Example of brilliant customer care

My sister, she of the legs that goes on forever (one thing we have in common), does a lot of shopping online for pants and jeans. Some of her shopping is done at a web store called Baby Phat.

Now, the process of becoming a customer there is a little more that just a tiny bit complicated. She gave me a run-down of a long list of things they demanded of her, including faxing a copy of her drivers license to them.

Her Internet provider got bought up by a larger company, a few months back. One of the changes is a new email addy. My sister, dutifully, shot of an email to Baby Phat's customer care informing them of this turn of events, and asked if they could please see fit to change her contact information to include this new addy. Their response? She has to call them, as per their routines, they can't do this just from an email being sent (which is usually how everyone else does it), she has to call them, in the US on a 1-800 number in order to make that particular change.

Firstly, she's in Norway! A minimum of 6 timezones away, depending on what coast they're located on, she could be a few more timezones away than that! Secondly, 1-800 numbers are not free to call from Norway. My sister only has a cellphone, and dialing the US from a cellphone, is anything but cheap!

My poor sister is now frustrated beyond belief, and at her wit's end. She has commandeered me to help her compose an email that she can paste into whatever replies she gets from them, because - and this is a doozy that is strictly forbidden at most customer care departments - they delete the entire mail history when they reply. Everything she's put into the mail, is gone when the reply arrives. Result? She has to rewrite her entire request and their responses in order for the next person at Baby Phat to understand what the request is all about in the first place.

If anyone at my work (which is customer care) had deleted email history, they'd be in trouble. That's a huge no-no. If not a written warning, then at the very least a verbal one would be the result of such stupidity. At Baby Phat, it seems to be par for the course and 'as per their routines'...

Kiri sits in VA, shaking her head over this, and had this observation on the faxing of the drivers license; 'That can't be legal.' and as for the rule about changing an email addy over the phone, only;'That's stupid!' and 'But then again the chick behind Baby Phat is a moron so I believe it.' And she rounded it all off with this; 'Love stupid American companies.' Also she said, and I quote; 'You need to blog that example of brilliance.'

So, here it is. In all it's blogged brilliance, for everyone to see...

Holy crap I'm lazy...

Isn't it amazing, just how lazy one can get when it's hot and sunny? And when it's raining so much you get depressed? Doesn't matter, really. When you're lazy, you're lazy, and there are a multitude of excuses. 'It's too hot, I can't be bothered doing that...' 'It's raining so much, it's depressive, I don't wanna do it now...' I openly admit to being lazy, of late. Too lazy, even. So today, I've made an effort to get some shit done.

I've laundered two machines worth of clothes. They're swaying, oh so, gently in the mild breeze, almost dry, already. I've updated both my Live Spaces with new posts. And I have a clear plan to get the vacuum out. Today, I plan to be efficient, without stressing too much, I don't want a relapse of yesterday's migraine.

The Empress has been knocked on her ass by the hot weather, today. She's passed out on her platform. She went for a 'daredevil' run on the veranda yesterday, in the shower we got. Huge raindrops, heavy enough to knock her silly. She left it at that one run, thankfully, as she sprayed everything shaking the rain out of her fur.

She's posed a little in front of my new webcam, in order to let my sister see her. My sister, in turn goes nuts wagging her finger back and forth in front of her own camera, going 'Kitty, kitty, kitty.' The Empress ignores her every attempt at seduction. 'If you ain't here to pet me, you don't exist!' So, she proceeds to investigate everything on the desk, exept the image window on the screen, showing her aunt trying to get her attention.

Earlier this week, before the new camera was hooked up, I activated the old one in a chat with Kiri. I was planning to scare her, a little, but she was anything but intimidated. She did get a couple of eyefulls of Her Furry Highness, though. So all was good in the land of Kiriness.

For some reason, I keep getting error messages when I try to visit Kiri's blog, here on blogspot. I have no idea why, but it's put a dampener on my mood and willingness to blog, as of late. We'll probably figure it out, eventually. It's not as if this is the first time this has happened.

It's vacation time at work, leaving me swamped. Don't get me wrong, I like being a little busy! It makes the day go faster. But there is busy, and there is too damned busy for words. It's the latter, that's been the fact this week at work. And my own vacation time seems too far away to be any comfort.

I've been back to working full time, again, since May 25. There are days when I feel it more in my hands than others. I prefer the days when it's not quite so painful. Gee, wonder why?

Well, if not for anything else, today has seen me updating three blogs. Not a bad days work, if I do say so myself...