes me so mad when it happens.

2 months ago I went to KFC and had my family with me. I went through the drive through and asked for three 5 dollar box meals with original recipe chicken. I could not believe it when they told me they didn't have ANY original recipe all they had was grilled chicken.

Ok, maybe it can happen once, they can run out of chicken...I can deal with that. So we said sure grilled chicken is fine, three 5 dollar boxes with the grilled chicken. THEN, he says, it'll be 10-15 minutes because they have to make some chicken......*pause*

*Hear crickets chirping*

Uh, so you don't have any chicken at all?
That's right, we have to make some, you gonna wait?
I said no, were going to Burger King.... and we left.

Every single time we have gone into KFC they have a sh*t load of chicken ready in those plastic bins and this time they had no chicken and couldn't make any original recipe? I don't think so.

So I wrote to the main office, sent them an email and 2 weeks later I got an apology and a $5 gift coupon.

*I think you know what's going to happen next don't you?*

wait for it....

...

Yeah, I went back to KFC and since there's only one KFC close to my home I went to the same one.....

I walked inside this time so I could face them instead of the drive through...
I asked for the 8 piece meal...Oh and did you know they raised their prices... an 8 piece meal with 2 large sides and 4 biscuits is now $17.99....it's outrageous.

So I order an 8 piece meal and ask for mashed potatoes and cole slaw...she tells me that the cash register won't let her give me another side..I can only have one....Erm, but the sign right up there says I get 2 large sides with this meal...

She tells me I know but the register only says it comes with one...
I ask to speak to the manager. She comes over and tells me that she will have to ring up and extra side and then delete so it will be on the receipt but I won't ahve to pay for it. I'm thinking they are trying to mess with me, I mean just give me what it says I get on the damn sign. But I said, yeah ok, as long as I don't charged for it whatever.

She gives me a total of $20.05...I hand her a $20 dollar bill and the $5 coupon. She reads the coupon and looks at me in a huff and tells me that she can't ring it up and give me change because the coupon says no change back.

Now....I'm no genius but even I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So I calmly asked her if she could take the $5 off the total before she rings it up and then take that toal out of the $20 dollar bill I gave her.

*crickets chirping and the air blowing through her head can be heard for a few seconds*

Then she figures out what I'm saying and she takes $5 off my order and figures out my change.

While she is doing this, I walk over about three feet to where I see the other woman putting together my chicken in the bucket and ask her is she can substitute the wings for breast pieces.
She looks at me like I just bit the head off a pigeon or something and looks back at the bucket and starts rummaging around in the bucket for the wings...She actually held up a wing and a breast peice and said, So you don't want the wing but you do want the breast?

I said yes. She had to think about it, like she didn't understand, then put the wing back and put another breast piece in the bucket.....She started counting all the chicken in the bucket and I finally got all my chicken...

By then the manager was ready with my change. Seriously.

Shifter

I just ordered this book...well I should say I got enough points from Zoompanel surveys to get this book for free!

I've been doing surveys for Zoompanel for years and when I get enough points I usually get an amazon.com gift certificate so I can get a book, or I get some other thing that I see they have that I like.

So far from them I've gotten..
Cd's
DVD's
Books
One of those fuzz ball removers that you use like a shaver on your sweaters..Love that thing.
and of course gift cards. I use to love the Starbucks gift cards but they don't have those anymore.

So this time for 1000 points I ordered this book and it's one that I've been wanting to read. My gawd this looks good.

This book contains:
- Mad Dog Love by Angela Knight -
-A Jaguar's Kiss by Lora Leigh -
-Shifter's Lady by Alyssa Day -
-Sea Crossing by Virginia Kantra-

I've read other novels by all of these authors except for Virginia Kantra and this story sounds very good. I may have found another author to read to go along with the hundreds of other great authors out there.

Headaches

So for the past few days I've had this headache that just won't go away. I hope it's not another sinus infection. I don't want to have to go to the doc for another prescription. Hopefully a few ibuprophen will get rid of it tonight.if not it's either stress...or a trip to the docs office.

Book Review- Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa

Dirty Little Angels by Chris Tusa

Dirty Little Angels is a fast paced, edgy and realistic look into a realm where people are twisted and families are coldhearted. The writing is edgy, realistic and paced-paced. Told from the POV of Hailey, the 16 year old little sister of Cyrus who is on parole for stealing and getting caught with weed.

The very beginning of the book starts you right off with real life situations. Hailey’s mother has a miscarriage and falls into a deep depression. Hailey also worries that they are soon going to be living on the street because her father, who lost his job can’t pay the mortgage. Hailey’s friendship with her best friend Meridian falls apart after Meridian has an abortion and finds out that Hailey slept with her boyfriend.

Hailey starts hanging out with her brother’s friends, one of them being Moses Watkins, an enigmatic, ruthless but charming character with a black heart who thinks himself a Prophet. Hailey is forced to discover how hard the world really is through unexpected times of happiness, depression, suffering and ultimately murder.

Dirty Little Angels brings together characters you want to hate but come to understand and celebrate the resilience of the human spirit. The atmosphere the Author creates is dirty and real. You can sense the danger coming and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Chris Tusa’s style is perfectly paced and keeps your attention to the very end. I look forward to the next novel to crawl from the depths of Tusa’s imagination!

Reviewed by Mary Kirkland
November 2009

Murder, Death, Kill?

Those are the words my hubby used when he saw the roast some out of the slow cooker. He told me I murder, death, killed the roast. lol

Yes, he likes his meat a little on the rare side, like he says, as soon as it stops moving, it's done. Yeck!

I..on the other hand like my meat....wellllll done. Done, done done. So when he bought a cheap chuck roast that was going to be tough to chew because of the kind of cut it was, I decided to slow cooker it. Of course there, was carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, bell peppers and slow cooker spices in there too.

I'm telling you this cheap ass chuck roast was falling apart with just a fork when I was done with it. I thought it was tasty. But hubby will be saying...

Murder. Death. Kill. For the next few days.

Ebooks

Well I do have an ebook feature on my mp3/mp4 player and I was going to try and download an ebook to it just to see if I could. That's when the problems started. I found a free ebook and downloaded it like I think I was suppossed to, to adobe reader. Then I plugged in my player and .....yeah, that's where I'm stuck at. LOL

I have no idea how to get it from my computer to my player...At least I can read it on my computer...*sigh*

Next thing I'm going to try is downloading a CD to my computer and transferring a song to my mp3/mp4 player. I feel a headache coming on...

Laptops and Technology

A while back I had started saving all the money I was making on Associated Content so I could buy myself a Laptop. we have a computer but with three of us using it, I am usually online at midnight or in the middle of the day when I ahve others talking to me and bothering me when I'm trying to concentrate on writing. It's difficult to try and write an article when you constantly have people asking you questions or talking or have the tv going in the background.

So I was think ing a laptop would be beneficial and an easy way for me to be able to get online whenever I wanted to.

Firstly I am technology dumb, I mean seriously it's taken me a long time just to get comfortable downlaoding a song to my mp4 player. So when I started looking into the laptops, I was a little surprised at how they just made no sense to me.

How to connectto the internet? What is an internet card? How is it wireless? Do I ned to have wireless service on top of the dsl service I already have for the other computer? Will the laptop work when the desktop is online? Do I have to have to have wi-fi?

jeebus I'm a little lost. I've been reading all sorts of articles about laptops today. I think I have some more research to do before I buy anything.

This really irritates me...

I see these acronyms in different places and for the longest time I didn't know what they meant. At times I wonder if people remember how to actually spell the whole words they use in computer talk. I do use 'lol' at times, but I am trying to cut back on it. Our kids are going to forget how to spell if they keep shortening wods for texting...


SO= significant other
DH= Dear Husband
DW= Dear Wife
lol= Laughing out Loud
?4U= Question for You
LGH= Lets get high
LH6= Lets have sex
LHSX =Lets have sex
LHM= Lord help me
LHO= Laughing head off
LIC= Like I care
LIK= Meaning liquor
LIMT= Laugh in my tummy
LMAO= Laughing my *a* off
LMBO= Laughing my butt off
LMFAO= Laughing my freaking *a* off
LMIRL= Lets meet in real life
LMK= Let me know
LMNK= Leave my name out
LOL= Laughing out loud
LOL= Laugh out loud
LOL= Lots of love
LOLH= Laughing out loud hysterically
LOLO= Lots of love
LOLWTF= Laughing out loud (saying) "What the *freak*?"
LOTI= Laughing on the inside
LOTR= Lord of The Rings (online gaming)
LQTM= Laughing quietly to myself
LSHMBH= Laugh so hard my belly hurts
LSV= Language, sex and violence
LTD= Living the dream
LTNS= Long time no see
LTOD= Laptop of death
LTS= Laughing to self
LULT= Love you long time
LULZ= Slang for LOL
LVM =Left voice mail
LWOS= Laughing without smiling
LY= Love ya
LYLAS= Love you like crazy
LYLC= Love you like a sis
LYSM= Love you so much
MUSM= Miss you so much
MYO= Mind your own (business)
MYOB= Mind your own business
BFD= Big freaking deal
POS= Parent over shoulder
CD9= Code 9, Meaning "parents are around"
SWMBO= She who must be obeyed. Meaning wife or partner
ILY= I love you
IM =Instant message
IMAO= In my arrogant opinion
IMHO= In my humble opinion

And these are just the ones I can think of right now.
There are so many more out there that I still dn't know.

Thoughts about PETA

I actually used to be a PETA member and thought the basics of what they were trying to do was great. I think animals, all animals even the ones that are meant to be on our dinner table should be treated with respect and given some empathy as well as ethical treatment.

I don't have a problem with eating meat. I was for a few years, a vegetarian. I eat meat now and I won't apologize for it. If I lived in a place where I could go outside my door and hunt my own food, I would do so, But I live in the city and all I'm going to find here are pigeons.

I do however something needs to be done about how we treat the animals we slaughter for food. They are mistreated, hurt, and suffer unbelievably.

I recently watched a video on youtube about how the chicken farmers kill baby male chickens because males don't lay egggs. They are thrown right into a grinder and ground alive. It's not right. Being held together so that the chickens, cows, pigs..ect get hurt, trampled, get broken legs ect. And no one cares because they are going to be killed anyway.

This is what I have a problem with, the mistreatment of animals has to be stopped. I think the farmers need to ahve stricter laws as to how they can treat and handle the animals. Right now they can pretty much do whatever they want to and they don't get in trouble for it.

Kanye West on the VMA's

My daughter was just watching the VMA's and said that Kanye West went up on stage when Taylor Swift won. I looked it up online and sure enough this idiot was up to his same old ridiculous behavior.

When are peopel going to see what as idiot this guy really is? When are these award shows going to stop inviting him to come, to even be a part of the audience?

After him doing this I don't think that he should ever...ever be allowed to attend another award show, not even as an audience member.

If anyone else had done this or made an outburst in the audience they would have been escorted out.

I really feel sorry for taylor Swift.

What a jerk!

Are you getting the Swine Flu vaccine?

I've alreayd decided not to get it and not to get my daughter vaccinated with it. My husband probably won't get it either. I told my mom not to get it and my dad doesn't like get any shots so I think he won't be getting it.

You may be asking why I'm against getting it?

Well, this vaccine hasn'thad enough time to show what the full set of side effects are going to be over time. I still believe that Autism is linked to childhood vaccines and if I knew then what I know now, I would never have gotten my daughter any of the vaccinations to begin with.

I fully expect that this vaccine will go the same way that so many other have and later on down the line side effects like guienne barre syndrome. Children are still dying form childhood vaccinations all the time or getting brain damage from mixing the wrong vaccinations together.

Some Girls died after getting the HPV vaccine that was suppossed to stop hvp disease. But it only prevents some hpv, not all of it and it's not known how many girls are going to have adverse reactions because enough time wasn't taken to see what the long term effects were going to be on girls before vaccinating so many.

I did not let my doctor give my daughter this vaccination either.

My daughter had chicken pox when she was 5 years old and when we went to the doctor one year to get vaccinations when she was older the doctor wanted to give her the chicken pox vaccination even though she already had the disease and it wasn't needed. You really have to put your foot down with these shot crazed doctors.

If you want to get the shot, just do some reasearch don't just trust what the doctors are telling you is the truth.

I won!

I keep telling you all where to find the great contests and freebies and one of the contests I entered I actually won. I got a $25.00 amazon. com egift card from free deals for you.
http://freedealsforyou.blogspot.com/

Now just think if you had entered, you might be saying this instead of me..lol As it is I'm probably going to order more books.
I've got Dark Slayer by Christine Feehan coming in about 2 days. I can't wait to read that. There are so many books I want to get and I can't think of anything better to get.

Swiffer Wet Jet

I was given a Swiffer Wet Jet when they first came out a while ago by a neighbor who was moving out of our apartment complex. The solution bottle was brand new and the mop itself had only been used once. I had a brand new box of the pads and an almost full bottle of the solution.

First I want to say that the idea for this I think is great but it just doesn't work the way I would have liked. One thing, the most important thing is the solution that comes with the swiffer wet jet, stinks. I mean this stuff smells awful! I woulnd't ever buy this stuff myself. But I used it a few times to see if it worked and to tell you the truth....it didn't.

My apartment isn't that big and my kitchen is small. Saying that though I still had to use 2 pads and alot of the solution to get my floor clean.

Another thing...You absolutely have to take the used pad off the mop before putting it away, even if it only looks a little dirty and you want to save some money by using it again. The reason being that you have to turn the mop upseide down in order to store it. If you don't the solution that's on the wet pad will leak all over the floor and down the mop handle while it's upside down. But if you don't store the swiffer wet jet upside down all the solution from the bottle will leak out all over the floor like mine did.

I ended up throwing my swiffer wet jet away and will never get another one.

I will say one thing though. Swiffer has a good idea, it just needs a little more thought. I also use the swiffer dusters and I love these things. I have been using them ever since they came out a while back.

Freebirthing/ Unassisted Births

I recently saw a show about this on cable. I don't even remember what channel it was on. I looked into freebirthing and the use of midwives. While I had my child in a hospital and had prenatal care, some of these women don't believe in any kind of prenatal care or doctors just in case something goes wrong.

I read one story where a couple went out in the wilderness, miles and miles away from anyone and didn't even carry a cell phone just in case. She went through labor and birth in a lake where they had set up camp. Thankfully everything was fine, but what if they had had some complication?

I had all my prenatal check ups, all my blood tests came back fine and I still had to have an emergency c-section because she had her first bowel movement before she was born and is cut down the amount of oxygen she was getting, so much so that she had 2 seizures when she was born. Can you imagine what would have happened to her if I decided to let nature take it's course and not go to the hospital?

I sometimes wonder if something were to happen to one of these babies and these parents are out in the wilderness, if they would just bury their dead child and never tell anyone what happened? Could they get away with that? I have no idea.

I do believe that women have the right to decide what's done with their bodies, but we don't have the right to endanger our childs' life when it's about to be born.

Start Sampling

Have you ever heard of Start Sampling? Well it's a great website to get samples.
http://www.startsampling.com/

I've been a member for years and ahve gotten some really cool samples from them. All you have to do is register and then start clicking on the samples you want. It's soo easy.

Self Serve cashiers

You know the ones in the grocery stores that you go up to and have to scan all the items yourself? Yeah, my grovcery store just recently switched to that and they don't have any, not even one...manned cash register. So even those senile old grannies that can't figure out how to change the channel while using a remote are in the lines holding everyone up. And there was only one...one...manager there to help with all 6 cash register lines. She was a busy girl because no one..ok, well a few people knew what the hell they were doing. Myself included thank goodness. I really hate those things.

When I go to a restuarant I want a waitress to wait on me and when I go shopping I want a cashier to check my stuff out and bag it.

Swag Bucks

http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=home

If you've heard of Swag Bucks then you allready know what I'm about to say. If you don't know about this site then you really, really need to go there...now.
http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=home

Wait...what are you waiting for? lol

Let me explain it to you. All you do is register and then use their search bar to do your searching. I haven't even downloaded their tool bar and I'm earning swag bucks. Now when you get enough swag bucks, you can exchange them for things like, gift cards, paypal cash, ipods, comic books, books, hats, shirts, ...sheesh the list goes on and on. Seriously.

In the past 2 weeks, I've gone to their site maybe once a day and have alreayd accumulated 20 swag bucks. At 25 swag bucks you can get a $5 amazon.com gift card, see how easy this is. All you have to do is use their search bar when you are doing your regular searching you do, and we all do it. And they will reward you randomly with swag bucks. It's pretty cool, and for those of us that love getting something for nothing, this is the best. So go take a look...

http://swagbucks.com/?cmd=home

Vocal point

If you've never heard of Vocal Point you are really missing out. I've been going there for less than a year and participating in the message boards and they send me coupons for free full size products they are talking about. Recently I got a coupon for a free box of cereal. I've had free kashi bars, free clothes soap and all sorts of free samples.

http://www.vocalpoint.com/index.html

You do have to participate in the forum and message boards but that's just too easy.

Freecycle

I've used freecycle a few times. I was a part of the freecycle group here in las vegas for a while a few years ago but one bad mod can ruin the experience for everyone.

I got one of my dwarf hamsters from freecycle a few years ago and he was the sweetest little thing. When I went to get him, the person who had him said her son didn't want the hamster any more but wanted me to keep the name he had picked for him. I said I would but I didn't. Why in the world she would even ask me when her son wasn't even there was beyond me. It was obvious to me she cared little about what happedn to the poor little guy because it was 55 degrees out side and she had his cage outside.

When she brought the cage is, there was just a water bottle, and some food and very little bedding. Poor little thing probably would have died if I hadn't gone to get him.

The condition the cage was in was the worst thing though. I don't think they had changed the bedding in this cage in at least a month. It reeked! The hamster himself was a matted mess since he was sleeping in his feces and urine. I wanted to slap this woman. I really did. But instead I brought him home, cleaned him and the cage and he lived for 4 years.

But my point is I stopped using freecycle because the moderators of the group made it impossible to get things on there.

One person would constantly post about wanting free money or food. All the time.

Another would put one post every week about wanting a bed and the moderator would jump his shit for it. It was crazy. I think this moderator had favorites that she let do whatever they wanted and others couldn';t.

Locks of Love

Last night I wrote an article about Locks of Love and because of some of the Pm's and emails I've been getting I wanted to clarify a few things.

1. I do not dislike locks of Love, but I do think a person should do research about them ebfore they donate their hair to them.

2. I'm not ever going to donate my hair. I would rather sell my hair if I was going to do so and then decide after doing some research pick which charity to give the money to. My first pick would be to the ASPCA.

3. If after you read about their practices you still want to donate your hair to Locks of Love then by all means do so. Just realize that some hair does get sold and they do make a profit.

just do your research.