The Ottermanempire.com

I swear my fellow diners at hospital canteens look in better shape than
the mass that “meats” for late lunch at this location. This wasn’t
just a gray tide but a few human buoys had popped in too. Please
withhold the ” don’t be so judgmental” holier than though attitude ,
this is a review after all.

Lately I have been working
remotely ( or remotely working) on the Friday so I’ve been going out
on Fridays for lunch since it’s all “new” to me. The same places that
I eat out at in the evening often have vastly different characters
during the day and this Black Angus throws it into sharp relief. For
example at night I have never been served stale bread.

Have a
wide range of ages , group sizes and noise levels and there’s some
life in the place. Chilis that just opened up nearby and seems to have
kidnapped the life leaving a quiet, genteel even , location that
would be more fitting in the deep south when you don’t have anything
better to do. So far this is the only local place that exceeded my
hour.

Food’s ok , fitting with the price range and the
burgers are well appointed, cooked to request and relatively
tasteful. Fries tepid and it feels likelike the minimums you have to
do to keep the blue rinse and Caddy driving class happy is all they
are about. The only thing hip about this place is the replacement
joints.

Coffee seems to have been held on life support and
brought out when some unsuspecting fool that refuses to believe in
coffee only being a morning drug. Usually the surroundings don’t bug
me but it felt like the Hometown Buffet , which I can live with until
you give me stale bread past it’s sell by date which I fear may a
fitting epitaph for this place within daylight hours

More reviews over at Yelp.

I have realized that a good exercise for any political philosophy  would be to see  how well it works on the camping scale.  I’ve just been through that this weekend with Creddy.   

Simple Idea.    People say in advance what they are going to do , what they will bring.

We had the Sat AM breakfast which meant that Friday night we’d not have to do anything other than eat.   I wish.  You see just because someone makes an offer to do a meal  you shouldn’t expect them to have the pots, pans and ,er , oh  the  goddamn stove available to do it.   Luckily we brought two, why? let’s just say we have a  pretty good handle on  this kind of thing and spent more money on a stove and gas to accommodate a shortfall that came up earlier. I doubt it will be repeated unless we’re doing all the food / cooking since buying at the last minute is way too costly on a few people. 

Additionally we  ended up doing extra cooking that negated the entire point of organizing it. E.g we rest on the meals we’re not doing, ha!  

Next.

A disappointing  trip to J G guns in Prescott.  We used to love driving up there for food at one of the local eateries, buy ye olde  gun, come back happy.

Over the last year though it ceased being fun and the counter on a Saturday seemed to be more competition than commerce. 

Creddy has a full post over here and while we thought that she was being ignored at the show in Phoenix a year back this one was far more obvious. I can’t think of a single person with a passing interest in guns that  we’ve not told about the store, e.g it being worth the drive, but those days have come to an end.

I don’t know a lot about the older 9mm Smith / Wesson autos  so her asking what differences in the  model numbers they had was perfectly valid since, er that’s their job to know. DA?  DAO?   Mag disconnect?   Sorry but you only get to pull off a “superior”  we know more about guns than you attitude when you back it up with something.Anyway see her post for the rest of this it’s quite annoying.

next Up Wanted! 

In a prior post  I related a fun non dining experience we had at a local restaurant.  Well I chatted with the franchise office and  their expectations  re what happened.      Found out the troublesome waitress had left   and that they acknowledged the  staffing/ management issues which they  had corrected but the changes were yet to be evident. Anyway  they invited us to have the meal we tried to get prior.  Usually when we get shafted this bad we’ve told people that  no amount of free food is going to cut it,  e.g   we’re just letting them know why we’re leaving.   This time I acquiesced since , we like their pizza. I’ve been to  2 more of their stores regularly ,dinner and lunch,  and this was  hopefully an aberration. 

Well the good news is the meal was  very good.  Pizza rocks,  wings are desperately average with nothing to recommend them but their fries were good and the kid loved them.  So  far so good.  I updated my prior scathing review but will   go a couple of times   paid before making up my mind. 

We must go looking  for this treatment.  I think our expectations on how one should be treated at a fast food drive in has been spoiled by the  two local McD’s  staff there seem  happier than  BK and Wendies and the night shifts at Jack in the Box  are downright scary :)   Yet until tonight no one had called Erin, least to her face,   a bitch.  Her crime?  Expecting that her order and change would be correct.

Here’s the run down

Wendy’s

W GREENWAY-PHOENIX
3450 W GREENWAY
PHOENIX, AZ 85023 US
(602) 548-1966

1745
Order kids meal , cheeseburger nothing on it,   They have no choc milk,  no orange juice for option for
kids and  didn’t understand the concept of root beer thinking Mr Pibb qualifies as such.

paid  1st window, asked for receipt
said  do it next window
wrong order with receipt for chicken nuggets.
Had to wait for them to  recognise she was still at window
came back  with order correct, waited another  45 secs while they realised she’s waiting.
Erin asked , where’s the change   for correct order.
They then said you paid  for nuggets  , not a burger,  eg,  not recognizing that was the point.
woman heard   through window, never saw her said “the bitch wants her change too”
our  toddler heard this, and said bitch after it.

Called  JMJ the  franchise owners, closed. SO called  1800 829 3639 Corp relayed story.

There you have it.   They  fuck up an order,  argue about it, don’t follow their own guidelines on receipts and then  call you a bitch.  I am so looking forward to my chat with their  franchise owner:)

Update post

This franchise decided that on a Mother’s day that having two front of house staff, one on his third day is acceptable staffing for a busy period. They had no milk, there was no coffee, we had to get our own silverware, petition for menu and then go get our sugar ( this is all small stuff but when you realize that’s what we pay for it becomes annoying,)

Finally get an order in and the order was not matching the description. Their garlic pizza has Alfredo sauce, this one came with tomato which doesn’t agree with Erin. So let’s ask them to change it. Oops they say we don’t have Alfredo sauce either. At this point I was just fed up and asked to see someone.

It went badly , seemingly we should know that their pizza when ordered by the slice is always tomato and that the waiter told us otherwise , and that we believed him, is something we should basically accept and eat. The story changed to say we do have the sauce but that it’s not available by the slice. No effort made to correct it and by the time she decided to argue with my wife it was a case of I’ll pay for the drinks, salad we had and leave. She said ok , then turned round and in front of the other customers basically said , no , why don’t you just go, or you can go now. Either way it was about as unprofessional as I’ve seen.

I understand two staff will get stressed trying to handle this but the management put them into that position . They know they don’t have staff, they know to order enough milk, ( not like Fry’s grocery isn’t next door) and they can’t make coffee? ) They should know never to berate the customer for requesting an item to match that on the menu. All in all until an under new management sign appears or their franchisee is kicked into shape I’d avoid dining in at this place

Streets of New York :: Pizza • Pasta • Subs

I love it when companies that create a problem  take corrective action against their best customers. actually make that their customers period.  This is the mentality that decides the easiest solution to a health problem that disproportionately affects  a segment of the population has to be  inflicted on the general population that don’t have the same predisposition. 

A real case of the cure being worse than the disease. 

Such a case is Ebay’s recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this  with a new fee schedule that is  argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for “most” people which seems counter to my experience.  If they mean per 1000 items listed it’s cheaper for mass sellers there’s a case for that.  For the  occasional seller  all I see are increases

It’s an election year after all and   I think they’ve been nicking plays from the politician’s play book.  Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the

From the Auction Bytes blog.

If
you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50
percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would
cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total
of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This
is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of
5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If
you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of
them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total
fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would
pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.

Which is in most of the cases for my personal use  + paypal fees =  usuary?    I really liked Ebay and  apart from rare items now  I’ve abandoned it. Two reasons.  One  the curse of “perfect information”  There’s just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that  there’s little deviation in the  price of gear.   Secondly I’m   painfully aware that additional fees  are passed straight on to me.  It’s bad for me on both counts. 

 I found the presence of  neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive  with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g  “loser didn’t read ad properly  , get a life”     killed my  desire  straight away to deal with them.   Mistakes happen,  it’s the only way you see  where customer service promises transform into action.

 No longer  having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and   I swear I  looked up Ebay’s new management to see if they’d used a “buy it now” option to bring in  Fema’s ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.

eBay’s new feedback policy: no real feedback

I love it when companies that create a problem  take corrective action against their best customers. actually make that their customers period.  This is the mentality that decides the easiest solution to a health problem that disproportionately affects  a segment of the population has to be  inflicted on the general population that don’t have the same predisposition. 

A real case of the cure being worse than the disease. 

Such a case is Ebay’s recent decision to remove the ability for sellers to rate buyers.Couple this  with a new fee schedule that is  argued by Ebay to mean a reduction of charges for “most” people which seems counter to my experience.  If they mean per 1000 items listed it’s cheaper for mass sellers there’s a case for that.  For the  occasional seller  all I see are increases

It’s an election year after all and   I think they’ve been nicking plays from the politician’s play book.  Reducing an insertion fee by 5c while adding on the

From the Auction Bytes blog.

If
you list 100 items with a starting and ending price of $9 with a 50
percent sell-through rate (50 items out of 100 actually sell), it would
cost you a total of $63.63 in fees under the old structure and a total
of $74.38 under the new structure. This is a fee increase of 17 percent.This
is based on the old insertion fee of 40 cents plus commission fee of
5.25%, and the new insertion fee of 35 cents plus 8.75% FVF. If
you list 100 items with a starting price of $9 and sell 50 percent of
them at a selling price of $35, you would have paid $121.75 in total
fees under the old pricing structure. Under the new pricing, you would
pay $162. That is a 33 percent fee increase.

Which is in most of the cases for my personal use  + paypal fees =  usuary?    I really liked Ebay and  apart from rare items now  I’ve abandoned it. Two reasons.  One  the curse of “perfect information”  There’s just too many people using it with an appreciation for the value of items that  there’s little deviation in the  price of gear.   Secondly I’m   painfully aware that additional fees  are passed straight on to me.  It’s bad for me on both counts. 

 I found the presence of  neg feedback generated by a seller VERY instructive  with regards to demeanor and professionalism of the seller .e.g  “loser didn’t read ad properly  , get a life”     killed my  desire  straight away to deal with them.   Mistakes happen,  it’s the only way you see  where customer service promises transform into action.

 No longer  having that insight is a disservice to buyers as well as sellers and   I swear I  looked up Ebay’s new management to see if they’d used a “buy it now” option to bring in  Fema’s ex director. Yer doing a hell of a job Ebay.

eBay’s new feedback policy: no real feedback

Great ,

Do we have a psychotic stalking the family? Even with the express knowledge, and public acknowledgment that they are aware, that we expressly forbid them to use our yard as their market place we are littered once again withing a short period of them , or someone purporting to be the company , left on the blog.

Coincidence? 

I do hope so since the depravity of a mind  that would enact such pettiness is worrying It’s worrying enough seek injunctive relief if my next attempt to settle this like adults doesn’t work. 

A:  I don’t want you dropping literature on my property
B:  We’ll stop that right away.

On the bright side they have given me a really neat business idea.

in a jiffy. Jiffy Lube screw up an oil change,
originally uploaded by haltse.

There’s more to come on this since Jiffy Lube are basically contending they are not culpable. A lot more but I’m sick of paying tradesmen and services money for substandard and in this case negligent work that has incurred me other charges. 1″ over fill on the oil, thanks.

Even more fun is the People at Midas that get their very own special level of hell for attempted fraud. Oh wait they actually carried out fraud too by charging for an oil-filter that was under 1 day old, claiming the wipers are cracked ( nice try new 3 weeks ago) and a few other things I’ll get to. For now It’s time to suggest that you don’t get an oil change from the Jiffy Lube at 27th 2745 W Peoria Ave Phoenix.

 This is one of those tales I love.   Most people here don’t believe me when I said that the UK was so hostile to car drivers that just being able to find somewhere to drive it and park was a chore.  Pay the toll to get over the bridge, pay the toll to get into the city, pay to park   etc.  Now it looks like McDonald’s in the UK have decided that it’s in their interests to send $150 fines to people who have the gall(  they probably have that minced up in their  happymeal ) to eat their and pay for the meal.  The UK people don’t seem to be  ba da da da daaaa loving it.  So that’s funny.  What’s funnier and I have this debate  quite a lot is that just because you hire a third person to be a dick on your behalf doesn’t make you  less  culpable just highlights how  crass you are.  Hey  customers we’ve paid a company to shit in your food but since we don’t profit from it, swallow ok?      See how it goes.   Eat lunch one day,  get fined,  refuse to pay get a larger fine, then  they take you by force and it all goes pear shaped.   If you need to commit a crime in the UK  mug someone . You’ll get less of a fine, some assistance with education, rented accommodation and some money  .. just don’t park while beating the shit out of the pensioner. 

McParking row as slow eaters given heavy fines | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

McDonald’s in effect washed its hands of the charge, saying it had been imposed by Civil Enforcement and the burger giant did not profit from it.

Well done Safeway.  Weeks, ne months of sending mails to my house asking me to use a service that is supposed to supplant the need to go out to a store.  

Safeway - Ingredients for life There are no products matching “vinegar”
May we suggest a few tips to help you search for products?

May I suggest a few tips for providing a working store?   While I’m full of piss and, oh wait I don’t have any vinegar I’ll quit while I’m behind.
 

I should know better that the the view from the hill which we are sold is far better experienced vicariously. That’s the point of the phrase, a more prosaic way of saying “the grass is always greener” I fell for this last night when perusing the offers at (Sir Sean mode on, Shircuit Shitty) and bought four items two of which are to be delivered with the remainder picked up. Or so I thought. They had decided that for today these orders would not be released till after 1400 , so you know, thanks for waiting in line, paying in advance etc but go take a hike. ( they don’t honor their 24min pick up the day after T giving which yes is in the small print but oddly missing from my receipt) The manager was , er less than helpful with a suggestion that cancellation or waiting are the only two options. The idea was broached that helping me would set a precedent for having to assist the other customers was quite sad , pathetic in fact. YES of course you should help the other fucking customers. Taking her logic not helping me = not helping anyone which I’m sad to say is what passes for most US retail companies. ( Ok here’s the only thing I am upset about. Notification. All they had to to was include this fact on the site, on the receipt or even on a sign at the door of the store. I didn’t buy from them for four years after they stiffed me last time maybe I can get to five this time prior to caving? UPDATE: Hey, do you know? They did notify me on the mail when I could pick it up. At the same time I was in the store! How to pick up your purchase:

• Avoid the crowds: Circuit City stores are closed on Thanksgiving Day. On November 23, the day after Thanksgiving, we ask that you pick up your online purchase after 12:01 p.m. due to the high volume of traffic in our stores. Don’t worry, we have set aside the item(s) you ordered. Your order will be waiting for you at the customer service counter when you’re ready to pick it up.

Ah if only they read their own mails.

Update # 2

This time , 6 hours after my original request and 4 hours than the earliest time that I should have returned we found out that…. The order was not ready for pickup.  Ok Let’s wait.

Turns out that I will not be getting the item after all since they have none in stock. Dammit acquisition was all I had left to look forward to:) If this crap continues I’ll have to work on self improvement for satisfaction.

 Over the last couple of weeks my parents have been in town.  Since I have a massive amount of vacation time , and Erin’s recovering from her bike 2.0 mashup, I took all of it off +1 day to get Erin to an appointment tomorrow morning.   On the whole we had a sedate  type of vacation with much of the usual touristy stuff  bypassed in favour of the practical nature of finding another vehicle, making sure  kids trip to ER was the only one  ( he’s taken a real shine to climbing and falling) and working our way through casual diner attitudes.  I’ve  barely touched computers,  read only a few deserving blogs and kept my email to  under 5 pieces  and don’t feel the worse for it.

Purely anecdotal but since the last visit it seems like wait staff, retail clerks and most service industries we interacted with are staffed by  humorless, cookie cutter clones that seem to have totally bought into their commerce cog role.Anything that’s not in the line of being an expert at detecting false currency  or fake id’s is usually not going to interest them.  Why am I being asked if I could  find everything?

Will someone go get me one? put it on back order and call me when it gets here?  ( I’m old enough to remember that being a possibility @36)  no I didn’t think so. I’d rather we dropped the pretense offer of a service that will never be rendered.

While we’re talking about crappy CS let’s  go a car shopping.

Special shout outs to the car dealers that failed to secure our business.

Bell Road Scion

Aziz you truly suck as a salesman for anybody that gives a rats ass about what their wife thinks.Your insulting manner, refusal to acknowledge what we wanted to buy over what you wanted to sell and general ineptitude with the truth has done your franchise proud.

Bell Road Ford

Josh,  It doesn’t matter that your bosses want you to call up and keep reminding us about their great offers. If you don’t have the car we want , an Escape Hybrid, we’re not going to buy it. Tell those assholes that you’re losing ANY future chance that  we’ll ever buy from their dealership. 

Bill Luke Dodge

Ah Heather  really so SO  very close. We’d agreed on a price after the usual bullshit of having our direct requests ignored in favour of their usual  dog and pony show where they try to sell you  $800 car alarms that costs me $140 online (OEM)it’s plug and play and really easy to install. How hard is it? Patriot, any color, minimal trim and an Auto Tranny? 

I said I would  arrange financing privately and get back with you. Get a call from her before  9am asking were I was at.   Thankfully this convinced me that I didn’t want to deal with ANY  new car dealer and redoubled our efforts to get a second hand one. There’s a second hand Isuzu Rodeo outside.   I own it, no payment , fuck them all.

Walmart:

Bought a fresh turkey, the bag broke on the treadmill covering some produce. Not only did I have to clean it up  but I had to buy the unusable produce.  Supervisor refused to engage Erin on this and wandered off.  Their fucking packaging broke , took out yet to be paid for items which she made us pay for. We’ll see what their reply is on this one.

Yet another plastic bag with crap thrown on my driveway by a company that thinks that breaking the law is good practice. The receptionist said it works, it’s their only form of advertising.

It’s gratifying that they offer clean up services for yards but a little ironic that the method chosen to advertise that fact by tossing plastic bags of gravel attached to paper onto my yard is the way they are going about it. At which point did they decide they had a right to place garbage on my property in a bid to further their material wealth?

Even if question wasn’t asked try this. Why have they ignored the no solicitation signs ? Why have they a fish on the bottom of their leaflet suggesting that somehow their ethical foundation is a selling point? Seemingly when I called them the most they can do is to remove me from their tossing shit on my yard list. Lovely.

Sec. 3-5. Prohibiting distribution of handbills at private premises where properly posted.(a) No person shall throw, deposit or distribute any commercial or noncommercial handbill upon any private premises if requested by anyone thereon not to do so, or if there is placed on said premises in a conspicuous position near the entrance thereof, a sign bearing the words “No Trespassing,” “No Advertisement,” “No Unsolicited Newspapers,” or any similar notice, indicating the manner in which the occupants of said premises do not desire to be molested or have their right of privacy disturbed, or to have any such handbills left upon such premises.(b) Subject to the conditions set forth above, the deposit or distribution of any commercial or noncommercial handbill on private premises shall be done in such a reasonable manner as to prevent their being carried or deposited by the elements upon any adjoining premises, street or sidewalk or other public place, or upon other private property.(c) The provisions of this section shall not apply to the distribution of mail by the United States.(Ord. No. G-717, § 1)

RENEW YOUR LANDSCAPING - Homepage -

Seemingly I wasn’t the only person having issues.  

Here’s another tale of going beyond the call of duty to elevate a poor customer experience into something gloriously awful.

For those of you keeping track Erin’s recovering from a motorcycle accident which has made it difficult to walk/stand around. In the short term we’re going to get an SUV with auto transmission that she can get in and out off until she’s able to get back on a bike. Friday: We went to Frontline Trucks on Camelback road and saw a suitable vehicle but it’s stuck way in the middle and would require quite a bit of effort to get it out. Erin was already sore and we couldn’t wait for that eventuality. Called them back today to arrange a test drive , set a time.. got there.

By now you know they hadn’t moved the truck, didn’t seem to fussed that they’d wasted our time or start to provide any resolution on perhaps maybe moving the fucking thing. So the impression of a dealer that won’t even move a vehicle to let you test it when it’s in there interest to do so suggests staying far far away.

4610 W Camelback Rd, Glendale, Maricopa, Arizona 85301, United States - Google Maps

Next up:Glendale Pontiac

Salesman told our max price… comes back with a figure nearly double it .. lovely. Just say hey sorry you’re not spending enough ,you’re not providing us a means to rip you on a trade in and with no finance frankly It’s not worth my time talking with you rather than insulting us.