Made my first student loan payments today. That was fun. Not really. Only 119 more to go. Now, if my transmission could just be moderately damaged, as opposed to requiring a complete replacement...
Well, here goes. The past few days, we haven't really done anything. Moved a couple things, but that's about it. Today, today is when the storm breaks. We're going to open tonight, take some orders. We've got to get everything set up, move some more stuff in, I'll start meeting my crew for the first time... it's going to be crazy. More later... but it's going to be okay, because I am the storm.
Tube and Berger ft Chrissie Hynde -- Straight Ahead
2005-12-14
Hear that voice, it's the calm of your heart
This post is going to be sporadic and jumpy. Deal with it.
So I finally got to see my store. It's very much still under construction. When I was there, they were putting in the lights in the cieling, working on the walkin, all kinds of stuff. There were maybe 20 or so people working. I ended up just cleaning up the makeline (It's just like the one at Diana's store, blegh!!) and the oven (which is at a 45-ish degree angle to the cut table - double blegh!!). Eileen rode around in my truck a little, which was, well, fun. Not really. I ended up not being able to go to the work party, which Murph was quite adamant that I had to go to.
Oh yeah, Chelsea's in the shop right now. Transmission problems, which should be fun. So I'll be taking Mom's car to San Antonio tomorrow, which I'm not sure about. I guess I'll just show up about 9 or so, see what's going on.
So yeah, things are getting off to a great start.
Tried to download and run the D&D: Stormreach Online beta stress test, got a horrendous framerate - downright unplayable. Didn't help that David's ran flawlessly. So I can't really comment on the game just yet. Got my video card and processor overclocked now, though I'm waiting on an update of the Rage 3D utility for the 5.12 catalyst drivers. It's kind of annoying - I can pull 60+ fps in WoW, even with Windows Media Player playing a full length movie in the background. Update: Just hit 99 fps. Yeah.
So anyway. Talked to Ambra a little today. Kinda. I don't really remember what was said - I was half asleep the whole time. So for all those people asking me what's going on with that, yeah, I don't know. Probably nothing. Which accurately describes both my current social life and any prospects.
So I'm in kind of a holding pattern right now. I can't really start looking for a place in San Antonio until I find a new roommate for David. I really don't want to, I'll admit - we seem to get along so very well. It'll be a shame to lose that. But, ah, well. And I probably won't be able to find anyone until the students start coming back in January. That, and he's going to be gone for a few weeks, which makes things hard. Then I have to find a roommate and/or a place in San Antonio, preferably near the store. Once I take that step, it gets a lot harder to undo things. It'd still be really cool if Carrie moved down here and we got a place. Kind of random, but really cool.
So, yeah. Blegh. Can I get a reset button? That'd be nice.
No idea -- I wish I knew
So I finally got to see my store. It's very much still under construction. When I was there, they were putting in the lights in the cieling, working on the walkin, all kinds of stuff. There were maybe 20 or so people working. I ended up just cleaning up the makeline (It's just like the one at Diana's store, blegh!!) and the oven (which is at a 45-ish degree angle to the cut table - double blegh!!). Eileen rode around in my truck a little, which was, well, fun. Not really. I ended up not being able to go to the work party, which Murph was quite adamant that I had to go to.
Oh yeah, Chelsea's in the shop right now. Transmission problems, which should be fun. So I'll be taking Mom's car to San Antonio tomorrow, which I'm not sure about. I guess I'll just show up about 9 or so, see what's going on.
So yeah, things are getting off to a great start.
Tried to download and run the D&D: Stormreach Online beta stress test, got a horrendous framerate - downright unplayable. Didn't help that David's ran flawlessly. So I can't really comment on the game just yet. Got my video card and processor overclocked now, though I'm waiting on an update of the Rage 3D utility for the 5.12 catalyst drivers. It's kind of annoying - I can pull 60+ fps in WoW, even with Windows Media Player playing a full length movie in the background. Update: Just hit 99 fps. Yeah.
So anyway. Talked to Ambra a little today. Kinda. I don't really remember what was said - I was half asleep the whole time. So for all those people asking me what's going on with that, yeah, I don't know. Probably nothing. Which accurately describes both my current social life and any prospects.
So I'm in kind of a holding pattern right now. I can't really start looking for a place in San Antonio until I find a new roommate for David. I really don't want to, I'll admit - we seem to get along so very well. It'll be a shame to lose that. But, ah, well. And I probably won't be able to find anyone until the students start coming back in January. That, and he's going to be gone for a few weeks, which makes things hard. Then I have to find a roommate and/or a place in San Antonio, preferably near the store. Once I take that step, it gets a lot harder to undo things. It'd still be really cool if Carrie moved down here and we got a place. Kind of random, but really cool.
So, yeah. Blegh. Can I get a reset button? That'd be nice.
No idea -- I wish I knew
2005-12-12
Please hold me, don't walk away
So I'm officially a general manager today. Go me, I guess. It's funny - I don't really know *anything* right now, and I'm going to be going in fairly blind Tuesday. I'm much more worried about the housing situation than the work situation. I really need to find David a new roommate to finish out my lease, and one that he gets along with really well. Then, I have to find a roommate in San Antonio, or figure out if I want to get my own place. Which would be interesting, to say the least. Carrie jokingly told me she'd move down here with me, which would be awesome! I'm having trouble focusing on anything right now, so I'm going to cut it short here.
Oh, got a myspace thingy: ajackalope. Let there be much rejoicing.
Kate Ryan -- Head Down
Oh, got a myspace thingy: ajackalope. Let there be much rejoicing.
Kate Ryan -- Head Down
2005-12-09
Waiting for a star to fall
So that went well. I had a date tonight. Kind of, I think. Not really.
I should back up a little bit.
Opened today. Last night, with the ice storm and everything, was nuts. They closed 'bout 11, with well over four thousand dollars in. I went to Seguin.
Wait, I should back up a little more.
So I opened on Tuesday. We get a call from commissary about eleven; the lady tells me that they're going to be "about twelve hours late." Oh, really? Sara and I start scrambling around, tallying up what we're going to be short on: dough, cheddar cheese, and wings. Felicia was coming down for the meeting, so I call her, and she agrees to let us borrow some stuff until we got our truck later that day. Eileen came in for the meeting and said "Billy, this is your last week here." Oh, okay. They finally officialized everything. Starting Monday, I'll be the GM of a store in San Antonio.
So that's exciting.
Felicia got there with the dough, cheese, et al, and we got it put away and what-not. Was there 'til about 6. I believe Sergio picked up some more stuff on his way in, since the truck got pushed back again to the next morning.
Shelly called me up Wednesday morning and asked me if I could go to Seguin to pick up some stuff. So I did. Ambra was working, so we talked a bit while I was loading up all this stuff. Got ready to leave, realized I couldn't find my sunglasses. She calls me about twenty minutes later, telling me she has them. Great plan, except that I didn't do it on purpose.
--Urgh. I spent about two hours on and off writing this long post about this, but I had to restart my computer, and it didn't save. Most frustrating.
So the short version - Ambra came in and drove for us for a few hours, and I told her I'd take her to dinner afterwards for doing so. She got off about five, I had to stay and drive 'til seven. Called her when I got off, we went to Chili's. It was nice. We sat and talked for like an hour, hour and a half after dinner, covering a wide range of topics. Then we hugged good night.
There's a lot more in there - I had to load up my truck and unload it with about 600 dollars worth of food and take it to Seguin in the middle of the worst part of the ice storm, for instance, but I don't feel like retyping everything.
Cabin Crew -- Star to Fall
I should back up a little bit.
Opened today. Last night, with the ice storm and everything, was nuts. They closed 'bout 11, with well over four thousand dollars in. I went to Seguin.
Wait, I should back up a little more.
So I opened on Tuesday. We get a call from commissary about eleven; the lady tells me that they're going to be "about twelve hours late." Oh, really? Sara and I start scrambling around, tallying up what we're going to be short on: dough, cheddar cheese, and wings. Felicia was coming down for the meeting, so I call her, and she agrees to let us borrow some stuff until we got our truck later that day. Eileen came in for the meeting and said "Billy, this is your last week here." Oh, okay. They finally officialized everything. Starting Monday, I'll be the GM of a store in San Antonio.
So that's exciting.
Felicia got there with the dough, cheese, et al, and we got it put away and what-not. Was there 'til about 6. I believe Sergio picked up some more stuff on his way in, since the truck got pushed back again to the next morning.
Shelly called me up Wednesday morning and asked me if I could go to Seguin to pick up some stuff. So I did. Ambra was working, so we talked a bit while I was loading up all this stuff. Got ready to leave, realized I couldn't find my sunglasses. She calls me about twenty minutes later, telling me she has them. Great plan, except that I didn't do it on purpose.
--Urgh. I spent about two hours on and off writing this long post about this, but I had to restart my computer, and it didn't save. Most frustrating.
So the short version - Ambra came in and drove for us for a few hours, and I told her I'd take her to dinner afterwards for doing so. She got off about five, I had to stay and drive 'til seven. Called her when I got off, we went to Chili's. It was nice. We sat and talked for like an hour, hour and a half after dinner, covering a wide range of topics. Then we hugged good night.
There's a lot more in there - I had to load up my truck and unload it with about 600 dollars worth of food and take it to Seguin in the middle of the worst part of the ice storm, for instance, but I don't feel like retyping everything.
Cabin Crew -- Star to Fall
2005-12-07
So Lilie just quit Domino's. Yeah. Kind of surprised me, though she was having a really rough day and was in tears when I finally talked to her. But she basically quit in the middle of a shift (well, she was willing to stay to the end of a short shift, but not her shift), no advance notice before today, with three (I think; definitely closing shifts Friday and Saturday). She said she's probably going to go work at TNI (?) with Rose. Maybe it's because I've been a manager for a while now and am about to be a GM (oh yeah, it's official - Monday), but I have no patience for people who just walk out.
Artist -- Title
Artist -- Title
Love, life and laughter is all I believe in
Wow, I just had a series of bizarre dreams, and they're already starting to fade, so let's see what I can get down before they fade completely.
In one, there was a group of ten people - one of which was me, one was Larisa Oleynik, (Edit; Wow, that's a *terrible* picture of her up on IMBD, btw. She's very cute. Edit x2;
here is a much better one) one was her big sister, and seven others - heading to her house, which is underwater. Oh yeah, I was a warlock. Which is sad, but given the amount of time I spend playing WoW, it's not *that* weird that I would dream about it once in a while. The others died off or had to leave one by one, until it was just the three of us by the time we reached her house. I forget why that proved anything, but we hooked up, and made out in her room for a while. This was by far the longest dream, and the one I remember the best, as I was in the middle of it when I woke up.
There was another one about Mindy. Details on that one are growing fainter by the second, and I think I'm getting them intermixed with the previous one, because Larisa Oleynik reminds me of Mindy at times. It also doesn't help that they were fairly similiar, except in this one, we went to the movies or something. Made out some (That's going to be a repeating motif).
There was, of course, one about Lilie. I think one of us was a mutant or something, and killed the other one? Not really sure. Anyway.
I even had one about Carrie. I think this may have been the first one, as I barely recall it at all, except for the kissing and hugging and making out and what-not.
It was one of those nights where I really, really didn't want to wake up.
Amber -- I'm a Dreamer
In one, there was a group of ten people - one of which was me, one was Larisa Oleynik, (Edit; Wow, that's a *terrible* picture of her up on IMBD, btw. She's very cute. Edit x2;
here is a much better one) one was her big sister, and seven others - heading to her house, which is underwater. Oh yeah, I was a warlock. Which is sad, but given the amount of time I spend playing WoW, it's not *that* weird that I would dream about it once in a while. The others died off or had to leave one by one, until it was just the three of us by the time we reached her house. I forget why that proved anything, but we hooked up, and made out in her room for a while. This was by far the longest dream, and the one I remember the best, as I was in the middle of it when I woke up.There was another one about Mindy. Details on that one are growing fainter by the second, and I think I'm getting them intermixed with the previous one, because Larisa Oleynik reminds me of Mindy at times. It also doesn't help that they were fairly similiar, except in this one, we went to the movies or something. Made out some (That's going to be a repeating motif).
There was, of course, one about Lilie. I think one of us was a mutant or something, and killed the other one? Not really sure. Anyway.
I even had one about Carrie. I think this may have been the first one, as I barely recall it at all, except for the kissing and hugging and making out and what-not.
It was one of those nights where I really, really didn't want to wake up.
Amber -- I'm a Dreamer
2005-12-06
Up on high ground, where the flood wouldn't drown us
So I've got work and WoW updates out of the way, just one or two more to do, depending on how I do it. I still want to do a social one, and one about Lilie. Yeah, I haven't really posted anything about her in a while now, 'cause I keep putting it off. I will make a post about her soon, and unless things change, it'll be the last post about her, save for reminiscing type stuff.
Alex Megane-- Hurricane
Alex Megane-- Hurricane
So let me find somebody else
So, WoW.
Back before Thanksgiving, David as Bri got invited to go with this guild to Molten Core, 'cause they needed some more warlocks. This invitation got extended to me soon enough, as I was also attuned to MC. We went with them once, and David went again when I was at work. They then invited us to join, so we did. It's cool, 'cause this is a fairly active raiding guild that also does PvP. We've gotten as far as Sulfurion, though we didn't kill him.
I haven't been able to go every time, because of work. One time I wasn't there, the Felheart pants dropped, and they would have gone to me, 'cept I wasn't there, so David got them. Got attuned to Ony, which we then did on Sunday. Downed her on our second try (well, third, except we're not counting the first one, since a Warden respawned and that wasn't going to happen once that occured). I'm up to 5/8 Dreadmist, after finding the head and foot pieces, though I'm not going out of my way to collect the whole thing.
Ihatebrooms has kind of hit a roadblock in her mid 30's, which is frustrating, since I've gotten her alchemy up to 225 and have made a philosopher's stone. I just need to hit 35 so I can keep leveling up her alchemy and being getting arcanite transmutes.
Went ahead and created another alt, Ereneda (pronounced either E*ren*e*da or Er*e*ned*a), a gnome mage with Herbalism/Skinning. Those choices are mainly to make money selling leather and either the herbs or funneling them to Ihatebrooms for potions to use or sell. Having an okay time playing her so far, though she's only level eight, so I haven't gotten the cool stuff yet.
Blue Ice -- You Keep Me Hanging On
Back before Thanksgiving, David as Bri got invited to go with this guild to Molten Core, 'cause they needed some more warlocks. This invitation got extended to me soon enough, as I was also attuned to MC. We went with them once, and David went again when I was at work. They then invited us to join, so we did. It's cool, 'cause this is a fairly active raiding guild that also does PvP. We've gotten as far as Sulfurion, though we didn't kill him.
I haven't been able to go every time, because of work. One time I wasn't there, the Felheart pants dropped, and they would have gone to me, 'cept I wasn't there, so David got them. Got attuned to Ony, which we then did on Sunday. Downed her on our second try (well, third, except we're not counting the first one, since a Warden respawned and that wasn't going to happen once that occured). I'm up to 5/8 Dreadmist, after finding the head and foot pieces, though I'm not going out of my way to collect the whole thing.
Ihatebrooms has kind of hit a roadblock in her mid 30's, which is frustrating, since I've gotten her alchemy up to 225 and have made a philosopher's stone. I just need to hit 35 so I can keep leveling up her alchemy and being getting arcanite transmutes.
Went ahead and created another alt, Ereneda (pronounced either E*ren*e*da or Er*e*ned*a), a gnome mage with Herbalism/Skinning. Those choices are mainly to make money selling leather and either the herbs or funneling them to Ihatebrooms for potions to use or sell. Having an okay time playing her so far, though she's only level eight, so I haven't gotten the cool stuff yet.
Blue Ice -- You Keep Me Hanging On
2005-12-03
I'm sick and tired of always being sick and tired
So it's been kind of a crazy week. I'll start by talking about work, and see how far I get. This week has been... interesting, to say the least. Closed Monday night, nothing special or odd there. Was "off" Tuesday, but I had to go to a meeting with Eileen in Gina's place. Felicia was supposed to go as well, but she had a flat, so she didn't make it. We went over to Murphy's Deli, it was alright. Got back, hung out with Shelly for a while, since I was bored. And, well, Sara was there, and I like hanging out with her. Lesbian or not, she's cool. And purty. So yeah.
Anyway, hung out there for a while. Little later, turned out they were about to run out of wings, so I drove up to Seguin to pick some up. Came home eventually, David and I watched some B5. We're getting pretty close to the end.
Wednesday is when things started to get interesting. That was when I opened for the first time, with Jess to teach me what the hell I was doing. Mal was my opening driver. Things started off kind of badly - I was about twenty minutes late. Didn't miss too much - stocking the makeline, that kinda stuff. She gave me a bit of crap when I walked in, but I deserved it. Things went really smoothly after that.
Well, for a while.
Jess took off 'bout 2 or so. Apparently, she was supposed to stay 'til about 6 or so. If she had, the complete and total disaster that happened would have been at least somewhat mitigated. It stayed slow 'til about 4. That's when all hell broke loose. The phones all started ringing. We'd often have five and six lines on hold at a time - no exaggeration. Mal was the only driver at first, and Lilie came in at 5. That was it until six, when we got two more, and seven, when two more were supposed to come in. Sergio and Patrick came in at 5, which didn't really help, 'cause that's when things started getting really hairy. Patrick was on phones for the most part, with Sergio switching between the oven and makeline, and I was on dough slapping. We eventually switched, so he was in the corner, not that that really helped anything. Things kept coming in faster than we could get them out. We started being like forty/fifty pies down, with a thirty minute load time. Yeah, it was bad. Sergio called in Joe, and Mal ended up calling Gina, who then came in about 6 or 6:30. She wasn't nearly as upset as she could have been. She seemed very relaxed, mainly interested in fixing the situation over assigning blame.
We got things under control fairly quickly. It helped that Mike got here fairly soon, and Joe was there as well. That, and things slowed down very quickly. It was really embarrasing, 'cause I started crying. It wasn't because it was a stressful rush, or that things had gone bad, it was that people were counting on me to have things ready for them, and I failed them. That my decisions were going to screw someone else over. It's hard to explain and put into words. Gina talked to me for a while, then left. I left fairly soon after that, after making a deposit.
Was supposed to be off on Thursday, but I ended up going in to cover Rose's shift, who decided to be pretty immature about things and just not show up. That shift was fairly uneventful.
Opened on Friday, got busy, but overall, fairly uneventful. Saturday, now, Saturday was crazy. We had the UT game, the SWT game televised on ESPN2, plus it was a Saturday. It was busy all day. Sunday wasn't too dissimiliar. So yeah, it was a fairly hectic week. I was even supposed to stay late on Sunday to cover Rose and Theresa's shifts, but I got to go home about 6:30, since it wasn't too bad.
Overall, well, yeah. Not quite sure what to say about all that. Ended up with something like 55 hours for the week. I'm opening twice this week, closing twice, and one short shift. I've dealt with some of the best and worst customers that really exemplify things I like and don't like about them this week. That sentence was really awkward, and I apologize. But:
So, Tuesday was my day off, so I hung out with Shelly for a while (after the manager meeting with Eileen). A call comes in, so I took it, since Shelly was busy. It was a lady complaining that she got a cold pizza last night, and she wanted it replaced. Now, I've been in the food service industry for almost five years now, and I've been dealing with customers for almost the entire time. For the most part, I don't take it personally, and I *hate* screwing up customer orders. And when I do screw something up, I'm more than happy to correct the mistake.
That being said, it's hard for us to give someone a cold pizza. I don't mean because we're so awesome and never screw up, but because there are a *lot* of things that would have to happen for someone to get a cold pizza. First and foremost, those pizzas are *hot* when they come out of the oven. When we make a crew pie, we often have to let it set for a good ten minutes before it's anywhere near cool enough to eat it, and even then, we're blowing on it and sucking air into our mouths while we chew. That's with it not under the heat rack, mind you, which is the second thing. Then we have the heat bags, which were designed and patented for Domini's to keep the suckers warm. So I was a little curious about her complaint. If a pizza was delivered cold, I want to know why. The phone number she was calling from didn't have any orders placed from it, so I asked her for the number the order was placed from. She said it was from a friend's cell phone, and I asked for that number. She gave me that number. There was one order placed from it... a month and a half ago.
I think she was starting to get worried or something, because she told me she had the boxes here if we wanted them. I then asked her for the address the order went to, and she told me that and about what time it went there. I pulled up the daily order register from the night before, and sure enough, no orders had gone to that address around that time. Or at all the entire day. Or anywhere on that street the entire day. I told her I couldn't find her order, and we would need the boxes from the order that she told us she had. She then launched off on something about how they were in the trash can, and she sure as hell wasn't going to go digging through the trash for them, but our driver was welcome to. I was ready to terminate it right there, since she had initially offered them as proof, but then reneged when I asked for them. When there's that many suspicious factors all piled on top of each other, yeah. It was Shelly's shift, though, so I ended up sending out the pizza.
Then, this... (censored) has the unmitigated gall to call back EIGHT MINUTES later, yelling at Shelly, where the fuck her order was and why it wasn't there, claiming she had called forty-five minutes ago. She then called again at the half hour mark.
Had a similar incident the next day, when a lady said she had ordered a pizza the day before, and that it was undercooked. Same scenario - our oven has a tendency to overcook, if anything. She said she didn't call back 'cause it was too late. During the course of the conversation, she changed what it was she ordered, couldn't tell me where she ordered from, etc. That, and when I explained I couldn't help her at all, she just accepted it very meekly, instead of getting infuriated, as a real mistake would.
Now, should I feel proud about catching these? Nope. In the grand scheme of things, do they matter? Nope. I know that. While I'm on the subject... on Sunday, when things got pretty bad, we were warning people up front that the delivery time was an hour to an hour and a half. So of course, people called at an hour about their order. Now, I'll agree, an hour is certainly a long time to have to wait for your order. But when you were warned up front and had every chance to decline to order, I find it a little unreasonable to complain.
Not that all of my experiences lately have been negative. On Wednesday, when all hell was breaking loose, the carryout times started to get a little long. I'm talking 30 - 45 minutes. And people were fine with it. I suspect part of that was that they were right there, could see how incredibly busy we were, and that we were doing everything we could to get stuff out as fast as possible. We also ran out of wings; we only had to tell one person that had already ordered that we were out; he was pretty cool with it, and we gave him some chicken kickers instead (and took them off the ticket).
And that's enough of that.
Anastacia -- Sick and Tired
Anyway, hung out there for a while. Little later, turned out they were about to run out of wings, so I drove up to Seguin to pick some up. Came home eventually, David and I watched some B5. We're getting pretty close to the end.
Wednesday is when things started to get interesting. That was when I opened for the first time, with Jess to teach me what the hell I was doing. Mal was my opening driver. Things started off kind of badly - I was about twenty minutes late. Didn't miss too much - stocking the makeline, that kinda stuff. She gave me a bit of crap when I walked in, but I deserved it. Things went really smoothly after that.
Well, for a while.
Jess took off 'bout 2 or so. Apparently, she was supposed to stay 'til about 6 or so. If she had, the complete and total disaster that happened would have been at least somewhat mitigated. It stayed slow 'til about 4. That's when all hell broke loose. The phones all started ringing. We'd often have five and six lines on hold at a time - no exaggeration. Mal was the only driver at first, and Lilie came in at 5. That was it until six, when we got two more, and seven, when two more were supposed to come in. Sergio and Patrick came in at 5, which didn't really help, 'cause that's when things started getting really hairy. Patrick was on phones for the most part, with Sergio switching between the oven and makeline, and I was on dough slapping. We eventually switched, so he was in the corner, not that that really helped anything. Things kept coming in faster than we could get them out. We started being like forty/fifty pies down, with a thirty minute load time. Yeah, it was bad. Sergio called in Joe, and Mal ended up calling Gina, who then came in about 6 or 6:30. She wasn't nearly as upset as she could have been. She seemed very relaxed, mainly interested in fixing the situation over assigning blame.
We got things under control fairly quickly. It helped that Mike got here fairly soon, and Joe was there as well. That, and things slowed down very quickly. It was really embarrasing, 'cause I started crying. It wasn't because it was a stressful rush, or that things had gone bad, it was that people were counting on me to have things ready for them, and I failed them. That my decisions were going to screw someone else over. It's hard to explain and put into words. Gina talked to me for a while, then left. I left fairly soon after that, after making a deposit.
Was supposed to be off on Thursday, but I ended up going in to cover Rose's shift, who decided to be pretty immature about things and just not show up. That shift was fairly uneventful.
Opened on Friday, got busy, but overall, fairly uneventful. Saturday, now, Saturday was crazy. We had the UT game, the SWT game televised on ESPN2, plus it was a Saturday. It was busy all day. Sunday wasn't too dissimiliar. So yeah, it was a fairly hectic week. I was even supposed to stay late on Sunday to cover Rose and Theresa's shifts, but I got to go home about 6:30, since it wasn't too bad.
Overall, well, yeah. Not quite sure what to say about all that. Ended up with something like 55 hours for the week. I'm opening twice this week, closing twice, and one short shift. I've dealt with some of the best and worst customers that really exemplify things I like and don't like about them this week. That sentence was really awkward, and I apologize. But:
So, Tuesday was my day off, so I hung out with Shelly for a while (after the manager meeting with Eileen). A call comes in, so I took it, since Shelly was busy. It was a lady complaining that she got a cold pizza last night, and she wanted it replaced. Now, I've been in the food service industry for almost five years now, and I've been dealing with customers for almost the entire time. For the most part, I don't take it personally, and I *hate* screwing up customer orders. And when I do screw something up, I'm more than happy to correct the mistake.
That being said, it's hard for us to give someone a cold pizza. I don't mean because we're so awesome and never screw up, but because there are a *lot* of things that would have to happen for someone to get a cold pizza. First and foremost, those pizzas are *hot* when they come out of the oven. When we make a crew pie, we often have to let it set for a good ten minutes before it's anywhere near cool enough to eat it, and even then, we're blowing on it and sucking air into our mouths while we chew. That's with it not under the heat rack, mind you, which is the second thing. Then we have the heat bags, which were designed and patented for Domini's to keep the suckers warm. So I was a little curious about her complaint. If a pizza was delivered cold, I want to know why. The phone number she was calling from didn't have any orders placed from it, so I asked her for the number the order was placed from. She said it was from a friend's cell phone, and I asked for that number. She gave me that number. There was one order placed from it... a month and a half ago.
I think she was starting to get worried or something, because she told me she had the boxes here if we wanted them. I then asked her for the address the order went to, and she told me that and about what time it went there. I pulled up the daily order register from the night before, and sure enough, no orders had gone to that address around that time. Or at all the entire day. Or anywhere on that street the entire day. I told her I couldn't find her order, and we would need the boxes from the order that she told us she had. She then launched off on something about how they were in the trash can, and she sure as hell wasn't going to go digging through the trash for them, but our driver was welcome to. I was ready to terminate it right there, since she had initially offered them as proof, but then reneged when I asked for them. When there's that many suspicious factors all piled on top of each other, yeah. It was Shelly's shift, though, so I ended up sending out the pizza.
Then, this... (censored) has the unmitigated gall to call back EIGHT MINUTES later, yelling at Shelly, where the fuck her order was and why it wasn't there, claiming she had called forty-five minutes ago. She then called again at the half hour mark.
Had a similar incident the next day, when a lady said she had ordered a pizza the day before, and that it was undercooked. Same scenario - our oven has a tendency to overcook, if anything. She said she didn't call back 'cause it was too late. During the course of the conversation, she changed what it was she ordered, couldn't tell me where she ordered from, etc. That, and when I explained I couldn't help her at all, she just accepted it very meekly, instead of getting infuriated, as a real mistake would.
Now, should I feel proud about catching these? Nope. In the grand scheme of things, do they matter? Nope. I know that. While I'm on the subject... on Sunday, when things got pretty bad, we were warning people up front that the delivery time was an hour to an hour and a half. So of course, people called at an hour about their order. Now, I'll agree, an hour is certainly a long time to have to wait for your order. But when you were warned up front and had every chance to decline to order, I find it a little unreasonable to complain.
Not that all of my experiences lately have been negative. On Wednesday, when all hell was breaking loose, the carryout times started to get a little long. I'm talking 30 - 45 minutes. And people were fine with it. I suspect part of that was that they were right there, could see how incredibly busy we were, and that we were doing everything we could to get stuff out as fast as possible. We also ran out of wings; we only had to tell one person that had already ordered that we were out; he was pretty cool with it, and we gave him some chicken kickers instead (and took them off the ticket).
And that's enough of that.
Anastacia -- Sick and Tired
