I love New England.  It’s a beautiful place to live, although you must have money to enjoy it here.  I don’t have money, and I’m planning to move.  In order to do so, I must fix up my house, but the incompetence I am dealing with over this spring and summer is slowing me down.

I began a home improvement loan application over a month ago.  Those people are dragging their feet. Summer is short. I need the money to begin home improvements. All I ask is that they keep me informed of the progress, but they don’t.

I bought a new refrigerator at Sears, which couldn’t be delivered for 3 weeks.  After patiently waiting for it to arrive, it came with the door opening the wrong way.  I had specifically asked for it to be switched.  It’s been 10 days and although the Sears store manager promised to get on it, he never called me yesterday, as he had promised. So now, at 10am on Friday I am waiting to hear back, after I called the store again this morning.

Is it just because I am a woman?  Do sales people, delivery men, store managers, and loan officers think I am barely worth their time?  Or is this just part of the growing lackadaisical manner in which business people treat their customers. It seems to have become a way of life.

More often than not people don’t do what they promise.    They will say anything just to check you off their list of things to do.  So, will Sears Manager Mike call me back?  And what will be his excuse if he does?  I still need my door fixed, but Sears has already lost me as a customer.

I went into a little shop downtown the other day to pick up a few things.  As often happens when I am in there, I overhear customers and workers exchanging banter which tells me they know each other.  It’s a small town.  Everyone knows everyone else.  But I don’t know many people.  I can’t carry on a conversation with these strangers, but is that any reason for the cashier to converse with the guy behind me in line while she rings me up?  I was somebody to get out the door so she could talk with her friend.

I have the choice of buying my pizza from about seven different pizzerias in this town.  And it’s not a big town.  My favorite pizza is made by a shop where, unfortunately, I am treated as if I don’t matter.   A simple ‘hello’ when I walk in, and ‘thank you’ when I leave, is all I ask.  Instead, I buy pizza at anther place, because they are super friendly and I always feel like they appreciate my business.- every single time I pick up my order!

Rudeness is everywhere.  Customers are taken for granted by too many business people.  I run my own online business.  I will probably never see my customers in person, as they buy from all over the world.  Nevertheless, I appreciate them, and let them know it by thanking each of them.  From the wedding planner who buys a big bulk order, to the person who simply has a question, I treat them all the same – with gratitude and respect!  Am I a dying breed?  Sadly, I think so.

There are a few whom I’ve dealt with that have gone above and beyond to help me out and do an A+ job.  If you live in southern NH and ever need garage doors, or repairs to your garage door, I highly recommend Elite Door.  If you need trees cut, my go-to guy is Eric of Timbercruiser.   My gutter people did a nice job too:  Granite State Gutters.

I’m still waiting for that call from Manager Mike, but I’m not holding my breath.