The View from my Soapbox

I consider myself a pretty opinionated person. Most of the time I have a pretty "black and white" opinion on matters regardless of whether the matter is indeed black and white. However, most of the time I do not wield these opinions like a political pundit on Real Time with Bill Maher and rarely do I verbalize as well as someone like Julia Sugarbaker "terminating" her adversary on Designing Women. Yes, I did just reference Designing Women. I read an article on the life of Dixie Carter the other day and it got me thinking about "righting wrongs" in reference to this blog.

My mom has said to me several times over the past couple of years that she has "mellowed." This is in reference to getting "fired up" over a wrong doing or injustice, or just something small that generally ticks you off. Anytime I get fired up about something now, she says, "Don't sweat it. You'll mellow out like me one of these days." And while I certainly agree that Mom has mellowed in recent years, she can still breathe fire when she needs to. This leads me to believe that I may not yet have hit the apex on my bell curve of getting fired up.

I recently went in to Hollywood Video here in Tahlequah. As many of you may have read, Hollywood Video and its parent company, Movie Gallery, are going out of business. I think some of the Movie Gallery stores are staying open, but all of the Hollywood Video stores are closing. We have one of each in town and they are both closing. The air conditioning was out in the Hollywood Video store when I first went, so the store was closed that day. I went back a week and a half later because I noticed the doors were open and was shocked to find out that the air conditioning was still not running but people were working. It was over 90 degrees outside with humidity that made it feel hotter. Apparently the A/C was too expensive to fix, so it was not going to be. What? That is ridiculous! I decided when I got home that I would send Hollywood Video an email regarding the treatment of its employees. Below is the email I sent.

Treatment of employees

I recently visited your store location in Tahlequah, OK where I live. I know the store is going out of business, which is a terrible thing. I have worked in a store that went out of business before and I know certain concessions tend to be made when one is going out of business. The air conditioning went out at this location over a week ago. My concern is not for the customers who come in and out from the comfort of their air conditioned vehicles, but for your employees who are doing their best with a terrible situation. I know first hand that air conditioning is very expensive, especially a commercial unit. However, other options are available. Renting a refrigerated air unit might be one. In some cases you may have no where else to sell the merchandise, but your parent company, Movie Gallery has a store in town that is also going out of business. Could the merchandise there not be moved to the other location for liquidation? I understand that this is a tough time and costs for a location that is closing need to be kept to a minimum, but when it comes to the safety of your employees accommodations must be made. The team you have in your store is doing the best with the situation they have been dealt. I urge you to do something quickly, as the temperatures here have reached 91 degrees with humidity outside that makes it feel closer to 100 degrees. Please have the same allegiance to your store team that they are obviously showing to you.

This is definitely not "righting a wrong," but it did make me feel like I was taking action. It made me feel like I was not "an indecisive little bitch." Whoa, where did that come from? I was on a road trip with Erin and Dana from Vegas to L.A. a few years ago. When I continued to say "I don't care" when asked about where we should eat, go or stay, I was criticized and called "an indecisive little bitch." This has since become what we call each other when a decision is not made in a timely manner. I know, it's classy.

This is not the first time I have sent a disgruntled email to a company. I had a bad experience with Domino's when I lived in Las Vegas and sent an email to their home office while at work the next day. Erin still sends this to me every so often in an email that says "look what I found!" Below is a copy of the email I sent to Domino's.

Dirty Domino's

I was very dissatisfied with my phone service when I placed an order last night. I understand how busy a place can be. I work in retail and I also used to work in a pizza place. I actually called back to cancel the order after I was hung up on during ordering. I have long been a domino's claimer. My parents both worked nights there when they first married and my dad was still in school. I had a crib in the backroom for crying out loud! I was definitely brought up loving domino's. I know that this store is in Las Vegas/Henderson, and this city is just chock full of jerks, but a little hospitality would go a long way. Anyway, I guess the point that I am trying to get across is that if the customer service is bad enough for me to actually call back and cancel my order then something needs to be fixed. Thanks again for all the wonderful pizzas. You have not lost a customer, but gained a valuable barometer of customer service. If you would like any tips on proper phone etiquette please let me know. I obviously have a little extra time on my hands.

Obviously this email was a little more amusing than the first. I actually received a response from this one, which is more than I can say for Hollywood Video. Domino's called me about my email and offered to pay for the order I was going to place the night before. They said they would credit it to my phone number so that when I called it would automatically allow me to get the order for free. Cool huh? Of course when I called that same night nothing was "saved to my phone number." Oh well, at least I got my point across, or at the very least gave some people at Domino's a laugh.

I have been watching the series "What Would You Do?" on ABC and it has had me thinking about what I would do in different situations. In the situations above I reacted, but their have been times in the past when a situation arose that should have elicited a reaction and did not. I know we can probably all say this is true, but I would like to think that watching the show has at least made me realize that it is okay to react when you think someone is being treated unfairly. Reacting to a situation is a good thing! Eviscerating someone with your words, maybe not so much. This afternoon I had a vendor call that had previously serviced the store before B&N took over the account last year. She explained to me that the store had signed up for a 24 month listing in the white pages a year ago, and paid for the first 12 months. Now of course, as the new white pages are being distributed, they want to receive payment for the next 12 months. I explained the situation and the woman said she understood. She then told me she would be sending me a bill for the remaining balance. That led me to believe that she did not understand. We went back and forth for a minute or so. I was kind of high on a 6 Hour Energy shot I had taken earlier, so I finally said "Look, I didn't order the listing, so I'm not paying for the listing. You can send a bill, but you will get it back in the mail with a handwritten note that says I didn't order the listing, so I'm not paying for the listing." She quickly thanked me and hung up. I usually have a little more tact than that, but the 6 Hour Energy Shot had me feeling good!

So that is the view on a few things from my soapbox. You may not agree, but thanks for reading. The words of my Dirty Domino's email ring true again. "I obviously have a little extra time on my hands."