You Pushed the Wrong Button

Aug 12: we went down to Kalispell for the weekend with our friends Barb & Jesse. Left the kids at home and took off, just like the "old days". I had saved up my hotel points to cover the rooms. I made reservations for 2 rooms with queen beds, not a hard concept. When we got there to check in, there was a line-up and the staff at the counter kept announcing there weren't any rooms available without a reservation. Whew, good thing we booked ahead.

We got to the rooms, and when I got in bed I had to think for a minute. It has been a few months since we replaced our queen bed at home, but I don't remember ever having my feet hang off the end like this. You'd think in all the years of having a queen, I'd notice something like that.

We got home on Aug 14, I pretty much dropped my bags at the door and went to the computer to register a complaint on the Choice Hotels website. I got the automated "Your request will be researched and you will receive a response from us within 72 hours." The 17th rolled around, then the 18th, and finally on the 19th, I sent an email reminder saying the 72 hours were up.

Fast forward through two more email reminders, and this morning I figured I'd just phone in and see if anyone could help. The guy on the other end had to look up my reservations, then called the hotel. After listening to the most obnoxious hold message ever (I REALLY don't want to listen to you saying how great you are right now), he came back on and said the hotel confirmed they were queen beds. What?!? Do your beds have an exchange rate now too?? I'm pretty sure a queen is the same size in the US as it is in Canada. Oh, and the hotel MAILED a letter on the 16th. Not emailed, but the good old-fashioned postal service. In what alternate reality does that qualify as receiving a reply within 72hrs?! It still hasn't arrived yet. What's the frakkin' point of asking how I would like to be contacted if you are going to ignore it anyway and wimp out by sending a letter??

Senor Helpful was absolutely no help whatsoever and said he couldn't do anything for me. If I wanted any further resolution I would have to talk to the hotel directly. No, I'm not going to talk to the hotel directly. That's a really dumb idea, they can't tell the difference between a queen and a double, how much help do you really think they'll be?? I'll tell you what I will do, however. If you look at my account, you'll see I have spent 40-50+ nights at your hotel chain every year since I joined in 2004 (did I mention it was Choice Hotels?). I'm taking those nights to another hotel which would love to have my business.

I wasn't even asking for a refund, I probably would've been happy with an acknowledgement there had been an error and an apology. But if this is how concerns are handled, you'll never see me walk through your doors again. It's time for me to start seeing other hotels. It's not me, it's you.

Curbside Appeal

I'm always looking for shirts which fit me. Make that cheap shirts which fit me. I know where the expensive ones are, but I'm not ready to pay $70+ for a long-sleeve dress shirt. I think I once paid $40 for a shirt, that may have been the time store security had to come and help me pry my debit card out of my wallet. Hyperventilating may also have been involved, the whole incident is a blur and it's hard to remember specific details...

I used to be able to find 36/37" sleeves in the sale bin at Moore's, then they caught on to my scheme and started stocking the 34/35" sleeves. That doesn't help much. "We have bigger ones over here..." they would say, pointing to the expensive section. Are you really getting the "big spender" vibe off the guy digging through the $20 bargain bin??

Then for about eight months, Sears had my size and I discovered how nice a 37/38" sleeve really is. So, I'd stop in every time I was at the office and pick up a shirt. And then they decided to cater to the "business OompaLoompa" market. In what crazed and deranged world is a 32/33" sleeve considered to be Large??

I don't know why I keep going back to Sears to check for my size. Maybe it's optimism, maybe a hope they really do carry my size but other tall people get there before I do. Let me go on record right now to say I have officially made my last visit to the Marlborough Mall Sears in Calgary. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let me give you a short essay...

People in business, especially retail, know about the importance of curbside appeal. I'm a fan of Dennis Snow, a great speaker and author about customer service topics. One of his points is "Everything Speaks". Everything in your organization speaks something to the customer. This is why grocery stores spend so much time making sure all the product is brought forward to the front of the shelves, so it's easy for customer to reach and appears well-stocked.

You could expect a display like this in the toy section after parents let little Chucky run amuck while they're off looking at sporting goods etc. But what is the impression you get when this happens in men's wear? It's not like there was a huge sale either. I noticed three staff walk past this carnage as they went to other departments. I started to wonder how long it had been since any of the staff had been in the department to check on it. The shirt section was about 30 minutes away from graffiti and gang tagging. Fortunately, I made it out before things really got bad...