consumer service sucks...and other things about retail/consumer nation
so I have to say I love retail therapy. It has its benefits. There is, however, the low that comes the next day when you take "inventory" and realize how much you have spent, possibly on silly things. Then there's the part when the problem comes back, forcing another round of retail therapy or further, deeper regret and sadness. Also there is the possibility (well the inevitability) that the purchases will lose their splendor and just become boring, new additions to your material menagerie of muck.

I got some new moleskine journals. Now journals, pens, office supplies, stickers, cool rulers are things you can't go wrong with. You may get sad when the ink runs out in your favorite shade of purple, this just happened to me. But I can just got to the bookstore and get some new stabilos. Problem solved. There's a rewarding feeling of filling a notebook, journal, just like crossing something off a to do list. Success. Chronicles of life, purchases, emotion, just random thoughts and scribbles are prized posessions and great to look back on.

Buying some clothing,...that's a whole different story. Fads. Fads. Fads. They come and go. The things you like go in and out of style. My mom has always talked about this. Why do you need so many clothing? You just add a few things each season of new styles. Blah blah blah. Consumerism just drives us to always buy the new fads. Well I found an article on a blog I like that talks about this.
-really like this article-
I love it + I look great in it = its fashionable.
I realize I envy people (just like the article says) who follow this statement. Living in Germany and Taiwan has most definately skewed my perceptions of what looks good, what's stylish. Skews for the better and for the worse, but I just need to go with what I wanna go with more often. I love the people who do this. GO them. Go person who wrote this article. AND GO me for now doing so.

Rules I follow when it comes to fashion are one's I've written, adopted, or adapted. I know what body type I have. Long torso, short legs. Decent height but again, its all in my torso. Long, oval face. Long forehead, big nose, round eyes, fuller lips and lower cheeks. I can describe my bust, butt, thighs (which are my problem/focus point...everyone has one, no matter how perfect their body is). I know what things I should avoid and what thins I should go for. Since I don't want my hips/thighs to look wider, avoid trouser pants with those silly side pockets (plus cell phones and lip balm slides out of those pockets too easily). Skirts, dresses, empire waists, halter tops don't work well with my boobs...blah blah blah. That's the type of stuff I am keen to follow.

After spending a fair amount of yesterday crying, being sad (a funeral is never a good way to start a day), I went out in public and saw some of the rich-Suburb-Cougar mom's who's daughters I went to school with. My eyes were still puffy. I had pimples without concealer. I wore my favorite T-Shirt. I was happy though. I had a great chai latte with espresso, split a turtle bar with nic and checked my e-mail.

Internet has been sketchy and spotty at my house, so using the cafe internet was awesome.

Well now I realize this entry's subject is "customer service sucks..."
SO on to that.

I work in a restaurant.
I work with complaining people, I wait on complaining people, I have become more of a complaining person. People come to restaurants, or just go out in general, and want to get their dicks sucked. That's a quote, but I'm using it as a statement, so let it go, yo. It's so true.
I hate being "that waitress" who tries to push you towards getting more than you wanted. An appetizer, if not two. An alcoholic beverage, probably an expensive one or a round of them, when you just thought to get lemonade or pepsi. I know it's what I was trained to do. I know it's what a lot of other waitresses do. So many people want you to do it, though! I would say 50 percent of people do and the other 50 percent do want you to tell them what to get, what to buy.
It's sad! It's irritating!

This leads me to another thing. People who complain. SO many people come to restaurants and complain about everything. "That man complains every time he is in here, but he always comes back and gets the same stuff." Sometimes it's just the type of person who could shit a gold brick one morning and be angry that the enamel on the toilet cracked when the brick fell in the bowl. "Do you know how much my ass hurts? I shit a gold brick! THAT'S PAIN"
Other times it's just people who want to complain so you give them the appetizer they ordered for free, or twenty percent off.

It sucks.

Nic ordered an awesome video camera for his video projects and is getting taken advantage of by the company, by the customer service reps who hang up on him, constantly put him on hold. I find it INCREDIBLY irritating and strange that they called him, to convince him to order a different camera...one he doesn't want. One they lied to him about.

It's common
It's called baiting and switching.
It's so irritating and dishonest.
He is doing something about it, but its hard for him to be a forceful jerk to these people.

One thing I have learned is while a company has a policy, if you get the right person, you can bypass that policy. I got a dig. camera that ended up being a battery eater and not what I wanted. So I returned it and got a gift card. When the store didn't stock anything else that fit my requirements, they told me there was nothing else they could do. Eventually, I got them to refund the gift card for cash.
I got my way. Got a camera I wanted. Got happy and I like the store for finally helping me out. I go there to get cables and cards and whatever else I may need because of this.

What happened to the customer being right?