pros and cons of customer service

Starting with the good... Propane Taxi rocks. I love these guys.

If you grill as much as we do, you know what a pain in the tail it is to transport tanks of propane. They get dirty and greasy, they're clumsy, and the shape is just right for rolling all over your clean car. Propane Taxi fixes all this trouble - for the same price or LESS; there's always a sale. Refilled tanks right now are just $10, delivered! I put the empty tanks in the driveway, click their website, and when I get home from work clean and full tanks are waiting for me.

Why I like them even more: I ordered two tanks last night. I had an old credit card number on file. My order was in the system, but the payment didn't go thru. Ben, from Propane Taxi, took it on himself to push the order thru (without payment) so I'd still get my delivery today. We worked together this morning to update the CC numbers, and everything is back on track.

I really have no idea if they're local or national, you'll have to enter your zip code to find out if they deliver to your area. Eddi, I'm pretty your house is outside the standard delivery area.

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Continuing with the awful.... Scott's Lawn Service is the lowest. I'm only adding the link in the hope that some potential customer finds my site and decides against giving them any more money.

We purchased a year of lawn service, plus two add-on services: tree care and pest control. Brian, the sales guy, scheduled a morning tree service with my wife. I stayed home that morning to wait for the "tree lady". I waited and waited and waited, longer than waiting for the cable guy. Around lunch, I called to follow up on the appointment, only to hear from Melanie that Brian cannot schedule appointments and that TreeLady does not take appointments.

+ Fail 1 - Fcktard scheduled an appointment that they couldn't follow through on.
+ Fail 2 - Our dogs have free run of the backyard. If TreeLady does not make appointments, it's kinda hard to keep the dogs in the house that day.

So we go back and forth over the following weeks, trying to coordinate schedules and services. Overall, it's a total clusterfck.

+ Fail 3 - Brian (re)-labels our account as "must call before all service". Service techs continue to show up without calling. Sometimes they lay chemicals in the yard while the dogs are out; other times they leave a note saying that they didn't provide service because of the dogs.

+ Fail 4 - The local office telephone craps out for a couple weeks, so I can't get things straight. Melanie continues to call my cell, which during the day has a 0% chance of success. No real people live at the Scott's 800 number: all calls are routed back to the dead local office phone. Emails to the corporate website are also routed back to the local office, where they are answered BY PHONE.

After a couple weeks of getting runaround, I contact the parent company, Scott's Fertilizer. The phone girl enters some request for a regional manager to contact me to help get things straight.

+ Fail 5 - Of course nobody ever called.

So now I'm done with Scott's Lawn Service. I'll learn how to spray chemicals by myself, dammit. I called Brian to cancel everything, and to get a refund of the balance on our account. Two weeks pass with no refund, and I'm getting ready to follow up on the money situation.

+ Fail 6 - I got home from work Wednesday, and found another ticket on the door. They came by and serviced the house again, with the dogs in the backyard. WTF ! ! !

I called Brian again to get the cancellation and refund (and not pay for Wednesday's service).

+ Fail 7,8,9,10,11 - Brian tells me to call the office. I call Melanie at the office, and she tells me to call Brian. I'm sent in a very small stupid circle. I try to escalate the issue, but Melanie tells me that she doesn't have a boss, there is no regional office that I can call, and there is no Scott's franchise representative. By now she's yelling at me, like it's my effing fault that their office is a cluster fck. WTF the customer service chick is yelling at me that there are no communication issues, I'm not getting the refund, and she's the ScottsGoddess who has final say?

+ Fail 12 - Christopher Brown, who I just found out is the local office manager, has been silent.

I'm skipping him, and calling the Scott's (not 800) direct corporate line 937.644.0011 to try to find somebody who can a) listen and b) refund my money. We'll see how that goes. They stole $53 from me on Wednesday, and I'm just slightly burned about that.

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In other family-type news... Kid1 is still staying at his mom's house while she's at the beach. I still haven't been invited to the party. Kids2&4 are still at the beach, with Kid4 catching a ride back to hang out with Gram for another couple weeks of vacation. Kid3 has been staying with his dad for the past couple of weeks.

We've been kid-free for the past couple of weeks, and done next to nothing with the opportunity. Grrrrr. You all can start hitting me with the "Getting Old" jokes now.

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Totally Effing Annoying. Jen, I'm not sure if you get thanks for this or not. http://www.2flashgames.com/f/f-231.htm

This game is a HUGE pain in the tail. No directions, no clues even. You have to pay attention to learn the rules as you go. I can provide some hints if you really feel like wussing out without challenging your brain and coordination.
http://games.mochiads.com/c/g/duck-think-outside-the-flock/duck.swf

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Between vaca, busy days at the office, and being a 'tard, I've fallen way behind on my inbox. I did a little bit of housekeeping today.

Josh sent me this link a while back, and I think I shared it, but I can't remember for sure. I can't always remember to eat lunch, though, so just b/c I don't remember doesn't mean too much. I think some of these people used to drop in to see me at GDays... http://notalwaysright.com/

Why is it that "RV Salesman" seems even lower than "Car Salesman" on my credibility list? Thanks Jules! http://consumerist.com/5028965/how-do-you-get-out-of-an-ebay-auction-say-killer-bees-attacked-the-vehicle

Jen finds all the dumb people: http://www.break.com/index/dumbest-guy-ever-on-wheel-of-fortune.html

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