Good "Customer Service..."

I've been meaning to write about this topic for a while now. I guess it just takes something to push me over the edge to do it...

Have you ever thought about Customer Service? We deal with it everyday. Each place we shop delivers some sort of customer service. Whether you're ordering coffee at Dunkin' Donuts (for Chandra), picking up your dry cleaning, shopping at the grocery store, or filling up your vehicle with gas... you're receiving some sort of "customer service."


Now, my friends will tell you, once I receive poor service someplace (restaurant, store, service company, etc.), I usually invoke my customer rights immediately: cease and desist from being their customer!

Why not? I mean, in this economy, companies should be bending over backward to reach out to their ultimate buyor: the consumer. Those that do, get my business. Those that don't, too bad so sad!

Here's an example: For years, I was one of the "Cable TV drones" that accepted my fate: I was at their mercy. Even though there were shadows/ghosts on the screen, or it would go out for no reason whatsoever, I just had to deal with it. I even had the cable modem for my pc. THAT in itself was a nightmare. It would go out constantly. When I called, it was the same old story - they'd put me on hold forever and a day, and then attempt for over an hour to diagnose the problem... which would lead to an appointment of one of their "technicians" to come out to the house... which caused me (Mr. Singleton) to arrange for a time when I would be there (usually during the middle of the week) for hours upon hours.

I finally fired them!

I ordered Verizon FIOS for my internet (blazing speed and it's always up!) and DirecTV for my tv service. Man, what a difference! Now both companies were great installers at the time, and I'm still with them... so as you can see, no complaints. But recently I upgraded my service to HD for DirecTV, and the process was flawless. Reason? Communication!

I was floored by the amount of communication DirecTV had with me. After setting up the appointment, they called me within 15 minutes to confirm the appointment and if everything went ok with the person who I previously spoke with. When the installer was on his way, he called me to let me know. He showed up on time and did a bang-up job. After that, he showed me everything he did and gave me his cell phone number in case I have any questions over the next few days. Overall, excellent customer service.

Want to know why I'm writing this article? Because I recently received very POOR customer service...

Over the past year, I've been picking up my kegs from Mr. G's in Plano. Typically the process is this: Keg runs out, I call them up and give them 3-4 options on beers I'm interested in, they call me up when it's in the store, and I go and pick it up. Easy, right?

Well, as the year has gone on, I've noticed they wouldn't always order the keg when I called. Or they'd call me back a week later and say they couldn't get one. Or they simply wouldn't call me back.

This latest attempt was the last straw. Almost one month ago, I called an placed an order. After several days of not hearing from them, I called and discovered, "Oh... those kegs are hard to find. I'm having problems with my distributor." However, they said they'd keep trying. Another week went by and I called and was told my keg was in the store and I could pick it up. Great!

When I arrived, I was told they were mistaken. My St. Arnold's Spring Bock wasn't in. In fact, St. Arnold's was out. When I asked why they said it was there, the guy just rolled his eyes and said he was sorry (someone else's fault). He then said he would call and it should be in the store on Tuesday and he would definitely call me. He even shook my hand.

No dice... several days and no calls later, I called back. I found out that the keg was still hard to find. I said, "Can you get me anything else? What are my options?" He said he wasn't sure at this point what he could get, but he had a few other places to call. My next call came from him on a Friday where he said that the Rahr Bucking Bock was in: "They're driving the keg over tomorrow. I'll call you tomorrow afternoon." No phone calls on Saturday... grrr

Finally, last Tuesday, it hit the fan. I called and asked what was going on. He just said, "I'm sorry... maybe it'll come in tomorrow." I lost it: "Look, I'm just wanting some decent 'Customer Service.' Would you just call me tomorrow and give me some options on what I can get before this weekend?" He said he'd call... guess what? No call!

Saturday I switched to a new company: Kegs & Barrels. I went into their Plano store, spoke with the owner Susan, and explained my situation. She seemed to understand (I don't think I'm the first ex-Mr. G's customer she's had) and said she'd call me today with the order.

Let's see if they provide excellent customer service... will keep you posted!

Update on my Aunt...

Here is the latest as of last night...

My Aunt Loretta is on the Physical Therapy floor and working with speech and physical therapists. Two days ago she started therapy on walking. They worked with her using a walker. One person has to walk on her right because that is her weak side.

In fact, I heard from my cousin Lori that she currently does not have feeling in her right arm. We know that is disheartening to her. Before the day began (therapy), she wanted to know if they thought she would regain use in her arm.

The prognosis is this: For some reason, the arm is usually the last to regain functionality when a stroke impacts the entire side of a person's body. She currently has use of her right leg and can feel the touch in her face. However, nothing in the right arm. The nurse said that it may or may not come back. We'll just have to wait and see.

Yesterday they worked with her on her speech. She had a difficult time reciting the alphabet. Another thing they are working on is to ask "what this is" and "what does it do" in regards to objects. So, they are quizzing her (family members) during her off-times. This was something the staff requested.

Her speech is getting clearer, although it is still "broken." The family is doing shift work right now with her - breaking it up so that someone is always with her during the times she is out of therapy. And I'm told that she is working VERY hard in her therapy sessions...

It's amazing to think that a week ago tonight she was walking out of her job at Wal-Mart and collapsed. That on Saturday we were told she had had multiple strokes and was still bleeding in her brain and there was nothing the doctors could do. That was probably our darkest day.

But on Sunday the bleeding had stopped and she had moved to the Triage floor. And then now she is in Physical Therapy. We believe God spared her for something, and we can't wait to see what that is!

It's definitely going to be a long road. Prayers are being answered and will still be needed. Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers...

Baylor: 1 Hour to Tip...!!!!

Thought just to pump everyone up I'd show how Baylor reacted when we were the FINAL team of 65 to make it into the Tourney! GO BEARS! SIC EM!

Baylor: Scott Drew on ESPN

"We're in Physical Therapy!"

I received an update tonight from my cousin Lori. My aunt Loretta is continuing to make progress. Today she is speaking a little clearer compared to yesterday (when she uttered her first words), and she's moving a lot more.

She started eating food, albeit broken up/ground up. She moved a lot more, but her right side is still not moving as much as her left.

Here's a funny moment: Today the therapist asked her to count to 5. She started... "1...2...3...4...5" but continued on all the way to 13! It cracked everyone up. The thought is she wants to get better so bad that she could still be counting right now if asked: "40,150... 40,151..."

So because of her progress, they decided to move her to the 5th floor and out of the Triage Unit. She now will be on a regimented schedule working with therapists everyday. We're thrilled... I mean, to think how far she has come. Given the fact that Saturday things were so desperate, and now she's finding her words and moving more and more... wow!

God is GREAT!

Please continue to pray for my aunt Loretta. Each day is a gift, and we believe she is going to continue to improve!

Thanks again!

Baylor Rises From The Ashes...

I had to post this article from today's New York Post:

BAYLOR RISES FROM THE ASHES

March 18, 2008 — WE see the same scenes year after year, March after March, and it can be easy to grow immune to them. CBS trains its cameras on a handful of basketball teams, and we get to be Big Brother, watching their reactions. The small schools always respond joyously. The top seeds play it cool. The spurned shake their heads.

And then there was Sunday night, with 64 of the 65 teams already announced, when Greg Gumbel revealed the final invite. And it was a few seconds later when we saw the first true upset of March. We saw the Baylor Bears looking as happy, as triumphant, as any team will across the next three weeks, including the ones who'll cut down nets and hoist trophies.

"It's like when you're a parent, and you see your sons and your daughters acting happy," Baylor coach Scott Drew said yesterday, his voice still landscaped by his own celebrations. "That's what gets you the most."

We hear all the time about how sports, and how this tournament, is a haven for redemption, for second chances. Baylor proves that. Because there never may have been a team, or a school, that suffered such profound self-inflicted wounds.

And lived to tell about it. Lived to thrive, in fact.

"The great thing," said Drew, "is that when you have so much work to do at a place, the way we had so much work to do here, you can never worry about second-guessing yourself because your time is so monopolized, 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

The wreckage Drew inherited when he left Valparaiso in the summer of 2003 was so vast, so repulsive, that few could understand why he'd even consider the job.

Former coach Dave Bliss had overseen one of the most surreal collegiate calamities of all time. One player, Patrick Dennehy, had been murdered. Another player, Carlton Dotson, wound up pleading guilty to the killing, and is serving 35 years. And then it turned out Bliss, one of the real beauties to ever work a sideline, had tried to engineer a cover-up, painting Dennehy as a drug dealer, a scam that unfurled when an assistant taped the whole sinister plot.

There isn't another school that can point to that kind of apocalypse, not St. John's with Mike Jarvis' unscrupulous reign, not St. Bonaventure and its welding-certificate/player walk- out exacta, not even SMU football, which had its season canceled in 1987 and still hasn't recovered 21 years later.

The NCAA considered a death-penalty judgment against Baylor, wound up forcing the Bears to cancel its entire non-conference schedule two seasons ago. The day that news broke, on June 28, 2005, is the day Drew remembers as rock- bottom. He'd already tried to clear the graveyard of the ghosts, he'd recruited kids willing to buy into his fresh approach, and now they were forced to pay for Bliss' sins, all of them.

"Telling our guys, having to look them in the eye, that was the worst of it," said Drew, who developed his coaching chops working under his father, Homer, at Valpo. "That put us so far behind that by the time we did start playing it was like having to open your Christmas presents in February and then being disappointed with what you got."

In some ways, that 4-13 record might have been just as astonishing as the 21-10 mark they have now.

Now here they are, just two years later, a No. 11 seed, a date Thursday with Purdue in the West Region. They are led by guard Curtis Jerrells, one of six regulars who go back to that abbreviated 2005-06 season, who knew all about the darkness. And now get to see what the other side looks like. They aren't the best team in the brackets. But they are the best story.

"I don't see how anybody outside could totally appreciate how devastated and how far down it was here," former Baylor football coach Grant Teaff said earlier this winter, and he's right.
But now everyone can see the Bears rise. Before the first ball has been tipped, the tournament has its first winner.

"Miracles Are Happening...!!!"

My cousin Lori called me tonight and uttered those words! "Thrilled" would be putting it mildly of how I felt (and currently feel!)...

It all started around lunchtime today. Lori went to visit Loretta during her lunch hour. When she walked into her room (not ICU... Praise God!), my uncle, my cousin Julie and her husband Tommy, and Julie's daughter Kaelyn were there. Lori immediately went to her mom and started talking to her.

Well, Loretta opened her eyes and then uttered her first words - "I just...." It was very garbled, but everyone heard it. And, when that happened, everyone just erupted in excitement! Seriously... this was totally unexpected!

So here are the rest of the improvements...

They started giving her water. They'd ask, "Do you want some water" and Loretta would say "Yes." Then they'd tell her to concentrate on swallowing and she'd do it correctly. She would respond to commands throughout the day ("squeeze my hand".... "release your grip"). Her eyes stayed focused all day. She even lifted her right leg!

The doctor was amazed. They say he couldn't believe what was going on... we just believe that God is answering our prayers! At one point tonight, Loretta actually grabbed the glass out of Lori's hand and gave herself a drink!

Tomorrow she begins taking food again - albeit, ground-up food. But, that's a big improvement! She will begin seeing an Occupational Therapist and a Physical Therapist...

You really have to understand my excitement - this weekend I thought all was lost! Now, we're not totally out of the woods yet, but "miracles are happening!" And right now, I feel like jumping up and down on the top of my roof!

So thank you all for your prayers, and I just ask that you continue to think of my Aunt Loretta! Today was a GREAT day in her recovery!

Praise be to God!!!