’Tis the season to be patient.
Sigh. I’m trying.
Forget all those Hallmark movies — Christmas is great and all, but it’s also stressful. We’re spread too thin trying to work, shop for the perfect presents, go to Christmas parties or events, decorate the house, bake (some people, not me) and do everything else that comes with the holidays. The pressure is on to perform.
There is always some snafu with an order or gift. I feel sorry for anyone who works in retail because people are testy this time of year. Let a store run out of L.O.L. Surprise! dolls, and nobody’s laughing.
A recent order I made online was simple. I was supposed to pick it up at the store. It was even on sale, which was great. Then I got an email that the order was canceled.
“Sorry for the inconvenience,” the email said. No explanation, no tough cookie, no nothing. The email offered a customer-service number if I had questions.
Uh, yeah; I did.
When I called customer service, I got a woman named Shelley, or Shellie, or Shelle, or Chellie.
“How are you?” I asked, cheerily. There was silence until she realized I was waiting for an answer. “Fine. How may I help you?” she asked me in a robotic, bored voice.
I continued trying to be perky and explained that my order was canceled for no apparent reason. She looked and said she couldn’t tell why. There was more silence.
“Let me look one more place,” she said. There was a little more silence; then the phone went dead.
I’m not sure if my phone call dropped or she hung up on me. She had my phone number and could have called back, but she didn’t.
I tried to call the local store, and after getting an automated recording to choose the department I needed, the phone rang and rang. The recording said, “The person you have called is not available.” What the heck? It’s Christmas, and this was a big-box store. I called back, went through the rigmarole (store hours; for women’s, choose 6; for men’s, choose 8; blah, blah, blah) and still got the message, “The person you have called is not available.”
It’s no wonder this company has struggled in recent years.
So I called the customer-service number again. This time, I got a woman named Joan. She acted as if my problem was the most important thing she’d had to work on all day. In just a second, she was able to determine that the store didn’t have the item for me to pick up. That’s why my order was canceled.
She asked if I wanted to reorder. “Sure,” I told her. “OK!” she said. I told her it wasn’t a fun Christmas item. No, she said, but necessary and, “This is the season to do it because we have good prices.” We chatted. She repeated the order and realized she’d accidentally put in the wrong size. “Oh, no. That wouldn’t do,” she said. The phrasing on the sizes was weird, Joan said. She laughed; we laughed together. Oh, Joan. What a gal.
I asked her where she was, and she said, “Ohio.” Well, I’d never been there, I told her. (I have driven through it once, but I forgot.)
We thanked each other. I told her she was a lot nicer than the first woman I’d talked to. Joan told me she liked my personality and enjoyed talking to me. Take that, Shelley, Shellie, Shelle, Chellie.
This is just the beginning of the month, sweetie.
It’s going to take a lot of patience from all of us to make it till Christmas.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.