no, no, no, thank you!

As much as I gripe and whine about the day to day slights of poor or none existent customer service, I do actually appreciate the little things that get done for me as I go about my day to day.

So without much ado here’s a heartfelt Thank You for the guy who makes sure I get two copies of the free paper every morning and wishes me well.  To the girl at County Style who fixes my coffee on Sunday’s and always asks how I am.  To the owner of the Sugar Maple across the street who holds a copy of the Saturday and Sunday papers for me to ensure I get them each weekend.  To the various girls at Shoppers who always seem to have a good idea of a well priced, good product that will do the thing I want it to do.  To the cashiers at Jerry’s supermarket that will always trade me for a newer $5 bill so that I can use the change machine at the laundry matte next door.  To the staffers at Global Pet Food who always looks up the name of the food I buy my cat because after 2 ½ years I still can’t remember.

It often really is the little things that count.

why size matters

Anyone who has ever purchased clothes knows that size isn’t consistent.  In fact there is no such thing as a size ‘standard’.  Each manufacturer sets their own sizing and, usually, tend to stick with them.  As a woman, you’ve undoubtedly learned who ‘fits small’ and who doesn’t.  

And if you haven’t been living in a cave you’ll also be aware that over the last ten years of so, you know that sizes have been increasing, but while staying the same – which is to say that the size 10 you bought a few years ago is the size 6 you bought recently. 

If you’re like me you don’t weigh yourself very often but instead use your clothes as a gauge of your weight gain or loss and mostly was a decent way to judge.  When things start to feel a little tight it’s time to lighten up a bit.  And this is why I’m currently in a bit of a conundrum about the role the clothing manufacturing industry has in the management of my waist line.

Now realistically, nothing, but somehow that doesn’t sit so well with me.

For some reason I am pretty good at maintaining my weight.  Over the course of my adulthood I’ve pretty much been the same size.  As I’ve mentioned before, my office moved away from the more populated area of the city and in so my habit of running a few errands over the lunch break wasn’t possible anymore.  The reason I mention these facts is that I seem to have added a few pounds over the last year, unwanted ones   However, I have also seemed to have reduced my clothing by a size.

I’m no math wizard, but that does not add up.

Weight is a ‘massive’ issue in North America, one that I’m not going to go into beyond my own experience. And this is where I start to question if it is reprehensible that clothing sizes continue to grow in girth but stay the same in name – giving us all a false sense of the facts.

Recently I tried on pants at a store where I shop in a regular basis.  They manufacture their own brand so the sizing is relatively standard year to year.  But this time, some of the garments I tried on where two sizes smaller.  I had not lost the estimated 20 lbs required for that much of a size difference.  And I was stunned.  So stunned I mentioned it to the store manager.  Fortunately this seemed to be an isolated incident but it still makes me wonder how much the recalibration of sizing affects the weight of North Americans.

In the end there’s probably nothing to be done except maybe uses the scales instead of the waist band to gauge my size. 

ttc – truly trying commuting

The best advertising campaign the auto industry never ran was the public transit experience.   Nothing has pushed more people toward car ownership as well.

I complain a lot about the TTC.  My friends will attest to this.  But when you look at my beefs about 70% of the have to do with people's behaviour and the balance with the service itself, so while, yes we are dealing with, on a daily basis a system that essentially stopped developing in the 70s and tries to cover massive territory; that doesn't explain the lack of manners. 

On a recent trip, using the Greyhound bus to Kitchener, to visit a friend I overheard two students discuss the lack of manners on the transit in Toronto and posit how bad it might be in NYC.  Difference, in my experience on NYC subways - which is limited yes - is that people don't do the things Toronto riders do. On my midday travels in NYC no one blocked doors or tried to get on before everyone got off, people moved into the cars and only stood for their stop after leaving the prior station.  C'mon Toronto.  We're better than this.

Aren't we?

It is said that in a dense populous one needs to be more polite to make the society function.  And while Canadians do have an apologetic reputation it all seems to get dumped into the fare box and out comes the dufusness. 

In dealing with this old infrastructure with narrow platforms, stairs and mostly not working escalators and nonexistent elevators, could we all just use a little common sense.  Remember ‘Walk Right, Stand Left’?  It was removed because someone managed to successfully sue the TTC after falling on an escalator.   So we all suffer the fool who decides to buck the trend and stand on the left in spite of the fact that everyone else is standing to the right.  Arguably sometimes the outcome of these suits is great.  Those station arrival announcements that started a few years ago?  The end result of a case ruling outcome of a visually impaired rider trying to navigate the system with his disability – and in the end really quite useful. 

There are places where the needs of the few result in change that assists the many.  On the other hand, does anyone remember when the TTC tried to do away with WheelTrans, the service for people confined to walkers and wheelchairs who had difficulty with the main system?  Those affected protest in the form of showing up at rush hour to Bathurst Station and attempting to board streetcars with their assistance gear.  The result was a very long rush hour, and they got to keep their WheelTrans after very effectively showing that they really couldn’t use the system the way it was.

Unfortunately this is what also lead directly to those new low floor buses that the TTC is outfitting their entire fleet with.  For those of us, like me, who end up using the outer edges of the system – my damn office moved to the very edge of the suburbs – and civilization – but that’s another rant – we’re stuck, on those awful buses with no recourse.

I may be exaggerating but I firmly believe that no one actually test ran these buses.  Test ran as in piled a large crowd of people carrying a variety of oddly shaped and sized packages, closed the doors, hit the gas and stopped abruptly every 200 or so yards, let half of them off, and piled on as many or more people.  In software we’d call this a ‘test use case’.  I’m not sure what is it in the public service vehicle milieu, but very much seems to be a missing step.  Also no one tested the outward opening back doors in a snow bank.  And as you know if you ride these buses, the only recourse the driver has is to ‘reboot’ the bus, which means turning off and then on the engine to reset the computer chips.  Apparently our last fleet of buses lasted over 50 years – call me pragmatic, but I’m not seeing these doors last more than 10 at the current rate of failure.  Then again, we all have to enter and exit from the front door during any type of weather, so perhaps by being saved with lack of use, I’ll be proved wrong.

Recently on one of those internet trolls where one story you read links you to another and on and one, I found an article about a tongue and cheek set of Manners Cards make by an individual in NYC.  Of course, I can’t find the article again, and in the interview the creator admitted he was a little too chicken to actually hand them out.   Although not limited to public transit and including some suggestions, like not walking 4 abreast and blocking the entire sideway to the exclusion of all other pedestrians, the cards included violations for blocking the escalators by standing on the left.

In the end it’s all pretty simple.  Pay attention to your surroundings and acknowledge that you are in a crowd and not in isolation. 

• For instance don't stand at or block with your ‘insert here’ stroller, bundle buggy, 60 bags of groceries or big fat ass,  the top of; the bottom of; or in front of any escalators, and/or doors.
• Don’t put your nasty dirty shoes on the seats just because the car isn’t’ full. 
• Let everyone off the vehicle and THEN get on. 
• Don’t ‘tsk’ when the system is slowed down or stalled – you’re not the only one frustrated and it doesn’t help the atmosphere. 
• Don’t play your iPod without headphones- nobody wants to hear your horrible taste in music. 
• Don’t hit other people. 
• Don’t spit (anywhere, ever). 
• Keep the smelly foods to a minimum.  Yes we call smell it when you open a can of beer.
• Please, please do not clip your nails, especially toes on the transit. 
• Most people are pretty good with the offering of seats to the elderly and expecting, but don’t nip in and take their offered seat for yourself you selfish prat.  Or as I once witnessed by a 60ish year old woman, complain loudly that no one will give up a seat while standing there is 5 ½ inch stilettos – if you can wear those shoes, you can stand. 
• Don’t sit aggressively, blocking access to inside seats, or even worse, take up an entire seat with your precious bag of lunch.  Unless you can show me it paid $3 to get on, it doesn’t deserve that seat.
  

As an ending note I do think Andy Byford is trying, albeit with a very limited set of playing cards.  Although I do, regularly, consider joining Twitter, only to follow and harass… er… update Mr. Byford on the day to day taxes of the system.  I have, to date, resisted this urge. 

And to my fellow travelers, happy travels!

P.S.  Apparently I'm not alone.  I don't know this guy, but he's got some of the same pet peeves I do, and he uses pics as evidence. http://ihopeyourbagiscomfortableasshole.tumblr.com/

what’s my beef? or pork?!

Sometimes when I contact a company about their service isn’t always about getting restitution, although, admittedly, it often is.  Sometimes my goal is a bit more altruistic – I just want the company I’m contacting to know that their service didn’t quite fit my expectations. 

And sometimes their reactions don’t fit my expectations. 

This is currently were I’m at; honestly I was so befuddled by the response that I didn’t know how to react.

A friend and I decided we would eat out for Christmas dinner and choose a small chic boutique hotel 

downtown.  It’s one of these places that people like me can’t afford to stay at but can afford high tea or a dinner once in awhile.  Reservations were made and expectations high. 

I should also comment that when I shared this plan amount my peers several people commented that this hotel had a very well known vegan chef.  I’ll also comment now that I don’t eat pork, beef or as I call them ‘four footed’ animals.  My choice comes down to one very simple thing – I don’t feel well after I eat them and not eating them is pretty easy.

The next part of the story is very much as I remember it – that is to say I certainly couldn’t swear to the fact in a court of law, but we’re discussing perception here, so bear with me.  The menu was prix fixe and I chose the ‘Christmas dinner with all the fixings’ as the entrée.  My appetizer was lovely, perhaps the star of that option, and the turkey was lovely too until I cut into what looked like a small meatball.  Not thinking anything of it, and not eating it either I continued on with my meal.  However several hours later and in some distress I thought back and realized that it was a bit of sausage, as in sausage stuffing. 

I decided to contact the catering manager at the hotel and explain that while the service was great I was disappointed that the inclusion of what I believe to be pork or some other red meat was not included on the menu.  Living in the city I have become accustomed to restaurants not mixing meats on their menus in order to accommodate diets like mine.

What I got back was an acknowledgement that yes there was sausage in my meal and that ‘pork was not red meat.’

Game.  Set.  Point completely missed.

So what does a girl do?  I considered sending the response along with a note that my point was missed to the General Manager but ultimately decided that it just wasn’t worth the energy to bother.  Why?  Because honestly I visit this location every 5 years or so and should we opt to go out for Christmas dinner again this year, there are plenty of boutique places to try.

Sometimes it’s just not worth it.  Sometimes your point gets missed.  This time it was both.

that guy and emergency soup

Sometimes your retail experience has nothing to do with the store, the staff, their policies or anything other than another patron. 

 

Earlier this week a coworker - who graciously gives me rides home with her and, even better, sometimes takes me to the grocery store on that trip - and I were doing such an errand.  Like all mass merchandisers during the after-work hour the place was busy and so were the lines.  And that’s where we met ‘that guy’.  A suburbanite.  Vaguely European.  Was once what he considered attractive, with, now, slightly too long and slightly too greasy hair, a wardrobe make primarily of fabric ending in ‘lon’ and whatever replaced tear-away pants, and the worst of it – a cell phone stuck to his ear in the on position. 

While he did offer my 10 year-or-so younger acquaintance a jump in the line, he wasn’t willing to do so for both of us.

 

I also have to admit I was totally fascinated by what was in his buggy.  Namely about 204 assorted sized diapers, enough formula mix to feed an orphanage, two tins of beans and several freeze dried meals.   So now I’m both amused and curious.  Other than the fact that he lost control of a box of about 128 diapers at one point which careened our way – is careened the correct word to describe a large, lightweight box covered in pictures of baby asses in motion?  But I digress.  He managed to get all these goods up on the belt one handed and check out and never once stop his phone conversation!  

Now I haven’t had a husband for awhile and I do notice that with the cell phone revolution all husbands, on their own, at the  market are doing their wives shopping by proxy, but they are usually trusted to pay the bill on their own.

And what does this have to do with emergency soup?  Nothing.  I keep a can of so called emergency soup in my cupboards for those nights when life has taken up too much your day and your evening and by the time you get home and are ready to collapse and have zero interest in making or even ordering food, I break out the ‘emergency soup’ which is almost exclusively Campbell Cream of Mushroom or Tomato.  And tonight is one of those nights.

we are never getting together

In my head I’m humming Taylor Swift’s ‘We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together’ while I write this.

I hate telemarketers… I say hate because abhor doesn’t not cover it.  In fact I pay $8 a month to avoid speaking to them, which, the more I think about it, the angrier I get.

So in my real life I do inside sales, which is to say a large part of my job is to talk on the phone.  The other large part of it is to convince people to part with large sums of money - although not their own - but perhaps of their own budget.  So this should make me empathetic to the plight of the average telemarketer, but I’m not. 

Business to business solicitation is one thing.  Bugging me at home, during the precious time of a day that I’m not at work or asleep, is another thing.  Especially since I’ve signed up for the Do Not Call list for this exact reason.  And routinely do not answer your calls.  And now I’m upset again.

I’m not the only one.  Marketplace ran a segment on this subject recently.  In answer to the pleas of ‘leave me alone’ in this segment, it turns out that some companies use cheaper off shore companies to solicit for them and they fail to abide by the Do Not Call list.  In fact they are a large part of the problem.  Since we can’t complain to the mostly useless Better Business Bureau, we’re stuck with the ring, ring, ring every night.

Recently I purchased a mattress at Sears, as part of the transaction I agree to be phoned the day before and shortly prior to the delivery.  Sears called twice, both times from a blocked number.  The delivery service called just before they arrived, their business name and number showed up on my call display.  A prize to who can guess which call I took in person.  But it begged the question of why Sears, a huge North American general retailer, did not identify themselves when calling a customer, particularly when consent was given.

In my mind it comes down to this one simple issue.  Clearly this works, companies would not continue to spend advertising and marketing dollars on methods that don’t work, so who goes for it?  And why?

I strongly believe in voting with your dollars, and so now I’m in a pickle about a company that I just received decent service from, in large part because of a blocked number.

As an aside, as I was writing this evening, The Carrie Diaries was on, which, set in the 80’s, had a scene dealing with white lies using telemarketers as an example of when it might be OK to tell as LWL.  It reminded me of the days before call display.  How DID we manage?!

So since I only know the chorus to this pop song, I will end with a little ditty to all telemarketers who persist.  After calling me 20 or more times take the hint… we are never, ever, ever, getting together.

boxing day not spar-ing day

American’s have Black Friday and Canadians have Boxing Day.  The day everyone escapes the forced confinement, of 1 single day with family and flees to the mall to shop for bargains… after spending furiously just a few days before for Christmas.  Not that I’m judging.

For those who work retail, it’s the day before the day you have a breakdown from working too many long hours, too many days in a row to make enough money to get a decent sized commission cheque in January.

As a kid I never experience Boxing Day as the family budget was beyond stretched by Christmas to participate.  As a working teen most of my jobs, mercifully, chose to avoid the sales and it wasn’t until I started working as a young adult that I discovered Boxing Day.  From that first experience I came to a very firm decision to save several of my very hard earned vacation days to be able to avoid these days.  And it was a high cost.

Now that I work in an office I sometimes get a thought in my head that I might want to venture out for a few post holiday deals, and then I get to the mall, turn around and leave.

Full disclosure – mostly because I really wanted to write ‘full disclosure’ – I still get retail related panic attacks when the mall is full and I know I have to do my holiday shopping.

And further disclosure, it really sticks in my craw that I don’t get to participate in the great deals.  But losing limb, life and possibly even sanity for discounts really seems over the top and so I stay home.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love shopping.  I’m fond of the mall, and department stores – I like that ‘everything-under-one-roof’ concept.  And I love a sale. In fact I miss the days when as a store clerk I could peruse the sales racks before the store opened and, with the benefit of befriending my fellow colleagues, could stash a few choices behind the counter for later retrieval   So this year I braved it.  And made it to one store and then went home and had a stiff drink.

What I hate, is the people.  More specifically the mentality of people when they gather in a large group - seemingly to stand collectively in my way while I try to walk between stores.

My yield?  3 pairs of Second Yoga jeans - which really should be tried on by all.  The cost?  A few more liver cells as I enjoyed that stiff drink.

And some confidence restored.  So much so that I might brave the discount bra event at my favourite ‘secret’ place tomorrow.