Don't Get Between a Girl and Her Coldstone

Tonight was the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars. I had to work late. Until 6:30. I got home just as it was coming on. I threw on my workout clothes jumped on our elliptical, and watched couples twirl and spin on TV. I wish I could say I worked up my own sweat. But, that'd be a lie. Truth be told though, a window was open right next to me, so maybe that's the reason?After DWTS and after a great dinner with the roomies, Amanda and I decided we needed a good FHE treat. She had been craving Coldstone for weeks (actually two years, she just got back from Argentina a bit ago, they don't have it there). So, I Googled the closest Coldstone to us, 6.24 miles, and we headed out.

Here's the part where I get angry.

Have you ever been so upset with someone, but all the things that you could say don't come to your mind or mouth until post situation, so instead you're just really nice and get walked all over?

Well, we got to Coldstone on North Ave. downtown, paralleled parked (fabulous job with that p.s. Amanda), and walked the half block to the creamery. Lights were on, people were in line, and THE DOORS WERE LOCKED!!! We were in shock. I was mad that we had travelled 6.24 miles just to turn around. Amanda had been craving it for two years and was losing patience. A nice man in line saw us, and shrugged his shoulders when he saw our faces. The Coldstone worker saw the nice man's shrug, and points to his wrist (mind you there was no watch) and mouths, "We're closed." Now, I must interject here. I had Googled the store, it said it was open until 10:00 p.m. The sign on the door, physically right in front of us said it was open until 10:00 p.m. The current time as the worker was pointing to his naked wrist was 9:31 p.m. We continued to stand there. And then in anger, we called the store. The employee answers, "Coldstone." I say, "Yes. I looked up your store hours on the Internet and it says you're open until 10:00 p.m. The sign at the front of your store says you're open until 10:00 p.m. The current time is 9:32 p.m." He responds, "We're short on employees tonight, so in order to not stay here until 1:00 a.m., I'm closing early."

Now, as soon as I walked away from the situation I thought of the following things to say in reply to his very un-customer service statement.

- Oh? Do you have a hot date?

- Do you know what the current unemployment rate is?

- Sorry to inconvenience you're evening by being a customer.

- What is your manager's phone number?

- Oh? Are you in a hurry to be unemployed?

Instead, I said, "Oh I understand" (because a little bit of me understands that, but my experience working at Target in Guest Service, my high school two-year employment at Hallmark, my four-month waitressing at an Argentine restaurant in college and my current career in PR bending over backwards for customers and clients does not, hence the post anger.)

The employee went on to say, "There's another store down the street. You can go there." My frustration at the moment though did elicit my feminine damsel in distress desire for very specific directions, which I demanded from him and received.

And the whole time we were driving to the other store Amanda and I furiously threw responses to his rude statement back and forth. Our fury allowed us to ask the manager at the other store for the owner's number, and we WILL be calling Coldstone HQ tomorrow.

However, the ice cream was quite delightful. Amanda got Peanut Butter Cup Perfection. I got Cheesecake Fantasy. We picked up Raspberry Sorbet for Ruth.

Great FHE. Good Evening. Terrible Customer Service.

And over 400 people applied for one janitorial position just recently. If we can't have quantity, can we at least get quality?

And now, in closing. Thank you Ruth, for allowing me to listen to your Beattles Love Remix while I wrote this post. It was very calming. Someday maybe we'll go see the cirque de soleil (sp?) show in Vegas together.