Pocket Pigs: some rants

I've been annoyed by a few things in the past couple weeks and I feel the need to share them. The first has to do with my garage roof. Like I said a while back, my garage roof looks like a colander every time it rains. I called a few places, got some estimates, and decided to go with Hansons. They scheduled the job and just my luck the weather turned crappy the day they were supposed to come, so they ended up coming the next day. They wrapped up the project in a few hours and as far as I can tell they did a good job. We'll see how it turns out when the snow melts. The annoying part is that they left the pile of debris on my driveway. For a week and a half. Luckily for them I don't park my car in the garage because there isn't enough room to open the car door. But seriously, a week and a half? Hansons called me last Wednesday (almost a week after the job) to see how everything went and I let them know that the pile was still there. They said somebody would be out by the end of the week to take care of it. Wouldn't it make more sense if a customer complains about something like that to say we'll be out there later today or first thing tomorrow to take care of it? But I went along with it. They also wanted to schedule a time for a representative to stop by to pick up the check for the balance due. It takes some balls to say, "By the way, you still owe us money," right after I finish telling you that there is still a pile of crap in my driveway. I made it very clear that I wouldn't be paying them anything until the debris was gone. Well Friday came and went and the pile was still there. Somebody was scheduled to come at 11:00 on Monday morning, so called first thing to tell them they might as well reschedule the appointment since the crap was still in the driveway. Of course they had an answer - the person coming to pick up the check would also be removing the debris. Turns out he was the crew lead for the project and he thought somebody else from his crew had already taken care of it last week while he was off hunting. Seems like Hansons screwed up again when they realized he was out of town and didn't have another crew take care of the mess. Hansons lost a future customer this week. It's a shame too since I'm thinking about replacing some windows soon.

My second rant is about the Silver Bells in the City event in Lansing. I love the idea of a light parade for the holidays and lighting the state Christmas tree is a big deal. Mandi and I decided to head downtown for the event that started at 6:10 on Friday night. The city recommends that we use the parking lots by the historical museum and ride the bus downtown, so we did. Big mistake. The bus route uses a street that turned into gridlock because of the parade route. We were stuck in traffic and missed the beginning of the parade. We decided to walk along the parade route to the capitol so we could see the tree lighting. By the time we got over there we were freezing, so we went into the capitol for the walking tour. The schedule said the tree lighting would be around 7:25 and it was only 6:50, so we thought we had plenty of time. Wrong. When we walked out of the capitol at 7:15 they were just starting the fireworks and the tree was already lit. We missed it. I think what bothers me most about this event is that they start it at 6:00. How many people who work until 5:00 can make it there in time? Wouldn't it make more sense to start at 7:00? I know they might lose some people who work downtown, but think of all the people who would be able to come from the surrounding towns.

On a positive note, Mandi and I went to IHOP for breakfast yesterday. We waited a few minutes to get a table and put in our order. We were talking about all sorts of random stuff and realized that we still didn't have our food. I flagged down our waiter and politely asked if he knew how much longer our food would be. Normally I wouldn't do this, but we watched other tables that sat down after us get their food and leave before we even had our food. A few minutes later the waiter came back out and said our ticket was next up and we would have our food soon. Not long after that the manager came out and apologized and said that even though there was a reason our food was delayed, it wasn't a good reason. Our food was out moments later and the manager came back again to say that he was giving us 25% off and a $5 coupon for our next visit. We never asked for any of this. All we wanted was to know when our food would be out. I think Hansons could take a lesson from IHOP. Good customer service pays off. Even though they screwed up, I'll go back to IHOP because they were able to admit they made a mistake and they worked hard to make it better and make sure we were happy customers.