The One Where Patwoman Goes On Vacation: Chapter One: The World Is Full Of Crap

So, let's say you've had a very stressful week/month/couple of months and you're really looking forward to going on vacation. Maybe you've even won a trip for 4 to the Wisconsin Dells and it's only the thought of this family vacation... what (given the age of your now-adult children) could be the last vacation the four of you take as a family together...
Maybe it's only that thought that sustains you while you desperately try to keep up your recruiting numbers even though DrugCo has negotiated a new contract with your company and now you can't pay people as much as before and all the candidates are telling you "Well, JoeBob got hired on there last month and he says he's getting $15 an hours and I need to be making at least $15 an hour and blah blah blah."

And now your recruiting numbers are dropping and your revenue dollars are dropping and you're spending all your work time trying to place people who will work for $12.74 an hour at Racoon City and spending all your off time dealing with all the other crap that makes up the hot fudge sundae of my world.

Maybe that's your state of mind and all you can think of is, "Please, Baby Jesus, if you love me, I need a vacation!"

So, if that's your state of mind, tell me how you'd feel if:

1: The Glacier Canyon Lodge in Wisconsin Dells decides to cancel your reservation without telling you. The only reason you found this out was because you called to add another day to the stay and they act like you're some kind of idiot.


"Oh, we cancelled that a long time ago."
What? You cancelled? Why?
"It's a holiday weekend. We don't do the free stuff on holidays."
But we booked this six months ago.
"Nope."
Yes, actually. And we asked, six months ago, if it was okay to take the vacation on Memorial Day weekend. You guys said it was fine.
"Yes, I know. But then we cancelled the reservation."
And didn't tell us about it. Didn't you think you should at least tell us?
"Well, you could just pay for your stay. (It's $369 a night, btw) I'd be happy to book that for you."
But we already have a gift certificate from the radio station.
"And you can still use it. Anytime in 2007. Except this weekend."
But this is when we planned to use it. This is when we took time off from work.
"What are you complaining about? You got it for free, anyway."

This is, by the way, only a couple of days before the vacation. This was the manager. The attitude was, you stinking little piece of trash. How dare you try to redeem a prize? This hotel is too good for you. I'm not kidding. The contempt was dripping from his voice.


Instead of giving this asshole a dime, we decided to go someplace we'd never been, but always wanted to.... New Orleans. I booked hotel and car online through Travelocity and got a great deal.

2. The day you leave, Alamo tells you they don't have your reservation for your car. Okay. You booked online, and sometimes crap happens. I get that.

But this person was so shitty. She made some kind of comment about how she hated people that went online and tried to get a cheap deal on a car instead of coming to the store and paying the real price.

She grudgingly gave us Travelocity's price (but only because we were able to produce the printed confirmation from Travelocity). And then when we got there, she refused to take our credit card because it is also a debit. She said "I hate Travelocity because they don't tell people that."

Well, we said. You don't seem to tell people that, either. You didn't tell us over the phone and it doesn't appear to be in any of the literature or posted anywhere in the store.

"Oh, everyone knows we don't take debit cards."


By now, it's 4:50 and Hertz (across town) closes at 5:00. So we drive there and make it at 4:59 and they rent us a car and are very happy to take our card. They even apologize for Alamo's bad behavior.

3. An hour before we leave, I get a call from Ashley furniture. (Here's the backstory on this. I bought 2 couches, chair and a half, ottoman, and 3 tables. Supposed to arrive on May 23. But I called on Monday and they say it's been delayed a week. The line is discontinued, but don't worry. The factory is going to make enough to complete all the orders they currently have pending.)

Right before we leave for New Orleans, Adam from Customer Service calls and (I swear, he's chuckling) "Hey there! Got some bad news about that furniture you ordered. We're not going to ship it." He goes on to tell me, they will allow me to come in and pick something else out.

Allow me to pick something else out? Yeah. And wait another 4 weeks for it? No thanks.


But what really pisses me off, is that Adam doesn't think this is a big deal. Not sorry. Not, let me see how we can work this out. Not, let me check to see if we have any more in another location. No. He can't understand why store credit to "pick out something else" is not acceptable. Frankly, I don't want store credit. I want my F*ing money back so I can go to a real store and get some furniture. I definitely don't want Adam laughing at "how funny" this situation is.

Let's compare. I bought a dining room set 2 months ago from Gerdt Furniture in Indianapolis. They delivered it when they said they would (in days, not weeks). They were extremely helpful in the process of buying. They offered to remove the old set. They called to tell us when their driver was on the way to our house.

Ashley offered nothing except their 12-months-same-as-cash-credit (and they were bewildered when we said we were just going to pay for it that day. As if they didn't know what to do, bewildered). Oh, and store credit when they couldn't give us what we paid for.

All of this before we even hit the road.