Don and Sweet Sue's

This morning Sam took me to breakfast at a local place called Don and Sweet Sues... the place has the best food... its always packed... it should be... the owner is the father in the Walton's show...  

I forget his real name... Ralph I think ... anyway he passed away a few years back... but the place is still going strong... 

So after we ate, we had to go to an old job we finished a year ago... why?  because a hose flooded the place while the owners were in Alaska on their yacht...

I wish I had my camera... sometimes I feel so poor after going to those homes...  

 Architectural Digest...So unbelievable! 

Thankfully... the Picasso was fine...

anyway... Sam is stressing because it is something we did...

the owner wanted one of those eye camera things in the bathroom with the faucet... you know those kind where it knows your standing there and turns on the water with no handles...

Well, the plumbing to do that was $1,700... the owner said "No, cant you just hook it up another way?"  Sam said "sure"  well over the course of a year the clamp moved, and moved and moved just the slightest bit with every use and BAM a flood while they are away... 

Sam is worried... our insurance said they wont cover it... I think they would they just say that at first anyway...  I think the owners will work with us on it... they said they only want our crew to fix it... they are happy with us... they should be.... remember we replaced a piece of 20 ft glass doors at our expense because of a chip in the glass ...$15,000 we had to eat! 

Anyway the owners come home on Saturday to their beautiful home - in a BIG mess...

Where is customer service like that when I need it?

Nextel really ticked me off last week...

My phone just shuts off for no reason... constantly... and we pay for insurance... so I call up the insurance...

Long story short - "Sorry, your not covered for that..."

"Wait let me get this straight... so I am not covered for defects with your phone however if I dropped the phone or threw it against a wall I would be covered... is that correct?"

"Yes, that is correct"

So I call Nextel and get "Sorrybut we are not affiliated with the insurance company and can't help you with your claim, you have to talk to them"

"You know what, get me a supervisor"

12 minutes later

"This is Susie supervisor how can I help you"

"Susie, My company has been a loyal Nextel customer for 7 years... we currently have 9 phone numbers with you... and being in a customer service business myself.. I find it very hard to believe you will not bend over backwards to make me a satisfied customer... that you will sacrifice an account of 7 years because you are not affiliated with the insurance company? All I want is a new phone, I pay the insurance and quite frankly I am ready to close my account with Nextel at the end of this conversation if I am not a satisfied customer when I hang up..."

Lets just say... I was MORE than a satisfied customer when I hung up...

but man why does it have to get to that? 

Where is customer service anymore?

I remember "The customer is King" slogans...

What happened?