The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Oil

It is a fact: The squeaky wheel gets the grease. But what kind of grease?

Case number 1: Not long ago my oldest son bought a new HD TV for about $2500. The company he bought it from did not deliver it on time as they promised. When he checked with them they told him they made a mistake, they did not have the TV he ordered in stock. They said they didn’t know when they would receive it.

I think he demanded to see the manager, the area supervisor, and anybody else who would listen.

To please him, as a customer, they told him he could have an upgrade of what he ordered from what they had in stock. He told them he wanted a HD TV that sells for about $4500, which is 2 grand over what he paid. They gritted their smiling teeth and agreed.

And he said he also wanted the extended warranty for the same price as the other one. They said, in so many words, “No way!” Then, he started calling again. He got the HD TV and the extended warranty at the old price.

They delivered it Saturday.

However! It was 35 degrees F when they brought it. The men who delivered it said he would have to let it sit for at least two hours before he can turn it on. They said it was so cold outside the fluid part of the HD had to stabilize to room temperature. After two hours he turned it on and it blew his electric circuit.

I don’t know but I suspect the delivery men might have known the electrical circuit throughout the house blow so they wanted to be long-gone before hand. They had a 2 hour head start.

Case number 2: A couple of weeks ago our family had one of family members birthday dinner at a nice steak house. Anna ordered her steak medium rare. It came raw. I also ordered mine medium rare and it was just right… red and juicy, but not gushing blood. Anna sent her steak back. It came back “medium” too done and tough..

When we returned home that night she went to the restaurant’s website (that was on the receipt) and found a way to email them to complain, which she did.

Wednesday or Thursday the manager of the restaurant called and wanted to speak to Anna. I told the man she was at work. He wanted to know when he may reach her and I told him when, About 30 minutes after that time he called again and spoke to Anna. He apologized and asked what could he do to get her back in there. She said don’t worry about it, she just complained to get it off her chest and to make their service better, she said she would probably go back in time.

Saturday we received a letter from them, again apologizing, and inclosing $150 worth of gift certificates in $25 increments. The manager knew what it would take to get us back there. It worked! We are planning on returning next week.

I told her we should not flash those gift certificates around until after we ate and ready to pay up. They may be color-coded or something to signal that we are complainers.

If the cooks knew we were getting a free meal on the house over their blunders they might want to spit on our food, or maybe even urinate, or worse, or maybe even worse.

I would hate to catch the AIDS virus from a loaded baked potato.