Customer Service

So yesterday I decide to make my annual trip to the outlet mall to buy shoes. I have bad feet, (must have been those years of wearing 6" platforms in the 70s and pointy-toed roach killer heels in the 80s & 90s combined with 25 years of sliding into bases during the softball years), and the only shoes that seem to be the most comfortable are made by SAS. They used to sell them at the Gottchalk's department store at the local mall, but they went out of business. (They were replaced with a Forever 21 store which I would have died for in my 20s. They are also closing up shop at the end of this month in our town. Gotta love the shape of the economy.) But I digress...

Fortunately, SAS has a shop at the outlet mall about an hour away. So I make a new driving playlist for the iPod, put the top down on the car for it was a beautiful day, and hit the road. I splurge and buy 3 pairs of shoes then decide to cruise the mall for any other bargains. (Note to self: 3 pairs of shoes fit in the SAS shopping bag. Remember this to possibly use to my advantage at a later date.)

I end up buying a couple of tops and some jeans, decide I am done and start walking back to head for the car when the handle on the plastic clothing bag breaks and starts a chain reaction with the SAS bag that then tears. Shoes are all over the place. Fortunately, this occurs right in front of the SAS store. I gather up the shoes and head back in for another bag.

They not only give me a new bag, but take my other bag and bag it up as well. They then take the bags and put them in the back room and tell me to drive around and pick them up at their back door. When I come around, the clerk is on the phone with the clothing store informing them of their bad bagging practices and informs them of the weight limit of the average plastic bag! I was cracking up. Needless to say, I thanked them profusely, but before I left the sales clerk gave me 3 boxed chocolate truffles to 'ease my pain and suffering'. Bear in mind that this is a 'direct from factory' discount store. I was very impressed ~ you rarely see this kind of customer service from a standard retail store. Needless to say, bad feet or not, they have a loyal customer in me now.

Sadly, it was a little too chilly at this point to drive with the top down, but I took the long way home and had a nice leisurely drive through Lake Elsinore. It had been many years since I drove around the lake and they've done a lot of work sprucing up around it. Lots of new parks and renovated buildings. Lake Elsinore always had the reputation for being a disgusting place, their local city government at one point was very corrupt and the town's money tagged for improvements never seemed to produce anything (could be because it ended up in their pockets.) So I was glad to see things are looking so much better there. Here are a couple of pics that I snagged from the city site:

(The 'Vette pic is included for the benefit of a buddy that thinks he wants a Porche instead of a 'Vette... :o)

Here's a video for the guys. Note 2 of the remaining members of Queen at 1:48:

That's it for this fyne Sunday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!