I never used to be a very confrontational person. In fact I think I would go out of my way to avoid it, walking in the metaphorical muddy gutter to skirt around an oncoming confrontation. I don’t know when this all changed, but at some point, after being walked on and taken advantage of enough times, I just don’t put up with shit anymore.
That said, I’ve just recently taken to standing up for myself against corporations. Corporations are very, very large (generally speaking), particularly the “international” variety. They’re usually pretty well-run but occasionally, as a consumer, you’ll get what’s known in business jargon as “the shaft.” When this happens, you can do one of two things: “sit there and take it,” or “bitch about it and get them to fix it.”
There are lots of ways for a corporation to shaft you; Simple and innocuous things like a food server at a chain screwing up your order (I have a hard time with that one still, because I did food service for five years — I guess I’m too nice there), to not having a rebate or mail-order honored. Within the past two years, I’ve had three separate occasions where I’ve gotten “the shaft,” complained about it, and gotten results — typically from their “customer service” (read: “customer wrangling”) department.
Defrauded by Don Pablo’s
Last year, for Mellukkah (the week-long holiday where we celebrate my wife’s Melishness), Satya, Melissa and I went down to Dayton, intending to go to Amar India (this awesome Indian restaurant down by the mall). It was Melissa’s favorite restaurant, and the location of where we had our first Valentine’s day together. Plus, Satya had never been there.
As luck would have it, it had been thunder-storming that day and the storm had knocked out the power for the entire commercial lot that the restaurant was part of. It was only about 6:00 or so, so we went over to a new bookstore that opened by the mall and waited. Melissa and I looked at some Bellydancing videos, some books, and some ethnic music CDs. We were there for a little over an hour or two, and Melissa was getting really hungry. I called Amar India again and they were still without power. We waited a little longer, then drove back over to the restaurant. No luck.
Disenchanted, we got back in the car and decided to drive back. Melissa was very sad that Mellukkah wasn’t going very well that day. We decided to eat at Don Pablo’s, which was up on Miller Lane in north Dayton. (For those of you who have ever been to Dayton, Miller Lane is that long strip of restaurants that is right there when you first get onto I-75 South from I-70. You would know it if you saw it.)
I had never eaten at Don Pablo’s before, but I like faux-mex and tex-mex food so I thought it sounded good. I think Melissa just really wanted a Margarita.
Over the next hour or so we ate. The conversation was good, the food was alright, but the service was really bad. We often had dry drink-glasses, Satya’s order was messed up, and our server rarely checked up on us. It was sub-par service.
We got the checks, I paid with my credit card and tipped 10%. Now, I normally tip 20%, give or take 1-2%. I’m pretty generous, especially if the server is good. I will only go down to 10% if the service is awful but they make an effort. At the time I write this, I have only ever given less than 10% once, and that was in a situation where the server was intentionally rude and ill-tempered towards us.
A week or two passed by, and I was going over our budget, reconciling our purchases with my own record. I do this every week or so, almost compulsively, so that I’m always in touch with how much money we have. It helps keep me from over-spending and it keeps me financially grounded in reality.
I looked at the online bank statement. For the line where it said “Don Pablo’s” the amount listed was $5 above what we had actually authorized. I immediately knew what happened: The server felt we didn’t give her enough for her “effort,” so she padded the tip in the computer, thinking we would never notice. I imagine I probably wasn’t the first time she’s done this. I’ve worked with people who have done that before. Truth is, most people DON’T notice.
But I was livid. There was some pride anger mixed in there – the “Fool me once” thing. I wasn’t going to be made a fool. This was a criminal act; She was STEALING from me. Whether or not she felt entitled to it was totally irrelevant. I found my receipt from that day, found the number for that specific restaurant and called them. I got a manager on the line and told them what happened. He flippantly responded that they don’t handle that in the store and that I would have to call corporate. He really didn’t seem to care that what his employee did was illegal. This enraged me even more.
I called the number he gave me, and I don’t remember what actually happened here, but I’m pretty sure the number didn’t work. It was some automated system and I couldn’t get a hold of the right people. I found Don Pablo’s corporate website, found the appropriate number I needed, and called it. I was greeted with a voice mailbox, but it was of a specific office, so I knew it would at least get heard by a person. After leaving my message, I hung up, wondering if anything would get done.
About a week went by before I heard anything back. Apparently the person’s office that I called was on vacation. It WAS July, after all. Finally she called back and I got to speak to a human about this. She was the Corporate Accounts manager, top-brass in the Don Pablo’s world. She authorized a refund for the amount and said she would speak with the restaurant directly about it.
A month or so later, we received a couple $10 gift certificates for Don Pablo’s. I think it was a “we have you on file as having put in a complaint, so we’re trying to woo you with free product” attempt. It felt somewhat insincere and a half-hearted attempt at appeasement. I wasn’t angry anymore, but I didn’t feel like the situation was truly resolved.
Melissa and I went back to Don Pablo’s and we used the gift certificates. The food was still just OK, but the service was a lot better. We tipped her 20%, as usual (on the original bill total, not on the adjusted-for-gift-certificate total).
In the end, and to this day, I still don’t feel they handled it very well. I really wasn’t so upset about the $5. It’s only $5. It was the principle of the whole thing. It doesn’t matter if it was $1 or $100; Someone was taking that which didn’t belong to them because they wrongly felt entitled to it. And that person’s manager, the person who is supposed to be the sane voice of reason amongst a bunch of irrational food-servers, didn’t really care. We haven’t been back there since.
Christmas with Airtran
This story begins with a little background. Airtran Airlines (based in Atlanta, GA) and Wendy’s (the international fast-food chain, founded by the late Dave Thomas) partnered up in 2005 with this scintillating offer: For every 8 Medium or Large drinks you purchase, you can mail them in for 1 Airtran credit. Airtran credits are typically acquired by making Airtran flights (a one-way flight = 1 Airtran credit), and can be traded in for amenities (“business class upgrades”) or free flights. It’s sort of like the “Frequent Flyer” programs of other airlines.
I did some calculations: It would take 8 credits to purchase a one-way flight. 8 drinks per credit comes out to 64 drinks altogether. If I wanted a round-trip flight, that would be 128 drinks. I got started right away. I started eating their more and getting drinks (obviously) at first. I got smart and started asking for an extra water or two in addition to my order. They gave them to me free for a while, then started charging me $0.25 apc thereafter. (Still not bad!) My friends, on my request, ate at Wendy’s and gave, or in some cases MAILED, me their cup-coupons.
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