Punked by U.S. Airways

My blood is boiling and the only thing I know to do is blog.

I'm travelling to Virginia for business. I had a flight from Columbus to Charlotte. And then I had a quick run through the airport from gate E18 to E27 to get to get on another flight to Norfolk. When I arrived at the gate, the door was closing so I ran up to it and knocked. Nobody came back. I knocked a few more times... nobody. By this point, I was a little anxious, but I saw the airplane was outside the window getting fueled up and prepped for flight. Please note that I (honestly) made it to my gate at 10:58am. I know this because I checked my watch. The flight wasn't set to depart until 11:14am, so there was PLENTY of time for the "gate keeper" to come back and check the door one more time before they pull the sky walk away from the plane.

As I waited, I saw the fuel truck get packed up, pull away, and the ground crew was disconnecting hoses and finishing their prep work of the plane. I realized that my flight is going to be pulling out soon and nobody has come to the door yet. It's now 11:10am. I'm making quite a ruckus at the gate door. The sky walk is still connected to the plane, so I begin kicking the door, and pounding on it. I even go to the window and put my ticket up and wave it back and forth in hopes that the pilot will see me. Nobody sees me.

Eventually, the walk way begins to back up away from the plane and the pilot comes to the door to give the thumbs up to the crew on the ground. They cabin crew begins to pick up the steps to close the door to the plane. They forgot me! The witnesses at the gate are now on my side. I'm pretty upset by this point and I"m pacing back and forth trying to make sense of it all. I finally give the door one more last (hard) set of kicks.

FINALLY!!! A woman comes to the door and says:

"I"m sorry sir, this flight has already been boarded." -- Jessica O.

I was shaking by this point and I'm sure my face was red. I was clearly here in enough time, there were 3 witnesses at the gate that were charging their laptops that saw the whole thing unfold. The bottom line is that she didn't do her job and check the door one last time before she signed off. I don't go off on tangents and bitch at people, and I never yell. I stayed (somewhat) cordial to her, but also let her know that she screwed up and not me. It was HER fault that I missed my flight. Yes, I'm passing blame. :( She insisted that it was my fault and that she was already holding the plane up. Bull! That plane sat there for very long time and could have allowed me to walk on it at anytime. The witnesses at the gate even spoke up for me as I had my head on her desk in disbelief. They said that I'd been sitting here for a long time.

She was convinced that she was right. Therefore, I let her believe it and just kept my cool as she rescheduled me for a 2:01 flight... plenty of time to blog my experience and cool down.

Good Bye Radio Shack

Update: Friday - November 6, 2009
My blog was read by someone and it got back to the employees working that day. This is good. I honestly looked for a place to provide feedback on their site, but couldn't find the location. The power of blogging came through in this case, and I'm grateful.

Around 4:30 pm today, I received a call today from the Manager of the store who was working that day. She deeply apologized for the service I received, and was extremely sincere. It was a great welcome to such a bad experience. She admitted that she put her trust in the Assistant Manager to be polite and treat the customer (c'est moi) with due respect. She was busy at the time and didn't notice how I was being treated. I don't fault her. Thank you for the call!

The Rant:
Some days I just want to scream and let the world know that it's heading down the wrong path. Why is society so rude anymore. I don't know if it's because I live out in the sticks now and don't deal with people as much, or if the world is really getting ruder each day. I'm leaning more towards the latter...

I took my little girl, Daizi, with me to town this evening and needed to visited our local Radio Shack inside the Indian Mound Mall in Heath, Ohio. An Assistant Manager really fired me up, and I've may never step foot back in this particular store again. I'm still very upset about the whole ordeal, and instead of letting it fester inside of me all night, I decided it was best to just vent my frustrations here on my blog. If you're in the mood for a good rant, keep reading. If you're not, then look away and wait for my next post. I'm sure it will be a happier post and have a meaningless subject (like most of my other posts).

Ok, so let me first start by saying that Diazi saved the day and let me keep my dignity in this unbelievable situation. Let us pause for a moment of country girl cuteness. :)

Thanks for your help today, Daizi!

Now onto my rant... Before heading to Radio Shack, I looked online for the number and I'd read that it was a rude location, but I decided to try it with an open mind. Once I'm done with this entry, I may write my own review in hopes that somebody else reads it and avoids public ridicule and rude service like I received today. I was extremely insulted, but left with a fake smile and very red face. If Daizi wasn't there to keep me cooled down, I really think I would have yelled at the guy and stormed out of there. I say this because at one point, I truly considered snatching my equipment from the guys hands, telling him off, and walking out with my opinion being well known. However, I decided to cool down and just focus on how cute and well behaved Daizi (my 3 year old) was being the whole time.

Here's a quick overview of what happened (mostly for me): I walked in to the store with a mission to ship my laptop back to the manufacturer for repair. As I walked in, 3 employees were standing around laughing about something. Nobody else was in the store, and I had clearly broken up their fun time. The moment I walked in the store with my laptop and my little cow girl, the faces all turned somber and serious. The one girl said "Hello, how can I help you?" and I greeted her back and began to tell her what I was there for...

Immediately the Assistant Manager took over my request because he's trained in this sort of thing (or something). However, he did so in a manner that proved to me that I was being a nuisance and wasting his time. As soon as I explained my case, he said "Well, I'm going to need your tracking number...", and I said "Absolutely." as I began to open up my planner to read it to him. He was surprised that I had it with me because he sighed and began punching keys on his computer while he literally ignored me for the next 2 minutes. Everything I said from this point on seemed like a rant to this guy. He treated me like I was being an unreasonable customer. I wasn't!

The thing that burns me the most is that I was actually in a very good mood up to this point and was cooperating with everything he was asking me to do as politely as possible. After standing there for almost 3 full minutes, he interrupted his extended silence stating that he couldn't send my power supply back to the manufacturer. I very politely corrected him saying "Actually, the support tech said that I would need to send everything back in order for it to be serviced...". The guy LITERALLY lifted his eye brows and said "Okaaaaay" as he turned around to get something. I almost spoke up and yelled at him and his boss. Amazingly, his boss, (ie. the manager of the store), did nothing! She just kept on about her business and ignored the fact that this guy was treating me like crap. I almost asked for my power strip back and bid them both a good day. However, I just stood there in shock and let him ignore me for the next 5 minutes while he navigated his computer system some more.

The entire time I was there, I never got a smile, a thank you, or anything else. I left there feeling like I had just done something wrong. From Radio Shack, I took Daizi down to the bathroom and on our way back I looked in the store. The 3 employees were all standing around smiling again... with no customers... again. I'm sure they were talking about something funny. (?) They will soon be out of a job at this rate. I know that not all employees of Radio Shack are this way, but this guy ruined it for me today.

Thank you for letting me rant. I do feel better now. See - :)