holidaze

Holiday shopping brings out the best in us. Some shoppers are stressed beyond belief and customer service at certain places gets crappier.

We grabbed lunch at Panera and stood in line for an eternity because some bitter woman was arguing about their menu special which reads "You Pick Two. Half a sandwich, bowl of soup, salad. $6.99" This woman kept insisting that the offer was misleading and that she thought she could order all 3 items. I was about to yell at her, "Pick Two means TWO. Not THREE but TWO! Its really not that difficult a concept!" For some unknown reason, the manager placates her and says that he'll change the signs. As if he actually designs these ads and prints them in the kitchen. I suppose he buckled under her pressure, but here's an idea: give her the Panera HQ phone number, tell her to register a complaint and send her off. Why allow her to continue and make us suffer? Finally, she ends up leaving in a huff without ordering anything. I wanted to trip her on the way out, but I realized that she must have such a miserable life that compels her to pick fights with Panera people.

After that debacle, we went to Kicks sneaker store to buy a gift certificate for a friend. I was expecting it to take 2 minutes top. Wrong. 40 minutes. The cashier and the manager didn't know how to activate the gift card. There's advertising all over the store announcing their gift cards as the perfect holiday gift but no one knows how to activate them?? We actually told them that they may wanna get it straightened out because more people are going to ask for these cards. The cashier kept swiping, punching keys and apologizing until the manager finally arrives. He has no clue and calls other stores for advice and can't get it to work. I would have left but they already charged my card. I thought about asking them to cancel the charge but that might have taken another 2 hours. Finally they print out a receipt and tell me to present the receipt if the card doesn't work. Not great gift etiquette to give my friend a gift card and a receipt. Luckily he's not the type to care.

After that we go to Taco Bell. There's 5 workers hanging around the cashiers - not one of them are paying attention to any customers. We just rolled our eyes and left.