Customer Service

Back when I first arrived here in August, I was sleeping on an air mattress. This actually translated to me NOT sleeping on an air mattress. Stupid lack of ability to sleep on not-comfortable things. So, I quickly remedied the situation by buckling down and buying an actual mattress of substance. A quality mattress. A hypoallergenic mattress. A comfortable mattress. I decided going without food was more bearable than going without sleep. As it turns out, I don't function well with a lack of either of those things.
It took me a while to decide on the winning mattress, and Karen and I explored a few mattress places in Bakersfield. You know, places like "Mattress Land", "Mattress Depot", "Mattress World", etc. At one of said places we met the WORST imaginable salesman ever in the history of salesmen. Firstly, he was the size of 10 or 11 regular salesmen. While you might think this would give him the power of more than 1 salesman, it seems to have been more of a hinderance. I state what I'm looking for. I state my price range. He says "why would you move here? you're not a geologist, you need to go to Yosemite, you don't want that, you ACTUALLY want this and this and this and that won't work and you're wasting your time and there's great waterfalls but not now and you can't just buy a mattress..." and Karen said "I'll be out in the Karen" abandonning me with the freak who CLEARLY doesn't want to sell me a mattress, even though that's obviously the point of his job. I barely escaped. We went elsewhere. I found the perfect mattress. I bought it. I convinced my new neighbour, who I met when I went and asked him this favour, to pick it up for the warehouse for me in his truck.

ASIDE

At a delicious feast for us new folk put on by the president of the College (see example of his neighbourhood in photo) Karen and I were chatting with a couple who had just had a mattress buying adventure. Where did you go, I ask? Oh, to "Mattress Land" or "Mattress World" or something. Oh really? How bad did the salesman suck? I ask. The husband starts to laugh - he was terrible, he says! I left Becky in the store while I waited in the car! Same guy, obviously...

BACK TO BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE

While I was at the GOOD mattress store, I fell in love with this child's captain bed. It had shelving in the headboard, was all high up off the ground thus creating a world of storage beneath. All this is good for me, as I selected the smaller room for my bedroom. However, I couldn't afford the bed at that time. So I decided to order it after the next paycheck.
Turns out it's a custom order, you can get any colour you want. So I order a yellow full-size bed to go with my blue mattress and green dresser - it's going to take a month to come in. So, I settle in to the "patient waiting" and continue to sleep on the floor.
After a month I get the phone call that the bed is ready, so I head on down to the store to pay the balance and pick it up. The lady says she'll call the warehouse to let them know that I'm on my way to pick up the Twin Captain's Bed. "TWIN???? It's a double! A full!" I say a little aghast at 1) how outrageously priced that would be for a twin and 2) that she would even say that considering the order form on the desk between us clearly says double on it. "No, it's a twin, she says cheerfully". "NO, I reply, it's a double, I ordered a double to go with the double mattress that I bought from you." She looks crestfallen. She glances at the order form, typed by her or one of her associates that says "full captain bed, sunflower yellow" on it. "We don't make mistakes often", she says.
Well, I seriously hope not. But how does THAT make me feel any better??? I'm like "I'm sure that you can remedy this, and I'm certain that you can provide free delivery and set up as well". I angrily storm out of the store - which is on the opposite side of town from where I live, and is not a particularly pleasant drive to get to.