It

Back in the old days, before DD was a glimmer in her papa's eye . . . I worked in business; banking, to be precise. There were always lots of trainings and workshops to attend, and lots of memos to read. A few have stuck with me. The following is paraphrased from one . . .original author unknown

If you don't expect it
If you don't demand it
If you don't insist on it
If you don't ensure that you get it
You are not giving it.
What is it?

The answer is customer service.

I am a stickler for customer service and am currently put in the position of not providing it to my "customers." These customers would include 12 people who ordered from our school's monthly fundraiser where we sell frozen gourmet foods via a vendor who ships from the Detroit area. The name of the company is Market Day.

For the first time ever, I have been informed that our sale was cancelled because our monthly sales do not reach $800.00 - and that was just the beginning. You know what they say, bad news travels fast. I feel it blogworthy when I get lousy customer service and that's just what I've been given. Not by our direct sales representative, who is a gem, but by her "superiors" who care so little about retaining our account.

I have discussed this with the prior chairperson and researched through all of our paperwork. I find no mention of this minimum amount for a sale. To the contrary, I find that profit checks (10% of sales) will not be cut for amounts less than $25. The district sales manager assures me that this secret limit was discussed during initial sales meetings. The former chair recalls no such thing. Both the rep and the manager tell me that they can do nothing about uncancelling the sale. The manager says she will have her boss call me on Monday. Her attempt to retain our business was admirable, but then I receive a horrible form letter that implies it was our PTO's choice to cancel the sale. Each of my customers has also received this letter. Why am I spending my weekend fighthing with these people?

If we are lucky, we make $1,000.00 off of this fundraiser, over the year. I'm seriously considering doing a read-a-thon or walk-a-thon instead and just dumping this business. I can't have them implying that our PTO is not doing their job. Usually this is a month long project, but this time they gave us only 2 weeks between sales and they are not willing to stretch to fulfill our $665 order? It's ridiculous! It isn't as if they don't have other trucks coming to the area! They even offered our customers to have their orders delivered to other schools! PROBLEM! The other school would get our profit of $65 that we earned! Market Day would still get their money, and our rep would still get her cut, probably her manager too. Who loses out? Our kids! Great, steal from children why don't cha? Does that make ya feel good? Okay, I must cool down . .. . take my meds . . . go to bed