threadwalker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
threadwalker) wrote2007-12-21 03:35 pm
threadwalker) wrote2007-12-21 03:35 pm
Entry tags:
Not a happy ending, but an ending of sorts
The follow up to: http://thread-walker.livejournal.com/138870.html
The owner called me back. He apologized for his manager. He spoke to the manager and had the manager's side of the story. There were several points that the manager and I disagreed on. For example, per Bob, the manager upped his offer to $10 of gas. Sorry, never happened.
I could tell by how Bob started the conversation that he wanted to know what happened, but from his small comments and in how he defended his manager that he was not going to try and sooth my feathers with a gas card or any other compensation for my angst. Bob stated that he could not afford to fill my tank gratis and the manager did not have the power to make that decision. (Doesn't Chevron make a profit every quarter? I'm pretty sure the gas station sets the price of gas. That sounds bogus.) Bob agreed that they handled the situation poorly. He apologized. He started to make some excuses and do wiffle-waffle speak about how hard it is to make a buck and no one was really at fault. (snort). I clipped him and said I had some very specific points to make to him:
1. Staff were rude from the start. It was totally inappropriate to blame the customer and be rude.
2. The manager was rude. I still don't know his name because he never introduced himself. He started rude and started out by telling me he could not help me.
3. No one apologized.
4. Their starting point in our relationship was from a position of refusing to help. They did not start to help (phone calls, tools, etc) until after I escalated it and forced them to. They were content to make me wait in their gas station until morning. That is not acceptable.
5. They were able to disassemble the card reader in less than 15 minutes, which tells me that they had the capability and were too lazy or unwilling to help. They were inclined to let me wait in their gas station all night because it was inconvenient to even make the effort to get my card.
I am a person. I am not a statistic. I have a family and small children, I have a life and stranding me far from home should be criminal and is at least immoral. It is not acceptable for them to victimize me with their reluctance to help and strand me so far from home.
He assumed that I would not be using his station again and I affirmed this. I added that I grew up in RWC and would alert my mom, who has the biggest mouth evah and is involved in the local senior center, her church, and various volunteer organizations, and she would be happy to inform her groups as a warning to stay away from a gas station that is hostile to female customers who are stranded alone at night. Plus I was already broadcasting my story to local friends who were likely going to spread the tale and probably avoid his station. He wasn't happy about that, but I told him that just as he couldn't help me get on the road with enough gas to get home, I couldn't help him feel better about his situation. I told him that this was a growth opportunity for him and his manager and I recommended that he needed to seriously consider how his staff's actions will impact his business and that he/they needed to be more proactive in dealing with extreme situations like this.
So there it is. Nothing will really change at that gas station. But by sharing my tale perhaps I've emboldened my friends and family to stick up for themselves and by my example shown you that no matter how impossible a situation is, if you keep on pushing back a solution can be achieved and you don't need to be a victim.
I also have the satisfaction of having my voice heard and the knowledge that I followed due process, which is the most that a reasonable person can do. I can still write a letter to the local paper about how a visitor from the East Bay was treated and I may do that next week when work eases off.
And of course the staff in the trailer I work have been listening to my various phone calls and finally had the guts to say "hey, what up? most entertaining, but we'd like the whole story." So I had an impromptu jam session about crappy customer service in my office today, which was very VERY cathartic.
The owner called me back. He apologized for his manager. He spoke to the manager and had the manager's side of the story. There were several points that the manager and I disagreed on. For example, per Bob, the manager upped his offer to $10 of gas. Sorry, never happened.
I could tell by how Bob started the conversation that he wanted to know what happened, but from his small comments and in how he defended his manager that he was not going to try and sooth my feathers with a gas card or any other compensation for my angst. Bob stated that he could not afford to fill my tank gratis and the manager did not have the power to make that decision. (Doesn't Chevron make a profit every quarter? I'm pretty sure the gas station sets the price of gas. That sounds bogus.) Bob agreed that they handled the situation poorly. He apologized. He started to make some excuses and do wiffle-waffle speak about how hard it is to make a buck and no one was really at fault. (snort). I clipped him and said I had some very specific points to make to him:
1. Staff were rude from the start. It was totally inappropriate to blame the customer and be rude.
2. The manager was rude. I still don't know his name because he never introduced himself. He started rude and started out by telling me he could not help me.
3. No one apologized.
4. Their starting point in our relationship was from a position of refusing to help. They did not start to help (phone calls, tools, etc) until after I escalated it and forced them to. They were content to make me wait in their gas station until morning. That is not acceptable.
5. They were able to disassemble the card reader in less than 15 minutes, which tells me that they had the capability and were too lazy or unwilling to help. They were inclined to let me wait in their gas station all night because it was inconvenient to even make the effort to get my card.
I am a person. I am not a statistic. I have a family and small children, I have a life and stranding me far from home should be criminal and is at least immoral. It is not acceptable for them to victimize me with their reluctance to help and strand me so far from home.
He assumed that I would not be using his station again and I affirmed this. I added that I grew up in RWC and would alert my mom, who has the biggest mouth evah and is involved in the local senior center, her church, and various volunteer organizations, and she would be happy to inform her groups as a warning to stay away from a gas station that is hostile to female customers who are stranded alone at night. Plus I was already broadcasting my story to local friends who were likely going to spread the tale and probably avoid his station. He wasn't happy about that, but I told him that just as he couldn't help me get on the road with enough gas to get home, I couldn't help him feel better about his situation. I told him that this was a growth opportunity for him and his manager and I recommended that he needed to seriously consider how his staff's actions will impact his business and that he/they needed to be more proactive in dealing with extreme situations like this.
So there it is. Nothing will really change at that gas station. But by sharing my tale perhaps I've emboldened my friends and family to stick up for themselves and by my example shown you that no matter how impossible a situation is, if you keep on pushing back a solution can be achieved and you don't need to be a victim.
I also have the satisfaction of having my voice heard and the knowledge that I followed due process, which is the most that a reasonable person can do. I can still write a letter to the local paper about how a visitor from the East Bay was treated and I may do that next week when work eases off.
And of course the staff in the trailer I work have been listening to my various phone calls and finally had the guts to say "hey, what up? most entertaining, but we'd like the whole story." So I had an impromptu jam session about crappy customer service in my office today, which was very VERY cathartic.