Saturday 8/13/2011

I had this wild hair of an idea to get up, get in the car and drive up to the mountains and visit my mom today out of the blue. I would call her first, of course, to make sure she was available. Then I remembered: the trailer is supposed to be moved over here today. Probably not until later this afternoon, but I can't really go anywhere until that is done, meaning a trip anywhere but to a store isn't going to happen today.

I am going to call them a little later - it's not even 7:00 am yet - and see if it's going to happen today or not. I woke up relatively early today - 4:45am, about 25 minutes later than I normally wake up for work. The flip side of that story is that I went to bed at 8:30 pm last night and I slept pretty darn well if I do say so myself. No sense laying around in bed all day long when you are as rested as you are going to get for one night's sleep.

I told Caleb last night that I am off for the next 9 days. He mentioned the trip I had thought about taking to go deep sea fishing. I'm kinda iffy on anything right now. The economy isn't looking too good and spending that kind of money on something that is only designed for an "experience of the moment" type of thing may not be advisable. I mean, a day and a half trip is about $275. It does include food and snacks, though. However, I would also have to drive to San Diego to do it, incurring the fuel costs. My car gets about 30 mpg on the highway. Probably could get better but I tend to be a lead foot when on a long drive - get it over with as fast as possible. 355 miles - less than 5 hours.

I could go on a shorter 3/4 day trip, or all day trip and it would cost less, dunno. Long drive for just a day's fun, I think. I am guessing Caleb wants to go - I had asked him quite a while back about it. I didn't know he had remembered that I had said anything about it, it was a "fleeting" comment that I didn't dwell on too long. The thing is, these trips are pretty much available at the last minute. The site I found for a company that does such shows how many open spots are left and if it is a "definite go" or not. The boats mostly leave a night - I guess leave port at night and arrive early wherever on the deep blue sea to start your fishing adventure. They also post how many fish each boat has reeled in on any given day AND what types of fish and quantities caught of each type.

Right now? Tuna. All boats going on the shorter cruises are bringing in heaps of Tuna, actually catching the limit.

Anyway, I dunno. I wouldn't mind, though going on a day expedition and then staying overnight and then checking out Sea World. Haven't been there in decades. I think I was 12 years old last time I was there. That was ......... a while back, lol.

Obama. This guy doesn't quit, does he? Now he's trying to make himself look good by standing on the side of the American public looking at Congress as if he is somehow removed from the whole situation. Sorry, Charlie, but YOU are the reason those politicians aren't getting anything done. If you could show a SPECK of leadership and actually get the sides to talking and coming together, perhaps something would get done. Obama obviously wasn't prepared for the post-November election days of no free-for-all, do-whatever-you-want because the Oval Office, The House and The Senate were all dominated by Democrats. Remember that GOP was totally snubbed when the Dems/Pelosi/Reid/Obama were forcing the health care bill through. They wouldn't even give GOP an opportunity to present their side.

Instead, it was closed-door meetings and a bunch of posturing and smirking from Pelosi. Whatta piece of work that woman is. Now, another judge has ruled a portion of Obamacare unconstitutional - forcing Americans to buy health care. That is a major setback for that bill - if everyone can't be forced into buying it, it isn't going to work. Anyway, Obama's approval ratings are quite low as well. No-one is coming out of this looking good, that's a fact.

Not getting a lot of response to my room rental ads. A few here and there, but nothing to get excited about. Going to just keep running ads until I get someone in here - hopefully sometime soon.

Anyway, I have junk to do around the house and it isn't getting any earlier, like to get it done and behind me.

G'day.

ben

Quik Trip - QT - Truckstop At 51st Avenue And I-10 In Phoenix, Arizona Piss Poor Customer Service

I tend to write in my blog about poor experiences with stores if the store or the district management or even corporate management doesn't do anything to rectify the situation. The negative stuff ends up on the top of Google searches and that doesn't usually sit well with corporate suits who don't want that kind of bad press.

I have other methods as well. For example, the Quik Trip/QT at 48th Street and Baseline. When it first opened, the service was terrible. LOTS of people waiting in line for one single cashier. I remember one time standing there with fully 15 people ahead of me. There were 2 other cash registers, why couldn't they call someone else up to help this out? I took matters into my own hands, found the manager and asked why he only had one cashier with THAT many people waiting? The situation didn't get better - until I started talking with the District Manager or whatever his title is. I made several phone calls to him about that store and another in Chandler.

I learned their policy as well. I think if it's over 2 people waiting in line, they are supposed to call for another cashier. If it's really busy, they need 3 up there. It's not maybe they should call someone else up, they HAVE to call someone else up. Who wants to go into a convenience store that isn't..............convenient?

So, standing in a long line at the QT at 51st Avenue & I-10, my thoughts were fixated upon their policy. This particular QT is also a truck stop that has numerous diesel-only fueling lanes. They have a large parking lot for truck parking as well. It isn't the biggest truck stop on earth, but it's a pretty popular one judging by the amount of trucks I always see parked there and the amount of customers in the store itself.

Anyway, there were 8 people in front of me. There was a young, latino girl running the cash register. She was paying absolutely no attention, whatsoever, to the long line that had formed. She was completely oblivious to it. There were 2 employees standing behind the partition just behind the girl at the register. They were paying no attention to the line that was growing even longer, either.

Maybe a minute later, an employee came in from outside, walked through the register area and loudly called out for help. This got the attention of the babbling employees in the back who were laughing it up and caring not in the slightest bit about whether customers were being taken care of or not. Amazing. I get annoyed at such incompetency, to be honest.

Anyway, I finally get up to one of the registers and go to the left side. The cashier was helping another lady and told me she would be with me in a second. All well and fine. Then, a dude walks in from OUTSIDE, walks right up to the counter and asks the lady for a box of Marlboro's in the red box. This woman apparently forgets that I am there and starts looking, at a snail's pace, for this guy's cigarettes. She wanders back and forth looking for them and I.........finally had enough. I left everything I was going to buy sitting there, including a large fountain drink (tea, unsweetened) and walked out. The woman sees this and calls out loudly: "SIR!!!". I didn't even slow down. I simply continued walking out.

The next day, I called the district office in Tempe. The woman on the phone took my complaint, apologized and then said someone would be calling me back. 3 days later? No call. Next stop - headquarters. Foregone conclusion I won't hear anything back this weekend. It's not the end of the world, but it IS unacceptable. First, the service at the store and second a promise to get a call back which never materializes. Now, if it was Circle K I wouldn't even bat an eye. You get people working there that don't give a rat's @$$ whether you are happy or not. I rarely go into Circle K's because of that. In fact, almost never, just occasionally go up to the one that is 2 blocks away from me for a bag of ice, but that's IT. 7-11's the same thing. Some pretty rude people working behind those counters. Not ALL of them, of course, but more than not. The other thing about those 2 chains is - what is the deal with not having public bathrooms available? Lol.

QT? I expect a better level of service because they promote that their level of service is better, which it usually is. This story is............to be continued.