Boy did I make up for that today!
Lindsey was home sick from school today with a horrible cold and so I took advantage of her being home for when Kaedin got off the bus. I started running my errands about 10:30 this morning and I was on a MISSION! The mission was to find a chocolate fountain for the upcoming Sweet 16 this weekend. I know that I have seen these fountains plenty of times on my shopping excursions ( for those of you who really know me, know that these happen often ) but of course when I HAVE to find one, I can't. After hitting every possible store I could think of in Eagan with no luck, I decided to travel out to Burnsville. Not that Burnsville is far by any means, but it never fails I seem to get caught in a time warp when I go there. After searching high and low, I decide to venture to Kmart.....ok YUCK! That is the best word to describe this place. I don't think I have been in a Kmart since age 5 and I intend to make this the last trip of my life.....it was so icky icky in there. However, props to Kmart for having my chocolate fountain! :-) After I made sure that the box it came in was properly sealed with no evidence of it EVER being opened, I brought it to the register to pay. The gentleman, "Chuck" at the counter gives me the total....$33.60, I hand him 2 twenty dollar bills and he politely asks me if I would like the warranty? I tell him that I am not interested and he sat and stared at me for a very uncomfortable 10 seconds. Again, he says, "your total will be $33.60" to which I reply, "Thank You, I gave you 2 twenty dollar bills, that should cover it" "ok" he says, "I just wanted to make sure you were aware of the total and you were truly not interested in the warranty"? Now, I must say that his customer service skills were fantastic, but really??? Please give me my $6.40 change and my chocolate fountain so that I can go forward with the ridiculous number of errands I MUST get done today.
Now the funny thing is about the "chocolate fountain" is that this is merely a backup to our original plan for the sweet 16 birthday party. In October when we were racking our brains to figure out how we could make this birthday very special for Lindsey, we came across a limo company that was fairly new to the Twin Cities area. The limo's that they provide are quite extrordinary, no detail left untouch. The price was right and it sounded like a great way to start off the festivites for the evening. So we booked it! On October 25th the reservation was set for Sat. Dec 13 @ 4pm. Perfect! One detail finished and 5,000 more to accomplish for this lavish event. Well, last night at about 8pm, I received an email from the owner of this limo company stating that the particular limo we chose was having some "transmission issues" and that if we still wanted to have a limo for the evening we would have to UPGRADE to a 2003 Basic Ford Excursion limo......without getting into to much detail, let me just quickly explain that the limo we had reserved was a 2008 Chrysler 300 with lambo doors, 2 flat screen tv's, a disco ball, fish tank and few other "minor neccesaties" for every 16 year old girl! :-) To me a ratty old excursion was NOT an upgrade. Further more, 4 days before the party we would not be able to up our dinner reservation by 10 guests ( we needed to fill the limo of course). I very politely declined this offer and let him know that we were no longer interested in his services. Then, a light bulb went off! I received a 10% discount from this company for adding them on my facebook page, and if my memory served me right, I remember seeing an event invitation from them recently for a wine tour on December 13th! Sure enough I pull up the invite and VOILA! It is scheduled for the same day and overlapping time of our reservation with transportation being provided from their "Exclusive Chrysler 300 Limo". Are you kidding me??? My first thought of course was, Jessica you are BETTER then any detective on CSI and Law and Order combined! but my second thought was, really? What kind of business owner would lie to their clients about something that they know is so important to a 15 year old child? Apparently the pompass 24 year old asshole that owns this limo company! After an evening full of emails going back and forth of him trying to dig himself out of this massive hole, and telling me that he is "respectively the owner of 3 multi-million dollar companies" it basically came down to me reminding him that money doesnt make the man, and he justified that quite well with is lack of professionalism and customer service. He in returned told me that no client deserves any type of special treatment and the only reason I was upset is because I was a "pawn" and he was a "leader". Quite comical actually.
So my point to all of this crazy chaos? Although Kmart is not the place for me, it may have opened my eyes to something very important this fine afternoon. You see, by looking at "Chuck" I would guess he doesnt have a lot of money, and probably (maybe) not the highest education either, however "Chuck" has one thing that the 24 year old multi million dollar owner of the limousine company does not have and money truly can't buy. Integrity, Respect and fantastic Customer service. Sooner or later those $$$ bills are gonna run out, especially with the lack of having these 3 very important things. Thanks "Chuck"! You put a smile on my face tonight
God Bless & Warm Regards,
~Jessica
