More companies should do this

Recently I called Southwest to make a change to a flight on an upcoming trip (yes, another vacation. Life is HARD). When I called, I got the usual "your estimated wait time is X minutes" message. However, what happened next was great. You have the option for them to call you back when a rep is available. No more being on hold with stupid hold music? Yes, please! You put in your phone number, record your name, and boom, it's done. More companies should do this. I don't know what it costs, but from a customer satisfaction standpoint, it's a home run.

Not a great advertisement for your services

Recently, the coworker of a friend received an e-mail whose title was as follows:

(Jane) Your Invited to ELCE 2013

The 1st line was

(Jane) Your Invited to the Enterprise Learning! Conference & Expo 2013

Now the grammar fiends among you already see the issue. It should be YOU'RE, not YOUR.

Jane's comments were great. I've included them below.
 

OK, so this email is supposed to be for a LEARNING conference, EDUCATIONAL opportunity, etc etc... and the subject line AND first sentence in the body of the email says "YOUR invited to..."!!! Seriously?! Did they not pass grade school grammar?!? Oh my... what has this world come to when your EDUCATIONAL opportunity mass marketing email has simple grammar mistakes!!! How embarrassing for them!

(My Friend) - Definitely for (me)!! =)

How right she is. Typos drive me bananas. I always have someone proof my presentations, etc. Once I find a typo in something, it's all I focus on. Hope you enjoyed her submission. I surely did.

No Shame To Her Game

One of my coworkers likes to say "there's no shame to my game". Here's an example of someone who should have been ashamed, but clearly wasn't.

Last week a local doctor had her license revoked in a neighboring state. This was due to her license being suspended in my state (my state will decide next month whether to revoke her license here as well). She is accused of running a pill mill. The data presented does tend to support that:
- Last year she allegedly wrote more than 8,000 prescriptions for 3489 patients
- 95% of those patients received oxycodone
- The business was cash only, no insurance accepted

Now, this looked bad enough. However, my favorite part? The vanity plate on her car reads "Pill Queen" in Latin. One of the local news stations was nice enough to show a picture of it. There certainly appears to be no shame to her game.

Patience Pays Off

Waiting is not fun. Patience has never been on of my favorite things, but sometimes it is a necessary part of life. When we use it properly, it can pay great rewards.

I've been looking for a pair of tall black leather boots for over two years (yes, I know all the guys stopped reading right there.) I refuse to pay lots of money for them, and that has definitely made it more challenging. I've looked at several, but none has ever been "it."

And then a week ago Saturday the sky parted. I was in Dillard's since they were having an "extra 30% off" sale on their marked down items. I saw a pair of Eccos (super nice, super expensive brand) that looked promising. They were a bit more than I wanted to pay, but I know they are well made. There were none in my size, but the salesperson mentioned she had similar pair by Nurture I might like. I LOVE this brand, and I have several pairs of shoes from them (all bought on markdown of course). She looked, and the only pair left in the entire store was my size AND they were $66. I tried them on, and they were perfect. See how gorgeous they are:

 

 

But wait, it gets better. At the register they rung up for $46! The $66 she had quoted was the price before the additional 30% off. Oh yes, happy dance. When I looked at the box, the original price was $189. What a deal.

 

 

While I did not enjoy the process of waiting to purchase these boots, I am very pleased with the end result.

 





Further Proof That Moms Know Stuff

A couple weeks ago I had the worst case of chapped lips ever (more specifically, the skin around my lips). It was terrible. No matter what I tried, I could not get them to heal. When I mentioned this to my mom, she asked if I'd been using a new toothpaste recently. She'd had a similar incidence once, and her dermatologist ID'd it as a reaction to her toothpaste. I'd told my mom I wasn't using a new toothpaste, so that wasn't it. However, later that evening I realized that while I wasn't using a new toothpaste, I've never used this toothpaste for this long. It's a sample tube, and I used it before while traveling, but that's only for a few days.

That night I started using a different toothpaste. Problem solved. It made perfect sense in retrospect as my lips were worst when I woke up. They'd been exposed to the toothpaste all night since I usually brush my teeth for the last time right before I go to bed. My lips are much happier, and this is yet more proof that moms know stuff.

Surprise!

Friday I asked my coworker what he was doing this weekend. After he told me, he added "I guess you've heard the news". I had no idea what he was talking about so I said "no". He announced "I'm going to be a dad again." He (age 42) and his wife (age 44) have kids who are 21, 15, & 13. Obviously, this was quite a surprise. He seemed to be taking it well, and he said the kids are excited. I was so shocked it took me while to process. I've told several people, and I had to call one of my coworkers who was on vacation because I knew she'd want to know. This was the talk of the office for quite a while.