Poor Little Sad Blog

Sorry I have neglected you. I have a valid reason. It’s not a good excuse, but it is true.

See, this spring I got a hair brained idea to purchase a business. A flower shop to be exact.

Why? Well many reasons.

To name a few: I was getting way too much free time, I was enjoying sleeping in, or only setting my alarm to go on 5 am swims, or for fun events. My friends were tired of reading my facebook status updates of my travels to Puerto Rico, volunteer work at various beer, music and film festivals. It was kind of freaking me out how many ‘famous’ people I was meeting this year. It was getting a little frightening. My dog and cat were getting sick of me being around the house so much. Ski season was over. Oh yeah, and I can’t forget, I needed one of those job things, since I was less than enthusiastic about going back into IT I figured I would create my dream job.

So what better way to solve these issues? Buy a business! It will take up all your free time and teach you many lessons in the process. Since I love learning lessons hands on. I had my work cut out for me.

The process of purchasing a business I think is the closest I will ever come to having a baby. Not that I have had a baby to compare this too, but after seeing what many of my friends went through with childbirth, I feel like I can relate.

In the beginning of the process, random people would immediately ask you if you are married and if this was planned (I am NOT kidding). The first to ask me this question was my first bank I went to in order discuss financing, yes, even though this is highly illegal, I was asked “How do you expect to do this without a husband?” Hello 1954, please go away and come back to 2010. Needless to say I did not get my loan from that bank and I am in process of closing my accounts there.

Everywhere I turned it seemed like everyone had unsolicited advice to give. Some good, some not so good, and much from people with no credibility to give advice.

My workout regime along with my diet pretty much went to hell.

I would wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares of “what if I screw this up?”

I dreaded and anticipated the delivery date.

Since the delivery date(June 1) I have not slept or ate much. Again grabbing food and short naps when I can. Not even going to talk about my workout schedule. Or I should say, what workouts? I have participated in one triathlon and the MS150 bike ride this summer, but both of those performances showed my lack of commitment to ‘training’. I do however still plan to go to SF for the Nike half marathon in October. Note the ‘half’. I will not be training for the full marathon.

My social life has suffered horribly. If you want to find me, I’ll be at the shop.

In the end, I will drive a mini-van. Heck, even my ‘mom’ friends, I can only think
of a couple that have mini-van’s. I am not afraid, It will have a lot of flowers on it. It’ll be cool!

Even though this list looks like a whining list. Believe me it is not.

I could not be happier! I am working ridiculous hours, but I am for the first time in my professional career, feel like I have found my ‘fit’. Playing with flowers and making people happy every day. Who wouldn’t love that? Oh yeah, plus I get the bonus of reading all those cards people send with flowers. That alone is a whole other blog.

More to come, I promise.

CHROME--Customer Service Rave

For my previous rant on customer service I find it only fare to give credit where credit is due. My newest favorite company, Chrome based out of San Francisco. They make some of the coolest messenger bags, ever!!!

So let’s start with a small story. Most people know that follow my blog or know me personally know I have recently (in the past 6 months) been adopted by a Bernese Mtn Dog/ Australian Sheppard mix doggy. If you know anything about herding dogs, they need to be mentally and physically challenged all.the.time. She needs constant exercise and constant games and puzzles to keep her mind busy. If she does not get this she becomes naughty. Well one day she took her naughtiness out on my new Chrome messenger bag I got as a gift for Christmas. She decided to chew a strap and the stabilizer clip…Not to mention I had only used the bag less than half a dozen times. I was crushed. I decided to call Chrome and see if they would by chance send me a new strap and I could use my sewing skills to repair my bag. Not only did I get to talk to a customer service representative, I am pretty sure the man I spoke to is the owner or president of the company. Not only did he say they had extra straps and clips, but if I mailed the bag back to them, they would repair it. No cost to me.

I asked “Are you serious?—Free? I don’t have to pay for return shipping or anything?”

Chrome Guy (CG) replied: “nope, we’ll take care of you, it may take 10 business days but we’ll fix it”

I replied “Wow! That is awesome!!!”

I did have to wait about 14 business days to get my bag back, but it looks good as new and had some stickers in the box also. (Also, rumor has it the folks at Chrome LOVE dark chocolate, if you send them a note with a dark chocolate candy bar, they will thank you!)

If your ever in the market for a VERY cool messenger bag and want ot shop form a VERY cool company. I highly recommend Chrome

And just because I love it, I gotta show off my ultra-bright, awesome-tastic bag!!!

Customer Service Rant + a small revenge

Whatever happened to customer service? Especially in the banking industry. It used to be you could go to your bank and talk to a banker easily about anything, savings, checking, business accounts, investments…anything with money.

I remember I opened my first business checking account when I was 16 years old, or was I 17? Regardless, I had a business account before a personal checking account if that tells you what kind of teenager I was. Well when I wasn’t skipping school and doing things you can only get away with when your 16-17 years old.

I had a situation a couple of weeks ago when I asked a question to the teller and she replied "I don't know, you'll have to talk to a banker"--I just looked at her and said "aren't I?---I'm in a bank, your handling my money, I hope you’re a banker". I got a blank stare back. I guess my comment was a little above her comprehension. Boy, let me tell you how confident that made me feel. Note to self. Start moving money from this bank to my credit union.

My frustration with my bank has been building over the past few years. Finally yesterday I got my small revenge.

I have been saving change for approximately the past 10 years. Why? Who knows, I have always been a change hoarder. Recently I decided I would use my change collection to offset the cost of my new mountain bike. I have been rolling the change and stashing it in closets and shoeboxes around my house, as I waiting for the cable guy to come to my house yesterday I unrolled all the change and dumped it in a beach bag. I remember the last time I took change into a bank they advised me to unroll it all first so they could put it through their change machine. Well I guess this was the wrong thing to do.

First, I took the change to my small local branch. I felt bad as the teller I walked up to appeared to be new. I wanted a seasoned teller that had previously irritated me. This teller was very nice and said I should have left it rolled because they didn’t have a change machine and I should go to the main branch office on south 8th street. Since it was at the main branch I had one of my most frustrating experiences a couple of years ago. They lost a deposit and it took nearly 2 months for us to clear that fiasco up. I was glad to go there and have them cash out my change.

I walked into the lobby and noticed three tellers, one I recognized from my other branch and two I did not. I went to the lady I recognized and said “before anything I need to apologize, I need to cash in some change” at this time I have set down my 50 pound beach bag at my feet. She said “ I don’t’ know if we can cash in change at this time” then hollered over to a much younger, snottier acting lady and said “can we cash in coin?” . The young snotty acting girl said “yes we can, why?”. This is where I piped in and heaved my beach bag onto the counter as I said “because I have lots to cash in...should be $500 or so”. Both ladies just stopped and looked at the bag, then looked at me. The original teller said “this may take us a while”. “Take your time” I responded. For the next 10 minutes I waited as I heard the change being eaten by some machine in the back room. While I was waiting there was an argument in the maid lobby with the bank manager and an obviously upset customer. The customer was telling the bank manager he lied to him and he was not happy. This convinced me more I am not the only person that is frustrated with key bank lately. Highlight note to self, actively start moving my business to my credit union.

In case you were wondering, THIS is what $509.78 looks like in change.