Clean-up On Isle 1

To understand why the story I’m about to tell you tickled my funny bone, some background is needed.

Since I no longer have a car, I often have bulky and/or heavy groceries (cat litter, bird seed, bags of potatoes and onions, bottled water, etc.) delivered to my door. Most delivery folks are conscientious and hard working but every once in a while things go awry. I’ve had groceries delivered to the wrong apartment, left in the complex’s laundry room, down at the mail center, in the middle of a flight of stairs, on the pool deck, and once in the bushes that run around my building.

On one occasion my order simply failed to appear. Instead I received an email stating it couldn’t be delivered because no one was here to receive it. I’ll spare you that saga of how the delivery company mistook me for physical, 9-5 business offering karate classes for kids. My order was eventually delivered 28 hours later.

All of the above is to say that I was not particularly surprised when my July 8th grocery order failed to appear. Knowing the drill, I dutifully checked my neighbors’ front porches, the laundry and mail rooms, the pool deck, and the bushes. Nothing.

I then contacted the grocery provider and asked for a refund. I also asked that the tip I’d included for the delivery driver be refunded.

Fast forward 4 days and my refund came through but the tip was not included. Once again I contacted customer support and explained my issue. Although I was polite, I was succinct and to the point. No need for chit chat about the weather. I just wanted the error fixed so I could get on with my day. After the customer service rep confirmed that they understood my request and would process my refund, our conversation took a strange turn:

Customer Service: I appreciate you for having a good soul, Jena. I hope every customer is as kind as you.

Me: That is a rather strange thing to say. You don’t know anything about my soul.

Customer Service: I am sorry for the confusion. I meant that your heart is pure and you are kind.

Me: No offense, but how could you possibly know that? I gave you an order number, a screenshot of the charge to my bank account, and asked for a refund.

Customer Service: I just know by talking to you here in the chat. I just based on our conversation. :))

Me: Wow you must be psychic. Thank you for your help and for being a kind soul as well.

I know I know I probably shouldn’t have said anything but the compliments were so effusive and over the top that I couldn’t resist. Do you suppose they are trained to say things like that - to kill the customer with kindness?

At any rate I got a good chuckle out of the exchange AND my tip was refunded. Anyone else have strange stories to tell about missing groceries or conversations with customer service reps? Inquiring minds and all that :-)

Jena

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