I'm Proud Of Myself

So much for the first day of spring here in the Ohio Valley - we awoke this morning to temperatures in the upper 20's and snow and ice.  Just across the river in southern Indiana, schools were closed.  Crazy, just crazy.  The 'rents and I had originally planned a trip to the Glory Of Rome today, but with snow and ice over in that neck of the woods, we decided to go another day.  I was still in the mood to get rid of some money, so I headed out to get my new cell phone.  I called the Big Electronics Superstore in our 'hood, and got the nicest CSR I think I've ever dealt with.  When she said "This is Carla, how may I help you this afternoon?" I knew it was going to be a great experience.  Let me interject that my family and I have the world's worst luck when it comes to getting good customer service.  Friends and relatives will tell you that it's not that we're difficult people to deal with; on the contrary, we're easy to get along with.  It's just that we have terrible luck.  Back to the story.  I asked about the promotion for the Motorola Razr phone, and gave her my cell number and she quickly brought up my account and told me what a great deal I could get.  I told her to get a phone out and have it ready for me because I would be there in less than 10 minutes. 

I went in and found Carla, and she did in deed have the phone sitting out for me.  She brought up my account in the computer again, and started entering the information, and said "Wow, this is awesome."  I thought she might have received an email or instant message on the side and was talking about what it said; I had no idea she was talking about my deal.  She explained that since I hadn't gotten a new phone with them for 3 years, I was eligible for all of these great deals.  Let me sum it up by saying after I get the $50 rebate back, my phone and the accessories will be free.  Now that's what I call a deal.  While Carla was checking on this in her computer, a woman came up and asked if this was where she could make a payment on her Verizon phone.  Carla told her yes, and that she would get with her when she finished with me.  I knew it would be awhile, and I figured that the woman waiting probably was in no mood to wait for me to finish, so I told Carla to go ahead and process her payment, and that I wouldn't mind waiting.  Well, the woman was so thrilled - she patted me on the hand as she thanked me.  Carla got me all set up and activated, and as she ran to the back of the store to get my cool Bluetooth wireless ear piece, another woman came up and needed to get a Verizon phone card.  When Carla got back, she told the woman she would be with her in a few minutes.  I knew that it would be longer than a few minutes, since she was going to attempt to download my address book from my old phone to the new phone.  So once again, I told Carla to go ahead and wait on the woman.  This woman was also thrilled.  She said "That was so kind of you" and she smiled as she left.  So the reason I'm proud of myself is the fact that ordinarily, I would have stood my ground and been content to have a line of people waiting, and not cared a bit that they only needed to make a quick payment or buy a car charger or something.  But today it was different. I actually thought about how many times the opposite had happened to me - I ran into a store just to buy one item and had to end up waiting for 15 minutes while the CSR finished up with another customer.  Maybe those two women will go to work tomorrow and tell the people in their offices "You'll never guess what happened to me in the Big Electronics Superstore yesterday afternoon - a very kind woman told the CSR to help me while she waited."  I think my Mom would be proud of me, too.