By
the time you read this, there will be twenty days to go to my daughter’s
wedding and I will be popping the valium at a steady rate. If you’re already sick of reading these posts
about the proceedings, imagine for a moment exactly how I feel. Did I mention I
also have a story coming out in an anthology June 1? That while I’ve been
rushing around to dress fittings and discussions with the florist, doing our
‘walk-through’ and tasting, buying shoes and seeing doctors in an effort to
make sure I’m healthy and fit on the day, I’ve also been doing edits and taking
part in various discussions on promo etc.
Luckily, I’m not the organizer of either event and both my daughter (with
a full time job) and the coordinator of the anthology have been brilliant.
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| Cristal at her NYC Bachlorette London to follow... |
But
one thing that has been highlighted in dealing with so many different people as
adjuncts to the wedding is the increase in plain ol’ bad customer service; it’s
a form of disrepect. In an article
concerning maddening customer service in the New York Times from
February, a consumer psychologist explained that our brains are hard-wired to
receive respect because disrespect meant we were overlooked, and to be
overlooked meant we were left to die. You know that feeling when you’re on the end of a phone to a service center
and are kept waiting for what seems like hours with music you wouldn’t play at
a cat’s funeral. In one incident I was dealing with, I had ordered hand cream
to put in the ladies’ restroom and the company sent the wrong ones. When I finally found the secret telephone number on
their website, there was no answer, only a recording to send them an email. When I sent the email, there was no reply to that for several days though they did respond after a second
email. The same week the exact same thing happened with a jitney company I had used. With that company, I eventually wrote to their head office who
got on to their customer relations person who had not been responding. She offered me as recompense five, five
dollar coupons. Only two arrived. Apparently,
companies now are ONLY concerned with their bottom line: you’ve bought the product or used the service
so there’s no need for them to go further. Goodness, it seems even if you have
an airline ticket, not only does it not mean you’re guaranteed a seat, but
heck, they can drag you off the dang plane if they want.
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| Shoe buying |
Back
at the wedding, we had been warned that there would be ‘no replies.’ Everyone I
know who has thrown a party of some nature has suffered this outright rudeness.
Why it has evolved is beyond me, that someone cannot take the two minutes
necessary to either stuff a reply card in a stamped envelope or go on line to reply, but
there it is. Does it enhance their self-esteem to make you go the extra mile to
track them down, email them or text them personally to ask if they’re coming? At
the other end of the spectrum, I’m still waiting for a thank-you note for a
gift sent for a July, 2016, wedding I was unable to attend. It appears that the
accepted ‘deadline’ is now three months so I’m not holding my breath.
As
I come to finish this post, ‘Wedding Wire’ has just popped into my email box “10
Ways to Reduce Stress During Wedding Planning.”
Amongst their suggestions to hire a wedding planner, exercise, get out
of town, and learn a new skill is ‘Talk About It.’ Thanks for listening!
