Now, with that as a base for this entry I am compelled to note that I’m not “mad” at the events below. Not at all. In fact, if anything I pity the people who are in charge of increasing the fundraising outcomes of the institution involved in the story. Read on and find out what I’m talking about…

A few weeks ago I was invited to attend a special reception for a local organization where I choose to donate a few dollars each year. The reception was organized and hosted by a select fundraising team within that organization (which is separate and apart from the full fundraising team that raises money for this institution). I’m blessed to be fortunate enough where I can donate a few bucks each year to several of my favorite charitable causes so I know the deal at these receptions – you go there, the hosting organization does what it needs to do to make you feel welcome and like you’re one of the team, eventually a professional fundraiser comes around and makes either a hard or a soft ask (i.e. they ask for a donation), and then you reciprocate their kindness for hosting the event with a check or commitment for a future check.

Any professional fundraiser out there can tell you that this is the standard sequence of interactions (boiled down to a very simplistic nature) at one of these events. The donors know it going into it, the fundraising team at the organization plans for it, and everyone representing the organization should be prepared to play their part.

Well, apparently this sequence wasn’t so standard at the event that I attend a few weeks ago. One of the first things that I noticed when I arrived was that there were a great deal of people who worked for the organization at the event. At first glance, one might wonder what’s going on, but this is also part of the basics of fundraising. If you’re hosting a fundraising event on your home turf, then you bring out the entire team to meet and mingle with the donors. This organization had a big number of its staff available to talk to the donors when they arrived. Speaking of the donors (and guests of donors, which is another common tactic to grow a donor base – inviting the friends of donors), I noticed that there were probably 15 – 20 donors milling around mostly talking to one another. I didn’t think anything of it since I was just walking in the door.

After getting a table for my buddy and I to sit down at, we went and got a drink and some food to pick at while we sat down. Some five or ten minutes went by and I started talking to my buddy about the fact that it was weird no one had come up and spoken to us yet. In reality, we hadn’t been made to feel welcome since we arrived. Not only were the front doors of this particular building locked (weird), but the young hostess who was supposed to say hello to the people who were walking into the event was busy tapping away on her cell phone when we walked in. Then after we put our jackets down and all through the time we got some food and a drink, no one spoke to us. So after those ten minutes went by, I began looking around with a more critical, fundraiser’s eye.

The first thing that I noticed was the same first thing that I noticed when I walked in – there were a lot of employees for this organization milling around. However, now that some time had gone by, most of the organization’s employees had gotten themselves some food and sat down to eat – with one another. The donors were sitting by themselves (having a good time, by the way) just like my buddy and I were while the organization’s employees (who outnumbered the donors perhaps 2-to-1) were sitting by themselves (equally having a good time). On the surface, the event looked like a lot of fun! People were hanging out, having a drink, chit chatting, etc. But looking at this event through a fundraiser’s eye was scary.

Another five or so minutes went by and one of the organization’s newer employees walked over to the table where my buddy and I were sitting. Without getting too much into the conversation (since I’m obviously trying to hide the nature of the organization as well as the type of event that this was), this employee made a very good impression on my buddy and I. The employee was well-spoken and when they asked for our (non-monetary) support, my buddy and I knew that it was an earnest ask. After this employee moved on, I thought that maybe I was wrong in beginning to judge the inability of this organization to operate a proper, special event fundraiser because this person gave the perfect set up for one of the professional fundraisers to come over and talk to me about giving to the cause.

But that personal, one-on-one follow-up never came.

Oh sure, I saw the head of the fundraising department walking around as well as the head of this special unit walking around – neither of them talking to most of the 15 to 20 donors (and about as many friends and relatives) who attended the event. It was shocking, really. Again, without going into too much detail believe me when I say that this is an organization that has a great deal of experience in fundraising and I’ve seen them throw phenomenal special events in the past. But this event a few weeks ago did not put their best foot forward at all.

My takeaways from this special event were: 1) the organization’s employees must have seen this as an opportunity to get free food and drink without having to work (i.e. socialize and sell the product) for it, 2) the organization didn’t really care enough for me to continue increasing my donation each year since I wasn’t spoken to by anyone whose job it was to raise money, and 3) the new employee who talked to my buddy and I showed just how out of touch the organization’s long-time employees are with the hard work of raising money and building support.

Coming out of this event, I re-evaluated my budget for the rest of 2012. Back when I created my budget last year, I planned to donate a few additional dollars to this organization in 2012. However, I was so turned off by the way the organization’s huge number of employees preferred to socialize with one another while eating the food and drinking the drinks that were there for the donors, that I rolled back the amount of money I was going to donate to its 2011 level. In fact, the more that I think about how poorly operated the fundraising portion of the event was (especially since there were a variety of high-level people walking around also doing nothing but eating and socializing with each other), I’m considering rolling back my donation even further.

Like I wrote above, there are several organizations where I choose to donate my money. And look, I don’t expect to have an organization kiss my ass because I cut them a check – that’s not why I donate. However, I wouldn’t mind having a fundraiser come and shake my hand and “dance the dance” with me. I serve on the Board of several nonprofit organizations and – in my nonprofits – I would never tolerate the type of organizational gluttony and lack of focus that I saw a few weeks ago. Frankly, it was so off-putting that I would have fired a few people (yes, more than one) by now.

But, I’m not in charge of the organization who hosted the event nor do I want to be. I’m just an aware, cognizant donor who understands the value of the dollars that I choose to invest in nonprofit organizations. I have a variety of similar special events coming up in the next few months. It’ll be interesting to see which of those nonprofits can keep their house in order during the special events and play the game with the donors the way that it is supposed to be played. Sure, I don’t salivate over the prospect of someone asking me for money at one of these events, but I do expect that my prior contributions will be respected enough for someone to at least consider asking me for a future donation.

It’s Fundraising 101.

Take a look at that picture - something ain't right about this "value..."

Did you pick up on the problem with this “value” that they’re promoting? No? Go ahead, take another look.

You may notice that buying one stick of Old Spice Fiji antiperspirant deodorant will cost you $3.97. If you wear Old Spice deodorants (and I do), then you know that this is the general going rate for the antiperspirant version of the product. But wait! Look! Right next to the $3.97 stick of Old Spice Fiji is a TWO PACK of Old Spice Fiji for just $7.97! Awesome! What a deal! What great value!

Wait a minute…

Let’s go back to basic, elementary school math for a moment. If one stick costs $3.97 and two sticks cost $7.97, which deal costs less per stick? Hmmm… well one stick costs $3.97 – we know that already. Now if two sticks costs $7.97 then we’d have to divide that amount by two, which would give us $3.98 (and a half cent) per stick. Well, that doesn’t make any sense does it? Aren’t we supposed to be getting a better “value” for the two sticks? This math seems like the consumer has to pay more by getting the special “value” offered at the friendly, neighborhood Walmart.

Can’t be right. Let’s try this another way.

So we know that one stick of the deodorant costs $3.97, but let’s say that I wanted to leave Walmart with two sticks of the product. Well, this one seems simple enough right? Just grab the special “value” and go about my business. Or… wait a moment here… if I can get one stick for $3.97, then what if I bought two of those one sticks? That would be $3.97 + $3.97 = $7.94 for the two sticks.

Do you hear that, Walmart and Old Spice? Your special “value” costs 3 cents more than simply picking up two of the same product! Come on, guys! Get with the program already! How could someone let this slip through the cracks?

And I know what some folks out there on the interwebs would be thinking after reading this; they’d think, “Calm down, Joe. It’s just a simple oversight that will probably get fixed in a matter of days.” Well, that’s true, but what bothers me in this situation is the marketing team at Old Spice. Simply put – these guys are pushing the Fiji flavor of their body wash, deodorant, and body spray more than I’ve ever seen them promote anything else. I mean, take a look at the front page of their website:

Trying to push a failing flavor much? Give it up already.

How many times can they slap that wretched Fiji stench on their website before it becomes ridiculous? It’s even worse in the stores. Every Christmas box set that I see from Old Spice in Wegmans or Walmart is jam packed with the Fiji flavor. Not the Komodo flavor or the Denali flavor or the Cyprus flavor; not even my personal favorite flavor – Matterhorn. Nope, all you get from Old Spice this holiday season is Fiji.

And I think I know why they’re promoting this flavor so much – it’s just not that good.

It’s not. When you smell the Fiji flavor something just smells wrong about it. There’s the wrong mixture of… I don’t even know. Sweetness and a biting stench are the only two adjectives that I can think of to describe the smell. It’s just not that good.

So here’s hoping that the folks at Walmart and/or Old Spice catch this mistake in their pricing model and fix it before they look even dumber than they look already. And here’s also hoping that Old Spice will stop trying to push a stench that the people have clearly rejected. If they were putting Matterhorn or Komodo (or any other flavor) out there in these box sets, they’d all be sold already. But no. Instead, we get Fiji.

Gross.

But the latest article was an online-only publication and while the first article no longer has the bevy of ignorant comments listed underneath it, the second article certainly has some comments that make you go “Hmmm…” (my thanks to the C&C Music Factory for the reference!).

Huh? Wuh? Some people don't seem to be able to think...

Or, in pug terminology (as shown in the pictures above), some of the comments on the recent student loan article had me cocking my head to the side wondering what the hell I was reading. While I admit that the comments were in no way as ignorant or arrogant as the ones that were posted after my first student loan article was published, some of these comments were just mind-boggling. For example, the following comments were posted:

“The horror of having roommates and driving an 11 year old car. My god, what a huge sacrifice!! I had roommated til I was 30, went off on my own for a year, got engaged and then got married. I would probably still have roommates if I found some cool enough. Why not live a cheap as possible?”

Now this moron couldn’t spell roommates seemed to misinterpret an otherwise very easy, simply element of my story. You see, my story was about how I managed to pay off so much of my student loan debt in so short a period of time. As was cited earlier in the very same story that this guy was commenting on, I live with roommates and drive a well-worn 2000 Honda Civic. Those aren’t complaints – they are just methods by which I spend less money and thus put more money towards paying for student loans. Now, imagine how downright stupid this person must be to have read that portion of my story and interpreted it as me complaining rather than sharing a good strategy for saving some money to ultimately put towards repaying student loans. I’m tell you, some people are just dumb. Here’s another one.

“You graduate from college with $100k+ in loans and no special skills, what you expect. At least he is paying off, many are not.”

Okay, well the second part of this comment is dead on accurate – I’m paying off my student loans instead of bitching and moaning about how I can’t afford them or woe is me or whatever, blah, blah, blah. But how ignorant – how downright dumb – can someone be to think that I graduated from college with no special skills? Really? REALLY? You think that someone who is 30 years old could manage to pay off about $75,000 in student loan principal and about $30,000 in student loan interest over a 4 year period and NOT have any special skills that are clearly desirable in the job market?

Really? Are people honestly that stupid? Look, I could go on and on about how I’m one of the leading financiers of a very niche community-based industry in New Jersey, but something tells me that the dull-minded person who wrote that stupid comment would read about what I do for a living and go, “Wuh?” Idiot.

Those were the two comments that had me mimicking the pugs in the picture above. However, most of all I find myself appalled at the comments where people say shit like, “Well, I went to college and paid for it all by myself with no student loans – so why DON’T YOU!?!?” Ugh. I guess that everyone’s life situation has to be like that person’s life situation, huh? Talk about the epitome of ignorance and arrogance.

Anyway, just sharing some frustrations with the public display of ignorance and stupidity that was unfortunately posted on USAToday.com. Now, back to the reality of demolishing my student loans!

Let’s see if I can do it!

Do you know people who blindly follow everything that the leaders of their chosen political party or political point of view say? You know – that friend of yours who never thinks that anything a Republican/Democrat (depends on your friend’s point of view) does is worth any good at all. These people bother me. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of these brainwashed people from both sides of the aisle emerge over the national debt debate. There are conservative minded people who think that the government should stop spending money, period. There are liberal minded people who think that the debt ceiling should have no limit because they don’t think it matters. And then there are the vast majority of Americans who believe that something needs to be done that includes both spending cuts and getting rid of loopholes that allow the ultra wealthy to not pay their fair share in taxes.

In other words, there are people who understand that compromise is the right way to go and there are people who have a blind allegiance to whatever one political party says.

Those people with the blind allegiance frustrate me.

However, forget about the national debate over the debt limit for a moment. There’s an example much closer to home that frustrates me even more. Here in New Jersey we have a very healthy charter school system. For those of you who do not know what a charter school is – it’s a free, public school just like any other public school. There are two primary differences between a charter school and the traditional public school system. The first is that a charter school does not operate under the thumb of the local Board of Education. They’re independent and not beholden to the sometimes crazy local politics that shape local Boards of Education.

The second difference is funding. You know all of that money that you pay in property taxes? Well, that money is filtered through the system in New Jersey a “per pupil” amount is decided for each school district. Ideally, you should be able to track your property tax dollars throughout the system and ultimately say something like, “My 2010 property taxes paid for X students to be educated in the local school district.” Except for charter schools. Yes, they are funded through the same revenue stream as the regular school districts, except they only get 90% of the “per pupil” funding.

Two major differences – independent of the local school board and given less money in an attempt to do a better job at educating your students. Got it? Good!

If you’ve followed the charter school movement in New Jersey, then you know that they are admired by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike. In fact, Governor Chris Christie has ramped up many of the charter school programs that were supported or enacted under former Governor Jon Corzine. There has been a gradual increase in the amount of charter schools operating throughout the Garden State – I think we’re at 70 something schools now. And the most important note to mention about the charter schools operating in New Jersey is that, by and large, they are succeeding.

All you have to do is look at schools like TEAM Academy Charter School in Newark or Camden’s Promise Charter School in Camden or Hope Academy Charter School in Asbury Park and you’ll find students whose parents have rejected the local school districts and are now achieving levels of academic success never before thought possible in these districts. It’s happening, folks – and it’s real. There are a lot of people out there who try to marginalize the charter school movement and their arguments are pretty lame. One of the biggest arguments that I hear goes something like, “Charter schools are private schools! They take money from the public system for a private school!”

That’s totally ridiculous.

Charter schools are totally free, public schools that you can send your child to if you so choose. If there are not enough seats in the charter school to accommodate all of the applicants, then the school holds a public lottery to allocate the seats. It doesn’t get any fairer than that, people.

But what aggravates me the most and what drove me to write this entry is that many of today’s complainers about charter schools didn’t say a word a few years ago when Corzine was governor. Not a word. In fact, many of them lauded the great work that Corzine was doing to support quality charter schools throughout the state. And now we have a very strong, very well-liked Republican governor in a predominantly Democratic state and all of a sudden the supporters of charter schools have become detractors.

It’s sad. It’s pathetic. It’s blind political allegiance.

Mark my words – as soon as a Democrat becomes the governor of this state again, you won’t hear a single peep out of the hate groups that run around these days lambasting Governor Christie’s heroic efforts to support the charter school movement. Those with blind political allegiance will hoot and holler about how great the Democratic governor is and how he or she is fixing all of the problems that Governor Christie “created.”

And amid all of that rubbish there will be nearly no truth.

The truth is that charter schools have succeeded under Republican and Democratic governors alike. The truth is that charter schools have been given a tremendous amount of support under Republican and Democratic governors alike. And the truth is that this state’s politics are so wallowed in people with a fiercely blind political allegiance that those of us with independent voices must continue to shout to be heard above the chorus of blind hatred.

I wonder how long it can last. I wonder how long before someone takes these blind political zealots to task. For the sake of the future of this great state, I hope that day comes very, very soon.

But I’m not a fool. I know when a brand or a company doesn’t give a damn about its customers. And – after my brief experience in Walmart today – I know what many of my friends and I have thought about the Neptune Walmart for some time – this store does not give a damn about its customers.

The Walmart in Neptune Township, New Jersey does not care about its customers

I’m not going to go off on a rant because I don’t have the time or the inclination right now, but let me rundown the brief series of events that I just encountered. First, my intention in going to the Neptune Walmart was to get two money orders. That’s it – I didn’t need or want anything else.

When I walked in the front door, I noticed there were about ten people in the customer service line (typical at the Neptune Walmart – where they never have enough people working on the front end). Instead of waiting in that line, I figured why not go and buy some stuff that maybe I don’t need, but that I have to get at some point anyway. With that thought in mind, I make my way to the back of the store to the automotive section and after spending about ten minutes browsing around, I picked out two Rain-X windshield wipers (the ones that are $18 a piece – I was feeling good) and some Rain-X bug remover wiper fluid (I like Rain-X). All together I had about a $40 purchase in my hands.

Then I walked up to the front of the store and literally did a double take at the cashier lines. When I tell you that each line was 6 or 7 customers deep, that’s not an exaggeration. In fact, it’s probably an understatement because most of the lines were backed up into the clothing areas.

Some of you might ask, “What could make the lines so long on a Wednesday early evening?” And you’d be asking the right question – partly. One of the major disappointments about the Neptune Walmart is that they have around 25+ cash registers, but typically only have 7 or 8 open for business. They clearly need to have more cashiers operating at all times, so why aren’t they putting more people out there? Do they think that the few bucks they save in personnel costs is worth the aggravation of their customers? Talk about being shortsighted!

After realizing that I wasn’t getting back to the customer service counter without waiting 15 to 20 minutes in line to buy the Rain-X stuff (yes, when you shop at the Neptune Walmart, you typically spend more time in line than actually shopping), I decided to leave the stuff up at the front of the store and leave. As I was walking out the door, though, I noticed that the customer service area had no customers in it, so I redirected myself to get my money orders.

And when I asked the woman behind the counter for two money orders she very politely told me that the money order machines are down and they don’t know when they’d be back up. I looked at her for half a second, smiled, and thanked her as I walked out the door.

As if that wasn’t a big enough, epic failure of a trip to the miserable Neptune Walmart, don’t forget that it was raining today. And when it rains in New Jersey, no one remembers how to drive. Apparently, my neighbors in Tinton Falls and Neptune Township really forget how to drive when it rains because those folks couldn’t figure out how to get out of the parking lot without stopping short left and right, forgetting to use their blinkers, cutting people off, etc. It was misery.

But, believe it or not I’m not that mad at the whole experience because this was indicative of a typical trip to the Neptune Walmart. They just don’t give a damn about their customers. And you know what? That’s okay. That’s their prerogative. Just like it’s my prerogative to not shop there for the next month. That’s right, folks. After today’s abysmal experience at the Neptune Walmart, I’m not going back there for a month. I spend a lot of money at the Neptune Walmart each month and I hope that the good folks at the Ocean Wegmans and Neptune ShopRite enjoy my money because after today’s experience, the Neptune Walmart is on probation.

Unacceptable, Neptune Walmart. Unacceptable.

October 1st: I bring my car in for a checkup and because the brake light is on. There’s also a loud noise coming from underneath the car that sounds like the exhaust is messed up. I stress to the nice girl that checks me in that I would like the technicians to take a look around the car while they’re inspecting to see what else needs to be fixed, if anything. She tells me – no worries, Honda has a multi-point inspection that they put each car through so whatever the problem is, they’ll find it.

I leave and get a phone call a little while later from Honda saying the brake light is on because the fluid needed to be topped off so they topped it off. They say the exhaust is making noise because the muffler needs to be replaced and that they’ll order the muffler now and call me when it comes in. Honda also gives my car a full transmission fluid flush or something like that (I don’t know). Oh, and my car passed that Honda multi-point inspection with flying colors. I pay $240+ and go about my business.

October 2nd: The brake light comes back on.

October 16th: Honda calls to tell me that the muffler has arrived and that I can drop the car off at any time to get the thing installed. I ask how long this process takes and the folks at Honda tell me it takes about an hour and a half. Great! I ask them if I can drop it off on Monday, October 18th in the morning and they say sure, but the guy won’t be around to do the install until 1:00pm so I tell them that I’ll see them at 1:00pm on Monday, October 18th.

October 18th, 1:00pm: As promised, I drop the car off at 1:00pm. In fact, I drop it off at 12:58pm, but that’s neither here nor there. As I’m waiting for the service clerk to process the fact that my car is dropped off, I notice a large computer screen hanging from the wall listing out the service appointments for the day. I’m watching the times and names of the customers flip by and I see my name listed at 1:20pm. Weird – my appointment was for 1:00pm. Oh well, who cares? As long as I get the car back within an hour and a half so I have ample time to prepare for a career panel that I’m speaking on at 5:00pm at the local university. When I drop the car off, I tell the folks at Honda that the brake light went back on right after I took the car back on October 1st. They say that they’ll look into it. The cost of the muffler replacement is about $350.

October 18th, 3:00pm: I’m hanging out at my place preparing for the panel later that night and waiting for the Honda call that says, “Hey Joe. Your car is ready to pick up – come on by and get it.” The Honda call that I get instead is, “Hey Joe. We looked into those brakes and it turns out that your brake lines are rusted through and that’s why the brake fluid is leaking. The car isn’t safe to drive. We can replace brake lines for you, but we probably wouldn’t be able to get you the car back until Wednesday. And it’ll cost an additional $700+.”

For a moment, three thoughts try to squeeze themselves into the forefront of my mind and ultimately out of my mouth. The first thought is, “Didn’t my brakes pass some Honda multi-point inspection just two weeks ago? Why wasn’t this picked up at that time?” The second thought is, “How hard would I have to throw this phone to actually break the glass in the windows in my bedroom?” The third thought is, “You clearly need to have this work done – the car isn’t safe to drive without it and you’ll only be without the Civic until Wednesday. Just do it and get it over with. Plus, you’re giving this car back to Mom after you’re done with it and you don’t want her driving an unsafe car.”

The third thought wins the momentary race from my mind to my mouth (you’re welcome, Mom!) and I tell the woman on the phone that I want the brake lines replaced. I ask her about a loaner car since I have that career panel to get to and a job that requires me to actually show up at the office each day (novel idea, huh?). She tells me that Honda doesn’t have loaner cars, but that they have an arrangement with the local rental car place and that she can have a rental car ready for me as soon as I come by. My roommate and I get into his Nissan (which works perfectly fine, by the way), head back to the Honda dealership, and I meet the rental car guy. Turns out the rental car will cost me $40 per day, but they take a $150 deposit from my credit card just in case it goes longer. Weird. The only thought that goes through my mind is, “Son of a bitch. Well, I guess it’s only $80 in total so I’ll deal with it.”

October 18th, 4:45pm: As I’m walking into the building where the career panel is being held, Honda calls again to tell me that whoever replaced the muffler last time (Meineke) used parts and pieces that didn’t actually fit the year and model of Civic that I was driving. Thus, I should have some tube somewhere underneath the car replaced so that the new muffler works as its supposed to work. The technician tells me that the alternative is to have the new muffler constantly banging off of the gas tank and have a clanging noise inside of my car. Since I’m crazy enough as it is without having the 2+ hours that I spend in the car each day joined by some clanging sound underneath the car, I tell the technician that I’d rather have that pipe fixed, how much does it cost, and what’s the estimated additional time to have it fixed. The technician says that they actually have the piece in stock, the additional price is about $250 or so, and that it won’t add any time to the repair. Works for me – I tell the guy to fix it up.

October 19th: While I’m at my office, Honda calls me since they promised to keep me updated throughout the repair process. The nice young woman on the phone tells me that they can’t get me the car back by tomorrow because they didn’t actually have both brake lines available in stock – they only had one. In fact, they can get me the car back on Saturday, which is when American Honda will be able to deliver the part.

Much like the day before, three thoughts make a mad dash from my mind to my mouth. The first thought is, “So the same people who did the awesome job on the multi-point inspection must have checked the shelf and reported that there were two brake lines available when, in fact, there was only one. What type of clowns do they have working over there? Why isn’t anyone actually doing their jobs? I mean I’m paying good money here, damn it! And now I have to pay another $200 or so for this ridiculous rental car?! Are you serious?!” The second thought it, “I know how supply lines work. These things are a pain in the ass and can take forever to deliver something as simple as a thimble to somewhere as close by as the room next door.” The third thought is, “I better close my office door because I’m about to blow up.”

As my third thought alludes to, the first thought wins the race to my mouth and as I shut the door to my office, I get a little loud with the girl on the phone. Some mixture of the following leaves my mouth in an ever increasing tone: “Why didn’t your guys check for the required parts yesterday?! Do you realize that it’s not another four days, it’s another $160 or so in rental car fees?! How can you NOT have a loaner program? You guys better be paying for the additional four days since I only rented this car under the auspices of having it for two days! Why should I have to pay more because you guys didn’t do your job?” And yes, I did use the word “auspices” while I was yelling into the phone. At the same time as my voice got loud, so did the girl on the other end – in fact, I expected her to get loud. Hey, it’s her job to protect the company she works for, right? I fully understand and it doesn’t bother me.

We agree that Honda will pick up two days worth of the cost of the rental since I was told that pieces were in stock when I rented the car. As I hang up the phone I think to myself, “I haven’t yelled at someone in a while. That was kind of fun.”

October 20th: My daily call from Honda comes in. This time around, it turns out that American Honda can’t deliver the part until next Monday morning – not this Saturday like the girl on the phone promised the day before. The girl also tells me that it wouldn’t have mattered if the part was delivered on Saturday because the guy who is doing this repair doesn’t work on Saturdays.

That’s right – you guessed it. A multitude of thoughts rush through my mind at this point. The first thought is, “If the guy doesn’t work on Saturdays, then why did you tell me that I’d get the car back on Saturday even if the part was delivered? What’s going on over there? Why am I being dicked around so much? Who’s in charge? I want to talk to a supervisor immediately. This is crap. Why am I being promised things that never seem to happen or – in this case – can’t possibly happen in the first place?!” The second thought is, “I hate you. I hate Honda. I hate everyone right now. Don’t call me again unless you’re telling me that my car is ready to be picked up, damn it.” The third thought is, “Damn it. Whatever. Just fix my car.”

As the third thought is racing towards my mouth and crossing the finish line, the girl on the phone cuts me off and says that she understands that I’ve been put at a disservice and that she’s going to look into paying for another two days of the rental car expenses. If she can’t get the additional two days of the rental car paid for, then she’s going to try to do something about reducing the labor costs. My better judgment immediately picks up the doublespeak going on here – she’s going to “look into” getting more rental car days paid and she’s going to “try” reducing the labor costs. I feel like telling this girl, “Believe it or not, I’m a highly educated guy with a ton of business experience – I know what those words mean.” They mean that this girl isn’t going to do a damn thing or, at the very most, she’ll ask a question to a supervisor and (of course) be told “no” and then stop at that answer. In other words, this girl has a job to do and that job doesn’t necessarily involve fiercely advocating on my behalf to a decision-maker at Honda. Just as I’m ready to let all of these thoughts out, the third thought from a few minutes ago finishes the race and I tell her that I appreciated that she was going to look into the additional days and that I’d wait for her call on Monday to pick up my car.

The same little voice that – just 24 hours ago – told me that I missed yelling at people tells me, “See? That’s why you should yell at people – it makes them look into the obviously legitimate answer (in this case, paying for more rental days) without you even having to ask.” My conscience, with its feelings hurt, tells the little voice to shut up.

October 21st: I realize that even though the Chevy Aveo which I’m renting is the absolute bottom of the line in terms of features, it’s not that bad of a little car to go zipping back and forth to work. When I say bottom of the line, I mean NOTHING on this car is automatic other than the transmission. Later that night, I start pricing out how much a brand new Chevy Aveo might cost me.

October 25th, 3:00pm: I’m at the office and, at this point, I actually like the Chevy Aveo. One of my coworkers and I were just having a conversation about how we like the Chevrolet brand because it’s pretty durable and provides a good value when Honda rings my phone. My coworkers are happy that Honda is calling because they feel for me on this situation with the dealership and everyone in the office agrees that I’m getting dicked around by Honda. No matter, Honda is calling me with the good news that my car is ready to pick up.

I pick up the phone and the girl that I’ve been working with is back. She tells me that she looked into having the dealership pay for a few extra days on the rental and the answer is no. I immediately motion to my coworker who happens to be standing in my doorway to get out and close the door behind her; it’s about to get loud in this office again. The girl on the phone does her typical spiel of talking loud and talking nonstop so I can’t get a word in edgewise. In the midst of her talk she says, “Unfortunately, American Honda didn’t deliver the part today and they won’t be able to get it here until Saturday.” At this point, I’m convinced the clouds covered the Sun because even our closest star would be blinded by how bright I’m about to light this girl up on the phone. The girl ends her talking points by saying that this is a rare circumstance and this usually never happens and that she apologizes that the dealership can’t pay for more than two of the rental days.

Now it’s my turn to talk and there are no thoughts racing to my head – I have this response down already without having a mental war with myself. My response goes something like: “I have no major problems with you guys and your shop. [In fact, I do.] I have a major problem with American Honda. Why are they telling me that the part will be delivered on Saturday, but actually that means Monday, but actually it’ll be the following Saturday? What’s going on over there? Why can’t they deliver a part when they say they’ll deliver the part? This is absolutely unacceptable.” The girl on the phone says that she understands and agrees, but that this is a rare occasion and that she’s sorry about what’s going on. With a notable increase in my tone, I ask her: “Who did you talk to about paying for the rental car days? The service shop manager? The manager at the dealership? Who?” She tells me that she spoke with both of these guys as well as the district manager (whatever that means) and American Honda and no one was able to provide additional days. Knowing exactly what I’m going to do here I respond with: “Good. Give me the number of the district manager’s boss. I want to talk to that person.” She is audibly startled and after a quick verbal stutter step says, “Oh. That would be American Honda. Hold on. I’ll get you the number.” I get put on hold for about two minutes during which the following thoughts start going through my mind:

• This is absolutely ridiculous.
• That’s another $200+ for this rental in addition to the $200+ that you’re already paying. We’re getting to a point where you can’t afford this excessive expense.
• Why does no one at Honda understand that each day this repair gets prolonged it costs me an additional $40? This is outrageous!
• Did she say the part will be delivered on Saturday? Didn’t she tell me last week that the guy who is repairing the car doesn’t work on Saturdays? Wait a minute… I’m getting bamboozled here again!
• Hold on – didn’t the muffler take two weeks to get delivered? Why didn’t I think of that last week when I dropped the car off? American Honda can’t deliver a part in under two weeks…
• I could probably drive the car without the new brake lines installed. I drove the car onto the Honda lot with the rusted through brake lines and the car drove fine. It’s just that damn brake light…
• Maybe I can find a way to just turn the brake light off?
• I should just pick up the car this afternoon. To Hell with it all. The car drives fine.
• But what if the brake lines are really in bad shape? I could get into an accident and nobody needs that crap. But what are the chances of that happening? Well, they might be good – who knows?
• What the hell is a brake line anyway? Let me get on Bing for a minute and search this thing out…
• You know what? That’s it – I’m picking the car up today and bringing it somewhere else. Wait a minute – one of the guys that I advise in the fraternity owns a car repair place – I’ll bring it there! Why didn’t I think of that in the first place?! Damn it!

The girl gets back on the phone and gives me the generic 800 number to American Honda. As she begins to tell me that the piece will be delivered on Saturday I cut her off and tell her not to worry about it because I’m picking up the car today. She says, “You want to come and get the car? It’s not safe to drive.” I say, “I drove it onto the lot and it drove fine. I’ll drive it off this afternoon.” She says that they’ll top off the brake fluid for me, but that I’ll have to sign some disclaimer since the car isn’t safe to drive and they alerted me to that fact. I tell her that it’s fine with me and I’ll see her at 6:30pm. She also gives me the quote on the final bill (about $610 or something like that), which would be a reasonable expense for the work that the shop performed up until this point – a muffler replacement and having some tube under the car being replaced. But when you factor in the hundreds I’m spending on this rental car…

When I hang up the phone, part of me is proud that I pulled my business from a company that clearly doesn’t want to play fair with its clients and that clearly doesn’t give a damn about this client. Another part of me, though, isn’t happy at the thought of driving a possibly unsafe car off of the Honda lot. I know what the next move is here…

October 25th, 3:10pm: I call my buddy with the repair shop and he thinks the entire story with Honda is a complete joke. Not only is it crazy that the part wasn’t in the shop at the time when I brought my car in, but the piece should be easily delivered in a short period of time – i.e. not two weeks later. My buddy does tell me, though, that the car is probably unsafe to drive and that I should get it fixed before taking it a long distance. I ask him to ask his father about the timing on getting the car fixed if I drop the car off later tonight. He’ll call me back.

October 25th, 3:15pm: Honda calls back and now one of the managers is one the phone instead of the girl that I’ve been dealing with throughout. The manager says that he’s reviewed my previous discussions with the young woman I was dealing with and he’s sorry that American Honda has been so goofy with delivering the brake lines. He reiterated that this was a rare event and that he’s sorry that it happened.

I tell the manager that it’s not the fact that the shop at the dealership isn’t delivering on their promises to me (although that’s not helping), but that for a week now my car has been sitting on their lot and – like most folks who are without their car – my life is somewhat put on hold until I get that car back. He understands and asks for another 24 hours to work with the folks at American Honda to try to put together an arrangement where they’ll pay for some more rental car days given the fact that they’re the ones causing the unnecessary delay. In exchange for giving him and his staff another 24 hours to work with American Honda, he’ll pay the rental expense for the additional day. I thank him for the offer and say that I accept the offer, but that I’m not happy with the way my business has been treated by American Honda and that I’ll be by tomorrow to pick the car up. He asks me to wait until they call tomorrow to allow them to work with American Honda on those extra days. I agree and the manager apologizes again for this outrageous delay.

October 25th, 3:25pm: My buddy calls me back and lets me know that his father doesn’t think it’s a good idea to drive the car, but if I could get the car to their shop tonight, I’ll definitely have it back by the end of the week if not mid-week. As my buddy goes into the details on how the brake lines can be fixed (about 80% of which I understand) a few thoughts go through my mind. First, I’m bringing my car to this guy’s shop from now on. Second, no one at Honda bothered to get into the details with me on what needed to be fixed with the brake lines. Third, how the Hell would I get my car down to his shop? I explain the conversation that I just had with the dealership and my buddy asks me to give him a call tomorrow when I know more.

October 25th, 3:30pm: While I was on the phone with Honda and the young man that I used to advise, I looked up what a brake line actually was and am almost sick to my stomach. Have you ever looked up a brake line? No? This is what it looks like:

That’s it! That’s what I’m waiting for the great folks at American Honda to deliver! Why couldn’t they drop those brake lines in a little box and send them off in a FedEx to the shop at the dealership?! FedEx will get it there overnight – guaranteed! Unreal. Absolutely unreal. The supply chain that is used by American Honda absolutely sucks and that company ought to be ashamed of itself. It’s not like I’m asking for a new transmission to be delivered or like I need a new steering column or something that doesn’t fit into a FedEx-sized box. Come on already!

October 25th, 3:35pm: I decide that this experience is too ridiculous and too full of completely outlandish and outrageous statements to not share it with my readers on JerseySmarts.com and I begin writing this entry. Once I began writing this blog entry I didn’t stop until it was 5:30pm – way past my time to leave the office. However, the angry little voice in my head appreciates the therapeutic power of writing and is now at ease, much to my conscience’s contentment. All of the information written from this point forward comes from a different writing session than everything written above.

October 25th, 5:50pm: Apparently, I’m really at ease from the writing because I find myself listening to some shitty dance music on one of these garbage terrestrial radio stations and actually dancing in the Chevy Aveo. If you don’t find the humor in this, then it must be because you don’t realize that at 350 pounds I’m about the same size as the Aveo. Somewhere in my subconscious the voice of wisdom says, “You clearly like driving this car – stop the work on the car at the Honda shop and go buy a brand new one of these. You can afford it – just do it.” And while the Nike-inspired voice of wisdom would seem to make perfect sense, my conscience reminds me that I’m engaged in an epic battle against the two headed monster that is my student loan debt and that I’m literally weeks away from destroying one of the heads on that monster. The voice of wisdom retires for the day.

October 26th, 2:00pm: Thankfully, I’ve recovered from that bizarre dancing episode and for some awful reason I have a headache which probably won’t go away any time soon since my Excedrin is at home. Note to self: don’t dance in the car any more – it’s not worth the headache. The Honda dealership makes their daily call to me and since I’m in my office I opt to close the door so that my yelling doesn’t bother my coworkers. That’s right – I know before I answer this phone call how I’m going to approach the discussion which is, namely, either American Honda pays for this absurd rental or I’m taking my car back this afternoon. Period.

The girl says hello on the phone and I return the greeting. Sorry folks, there aren’t a bunch of thoughts racing to get to my mouth this time because there are already words on the tip of my tongue: “I’ll be by after work to take my car back.” Before I have a chance to use this quick verbal barb, though, the young woman on the phone says that the manager talked to someone “above” and American Honda will pay for the three days on the rental that they already agreed to pay for as well as paying for every day of the rental starting with today up until the job is finished.

As you might expect, the “I’m taking my car back” jab punches backwards instead of forwards and for a split second I’m not sure how to respond. Internally, my mind is thankful that someone up the chain of command at American Honda understands that the company hasn’t done right by me as a good, paying customer. I respond with a thanks and a brief statement that goes something like, “This is good news, but when do you expect to have this piece in the shop and the car repaired?” The young woman tells me that the piece should be delivered by Friday (I thought it was Saturday?) and that hopefully it’ll be installed quickly. At this news, a tremor of “Go get ’em, cowboy!” builds up in me since yesterday it was Saturday and today it’s Friday and I have no reason to believe either day, but I did just get a free rental for the remainder of this repair so I keep it shut.

My conscience wins a roaring victory by silencing the tremor and I thank the young woman for her assistance and let her know that I’ll be by later that day to take some items out of my car that I need for work (EZ Pass, GPS, hands-free headset, etc).

October 27th, 12:00pm: The local car rental company charges me an additional $222. I call and ask what the problem is and they say that it has to do with me having the car for over a week at this point. The anger begins to build within my mind, but my conscience is having a wonderful day and no battle ensues.

October 29th, 4:00pm: I’m up in North Jersey celebrating my Mother’s birthday which was actually the day before. My Mom and I think that the Honda dealership will probably call me while I’m up at the family party for her birthday since she lives about an hour and a half from the dealership and there’s no way that I’d be able to pick up the car that night. Almost as though if someone had set this up ahead of time, the Honda dealership calls me and says…

Bad news – They need to do more work on the car that will require a new rear wheel cylinder to be purchased and installed. They also need to replace the the rear brake shoes and resurface the drums. Good news – They took the liberty of going down to the AutoZone to get an aftermarket rear wheel cylinder instead of having me wait a few more days for American Honda to deliver the part. Also, the brake shoes are already in the shop and they’re not going to charge me extra labor to get the job done. After asking how much this is going to cost (another $285), I tell them to go for it. Then I ask how long it will take to get this done and they say that it’ll be done today.

Later that night my family decides that since we all have various financial goals that we’re aggressively pursuing, we don’t think it would be wise to waste any money on useless Christmas gifts this year. We decide, instead, that we’ll do something as a family and I hear my wallet audibly applaud the decision.

October 30th, 10:00am: I gladly pick up my car, sadly drop off the Chevy Aveo, and angrily pay for the repair.

In total, here is what I spent on repairing the car and paying for the rental car:

Absolutely, without a doubt, 100% completely unacceptable. Completely unacceptable. In fact, the total cost of this repair is ridiculous. In all truth, the car rental place refunded me $210.40 (remember, American Honda and the dealership were paying for a few days of the rental) so that my final cost for this repair and rental was $2,079.83, but that doesn’t make it any less heinous that I was treated like nothing more than easy money for American Honda.

And that’s the story, folks. I’m not totally mad at the people working at the local Honda dealership (though to not have a loaner program when you have a lot full of unused cars is unacceptable), but I’m furious at American Honda. I think that this entry appropriately displays my aggravation and all of the reasons why I’ll never purchase a Honda. Sure, Honda might see me as a single customer in a sea of potential customers, but I hope that this entry changes at least one other person’s mind about purchasing a Honda. The truth is that American Honda doesn’t give a damn about you as a consumer. All they care about is you as potential income to them.

And that, in this economy and for this consumer, is absolutely unacceptable.

FYE.com Has Horrible Customer Service

Now remember, I hadn’t regularly watched NBA games since I was in grade school and at the time I was a huge Chicago Bulls fan. Of course, I was probably a Bulls fan because when I was in grade school, Michael Jordan was destroying his competition. These days, I didn’t really feel a connection to that team so I turned to the Nets. The first thing I learned about the Nets was that they’re probably leaving New Jersey. Great. I’m not rooting for a team that is leaving the state. And what does that leave me with? Either the New York Knicks or the Philadelphia 76’ers. No thanks. I thought to myself that maybe I could find a team to root for if I had more time around the NBA and started looking into which basketball video games were popular. Not that I have time to play video games, but I thought it was a decent idea.

I did a little bit of research and it turns out that this NBA 2k11 game is supposed to be the best thing to ever grace a video game console since anything ever in the world. Or something like that… anyway, I pre-ordered the game for Nintendo Wii way back on August 31, 2010. Seems like a long time ago, right? Well, that’s the background that you need to know for my story. Oh, and you should know that the game was released for the Wii at some point last week and thus I should have had it in my hot little hands at this point.

As you might imagine, I didn’t get the game delivered to me. So, I sent the following message to FYE.com:

I’m sending this message to inquire about my order #XXXXXX. The online system shows it still listed as a pre-order and “in process.” Could you let me know when I should expect this game to be delivered to my home?

FYE.com sent me the following response which, I have to admit, reads like it was written by a robot. Take a look at this:

We appreciate your recent order.

Unfortunately, the item ordered is currently out of stock. We have placed this item on back order and expect it to become available for shipment within 30 days.

We will ship the item when it becomes available.

If you wish to cancel your order, please see the cancelation instructions below.

We sincerely apologize for the delay in processing this request.

And yes, they did provide extensive cancellation instructions below this note. Well, I thought that this didn’t sound right. How could a video game that I ordered months ago not be in stock when I was a pre-order? In my mind I started thinking, “Ugh. This is going to be one of those customer service experiences that you read about on Consumerist.com and, frankly, I’m really not in the mood for this type of crap. I’m going to cancel this thing and move on with my life.” With that in mind, I wrote the following message to the folks at FYE.com:

Thank you for the update. I just have an additional question. Since I pre-ordered this item back in August, how could it possibly be out of stock for a pre-order? Isn’t that the purpose of a pre-order – to have the item in stock so that the person that placed the pre-order doesn’t have to wait for an additional 30 days?

I’m going to cancel my order, but this is pretty ridiculous in terms of serving a pre-ordering customer. Unreal.

Look, I have no reason to bow down or cow-tow to a company that clearly doesn’t give a shit about me as a customer (just wait until you read the tirade I’m getting ready to unleash on Honda in the next few days). I normally wouldn’t write that last sentence and the “Unreal” comment, but FYE.com really had it coming to them with their robotic response and completely unacceptable additional 30 day delay. To their credit, I guess, they responded within 24 hours with this message:

Thank you for contacting the fye.com Customer Assistance Center

Please log into your account online or contact us at 800-818-1941, option 7, to submit a cancellation request.

That was it. Nothing else. No direct answer to any of my questions or an explanation of what was going on. By the time I received this absolute joke of a customer service response, I had already canceled my order. But this was pretty damn insulting and it led me to share my experiences with you fine folks. The lesson that I learned here is three-fold. First, FYE.com’s customer service absolutely sucks. They either have you talking to robots or people who act like robots. Listen up, FYE.com: when a customer asks a question – no matter how rude you think that question may be – you respond to that question. Second, FYE.com clearly doesn’t care about my business and thus, I’m not giving it to them. I happen to have a small credit over at GameStop and I’ll be going to their website to spend my money now. And third, FYE.com sucks when compared to the folks in their brick and mortar store.

What a shame. I wanted to like shopping at FYE.com but, instead, found it to be an annoying, aggravating experience. For shame, FYE.com. For shame.

Let me make this very clear, folks. There is not one thing in either of these videos that is defensible. Not one. And now, for your viewing pleasure disgust, the hateful, grotesque New Jersey Education Association as presented by the same guy who brought us the ACORN videos last year.

Feeling sick to your stomach yet? Look folks – enough is enough with the NJEA. This hateful organization needs to be dismantled and the local teachers unions need to be empowered. Just like any good bureaucracy, the people at the top of this chain have forgotten their mission and values and need to be removed. Let the local unions handle the local issues – not some filthy, unethical, immoral group of scum in the NJEA’s Trenton office.

Now, I’ve had deadbeat clients in the past that simply went away and stopped paying for their services. What’s worse, I’ve had deadbeat clients who were actually my close friends from college and members of the same fraternity as me – two populations that you’d never expect to be deadbeats. However, over the course of this week I’ve had to deal with two deadbeat clients much more than I could have imagined. And what’s more amazing to me is that my contractual obligations to both of these particular deadbeats expired over the summer and they were alerted (numerous times) that they needed to find a new website provider. Did they get off their asses and take care of the online portion of their businesses?

Of course not!

Actually, let me go into some greater detail on one of these idiots… This client’s contract expired over the summer so I sent a notice that I was not renewing services (bear in mind that I hadn’t been paid for any of my services in over a year anyway – the definition of deadbeat). When the contract expired, I took the website down. About a month goes by and the client comes back and is complaining that the website is down. Okay. I told them that the website could very easily be restored if I received the back payment that I was owed.

And, like any good deadbeat, this idiot paid me 70% of what I was owed and I agreed to put the website back up, but make no changes as she requested. Then the deadbeat said that there were no contracts or extension notices in her file so she weren’t even sure if I was their web provider.

What an idiot.

By the way, this is a common tactic of deadbeats and scumbag business people. I know – I used to work for one of the biggest ones in New Jersey. The scumbag business person will act like they are the victim 99 times out of 100 (read on to see how this particular client played the victim this week). Anyway, I went into my files and gave this client copies of the initial contract and the two year extension letter. I also printed another termination letter saying that our agreement was over and ended and that I would be very happy to transfer the entire website off of my servers once I was paid in full. The client responded by contacting me late last week saying to call her when I had a chance. I called her office last Friday and they tell me that she doesn’t work on Fridays. Nice. I e-mailed her that I just left her a message at her office and she said to call her on Tuesday. And, as you might imagine, Tuesday comes around and I called her office at 3pm only to learn that she was already gone for the day. Fine, whatever. I called back on Wednesday morning at 10:30am and guess who’s not in the office yet.

That’s right! You got it! This deadbeat wasn’t even in the office by 10:30am. What type of small business owner isn’t already in motion for a few hours by 10:30am on a Wednesday?!

However, on Wednesday afternoon I receive an e-mail from the deadbeat saying that now it’s Wednesday and I haven’t reached out to her and what’s the problem. Good grief. I sent a pleasant little note back saying that I’ve actually left two messages for her and that I’m waiting for her to respond to either of them. She, of course, did not respond so I gave her a call on Thursday afternoon around 4pm and she was actually in the office.

Now, like I said earlier, deadbeats have to play the role of the victim. When this one got on the phone she said, “Hi.” And I responded with, “Hello! How are you, Deadbeat?” Obviously, I used the deadbeat’s real name. She said, “Fine,” in about as dull and annoyed a voice as you could imagine. And that was the conversation opener. Since I’ve dealt with and worked for scumbags in the past, I knew exactly where this was going and I prepared myself to have some fun. I said, “So I received your message-” and she interrupted me with, “Yeah you claim you’ve been reaching out and you can’t get me. Well, I’m here now.”

Oh, what a pity?! It would appear that this deadbeat is a victim, right? Poor her – sitting there and having to actually do work with one of her contractors! Oh – the horror! It gets better.

So I responded with something like, “Yeah I saw your e-mail. So do you have a new web provider in mind that I can work with to transfer the services?” And she said something like, “Yes. And he’s offering services much cheaper than what we’ve been paying-” so then I cut her off and in my rosiest, happiest voice I said, “Right! So if you could get me his information, I’ll be happy to contact him and work to complete the transfer.”

You see, having worked for a scumbag, I saw that “pity me, I’m a victim” card being played way before this deadbeat began dealing it out – thus why I cut her off when she lied about being offered cheaper services. How do I know that she lied about the cost of the services? Easy! I’m actively engaged in this work and I know what my competitors charge. I typically charge between 25% and 50% of what every single one of my competitors charge (except this one guy who does websites in the area and charges an exorbitant fee – I’m about 10% of his costs).

The conversation pretty much ended after that with the deadbeat saying that she’d e-mail me her new web person’s contact information. I responded with a dreadfully cheery, “Wonderful! Thank you!” Which she followed up with a half-asleep, extremely aggravated, “Bye,” before she hung up. It’s always the same with scumbag business people and deadbeats – they all act the same, they all talk the same, they’re all the victims in situations where they try to screw their contractors. I’ve seen it before, I’ve worked for it before, and I’ve watched it be disassembled before (which is what makes me so good at dealing with these scumbags).

Anyway, I’ll be glad when these deadbeats are out of my portfolio. One of the lessons that I’ve learned thus far in owning a small business is that scam artists and deadbeats will try to take advantage of you all of the time. In my world and with my hectic schedule, I don’t have time for the bullshit so I don’t have time for the deadbeats. Usable Web Solutions, LLC will be a stronger, faster, more profitable company once I get these idiots out of my hair.

As some of you may remember, I teach at the local college. Well, two weeks ago was the first day of class and I just took over the teaching assignment for this class at the end of August. The problem with switching teaching assignments so close to the beginning of the school year is that the previous professor’s books are still the ones that are listed as the required texts – and I use different books. Thus, we have a problem.

My students came to class on the first day and most of them had the wrong textbook with them. No problem, I thought. I told the students to go back to the bookstore and explain the issue and that it shouldn’t be a problem to get a refund and switch out the book that they bought with the correct one. I’ve worked with the bookstore before and they’re typically a good, easy-going bunch.

However, I decided that since I was on vacation from my day job that after class that day I would walk over to the bookstore and just double check to be sure that the right books were assigned to my class section (they were). When I arrived at the bookstore, I noticed some of my students switching out their books, which was good. I asked one of the runners (they have students that run to the back to check on questions when they come up) if she could go and check my book assignments. By the response on this young girl’s face, you would have thought that I asked her to do high end calculus using nothing but an abacus. She responded with something like, “Oh… I don’t think I can do that, but let me ask my supervisor.” And before I could tell her not to worry about it, she was gone.

Folks, the last thing I want to do as an adjunct professor on the first day of school is bother a supervisor in the bookstore. If you’ve ever been to a college bookstore on the first day of classes, it’s mayhem. The young girl came running back and said to follow her to the back. Immediately, I put my guard up because not only was this completely unnecessary, but I knew that whoever I was going to speak with was going to be irate at my presence.

And I was right.

This young girl took me to a person in the back who was checking something on her computer as she was hunched over it. She said something like, “Yes. Hello.” I told her who I was and that my class had been changed a few weeks ago and that I used different textbooks than the previous professor. She responded with, “You can go online and check the textbooks to see if they’re the right ones.” So I told her that I went online the night before to check the texts and they were incorrect. And I also told her that I e-mailed the bookstore about the assignment change a few weeks prior to school starting and never received a response. She responded with, “Well, it’s been a little busy around here in case you can’t tell. You can go online and check the textbooks to see if they’re the right ones.”

Now, at this point I’m not in the mood for some idiot’s stance that she’s going to keep on going to the same line about checking online. So I said very calmly, “Yes. I checked online last night and they were wrong. I know that you guys are busy and you are all doing a great job. However, my students came to class with the wrong books this morning so I just wanted to double check.”

She responded with, “You can double check online.” I should note that the dummy was doing ten different things while trying to address my concerns and that after she repeated about going online to double check, she walked right by me without looking and stomped towards the front of the book counter. I slowly followed her and said, “I’d like to check the shelf.” And as it happened, she was marching by my books and said, “They’re over here somewhere,” as she pointed to her left. She then added, “If they’re wrong, let me know, but you can check all of this stuff online in the future.”

At this point, and as you might imagine, I was done talking to her. The combination of her not listening to me and relying on some stupid talking point about going online wasn’t helping the fact that her tone was a mixture of anger and frustration. So I walked over to where my books were, saw that the change was made, and began to walk out of the restricted area. On my way out, I called out, “Thank you. You guys are doing a great job. I appreciate it.”

No one responded.

And so I share this story with you because it’s been a while since I wrote about someone this rude and downright ignorant. I hope you’ve enjoyed because I enjoyed shaking my head in disgust as I left the bookstore!