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Tuesday, April 01, 2014

The Holiday Cards: The Rest of the Story

This is a follow up to my very frustrated post about Sam's club and my holiday cards from yesterday.

The short story is, I am a complete and total idiot and now have the cards in my possession.

Yeah, I can never stop with a short story. Who are we kidding? There is a reason I always liked Paul Harvey.

Yesterday afternoon, I called the online customer service number. I talked to a very nice gentleman who informed me that the cards were printed in store. I am amazed that I was able to stay polite when he told me this news, but I did. He said he would resend the order to the store for me and would put a note in explaining the situation. I'm sure the note said something about a crazy, super frustrated lady that was going to go all "Tawanda" on someone if they didn't find my cards, quick like.

A couple of hours later, I get a call from Dawn from the photo department at the local Sam's. She proceeds to tell me she has my cards in the store and has had them since 3/20 - the date I originally went to pick them up. She was confused as to why there was a repeat order and had stopped it from printing and called me. After I once again went through the whole debacle she said, "you are talking about the store in South Austin, correct?"

Insert complete shock and silence from me, followed by almost hysterical laughter, and then very sincere apologies for being a complete idiot.

Yep, somehow, in having to chose an alternate store to the one I typically use that was not available (I've learned in this process that they discontinued their photo department), I selected a Sam's Club 30 miles from my house to print the cards! And, thought I had selected a store approximately 10 miles away. I didn't even know this Sam's existed. Out of the four in the area it is by far the furthest away.

I had gone to the wrong store, not once, but twice!

Now, I will admit that I was a complete idiot. However, Sam's was not without fault. The phone number listed on my status for pick up for the store, you know the one where the cards actually were, was incorrect and gave me an error message. After I looked up the "correct" number, I called the store, where I thought the cards were. I was told the cards were there but arrived to find out it was someone else's order. The wrong store never questioned if I was at the right store or called any other store to check. They just told me the cards were in Georgia. The cards were never in Georgia. The Store that had the cards never called to see why I hadn't picked up, which the store admits is standard procedure after seven days.

But at the end of the day, I totally screwed up! I was wrong and I very graciously admitted it once it was brought to my attention.

I will say, everyone I dealt with had been well trained in dealing with a unhappy customer and tried to be helpful. I was given a discount on the cards though not the full price, "for all the trouble I went to." I did not ask for the discount as I was obviously the idiot who had them printed in the wrong store.

So after almost two weeks, two 20 mile round trips to the wrong store, and a 60 mile round trip to the right store, I have the cards sitting on my counter waiting for me to get the address labels printed so they can be mailed. My effort to make the process cheaper and quicker sure did not turn out like I planned. At the end of the day, the laugh I got when I realized my stupid mistake and the reminder to be humble and remember we all make mistakes were worth the experience.

And after all this blasted build up about the cards, I sure hope every one isn't disappointed when they arrive. Remember these are typical "I used snapshots and had them printed at Sam's cards," not something professional by any means.

Jenn

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