Any of you who read the blog on a regular basis know I don’t post very often. After two mediocre encounters with customer service folks recently I felt a need. My gut level is customer server has gone the same way as the Dodo bird.

My first foray into the customer service world was with a company called Seattle Luxe. Let me preface what I’m about to say with the fact that all of the people I spoke with had wonderful people handling skill and were pleasant to deal with.  I ordered new house numbers for our rental house, the one right in front of ours, to go with the new paint job we just finished. When I ordered the numbers, solid brass, it said delivery was 7 to 10 days. I was unwilling to spend the big bucks for quicker shipping and didn’t need to. I ordered well ahead of the paint job finish date.  About 14 days later I received a brass door handle. A very nice door handle I must admit.

I called Seattle Luxe and talked to a very nice guy and explained my problem. He assured me they would take care of the mistake and would expedite the order. Ten days later I did receive the numbers and no instructions on what to do with the door handle. We bought a new screen door that should be here in a week or two, not sure if it comes with a door handle or not. 😉

Case two. I had a need for a new bigger, better, American flag. I remember seeing a very nice kit in the SkyMall last time we flew. So I looked them up online and found what I was looking for. A 4×6 flag with sharp looking hand sewn stars. A solar light kit so I can keep the flag out all night and not feel guilty. (What can I say, I’m a Vietnam vet.) And a gold flagpole holder and 7 foot gold flagpole. The light and flag arrived a couple of days ago and they were perfect, even if Eileen thinks the flag is a little “BIG”. You know bigger is better! The pole arrived just a little while ago and I was thinking what a great weekend project. I opened the box and saw a great looking gold holder, nice gold round thing-a-ma-jig to go on top. (Didn’t want the eagle, just seemed a bit much.) And a SILVER pole. Looked really bad. Called the SkyMall people (you know SkyMall doesn’t actually own any of the crap they sell, it’s all drop shipped by one of their suppliers) and they apologized for the mistake. No offer to replace just the pole, no sorry we’ll get right on that. Just can I pack it ALL back up, and write a note to the company that actually sent the wrong thing. Their name is “Improvements”.

To top it all off I then get an email from SkyMall telling me to please send a note back to them telling them what I need, even after I spent 15 minutes on the phone with them, telling them what I need.

I may just have to go back to shopping in stores where I can SEE what I’m getting.