Seriously? You're a Manager???

If there is one thing I cannot handle, it is bad customer service. I am talking about that customer service that makes you leave the store swearing you will never darken its door again. The kind that makes you go home and bitch about it for an hour over a glass of wine. The kind that makes you call the manager the next day just to bitch about it some more.

I recently discovered that you can upload photos to Walgreens.com and have them printed at the store. You can pick them up about an hour and a half later and you don't have to dick around with your printer or waste your ink! Hallelujah! I thought this was going to change my life. All of a sudden I could have all the pictures I wanted and not have to force feed my printer the photo paper and watch as the expensive cartridges slowly drained of their ink. It was going to be GREAT! And there is a Walgreens not five minutes from my house! Yea!!!!! Or so I thought...

So on Wednesday night I happily registered my username and password, gleefully chose my Walgreens (on the corner of Camelot and Highway 6) and uploaded my chosen photos. The next day I was going to be able to put together a photo album for G's grandmother and not have to think about her Christmas present any longer (she just got back from Texas where she spent Christmas -- I'm not that lazy). I selected the print size and hit the order button. I checked my email, there was a note there telling me my prints would be ready and waiting for me when I got off work the next day. Yea!!!!

I walked in the next day and picked up my photos. I had uploaded 57, the envelope said 57 -- I paid my bill and walked out of the store congratulating myself on making my life a whole lot easier! And more photo-filled!

Later that evening I settled into my chair with my glass of wine, my envelope of photos and the fabulous album I had purchased for Mimi. I flipped on Grey's Anatomy and started putting them in. I finished in record time -- and realized that there did not seem to be 57 photos. I did 2 quick counts and, what do you know, there were 39! What? I knew there had to be a simple explanation for the discrepancy and dialed the Walgreens. Well, 3 transfers (one to makeup and 2 to the pharmacy) and a demand to speak to a manager NOW I finally got the photo department. And the same woman who had helped me earlier. I told her my issue and asked where the rest of my photos were. I was then informed that, for whatever reason, they had not been printed. I asked her if they would be ready later tonight and, to my surprise, she told me she was getting off and couldn't do it. I asked to speak to the manager and he gave me the runaround too! He told me it would be a stretch to get them out since the photo machine had been turned off for the night (at 8? When the store closes at 10?) and it would be an inconvenience to turn it back on. I then gave him the choice -- print them tonight and I will pick them up, or print them tomorrow and I will pick them up and he could refund my money. He hemmed and hawed some more and told me how difficult it would be to fulfill my order that night and finally agreed to give me a refund the next day.


So I put the whole incident out of my mind, convinced that my order would be ready the next day -- that this manager was going to fix it all and it would be fine. I walked into the store and asked for the manager. He came right away and handed me a stack of pictures. I proceeded to count them -- there were 52. I asked about them, he said "Which ones are missing?" Really? I am supposed to have a catalog of the photos I uploaded in my head? "Check my order, I returned. "All the information you need should be there." He proceeds to stack them in order according to the numbers on the back -- twice. Then he discovers a stack of photos nearby -- yep -- the missing photos ... I thought. It was almost all of them. Minus 1. He finally figured out which one was missing and tried to print it. And tried. And tried.

He finally asked the 16 year old kid working to print it while he refunded my money. The kid takes one look at the machine and says, "Mr. Lucas, you have the wrong paper in here." The kid gets the paper changed and photo printed. I take my photos, assuming they are correct, and leave. After wasting a half an hour there. And dealing with an idiot of a manager. Seriously -- getting the order wrong again? Shouldn't he have counted them BEFORE I got there?

So I get home, take a shot and eat my dinner. I settle into my chair and get ready to put everything together. I take out the photos and realize there is, again, something wrong. Now the photos are HUGE compared to the original batch and that people's heads and bodies are cut off. I call the store, AGAIN and talk to the sweet kid that printed the photos for me a minute ago. I ask him to make sure the manager the next day calls me as soon as he gets in.

One drink, a sleeping pill and 10 hours later, the phone rings and I tell the whole sordid story to the morning manager at the store. He actually seems to have his head on straight -- at last! He is very sympathetic and tells me he will personally print my order and call me when it is ready. A few hours later he does and I FINALLY pick up the correct order. Then he tells me I no longer have to worry about Mr. Lucas as he isn't at that store any longer. And that he will have a word with Paula who should have reprinted the order Thursday night to begin with. Then he tells me the kicker -- she is the manager of the photo department. WHAT???????

Seriously. She's a manager? I would apply there, but I think I am over-qualified.