Customer service

Bob’s new best friend

by

Here he is with Yuliana, one of the bartenders extraordinaire on the riverboat!

Bob is someone who likes to try new things, while I prefer things I already know — especially with regards to food and drink. It’s mid-morning here, and we’re sitting in the lounge and bar where I’m catching up this blog.

Bob to Yuliana: I want to try a drink I’ve never had before.

Yuliana: What kind of liquor would you like in it?

Bob: Vodka.

Fast forward a few minutes, and she delivered my third Bloody Mary along with Bob’s “surprise drink.”

Her: Don’t ever ask me to do this again. It makes me very nervous when someone asks me to surprise them or to “be creative” with a drink.

I said, “I’m the same way!

Laughs all around.

Our first night’s dinner

by

At the Monastery Boutique Hotel in Budapest, where we’re staying for two nights before we board the Emerald Star for our Danube riverboat cruise, we grabbed an hour-or-so nap upon arrival, and then we had a most delicious dinner in Umo, one of the two restaurants associated with the hotel.

John, Al, Ken, & Bob at dinner

Carlos, who was just adorable, was our server, and when we asked him where he was from he said, “A small city near Mexico City.”

And when we asked him what brought him from Mexico to Budapest, he said, “I came over with a person.” Since any straight guy would have said something like, “I followed my girlfriend here,” we assumed he was on “our team.” And then he added, “But we’re no longer together,” which drew a collective, “Awww” from all of us.

This place had fantastic food.

The menu:

Bob’s and my choices:

And our comeuppance:

Our receipt

Gendered eyeglasses

by

The Costco optical department person is ringing up a new pair of glasses that I’ve chosen.

Her, pointing to that dotted design along the temples: “You like these?”

Me: Yeah, they’re fine.

Her: Hmmm.

Me: You don’t like them, I take it?

Her: Well, they’re usually on girls’ glasses.

Me: Oh. I don’t care about that. Besides, I can’t see them when I’m wearing them. They’re fine.

Pet peeve: Asking for information that I’ve already provided

by

About a month ago, I booked an eye appointment for my annual check-up. As a new patient, I filled out a 10-page form with all the usual medical history questions.

At my appointment this morning:

Person checking me in: “Would you sign that form on the clip board for me?”

Me: Just sign it?

Her: No. Fill it out and sign it.

Me: Is this the same information I provided on the 10-page form I filled out and submitted when I made this appointment?

Her: I’ll check, but sometimes those things don’t take.

Me: I don’t love doing a lot of work that doesn’t matter.

Her: Okay, you don’t have to fill it out then.

A patient-hygienist silver anniversary

by

At my dentist appointment in March, my hygienist and I talked about when I first started going to this practice, which used to be Lake Boone Dentistry but is now Gover & Gover [David & Susan, husband and wife team] Dentistry.

I told Leigh Ann that I thought it might be 45 years this year, and she said, “Wait a minute. We have records going all the way back to when it was Lake Boone Dentistry. Let me check!”

And sure enough, my first appointment was in November of 1980!

I always schedule my semi-annual cleanings when

Leigh Ann

is available, and we talked about how long we’ve been “seeing each other,” and she saw in those same records, that my first appointment with her was on June 29, 2000.

Which, of course, means that yesterday was our “Silver Anniversary,” and today, she received the card I put in the mail to her last week.

She texted me to let me know she got it:

Good morning! OMG how thoughtful YOU are!! I just got your card!! Happy 25th and 1 day to US! 🥂 Cheers! Hoping you guys are doing well! I’m hanging this card in my locker forever!!!

Days made all around.

Ewwwwww!

by

We got a bad watermelon at Publix yesterday, and I took a picture of it, along with its receipt, back to get a replacement one.

When I showed the picture to the customer service attendant, she said, “Ewwww! That’s nasty! Go get another one right now.”

When I brought the replacement one up to her, she said, “I’m sorry you had to run back here for this. I know when I open some fresh fruit, I want it to look good — not like that!”

I said, “Well, you had no way of knowing what the inside looked like, either, and I appreciate being able to exchange it for another one.”

Cutting up at Costco

by

As soon as I committed to a Costco checkout line, I noticed the cashier, and thought: “Oh, it’s him, the guy who commented on my t-shirt the last two times I’ve been in his line.” I immediately checked which t-shirt I had on and was thankful it wasn’t my PLAYS UNDER PRESSURE one — the one I’d had on both times I’d previously gone through his line.

Sure enough, when I got to the register he said, “I like your shirt. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man with a pumpkin head, though.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Apparently he’s famous on YouTube, which I only found out after about 10 “kids” told me they like my shirt, and I finally asked one of them, “Is this a famous person or something?”

I had no idea about the pumpkin man dance pop-culture phenomenon when I bought that t-shirt from 6 Dollar Shirts [sic]. I just bought it to wear on the 2023 Ultimate Disco Cruise, because the pose of the pumpkin man had immediately reminded me of:

Then I remembered that this cashier also likes to yammer while he rings you up (which I don’t love), and that he fancies himself as funny. Sure enough, after the shirt comment, he starts:

“What kind of bee can’t make a decision in springtime?”

“I don’t know.”

“A May bee.”

Then another:

“Earlier today, I was driving behind an ambulance when a cooler fell off the back. I stopped and opened it up to find a foot inside. So, I decided to call a toe-truck.”

Lest I be unarmed in a battle of wits, I said:

“What’s better than a candelabra on your piano?”

“I don’t know, what?”

“Tulips on your organ.”

Him, after a 2-second processing delay: “Ha! Nobody’s gonna argue with that!

Making up the bed

by

We have a picture, which we’ve learned is worth a thousand words, when trying to explain to cruise cabin stewards how we want the bed made up — especially if the steward’s English is a second language.

First of all, we need 3 pillows each.

Second of all, we want only the sheet on one-half (my half, the right side of the pic) of the bed, and the sheet plus the duvet on the other half (Bob’s half, the left side of the pic) of the bed.

This is really quite easily accomplished: put a queen-size sheet on the bed, and then put a twin-size duvet on top of the sheet on the left side — but it’s been our experience that, for some reason, this is very difficult to articulate with just words, so we keep this photo on our phone during cruises.

Picture of a cruise cabin bed made up with the duvet on only one half of the bed

A less-than-satisfying customer service incident

by

You are now chatting with Froilan.

Me: When I log in and select the Web Apps option from the dropdown menu, it throws me out to the login screen.

Fro: Hello John. This is not the experience we want you to have. I am going to do my best to assist you today. John, please retest on your end using another browser. Then tell me if the issue persists.

Me: I’m using Chrome. Just tried it on Edge… same thing. I’ve also tried it in an incognito browser on Chrome. I’ve also tried: once logging in, instead of clicking on Web Apps, I clicked on Logout and then logged back in… same thing.

Fro: How about using Firefox browser?

Me (getting annoyed): That is so last century. I don’t have Firefox. I mean how many browsers do we have to try it on? It should work on all of them. (With all due respect.)

Fro: Thank you for trying.

Me: I just tried it on my iPhone with Safari… same thing. I’m now officially out of browsers to try it on.

Fro: Please hold on while I check on this matter.

Fro (after several minutes): I will escalate this issue to our Tier 3 support team for further investigation. Please hold and I will provide you with a ticket reference number.

A quintessential customer service experience

by

In case anyone (everyone?) has forgotten what a good customer service experience sounds and feels like, we just had this one with a staff member at the Anne Murray Centre museum in Springhill, Nova Scotia. Email exchange:

We (2 of us) are interested in visiting the centre on Thursday, Oct 2, 2025 at around noon. This will be during a cruise ship port call from 9:30 a.m. – 6 p.m. in Halifax. We’re planning to rent a car at the port as soon as we get off the ship, drive to the centre, spend an hour or 2 there, and then drive back to make sure we’re back in time for the 6 p.m. ship departure.

Our questions:
1) Does this seem doable to you?
2) Do the tickets have a time of day (e.g., entry at noon) associated with them?
3) When would be the earliest we would be able to purchase tickets?

Thanks for any help!
John & Bob

Thanks so much for your message and interest in visiting the Centre.

The last of September is usually our last opening, but we can come in for you by appointment. You can just pay at the door. Yes, we’re 2 hours from Halifax and it sounds like a great little trip for you.

Please email me a couple of weeks prior to remind me and confirm, and I’ll make sure someone is here for you.

All the best,
Wanita

Thank you for your prompt and very customer-service-oriented response and generosity, Wanita!

I will definitely email you a couple of weeks before our trip to confirm and with any further details we might have at that time. We appreciate you!

John & Bob

Hi John and Bob,

Thanks so much for getting back to me and for your very kind words! Looking forward to seeing you in the Fall.

Cheers until then,
Wanita