Hey everyone at Planet Feedback!
I could use some advice and I didn't want to clog up the forum for this. My
fiance and I just bought out first house (yikes!) and we need to go on a
shopping spree (double yikes!)
We need a new washer/dryer since the current owners refuse to part with the
ones that are there even though they look like they are from 1980. We would
like to keep it very reasonable under 800-900 for a set due to our other
expenses. So far we have found a set by Frigidaire that seems OK. Does
anyone out there have any opinions about good washers/dryers? I already
have ruled out Maytag, my dad has a Maytag and its been nothing short of a
disaster.

I actually got a customer compliment this week! Not that I'm a bad employee
but I'm used to getting complaints rather then compliments because lets
face it, very few people actually take the time to write to a company when
someone did something right. Or at times they complain anyway even when I
did do things right! The funny thing is, all I did was do my job!!! Thanks
to the wonderful lady who took the time to track down the number and took
time to call our corporate office!! It really did make my day!

Since it is getting to be that time of year, here is some advice from your
friendly PFB Retail Sales Clerk.
1) If a store doesn't have the particular item you want, it is not the
salesperson nor the stores fault. Most stores do not control what is being
sent to them, please blame the corporate office, not the store
2) If the lines are long, it is really not the salespersons fault. It's the
Holidays we're all busy, please allow for some extra time when doing your
shopping.
3) If a store does free gift-wrap please realizes that it may take close to
two hours on a Saturday in December, again do not yell at the salesperson.
There is nothing they can do.
4) Just because the salesperson gives you an answer you don't like
(returns, item availability, etc) please do not scream demand to speak to a
manager and tell lies about the salesperson.
5) In short, please be nice to salespeople this holiday season!

First, love the OC picture. We had to put down my OC Mitchell this past
June and orange cats really are the most wonderful of the species.

With that said, I had a woman complain that I had bodily thrown her out of
my office. I had another woman complain because I wouldn't forge my
judge's name on a custody order. I didn't do the first but I did do the
latter (refused, I mean). Thankfully, the assualt complaint was from a
woman who was really not glued together and had made the same complaint
about other co-workers that day.

I think people feel that their complaints won't be addressed unless they do
some puffing. So, lots of folks add name-calling, allegations of general
rudeness, etc. to make their complaints higher priority. As a result, I've
found that the opposite, in this climate, works far better. Making demands
that are out of proportion with the services or products offered means that
the customer is not right.

With regard to the effect on employees, I guess there are two ways to look
at it: the effect on their employment tenure and the effect on their
morale. Bosses, if they're good, know their employees and can evaluate
complaints appropriately. But, lousy bosses can really hurt an employee if
the employee is pounded for untrue customer complaints.

As to morale, I must say that dealing with a bunch of nasty, overblown
complaints makes me unwilling to really go out of my way to help people.
It wears you down. You just feel lousy and hate work--jobs where I've had
extensive contact with the public who complained constantly were terrible
even though I had a great boss and co-workers who supported each other. So
the complaints feed on themselves: the employees feel lousy and in turn
can be reluctant to exert themselves which makes customers crankier....

I never had an orange cat before we adopted Toby from a shelter. My
boyfriend and I had just put our old cat down and were not really sure if
we wanted to get another cat so soon. However as soon as we walked into the
shelter and saw him, we knew we had to take him home. At the time he was
eight years old, over weight and has a cauliflower ear. He had been at the
shelter for over a month and no one wanted him. :( He is by far the
sweetest cat you will ever meet (even though he is a lazy fattie!)
When we decided to get another cat for him to play with we adopted Maya
(the one in the picture!) we fell in love with her too. Needless to say,
we're a sucker for the Orange Tabbys!