Dog Park Walker Reports...

One of my personal philosophies on blogs is that one should break news and offer truly unique insights and information as much as possible. Sure I could prattle on about what I had for dinner, how much sleep I didn't get, and how the man is out to get me - but outside my future self no one would care. Now I'm all for an Army of one, but an audience of one is just sad.

So today's post will continue the theme from the last three days - stories from friends about things to avoid. So far we have Sprint, the Chicago PD, and today we add St. Louis. From an anonymous friend, who's credibility I will vouch for:

"May I speak to the manager?" Just a few words that I always hate to mutter because at this point in the transaction I am usually very unhappy. Unfortunately I had to use that phrase twice in my recent visit to St. Louis, MO. The first time involved a Shell gas station.
I was pumping gas into my car and accidentally purchased a car wash at the end of my transaction. I walked into the store and asked the attendant to please remove the car wash purchase from my receipt. He looked at my receipt and slid it back across the counter and said that I was out of luck, he couldn't do anything for me. I thought this was a very odd statement and questioned him about a number that I may call to remove this charge. He said there was no such number. Still thinking he was full of $%*&, I asked to speak to the manager.

At this point he got very agitated and I think he was going to tell me there is no manager, but the manager just happened to walk up. Of course she said it would be no problem to remove the charge. It turns out the attendant just didn't know how.

The funny thing is that the tension of being outed as a liar really made this guy crack up. Lots of nervous laughter and he actually tried to walk away at one point. His manager kept asking him what was wrong and he started in with some real attitude. I thanked the manager and went on my way. The second occurrence was at the Residence Inn in St. Louis. I walk into my hotel and was greeted by the desk attendant. I said I was here to check in. She said she didn't have a reservation for me. I told her that I am positive this is the hotel. She told me there were absolutely no rooms. She swore up and down and told me that I had made a mistake. She couldn't put me in a room if she wanted to.
Still insisting that I was right, I asked to speak with the manager. At this point she called the manager and he confirmed that I DID have a reservation. She got very defensive at that point and blamed the computer and everyone else who works for Marriott.

I hand her my AMEX and she says sorry I can't take that, the computer says it is no good. I questioned her on that and she refused to call AMEX to find
out what was going on. She said I would have to do this. Finally I gave her my check card and she checked me in. The footnote for this story is that she took about 3 personal calls and stopped to watch a tv program once during this entire experience. I plan to avoid both of these business establishments in the future.

Fortunately for my friend, he did get a decent sushi dinner at something called the "Drunken Fish". So, don't go to St. Louis. But if you have to go, eat there.