Krystal... Oh, how I am torn!!!

I haven't called yet... but I will! I like to use my feelings to my benefit but in this case, it was a much better idea to wait a week or two. Ha! I cannot even begin to explain how majorly disappointed and EXTREMELY PISSED I was last Friday afternoon. Oh my...

My mother-in-law got all of us tickets to see Chelsea Handler!!! So, Jon and I rushed from work and I mean, I was downtown by 5:10 pm which is EXCEPTIONAL and we were on our way. It took us 2 hours to get half an hour away from our destination after the sickening traffic we had known would be our demise; however, we planned for this and dinner while also fulfilling a special request. Hehe. Oh yeah.

I have been waiting for a Krystal hamburger for years. I had my last one when they finally came to my home town and Dad treated me their awesomeness. Unfortunately, there are no locations anywhere near me but to my excitement, we were going to pass one on our way to see the show! I was SO frikin' excited because it was the perfect solution to our extremely tight schedule, need for dinner, and end to my Krystal's attack! The show stared at 8pm but Jon didn't get off until 5pm. What could we do? Well, we could get us some good ole Krystal hamburgers to eat on the way to the show! Mmmm mmmmm!

Things started to go sour at this point... we get there and are about to drool all over the place but can't find the Krystal building. We drove around and then again until we realized that there is a building with the iconic red and yellow, just no signage what-so-ever. Yep... they were closed. Every sign was gone and they were boarded up. I could even see the sun markings from where the name sign had been plastered. OMG. It was not a pretty sight and I was pissed.

Unfortunately, we couldn't drive to the other location on the other side of the city because we had to get to the show. Uggg! I had to forfeit my beloved Krystal Hamburgers and will never forgive myself. Also, however, I am not sure when I will forgive Krystal. Oh, how I want to though! But geeeez, have they ever heard of updating a website? HELLO!!!

None the less, I will be expressing my concern to their management team and it will not be a pleasant experience unless they bend over backwards to make it one. Utterly ridiculous. These frikin' restaurants are in the most random places and when someone has to drive more than 2 hours, there better be a Krystal where their corporate website said there would be!



I am still so pissed...

Disappointment X3

I have disappointed 3 of the most important people in my life; my Aunt, Father, and Best Friend.

I couldn't make the trip I had been planning for over a month. I had to cancel a day before because I just knew it was not going to be possible with all the school work that I had. I tried to get ahead but had a gazillion other things going on and it being the first week of this new class, I was not aware of the ridiculous workload that would be involved. The workload has increased on top of everything and I just knew it wouldn't be a fun trip with me sitting at the computer the whole time.

So, I canceled so I could go down another weekend and actually make good use of my time, gas, and overall distance traveled. I hated to disappoint everyone because I had really been looking forward to it. I thought I would get a handle on this and the juggling would be easier... but as they increase the workload and intensity, I sink back to where I started. It's frustrating... grrr.

This is where we start repeating to ourselves: It will all be worth it, it will all be worth it.

:)

To Nicole at Teleflora.com

Thank you for the response. I do appreciate that you took the time to apologize and explain your business practices. I did want to expand on the situation however. While I understand we are all human and make mistakes, most don't make the same one 3 times in a row.

My original order was for Saturday and then there was a redelivery date for Monday. It was not delivered again on Monday and there was a redelivery date for Tuesday. It was not delivered AGAIN on Tuesday and there was a redelivery date for Wednesday.

It was finally delivered on Wednesday... 4 days and 3 redeliveries later. On top of this, I spent another hour and a half between the next two calls I had to make to find out why the order had not been delivered again. That's a total of 3 hours for 3 phone calls...

I do hope this was a fluke incident and understand that we do all make mistakes. However, this was in no way a little mistake; it was 3 big ones. I will say that all of your customer service reps were very nice and in the end Teleflora did make it worth the while. While my surprise and actually getting my Mom a gift on Mother's Day was ruined, Teleflora did come through and made it right. The delivery was beautiful and there was a very nice note of apology. I think that was very kind and my Mom really appreciated it.

I stand by my feelings and really hope that you can do better for your customers. Unfortunately, I am no longer one of them.

Thanks again for following up. I do appreciate that.

Thanks for Nothing, TeleFlora.com!

As I told the customer service guy, I will never use their service again. Number one, I put an order in for a Mother's Day delivery. I was told the order would have to be delivered on Saturday as they don't make deliveries on actual holidays. Well, as crappy as that was, I said okay. Well, I waited until Saturday evening to hear from Mom because I was just sure she would call to tell me how much she loved her surprise.

I waited...

and waited...

By 7 PM I had not heard from her so I gave her a call. She had received my card in the mail ("the biggest card I've ever got") but said nothing about an extra special delivery. So, I had to ask if she had received anything else and was both happy and disappointed to hear that she had not. I told her she should have and that I was sorry; I didn't think they would redeliver on Sunday (as they had told me they wouldn't) and the order was promised to be there by Saturday before 2 PM. I told Mom I was sorry and that I had to get off the phone so I could call and chew some one's ass out.

Well, an hour and a half later I finally get someone on the line from Teleflora and they tell me that they couldn't find someone to take my floral order for Saturday and that there had been a redeliver date set for Monday, one day after Mother's Day. First of all, they didn't bother to call ME and tell me that they had to reschedule. I told the gentlemen it was a bunch of crap and that I didn't put in an order for Monday, I put in an order for SATURDAY! I asked him what he was going to do since I had just waited on hold for an hour and a half and my order had not been fulfilled. He said he would give me 40% off but the order would have to be delivered on Monday. I told him I would never use Teleflora.com again (AND I MEANT IT) and he told me he was sorry. Sorry...

I told him he was correct; they should be very sorry because I would NEVER use them again. As a consumer, I have to spread the word about my experiences. It seems that they cram as many sales in while there may be no chance to get them all filled, and knowing all these people are going to have to explain to their significant others why they didn't get a gift on their special day.

A BUNCH OF CRAP. This was absolutely ridiculous, Teleflora.com. This experience has made me never want to use a service like this again.

Shoppers beware: My advice for future gifts like these? DO NOT USE TELFLORA.COM!!!!!!!!!

Attack from Above

A warning for all you people that like to enjoy time outside; whether that be walking, running, swimming, hanging out, walking to your car, anything at all.

Watch out for crazy attack birds.

A few days ago, I was outside standing in line, innocently, when I heard a crazy bird call and saw him soar over my head. I looked up at the tree he flew towards and then looked back down. I thought nothing of it. Unfortunately, the exact second I looked down, he flew at my head; he thrust his little bird body as hard as he could and I am pretty sure he pecked me in the process.

Jerk.

(Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31717722@N03/3107267397)

He looked like this and I am pretty sure he was a Grackle. Crazy birds. Watch out, they'll get cha.

I Suck

I hate that I haven't been able to organize my day sufficiently so that I can enjoy some of my personal passions. I have tried to figure out a system for school and in the meantime, I have 20 blog drafts that are waiting to be finished and edited.

I suck, I'm just sayin'.

And because of my suckiness, I may cheat and take a few shortcuts with some of my favorite blog posts. I have seen so many awesome posts from some of my favorite blogs and just haven't had the time (or can't seem to manage it) to write about them, so in the meantime, I am going to post them as is with a link to the awesome writer's blog. Please check them out and put them on your blog roll.

To be continued...

What's the Flippin' Deal?

I just don't get it.

I just saw a commercial that was talking about energy efficient light bulbs; they were saying that if every one of their 200 million customers used one it would be like taking 11 million cars off the road...

If? IF! Why is there even a flippin' choice? Why can't the entire world just stop making regular energy-burning bulbs?! Why can't every major business be required to use solar energy? Imagine what amazing things that could do- every day, every year, and not because we feel like it. HELLO!!!!!!

Please get energy efficient bulbs. Why wouldn't you? Why not? Why would you get anything else? Do it.

Petland Investigation: Pet Store Sells Puppy Mill Dogs

I have no words.

Spread the word and be aware.

Rip-off in the Skyy for Maaama *amy sings*

#1- American Airlines charged Mom $150 to change her flight date. It's even more crappy that it was $50 at the time of her original flight but they charged her $100 more when she went to get the new ticket.

On top of that:

#2- American Airlines chaNged Mom's ticket price even though she had to pay a cancellation fee- they charged her another $150!!

So all together, my Mom paid $300 more and the total cost of her ticket was more than $600!!!

Ridiculous.

If you think that's pretty flippin' ridiculous, don't fly with American Airlines* and please tell EVERYONE you know!!!!!! (*American Airlines- the actual airline, not American in general.)

Hurricanes Can Suck It

We got up super early on Saturday. We needed cat liter and toilet paper. We ran out, got some Kolaches, picked up some movies from Blockbuster, and did a quick run through the local HEB to grab some necessities. We expected the rain to start around 10am and to continue throughout the entire day. We expected the rain to start and continue all day because the local weather channel told us that was going to happen. I listened to the weather for 5 hours on Friday and thought it obvious to stock up on some basics supplies so we wouldn't need to get out in the bad weather; we wanted to snuggle up inside all day watching the storm and enjoying some movies. The night before, we parked my car at my brother-in-law's parking garage and partied until one. We rode home in Jonathan's car, brushed our teeth, curled up in our warm bed, and went to sleep thinking about the next day's agenda: watch Hurricane Ike's crazy rain and relax.

(Hurricane Ike - Texas - 2008)

Well, that didn't happen; we awoke to cloudless sunlight, some horrific humidity, and no rain. WTF?!? We were really looking forward to the crazy weather. Not only because this state's in major need of some rain, but Jon and I wanted to listen to the storms and relax all day. Who doesn't love the eerie light storms bring, the occasional cracks of thunder and lightning, and the soothing sound of water drops hitting the window? Dangit! We were supposed to be in the red! We were supposed to get rain all day! Well, we didn't get ANY rain, but cities northeast of us were drenched! Hurricane Ike tore through Houston, but the rain just missed Austin.

(Hurricane Ike - Houston, TX - 2008)

My father lives in east Houston on the San Jacinto River and he got plenty of everything- rain, wind, outages, flooding. Pure craziness. In the past, his house has been flooded by insane amounts of rain and river water so Dad figured he'd get some damage and told me he would probably be communicating via email. Well, he did- once. He emailed me at 9 am Saturday morning saying they had gotten a little bit of water but that everything was okay. Of course, he also tells me that his cell phone is dead and he left the charger in his car- the car he parked safely away from the water, and far from his house and present location. Geez. Well, he didn't email me the rest of the day and was obviously unable to call me or anyone else. Needless to say, I was worried.

(Hurricane Ike's destruction on Houston, TX - 2008 - Getty Images)

I spoke to my Aunt- she was safe and away from the storms. She told me Dad had gotten some water in the house but that she hadn't spoken to him in quite some time. I tried not to think about the bad and focused on the good; he's a survivor at heart, he loves to have a good time no matter what, and he's always prepared. I was sure he was okay... I just wasn't too sure about the house. Dad's been through several floods on that river and has seen lots of damage from it; he even lost his pinball machine and our jet ski in the flood of '94.

Mom and Dad went through a hurricane in our first house 25 years ago in Houston; I was 2 months old when Hurricane Alicia blew through Galveston and Houston in August 1983. Mom took me to a hotel. Dad stayed in the house while the electricity and water were out for weeks.

(Hurricane Alicia - Houston, TX - August 1983)

(Alicia's destruction on Galveston, TX - 1983 - www.texasproductionteam.com)

I should have known Dad wouldn't leave his house now- come hell or high water! He did stock up on supplies though: water, charcoal, lighter fluid, canned goods, and beer. Well, I finally got through to Dad's cell phone; he had survived. Can't say the same for the yard or the downstairs living room. The water rose so much that Dad was up to his waist in water. Geez Louise.

The electricity will probably be out for a couple weeks, and gas stations and grocery stores are still closed. Dad can survive on the food and water he has, but I sure wouldn't want my beer getting hot! Although, I'm sure Dad can handle it.

Well, long story not short... I'm extremely lucky. Even though we didn't get the rain we were dreaming of, my family made it through the storm safely and almost completely intact. My Dad has been very fortunate throughout the years; he's had little damage and has always stayed safe. Our prayers are with those who lost homes and those who lost loved ones.

Hurricanes can suck it.