Remember the Good Old Days!

We learned recently that the tub and tile in one of our two bathrooms needed replacing. I have been putting it off, not only because all the plumbing accoutrements are expensive, but plumbers are as well. A number of years ago I did much of that bathroom renovation myself, but I am not known for my technical skills! This time we had no choice but to move forward and hire a plumber.

Oh where, or where can it be???

We decided on a walk-in shower since getting in and out of a tub is becoming a challenge for this octogenarian. So we went to a local warehouse and purchased the shower base, surrounding walls and sliding doors. Three large boxes arrived two days later. The truck staff were able to fit all three huge cartons into the elevator and through our front door. Of course, living in a condo, the three huge containers ended up on the living room floor! I decided to peek into the base box. Much to my surprise a "bathtub" stared up at me, not a shower base! The plumbers were coming the next morning! We drove back to the warehouse and after documentation verification it was discovered the salesperson wrote the wrong code on the order. The papers were corrected, in a more or less timely fashion, and pick-up and delivery was arranged for early next morning. I had to go to the Condo office and negotiate another elevator appointment. As promised, the delivery truck arrive early, the bathtub box was removed and the replacement shower base was deposited on the living room floor. After the drivers left I opened the new box. Wrong again! It was the correct base this time, but the drain was on the wrong side! (The lesson here is, no matter what size of the delivery, open and check for accuracy before signing!!)

As luck would have it the moving pads were still hanging in the service elevator. I grabbed the lift and we took the big box to the plumber's pickup truck and we all returned, documentation in hand, to the store. Warehouse pandemonium broke out. It was discovered that all the shower boxes had been mis-labeled and did not reflect contents!  We all waited and watched as the manager and staff, climbing on  tall ladders and lifts, slitting open each box until they found the proper product. Meanwhile,  the  paperwork grew and grew!

 The staff were wonderful and apologetic, mistakes happen and they even gave us a price adjustment! I had to give them a good grade on customer relations. But someone in the 'back room' screwed up real good!

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I write this up because my customer relations experience the past few years has been  the opposite. In so many places service is no longer part of the deal.
Get it yourself or get 'barked' at by an unhappy employee. I am sure you can think of your own examples. Yet, we are supposed to believe that we live in a consumer driven economy! Rather, it is a stockholders and profit driven economy! The March 20, 2015 CBC Market Place episode Shrinking Products and Grocery Games is very revealing. "Tired of bringing home the bacon only to find there's less bacon in the package than there used to be."

Remember the 'good old days' when the customer counted for something! (However, Maureen keeps reminding me, "These are the good old days".)

Back in 1909 Harry Gordon Selfridge in London England coined the phrase "The customer is always right". Most don't believe that anymore for many good reasons. But, on the other hand perhaps, "Honesty is always better" would be a far fitter business logo today.

And that's Dick's View of the world this Week

Did you Know?

Think of your life here in Canada. Then, realize there are about 56 million people like you and me who have been displaced by conflict - just pushed right out of their homes and their normal lives. Oh Canada.