Willing Spring to Come

This winter has been painful.  Aside from the 80+ inches of snow we got, it's been so cold and windy throughout March and into April that I'm beginning to believe winter will never end.  EVER.  I've been willing spring to come--refusing to wear my heavy winter coat (I've been layering underneath my fall/spring jacket), pulling out my fun and funky spring/summer sandals and heels, even getting pedicures in March with Cindy was a signal to spring that it was welcome to come around.

Seriously, this is what I woke up to on April 1st:

April Fool's, suckers!

But alas, none of this is working.  To the point that a colleague who was born and raised in Boston commented that this winter has been so bad and has lasted so long that its enough to drive someone out of New England. 

Wow.  I expect a comment like that from me, but not from a lifer.

Of course by now you know that one of Dave's and my favorite warm weather activities is mini golf.  And I'm eager to continue the dominance that I relished in last season, what with my holes in one and beating Dave on more than one occasion (yes, beating him twice is considered dominance in my world.  As my dad says, you're only as good as your last game).

At Christmas-time, I'd noticed that our local mall had replaced the Gap/Gap Kids store with an indoor Glow Golf course.  Very intriguing.  While we had no interest in checking it out during winter break (mall rats and all), we kept saying that we should go do it sometime.  Finally, we decided that it might be an indicator to the Spring gods that we were ready if we did some mini golf.  So we went to the mall the other night and started our season early.

Guess what?  If you go to the mall on a school night after dinner, there won't be as many mall rats to annoy you.  In fact, there won't be anyone at all in the glow golf.

We had the place to ourselves and it was a pretty good set up.  They actually have 2 eighteen hole courses that wrap throughout the two stores (the stores adjoined in the middle) and for $9 each, we could do both courses and then if we wanted to, we could pick our favorite and do it again.  It's like less than 17 cents a hole.  Awesome date night value.  Although the clerk told us they had apparently run out of the little pencils so we weren't able to keep score.  Not necessarily a bad thing.

That dark circle thing in the middle of this hole is a loop-the-loop (two side by side).  And it's metal.  And when you miss the lead into it and hit the side, it makes a very loud noise.  Every time you hit it.

You know what's hard?  Mini golf in the dark.  Well, it wasn't entirely dark, because the glowing aspects were quite bright and neon.  And the course was hard.  They had a lot of stuff in the way (I know that's the point, but I mean there was A LOT of stuff on the greens in the worst places).  Plus, since it was dark, seeing the slight dips and bumps was very difficult.  And even the holes that didn't have a lot of obstacles required a 180 degree turn to get remotely close to the pin. 

The good news is that I got a hole-in-one on the second hole.  The bad news is that I was otherwise terrible.  The first course was a disaster--I probably mulligan-ed my first shot of the tee on at least 7 of the holes.  Dave had some do-overs, but wasn't quite as awful as me.  In the end we both ended up with two holes-in-one, but I know on the first course, he probably beat me by 10.  The second course was better and I think we were more evenly matched.  We opted not to take them up on the offer to play our favorite course again.

I don't know if we'll go back--I don't think I could tolerate it had there been a bunch of people.  And it would have been slow going if there were children.  But we did have fun, mostly laughing at how bad we were.  Maybe we were just rusty--after all, it's been months since we played.  Either way, we had a good time. And since we didn't keep score, I was able to convince Dave that I beat him and made him buy me ice cream at Dairy Queen when we were through. 

OMG, Someone Fixed Their Mistake!

Holy crap. I had a customer service FAIL that totally turned out good. When does that ever happen?

On Saturday I had a fabulous day of shopping. D went out to play in the dirt (er, mud) with his Jeep and I decided to finally use a pile of gift cards and coupons I'd had accumulated up. Seriously, I had gift cards to Lord & Taylor from maybe 2 years ago. It was pouring rain and I was totally looking forward to it.

I showered, got dressed, and left the house. I drove about 45 minutes to go to the really good mall (Natick Collections--it's so good, they don't even call it a mall). I got there early, which was good because with the rain, everyone wanted to park in the garage, not the lot. I parked, entered the mall in all my fabulousness (I looked great) and began my shopping spree. I won't bore you with the details, but the numbers are as follows:

4 dresses
4 skirts
7 tops
1 pair of pants
2 pairs of earrings
a bag of loot from Bath & Body Works
and miscellaneous funness from a Target stop on the way home

Total value of merchandise (also known as regular prices): $984.57
Total after in store sales: $592.53
Total paid with coupons and gift cards: $294.93
Total cash of my own I spent: $302.56

And of that cash, I actually still had the $250 I won last month on the SuperBowl Squares, so I really only spent $52.56 (which would have less, but I broke down at Target and bought a bag of jelly beans--but I digress). So yes, I am a shopping superstar, you're jealous, bow to me, yadda, yadda. But I digress--let's get to the good stuff.

When I was at the mall, I visited Ann Taylor. I heart Ann Taylor. Great work clothes, they always fit well, good quality, classic style. I had a coupon for $25 off my entire order. I browsed around the store, tried on a few items that ended up not working and finally decided on 2 shirts. They were having a sale if you bought 2 regularly priced items, you would get 25% off your order. I did not know if that would work in conjunction with my coupon, but I figured the nice lady at the counter would tell me if it didn't.

I proceeded to the counter, handed my items to the cashier and gave her my coupon. She rang me up, and in the process, the manager comes behind the counter, sees my coupon, and takes a look. The cashier gives me my total and I say, "Did you get my coupon?" She looks at it on the desk and says, "yes." Satisfied and not paying attention, I hand her my cash and the manager and I proceed to have a conversation about how she has never seen the coupon before. I said yes, I received an email asking me to take a survey, and when I was done, I was rewarded with this coupon. That was the reason for the visit, since the coupon expired the next day. We exchanged other pleasantries and I left the store, wishing them a great day.

Seriously, I had an awesome day, what with the shopping, and the me-time, and looking fantastic. I got home, and I just had to know what I got vs. what I spent, so I pulled out my receipts. And that's when I notice it. My coupon at Ann Taylor was not applied to my order. What? That was like $25 in cash. I was so upset. That coupon was kinda what spurred the entire shopping trip. I was not going to let that ruin my awesome day.

So I called the store 7 hours after I left it. I spoke to a wonderful assistant manager, Penny, who was so upset for me. She was ready to credit my card immediately. And even though she couldn't find the coupon in the register paperwork, she said she would look through the trash. The trash!! He kindness and willingness to correct the situation floored me. Unfortunately, since I paid cash, she couldn't figure out how to fix it. She promised to talk to the manager in the morning, and they would figure out how to send me a check for the difference or give me a store credit for the value of the coupon. I couldn't have been happier with Penny.

The next morning, Penny called me to say she had spoken the Jessica, the store manager, who remembered the situation and since she wasn't working that day, would call me the next day to correct the issue. Still pleased, I thanked Penny for her help and awaited my call from Jessica.

On Monday, Jessica called me and said she there was some miscommunication at the register, because my coupon wouldn't be applicable in conjunction with the sale. But since my coupon was of greater value, she could put the difference (a whopping $3.50) on a store credit for me.

[Insert part where Ms. C. starts to get firm with who is in control of this situation here]

I explained to Jessica that there wasn't a miscommunication, there was no communication since the cashier failed to explain that the two promotions would not work together. Had she mentioned it, I would have gone back and found a 3rd item on which to use the coupon. Jessica responded with a "Yeah, I guess...um, ok. We'll I don't have the coupon code though." After a lengthy conversation where I reiterated several times how I acquired the coupon, no I do not have the code, no I do not have the link to the survey I took 3 weeks ago and no, I do not have the email that invited me to take the survey, Jessica finally said she just needed to talk to someone to get the appropriate code and would call me back that day or the next. I stayed calm and told her I looked forward to hearing from her.

She did not call back that day.

She did not call back the next day.

I had just relayed this story to some coworkers who encouraged me to call and insert the ugly side of Ms. C. into the situation when I returned to my desk to a message from Jessica. She would be happy to send me an item with the discount applied. So I called her back and in 3-5 business days I should be receiving a very cute skirt at $25 off.

Frustrating as it was at times, I am actually incredibly impressed with how the situation was rectified and they worked to make me a happy customer. Could it have been handled a little more efficiently by Jessica? Probably, but overall, I'm very happy. My work is in a customer service environment with approximately 35 women who are in their target demographic, so a lot of them women I work with wear AT clothes. So, now I'm telling all my coworkers about my experience, and I'll have a fun story to share next time we have a customer service training.

So if you haven't shopped Ann Taylor lately, check out the sales. And if you need help finding good sales, I may be available. For a fee.