Around my workplace it seems everything is a “Good News Story”. The phase has been so over-used that no one pays much attention to it anymore. But I want to share an experience I just had on Dec. 30 that not only made my day but was a real “Good News Story” in my book!
I just got through complaining right here about the poor service provided by UPS. Sometimes it seems that getting anything done or fixed is just a chore beyond words, between IVR’s and Voice mail or when you finally reach a real person, their unhelpful manner. The problem is so widespread that I hate to admit it’s even in my workplace. So when a company really steps up to the plate and goes the extra mile one should be as quick to offer kudos as we are to criticize.
My “Good News Story” is a Walmart story. Yes, that retail giant that everyone loves to bash for one thing or another. So here it is.
When I returned from vacation last May I found a flat tire on my car. The flat was caused by rot in the sidewall and couldn’t be repaired. It was a Sunday and I was a long way from home. I was lucky to be at my sister’s and the family rode to my rescue. My nephew removed the tire and his wife drove me to the only place in town that was open on a Sunday for tires…Walmart.
We dropped the tire off and went back to my sister’s to wait for them to call back when the tire was replaced. We waited and waited and waited for something that shouldn’t have taken more than an hour. Finally we called them only to be told that it was all set and that they had been paging us in the store.
Ok so they dropped the ball. At least I had a new tire. Back to Walmart we went to pick it up. We had to ask the tire person to put it in the car which he did very reluctantly with much sighing and air of being “put -upon”. But we had the tire.
My nephew then put the tire back on my car and I was on my way. The car did shimmy and pull but I chalked it up to the fact that I needed another tire and that I hadn’t had the tire balanced or aligned. As the summer progressed the GM dealership rotated the tire at least twice and reminded me I needed to get another new tire before the snow started flying in the winter. (They never said anything else about the tire)
Well, it’s winter now and by now I need 3 new tires so not wanting to get caught in a snow storm with bald tread, I took my car to the Walmart out here. This is where the story really gets good.
I went in on Friday 12/30 at 8 am in hopes of putting one tire on before work. That would give me a pair of good tires and next payday I would do the other two.
The first problem is that Walmart will only mount tires in pairs. If I wanted 1 tire I was going to have to put it on myself. After some haggling they agreed to put just the one tire on. I wandered into the store to do some browsing while they took my car in. Not 5 minutes later my cell phone rang. (Houston we have a problem) The tire I had on the car from the Walmart in New York, the one I’d been driving on all summer, was the wrong size for the car. So we were back to needing to put on 2 new tires.
I was really concerned now because it’s the holidays. I don’t know about you but I don’t have any extra cash lying around this time of year. I had the money for 1 new tire..not two.
The Walmart employee was burning up the computer keys trying to find the workorder from the store in New York but he couldn’t find any record. I answered his questions and then told my tale again to the service manager. The big question was how or why would they have put the wrong size tire on the car??? ( I’m sure it had nothing to do with the “I don’t care” attitude displayed by the employees there..maybe incompetence?)
By now an hour had passed. I’d called my sister in New York to confirm the address of the Walmart store we used and review what happened that day in case I’d forgotten any details. The service manager disappeared into the back area while I mentally juggled money and bills in my head.
9:15 the service manager came back out. She told the attendant to write me up for 2 new tires and then credit one back. She explained that Walmart had no liability for putting the wrong tire on because they didn’t physically put it on the car but she had called her manager and they agreed that if I gave Walmart a tire and told them to replace it with a new one, that I should be able to count on it being the right tire. So for safety reasons they were going to replace the tire with the correct one and only charge me for the one I wanted!
I confess..I was speechless! I have never had any retailer step up like that, especially not a big chain store! It was more than I could ever have expected. That was being treated like a business used to treat people back “in the old days” when reputation was everything. They really made my day!
I went to work and told everyone at work about the great experience I had at Walmart. It was an $80.00 tire but they have probably gotten way more than $80.00 in positive word of mouth from me and they will continue to get it. They did good. A “Good News Story”. They deserve to be recognized.
Kudos Walmart! Well done and Thanks again!
Hello Guys and Gals
Sorry I took so long getting an update in here. I still have a few more things to tell you about before we close the door on 2011 but right now I want to bring you up to date on what’s been going on while I’ve been away from these pages.
So we’re all here, Dusty, Editor in Chief Rocky, and Scout our tipster and contributing reporter, Smokey. Of course they are all my various alter egos but don’t spread that around! Talk about multiple personality syndrome!
Since we’ve been away we’ve been hashing about where we’re going with the blog and what we want to accomplish and what is a realistic goal. That was the clincher. We knew we didn’t want this to turn into an on-line diary. The intention was to write a blog that had a travel based theme. It doesn’t matter if the travel is to far away exotic locations or the local zoo. Let’s face it, not everyone lives in New England.
Seemed like a fairly easy goal to meet. Dusty isn’t one to stay put for long but what we didn’t consider was that in addition to the time it takes to visit different places it would also take time to put our thoughts on paper (even virtual paper). Then there’s the need for a job. Yup the real world job that pays the bills and gives us the freedom to go exploring. After all , not too many things are free. Even National Parks have entrance fees and the car needs gas to go.
We also didn’t factor in the needs of friends and family and even sometimes our need to just have some “down time”. And that was where we were when we took our sabbatical.
There are some things on Dusty’ s plate for 2012 (we’ll be making the announcement at the appropriate time right here) that are exciting but are going to be time-consuming . The last thing we want is to turn out a boring page just for the sake of posting something. So what we’re leading up to saying is that we’re going to cut back on the number of posts per week. To parody the expression…If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all…our motto will be ..If we can’t say something interesting, we won’t post anything that day …
One of the bloggers I follow has a “Wordless Wednesday” and we love it. The camera is our passion even more than travel. We used to travel and taking pictures was a way to create a record of the trip but more and more the purpose of the trip is to get the pictures so our emphasis has clearly changed. We always used photos a lot in our posts but you may see some “wordless” ones popping up now and again here. My thanks to Homestead Ramblings for the awesome idea!
Last week Dusty came down with a bear of a cold! It had such a kick that she was stuck in the recliner for 3 days. She couldn’t even sleep in bed at night because the minute she lay flat she would start to cough. Anyway, this has delayed quite a few excursions she had planned and the tree (oh how excited Smokey and Rocky are over the tree)has not been set up yet. Hopefully we’ll get that done this week so everyone can see how much help Rocky and Smokey can be at times like this. ( Update, after a visit to the Doctor Dusty is on antibiotics and told that she is recovering from a fine bout of pneumonia. Prognosis excellent and it’s only slowed her down a little.)
In the meantime, we’ve sprinkled a few pictures of the Taunton Green in all its seasonal glory throughout this post. We hope you’ll enjoy them and we hope you’ll keep coming back often even though we won’t be here every day.
Well I guess if you can’t beat ’em you join ’em. Thanksgiving is getting closer but still hasn’t arrived yet the carols are winging their way over the airwaves, tree lightnings are taking place nightly, Holiday Parades are stopping traffic and one city is even celebrating the honor of having the first “Mall Santa.”
I guess unless I want to earn the reputation of being Scrooge or the Grinch or just a run of the mill curmudgeon I’d best stop my Bah Humbugging and get with the program. I don’t want the song title to change from Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer to Dusty got Run over by a Reindeer because I couldn’t get in the spirit of the Holiday Season before Thanksgiving.
As I was mulling this decision over I heard on the news that Jordan’s Furniture of Avon, MA (Home of MOM, the Motion Odyssey Movie) had once again set up their Enchanted Village display. This is unique because it is an animated display of antique figures.
Originally commissioned by the Jordan Marsh Company in 1958 the display was a cornerstone of the holidays in the downtown crossing section of Boston right up until 1972 when Jordan Marsh closed the display.
From 1972 until 1990 the display was conspicuously absent but finally after 18 years, the figures were resurrected and the Enchanted Village was once again a part of the Boston Holiday Scene.
But a blissful happy ending was not to be. In 1998 Macy’s purchased Jordan Marsh and the display was sold to the City of Boston for use on City Hall Plaza but due to lack of funding the display was moved to the Hynes Convention Center. By 2006 the city had stopped displaying the Village altogether. It would appear that like so many small villages the Enchanted Village would be doomed to obscurity. In 2009 the Village was put on the auction block. The end was surely in sight!
But like the very best Christmas story or Fairy Tale a savior came riding to the rescue in the person of Elliot Tatelman of Jordan’s Furniture.
The Mantra of all the Jordan’s Furniture stores has always been to provide the customer with entertainment while making shopping in their stores fun.
The remainder of the Enchanted Village could not have found a better home. The 59 surviving mechanical figures have been lovingly restored and are displayed right in the store in Avon each year during the holidays. They even went so far as to install snow machines so that artificial snow drifts down as you stroll through the little Village.
Photographers greet you as you enter and at a 2nd station within the village so that you have the opportunity to purchase a memento of your visit. Traditional recipe Blueberry muffins are available for purchase near the entrance and exit of the display.
The Enchanted Village is free. Yes that’s right FREE! But if you have a little extra to spend you can take in a laser show or an abbreviated 3D experience on MOM featuring the Polar Express. Not a bad way to spend a morning or afternoon to get into the spirit of the holidays.
Ho Ho Ho!!!
Yesterday was a beautiful day. I’m pretty sure we hit 70 degrees. Amazing for November in New England and even more amazing when you think we had a snow storm only a week ago.
I wish I could say I was outside enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and gaining experiences to share but unfortunately I spent the whole day inside catching up on housework and laundry. I couldn’t put it off for a day(although I was tempted) because I already agreed to work an extra shift and then it will be back to my own schedule…no other day to take care of the chores.
As I sit here writing this I have the TV on watching Operation Wild. I really enjoy this show. I guess you’d call it a reality show along the lines of Cops but it focused on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The officers they feature are very personable and a lot of the stories are laced with humor. I also like the show because it’s set in Florida. It’s not Miami Vice it’s more about the animals and the Everglades or the Florida Keys.
I am planning to go to Orlando in January but I don’t know if I’ll get anywhere near the Everglades. I think it’s at least a 4 hour drive from Orlando to the Everglades but there are other parks and recreation areas to explore this trip.
The things I’ve learned while writing this blog occasionally come in handy. Tonight I got a call from the marketing department of my time share. They were promoting a new Resort in Orlando and offering a discounted 3 day trip. I explained that I wasn’t interested this time but the rep went on to ask where I lived in Ma. Seems he was coming out to Cambridge for a few days and wondered what he should see. I immediately encouraged him to take the time to spend a day in Boston. I recommended he take the Old Town Trolley tour because he will be able to get on and off as well as enjoy a narrated tour.
I told him about the Old North Church, The Freedom Trail, Faneuil Hall and the Boston Gardens! And it all just poured out without a thought! I’m so glad he called. I was getting in a rut for material but after answering his questions I realized that what I take for granted because it’s right here in my back yard is interesting to folks that don’t live here!
And my last bit to share is that Costa Rica is giving away hundreds of trips. It’s called Costa Rica’s Million Dollar Gift of Happiness. To enter go to: www.facebook.com/visitcostarica
