Picture Perfect

Something that's always amazed me since I was a kid is how two days six months apart can look exactly the same outside, but one can be 50 degrees colder.

Keeping that in mind, I was strolling down the Boardwalk to the library (how cool is it that my library is on the beach?) while enjoying the view: Blue sky, nice white clouds, but not too many, and some nice waves on the beach. That's where the niceties stopped, however: 30-something degrees, high winds off the water and it was feeling like 10 degrees all of a sudden.

I tried to take a mental picture of the view (my "visual memory" sucks so we'll see how this experiment goes) and save it to compare it to a nice summer day on the beach. My guess is that other than the 500 tourists on the beach, it's gonna be right on the money.

Like I mean, I know it makes sense when you think about it, the Earth being a different point on it's rotational orbit and thus being farther from the sun, blah blah blah. But really shouldn't it just have to be good weather when it's sunny outside?

Oh yeah, enjoy the snow, Clevelanders!

Veering off topic slightly for a second here, for all of those asking about my return to the Charlemagne Estate, I am planning a trip back around my birthday (weekend of, before or after.) I'll leave a note up here when I know more.

Edited to add:

Updates on Arby's and Bank of America are coming as the next installments of Customer Service Reviews as well as Trinity Irish Pub. I keep meaning to make them, they're all half done as drafts.

Bodog.com

Bodog.com - A++. I just signed up for their online casino/poker/sports book betting sites. They're one of the online gaming sites that told the 109th Congress to shove it with their online gambling prohibition, and still accept US Players.

Anyway, I wanted to find a site that would let me hone my Caribbean Stud skills and I stumbled upon their practice site. The interface is great and I was really enjoy it, so much so that I signed up for real.

So, I was surprised when I funded my account with $25 that when I tried to get into Caribbean Stud that I didn't have enough money in my account. I didn't remember seeing a minimum bet posted anywhere (on the practice site it was $1). So I e-mailed them and got an automated e-mail within seconds. Automated responses don't impress me unless they're followed up upon. And Bodog's was, within fifteen minutes at 9 pm on a Wednesday.

Although at the time I thought the e-mail was a little off in what they were
telling me, I called their 1800 number that was provided in both e-mails and got an instant response. Not an automated one, I called the number and someone picked up the phone. They walked me through the step (that in retrospect the e-mail made more sense).

Bodog get an A++ for speedy, personalized response, ease of access getting contact info, both e-mail and telephone, and pleasant, knowledgeable and truly helpful telephone operators.

Move

VENTNOR CITY, NJ - It's offical. Michael will be temporarly relocaiting to Ventnor City, NJ, right outside of Atlantic City. You may contact me or Moo for the contact info here, my cell phone will stay the same.

Editted at 12:15am to add, I'm hoping to get a job at one of the casinos in town, so hopefully that'll be awesome.

The Jerk Store Called

A few weeks ago, Shannon and I decided that instead of just brooding over problems at stores or restaurants that I would start to actually assert my manhood and contact the people in charge. So far I've had run-ins with Disney, Kohl's, Arby's and P.F. Chang's. I've decided to share my rating of each company's customer service responsiveness and will keep a running tally going on the side with each company's grade.

1) Arby's: F The night in question I drove to the Arby's in Lakewood at midnight to get some food, right as I pull in they turn the lights off on me, so I start to drive to another fast-food joint, only to find out they too are closed, on my way back I see that Arby's lights are magically back on, so I pull in. Mind you, I'm here for Shannon, so I'm getting all vegetarian fare: A BLT with no bacon, Iced Tea and Curly Fries. When I got home, what'd I get? A crispy chicken sandwich, diet Coke and regular fries. I go to arbys.com and fill out their customer service contact thing regarding my experience, got their e-mail confirmation and that was it.

2) Disney: B+ Shannon's friend Rachel bought a copy of the super-deluxe edition of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a gift but it didn't include the "12-page deluxe companion guide." She took it back to B&N but it appeared their whole shipment was without said guide. So, I called up Disney, (high marks for easy of finding their contact number-it's printed on the label of all their DVDs) but low marks for not being able to just press "0" and get to one of their "Cast Members." However, their "no questions asked" policy of just shipping a new thing out to you was very nice. All I had to do was provide the UPC code, an address and where it was purchased.

3) Kohl's: A+ A few days ago I went up to the Kohl's outside of Atlantic City. When I was ready to check-out, however, there were only two registers running, one on each side of the store, and about 10 or more people in each line. So, after standing for more than 10 minutes in line and still not even being on deck to check out, I grabbed one of their "Tell Us How We're Doing" things and called up the 800 number. They were quick to answer and the lady was very nice. I explained the situation about how multiple calls over the PA for additional cashiers have gone answered and how everyone in line is complaining about this service. The woman got off the phone with me and within two minutes every register in the store had a person running it.
As it turned out, the girl who was running the one line originally is stocker who's trained to run the cash registers, she had come up on a previous call and then they sent the other cashier out on lunch and made her stay on. Kohl's get an A+ for easy of finding contact number, a lightning fast response and pleasant customer service reps.

4) P. F. Chang's: TBA. This week I went into the P.F. Chang's in the Tropicana and while the food and server were great, everything else sucked, from tables never getting cleaned, to water spilled all over the floor and beverage trays in the men's bathroom stall. The manager was no where to be seen during this whole event so on the way out Shannon grabbed one of the business cards on the hostess stand, to my luck it was for their Operating Partner. I e-mailed him the next day regarding the experience and was at first concerned that he wasn't going to reply. However, this evening he e-mailed me back with a sincere apology and offered me a dinner on him. He explained that he's spoken personally to the management and the service staff-thus explaining the delay in contacting me-and that my experience was the worst story he's heard in the 13 years working with them. So, if that's true, I'm going to have some pretty high standards when I go back in there. We'll see.