Welcome, my friend, to the machine

My wife told me a story.

Yesterday, she was leading an Atrium class of 5-7 year olds at the St. Michael Parish school, when in walked the Fire Marshall, escorted by a school official. He looked about the room, then left.

Okay, class, teaching moment.

What did this teach us?

It taught us, that on private property, a government official can enter without permission, and do his undeclared business.

Did the school official take my wife aside beforehand so she could prepare the children for this intrusion?

No.

"But," my wife asked, "maybe the fire marshall was afraid I might try to hide something ..."

Okay. WHAT?

If this official suspected something, such as illegal active (and okay, like what illegal activity?) then he presented a warrant, right?

RIGHT?

No, he did not.

Here is what your children are learning in schools, public and private: that its government, our government, can trespass at will and at their whim.

And who's teaching this to our children? Our teachers. By remaining silent, and not saying: 'Excuse me, sir: I am responsible for these children and am currently presenting a lesson. You, sir, must wait until this lesson is over, or you, sir, are in violation of the law."

Instead of that, and allowing this to happen, we: you, me, our teachers, are training our children that the government is right and we are wrong, and we must suborn our rights and freedoms so the government may do whatever it likes whenever it likes and not have to provide justification nor follow due process.

Why do I homeschool?

The fire marshall shows up at my door then he (yes, he) and I are going to have a conversation, and he is going to go away and return with a warrant, and I, in the meantime am contacting the HSLDA.

Here's the problem.

You are not homeschooling, are you?

When did the fire marshall walk in on your kids today at school? Will your kids tell you? Mine didn't. Will your teachers tell you? Do you even know (all) your teachers' names? You're entrusting the lives of your children to your teachers who are, yes, good people, God-fearing people, doing the best that they can... but it's not their house. These are not their kids. And they have an unhealthy respect for The Law Man Carrying Out His Official Duties.

We don't need Obama, nor Bush, to destroy our Nation. All we have to do is entrust our children to the State and kowtow to it.

The Fault is Not in our Stars, dear Brutus: the fault is ours.

And our government, no matter who is at its head, is not going to save us. We, you and me, dear readers, are.

I march. I write. I homeschool, because I love my God, first, my family, next, and I especially love my Country, 'tis of thee, and for which it stands.

Oh, and p.s.: and the education? 'Common core,' which is not fostering thought but cranking out resources with a predicted set of usable skill sets (see the film 'Building the Machine')? And sexual education for children, now 10 years old? So they get to ponder their sexual orientation and to be ready for their sexual activity now, without need for your guidance but with the guidance/pressure of their peers?

Don't get me started.

Yes, I homeschool, and my children are not lacking in social skills and poise. No, in fact: my children are socially-better adjusted than the 13 year old in my daughter's ballet class taking about what she did with her boyfriend or the 14 year old who's scared about what she has to do at school so as not to be ostracized ...

So, they are not learning those 'social skills,' And what they are learning is more than just to be another brick in the wall.

Please. We, you and I, can make a difference. You're too busy to homeschool? I know a single mom who home-schools. You both have to work? Look at how much money you are spending on your children to make them latchkey kids entrusted to daycares or private school, and figure out how much more money you'd make with one income-provider so the other can stay-at-home and not spend all that money to cast your children aside. Because, guess what? A six-month old child in daycare so the mom can work? That's what we're doing now. Today.

And daycare? More than 90% of them do not meet Federal safety standards (Ha! 'Federal' safety standards! A joke! But at least they are a start, and daycares don't even meet those!)

How about later with (expensive) private schools, that do not pay their teachers above the poverty line, either, by the way, and when you do that, your children are no longer yours: they are the State's, they are your overworked daycare provider's, they are the what culture in private schools, exactly?

The drug culture's. And the snobs' culture's. Do you listen to how cruel private school kids are to others and to themselves? (Sad to say: Catholic school are the worst, or the 'best', at producing snobs and monsters eaten up with pride, from what I've seen). And you want to put your children into that environment and pay for the privilege of losing your children to that culture, that religion?

What religion is this?

You remember school, right? That religion. The teachers are tyrants, but ... the other kids are much, much worse.

But not your little Johnny nor Jane.

Because you're raising them up right, right?

How many hours a day do you spend with your kids? How many hours does the school have them?

Then when they get home, do you spend any time with them? Or is it supper on the go for you, and 'just leave me alone, I've had a long day. Go to your room and text your friends or surf the web unsupervised or something, okay'?

This is my plea to you.

Just one hour a day.

Okay, that's way too much.

Then the whole family at dinner, and ban the phones. You sit, you eat, you talk with each other. Start there.

Then read to your children. The Bible, sure, or the books that they're reading at school. Aloud. You'll learn a lot. Have them read. Have them reason about what they read. You'll learn some more.

And it will be pulling teeth, probably pulling yours, right? and they are going to whine and complain. Tough. Your turn to read. Read. Talk. Think. Agree, disagree, debate, have a real conversation.

That opens the door for them: that they are allowed to think and that they can talk with you.

Wow.

Well, it's a start.

Please: take this start, for your children's sake.

And, I've seen this, when your children start to think, and start to believe what they believe, not believe what they are told ... then your children start to save other children out there.

There are so many lost children out there, getting straight-As at school, and then you wonder why she snapchatted herself nude to her boyfriend, or got so drunk (or high) at the (unsupervised) party at 14, and had sex with how many upstanding boys on the football team? And you'll never find that out until it's all over the school and she kills herself, or does something else, or doesn't tell you or anyone.

And this is not happening just in Stubenville ... this is happening in the school you are sending your children to ... just in your case, it doesn't make the news, see, so it's okay, right?

It's not okay for my children... nor is it okay for yours, either, right?

So, start the conversation with your kids, every day. Not about this, 'cause that's just weird. Just talk, every day, about school, about work, about what happened today, about what's important in your life, for you, about what's important in their lives, for them.

Please.

"We hold these rights to be self-evident." Do you know what these rights are? Do you know what they mean? Do you know what they are worth?

"Good Game!"

Dear LORD,

Thank You for today. Thank You for showing me something today. Thank You for showing me that, yes, hard work, teamwork, coordination, and skill all pay off, and to the victor goes the spoils. But thank You for showing me also, that never giving up wins, too. That, in defeat, it is possible to hold your head high, not to be cowed, but to fight on, and to lose, but to have that last huzzah.

The Caps lost to the NC Hurricanes 1-4 tonight, but I came away from that game happy, because in my book, the Caps weren't losers. They lost, but they played all out to the end, against a much better team, and scored that third period goal that let them know that they were still in the game. Most people quit on the Caps; left early. I didn't. I stayed on, cheering their good plays to the end.

LORD, let me stay in the game to the end, fighting the good fight, like our Caps, tonight.

I ask this in the Name of Jesus, the Christ.

Amen.

Care

So, I did get a response from BBBY (Bed, Bath, and Beyond):

Thank you for bringing to our attention the issues you experienced with our customer service team in-store and online. We are truly disheartened to see that any one of our customers had such an experience. At Bed Bath & Beyond we strive to deliver excellent service, however, in this instance we fell short of our expectations. Please rest assured that we will use this example to retrain our staff, to ensure no customer receive this type of service again, because this is not acceptable for any of our customers, and especially not acceptable for Bed Bath & Beyond standards.

We see from the situation you described how it can leave the impression that "the entire corporate culture is callous", but nothing can be further from the truth. Our first and highest priority is to always take care of our customer. We take every customer feedback seriously and act quickly to ensure we improve how we deliver our services and make every effort to retain our customers. We would like the opportunity to resolve this matter to your satisfaction and keep you a satisfied Bed Bath & Beyond customer. We have the phone number you provided on your original email and I will contact you by phone tomorrow morning.

We sincerely apologize for the issues you experienced and look forward to speaking with you soon. Please feel free to contact me directly at [redacted]. I am in the office Monday through Friday from 8AM to 6 PM EST.

Best Regards,

Raj


See? That's what I wanted. I think any wronged customer would want that, that their complaint is heard and the company is taking corrective action.

I did reach out to Raj, and the phone conversation was a reasonable one. He told me his efforts to determine how things went wrong, and what he was doing to make them right.

After several missteps by BBBY, Raj made every corrective effort.

What were the missteps? That I asked to be treated as a person who wanted to do business with them: a customer, and instead of treating with respect, they processed into their workflow, and when the square peg (that is, me: a human being) didn't fit into their round hole, they tried to make me conform.

But I'm not a BBBY employee. I am a customer.

That's where they screwed up. "We didn't provide the service we said we would? Fill out this complaint form." "You filled out the form incorrectly [I didn't]. Fill out the complaint form again with the same information." They didn't want my business, they wanted to punch the ticket and move the work from the inbox to the outbox.

Raj, however, threw out the processing aspect of the business and met me, person to person, talked the situation over me and addressed my concerns directly.

Then he offered to change BBBY by adding an entirely new SKU so I could buy the items I was originally promised.

But the problem here for me was: what did I do the second I got out of my car at my house after BBBY showed me they weren't good for their word? I went right to the Yankee Candle online store and ordered the candles myself, like I should have done a week prior instead of getting in my car to get not 'no service' but the 'brush off.'

But what have I been harping about in these posts? I've been harping on 'diligence' and 'dignity.' I've been demanding BBBY employees do their job, for a change, and treat me with respect, for a change.

Raj did just that.

So what did I do when he asked for my credit-card information so he could place an order of Yankee candles for me? Did I give him the brush off? No.

No. I had made all these demands, and BBBY listened and followed through, exactly as I asked. So would I reward their diligence with what?

I do not Raj going back to report on this with a half-hearted response and a zero-result. I want him to go back to his boss with no reservation, knowing he did everything he could to make things right, and he did make things right.

Why?

Because, at the beginning of each day, I look into the mirror and see a man there, and ask him: did I do what I said I would? did I do what I asked others to do?

Today, I can say 'yes, I did.' Because, today, somebody in BBBY, and not just somebody, but Raj from eSupport said 'yes, I did,' too. I answered his 'yes' with mine.

Thank you, Raj. And thank you, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, for listening to me, and following through.

Endemic

So, here's the response from Bed, Bath and Beyond corporate:

"Dear Douglas, 

Thank you for taking the time to bring this matter to our attention. In instances such as this, the complaint is forwarded to the District & Regional Customer Service Managers for that particular store. However, we are unable to distinguish store location with the information provided. Please forward the exact street, city & state, so we can contact the Manager for that store along with your contact telephone number and a good time to call you. Once we receive this information, you will be contacted by the District Customer Service Manager within 24 - 48 business hours.

We truly apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. If you have additional questions or concerns, feel free to forward your response via email or contact Customer Service by dialing 1-800-GO-BEYOND (1-800-462-3966).

Sincerely,

Kiara
Customer Service
Bed Bath & Beyond 

"

So, what's wrong with this response?

Nothing. It's business as usual. 'Kiara' did nothing outside of her job description.

She didn't read my complaint, for if she did, she surely would have seen the words 'Loisdale' and 'Bed, Bath, and Beyond' juxtaposed. I mentioned the word 'Loisdale' twice, in fact.

So if we go to google and enter 'Loisdale Bed Bath Beyond' we get the following top response:

Bed Bath and Beyond - Springfield, 6642 Loisdale Road VA 22150 ...

That took less than a second for me to do.

How hard was that, Kiara, to do your job with any diligence? You're welcome, by the way, for letting me do what you are supposed to do, as customer service.

Do you see how this is endemic? I got the same shoddy service from you as I did from your store representative. You didn't bother to read what I wrote, you just looked for checkboxes to fill, and when you saw that it wasn't exactly in the format you were expecting from me (an expectation you did not communicate a priori, by the way) you defaulted to 'well, I can't handle this, this is outside what I'm programmed to understand.'

You didn't care at all, nor exert one bit of effort.

My complaint is not (just) against your Springfield, VA 22150 location, it's against your entire corporate callous culture. Please remand to your C.E.O. to read, review, laugh at, and get on with his day. After all, he has a business to run: he doesn't have time to address the concern of a customer.

My contact information was in the original complaint. With my cell phone number and a good time to contact me. I'm not going to repeat myself because of lack of care or concern or competence on your part. Thanks.

Customer Focus

There are some things I don't like, one of them is being lied to, even if this lie is supposedly 'unintentional.'

I think that's what infuriates me more, is that these service people have no intentionality in their lives, and that shows up in their work.

So, today, I went to purchase some Yankee kindle candles. And I did my research, I found out that the Bed, Bath and Beyond was a Yankee Candle reseller, and I found the nearest location: on Loisdale road.

I called them to confirm that they had Yankee kindle candles in stock.

Emphasis mine.

The customer service rep responded right away and crisply. Yes, they have them in stock.

So, I get into my van, drive there, search the store.

What do I find?

Mmhm. Yes, we have no bananas.

So I go to a POS rep asking where can I find Yankee kindle candles.

Emphasis mine.

The rep pointed me to the Yankee candle section.

Not good enough. I tell him I've been to that section and could not find Yankee kindle candles.

Oh. Yankee kindle candles? That's different.

He refers me to the manager.

The manager sucks on his lip and says, after checking his inventory, 'We don't even have those in inventory, are they new?'

'Are they new?' is what I get.

I said I called in. I said I was informed they were in stock. He asked was it this store I called? Because other stores have more expansive inventories.

I gave the address and phone number of this store.

He apologized.

That was nice. An apology.

I got out of my house, into my car, and drove to Bed, Bath and Beyond, so I could not purchase the item I wanted, but instead get an apology.

He said he didn't know why the service rep would tell me they have Yankee kindle candles in stock without even checking inventory.

He didn't know why.

But I know why.

But do you see, Bed, Bath, and Beyond why an apology doesn't cut it? It cuts it for your manager, but not for me. I don't want, nor need, an apology. I wanted customer service, in that when I was told you have something in stock, you do, actually have that thing in stock.

What does your word mean? to you?

Because now, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, your word means nothing to me. You, through your representative told me you had something at the store I was going to, and you did not even have that ordered, nor in inventory.

You lost a customer today. You lost a guaranteed purchase, and all you needed to get my money was to actually back up what you said.

You didn't.

Why?

Here's why.

You don't listen, and you don't care.

When your service rep heard 'Yankee,' she stopped listening to everything else I said, even with my emphasis. Do you know why she stopped listening?

Because she's not 'customer focused,' she's not even focused at all. All she wanted to do was to get me off the phone and get onto the next thing.

So did she do due diligence? No. She didn't listen to what the customer was asking, and, then, even if she did listen (she didn't), she didn't even check inventory: a 1.75 second check (I watched the manager check: it took him precisely that long).

Bed, Bath, and Beyond: I am not even worth 1.75 seconds of your time.

I got the same (lack of) focus from your POS rep. I asked for Yankee kindle candles, all I got was a hand-wave to the section of the store I just came from.

You lost $50 in sales today, and a customer, because your representatives can't spare me 1.75 seconds, can't focus, and can't put any intentionality into their words.

Their words are your Word, and your word, for me, now means nothing, because what was said had no basis in truth.

Thank you for that.

Now, let's focus on some real customer focus.

Last week I was at the Ravensworth Safeway. I bought a bottle of wine. The POS rep was the MOD that day.

He was a huge, jovial man, just doing his job. If you've seen professional baseball players, this guy had that look: tall and built massively.

He asked for my id. Of course. Vendors are required to card when selling alcohol to people who look 30 or under.

I smirked, and handed him my drivers license.

He scanned it, then started to hand it back.

Then scanned it again. Then gave me a double-take, then a triple take.

We both started laughing at the same time.

"Wow! Whatever it is you're doing is really working!" he exclaimed.

And I was proclaiming delightedly how I just love it every time I'm carded.

This was probably the first time in his life he carded a man pushing 46, thinking he was in his mid-twenties.

But what happened?

To him, I was just another customer, and he was just pushing me, my order through the system, doing his job. But then, something happened, his expectations were subverted when he saw a young man (so he thought) buying alcohol, but found out this young man is nothing of the sort, and then he wanted to know about me.

Then he stopped treating me as an order being processed, he started treating me as a human being, and he reached out and connected with me: person, to person.

And it wasn't just me. As I was pushing my cart out, I saw him be relieved from the register, and he greeted an elderly couple, customers, by name and with a smile, and asked about their day.

And that: right there, was the real 'Point of sale.' That manager exemplified 'customer focus,' because ... intentionality? Yes, he showed it. He actually did focus on the customer right in front of him, and from those customers he did focus on, me, and that couple, he smiled and received smiled back.

It was a pleasure doing business with that man.

And what did that little bit of intentionality cost him?

Not a dime. In fact, I would go so far as to say he had a better, more productive day on the job, being (actually) customer focused and being intentional than the customer service rep I talked with at Bed, Bath and Beyond at Loisdale Road, who was probably trained to be 'customer focused,' but was she focused, and did she treat me as a customer? that is: a person with whom she wanted to conduct business with?

Was her day better, just trying to get by and blowing off people? Does she have high job satisfaction?

Is this what you wish to project as your image, Bed, Bath and Beyond?

Do you know what I prefer?

I prefer to be treated as a person. I prefer that when I ask you a question, I'm actually heard, and that the answer I'm given is actually correct.

And I will make that preference known by conducting business with companies that do that.