Planet Stahl

Ok… I thought this may have some value…

We have been cleaning out my office this week in hopes
Of making It Summers room. In the middle of cleaning, I keep stumbling over bits like this. Should it stay or go?

Tonight… Aidens turn!

It’s that time of the year … Floor hockey! As I recall, we didn’t get to play this game till HS. It was a sweaty physical mess. How someone didn’t get a massive blunt force injury while bouncing off the walls of the gym is beyond me.

You know… If you are not on Facebook… You are missing SO much!  I have a slew of pictures posted over there and part of  THIS video was online Sunday night. 

Ang got a new phone over the weekend.  An iPhone.  She already has the Facebook ap…  So, one more reason to log on!!!

3 AM… Still here! Ang complained that she wanted something for the pain at 2. About 2:30 I complained that we still needed something for her… 10 minutes later they took her in back. Let’s hope we are about done! I don’t want to have to post at 4!

As i write this… I’ve been sitting in an ER in Chicago for nearly 4 hours… (Ang twisted her ankIe)

I can tell you this: This is how companies work when they are run by Insuance Companies.

As a matter of comparison… I will even argue that you can compare it to our Dealership Service Department. If I knew that the only customer I really had to worry about when dealing with a broken car was the extended warranty company… Well, you can sure bet that you would be sitting a lot longer in our waiting room. You see… What the customer needs, no longer matters… My real customer is the warranty company.

If the government gets involved… Well, it’s gonna be worse! Government already is slow to pay bills… They don’t care about CSI (customer service index). And, unlike insurance plans… You are not gonna have an annual choice on renewing your plan. Your gonna be stuck with it.

Oh, unless you are a politician. They probably don’t wait very long with their “public” plan. You think Dick Durban would be stuck sitting this long? Doubtful!

You think your government mandated plan will be as good as his? Doubtful!

If something is free or universal… It generally sucks. And if it’s being funded by tax dollars… It generally is wrought with waste and fraud.

Its doubtful that this will be the last.  Seems like we are using this method of communicating with our customers more and more.

http://www.planetstahl.com/?p=370

I had a call to the showroom the other day…  One of our salesman had a customer named Eric Stall.  “Corny”, the salesman was taken aback when he asked the guy his name… He thought it was a prank!  I came up front and met Eric.  We had a laugh about it.  Seems like a nice enough guy.  He was looking for a Sienna.

Pekin Doppelganger discovered… Unfortunately he does not spell it quite the same.   And he was not really evil.  Kinda ruins the mystique!

This recall is dragging me in front of the cameras again!!!

Above, Aiden on a “down” after a fall rollerskating.  From January 2010

Fun weekend!  Its over too soon, but aren’t they all?

It started off REALLY great on Friday night.  Ang called me and said the furnace was not running.  The temp was 58 in the house.  I rushed home to find the switch and mini breaker were messing up….  I tightened it up…  Got the furnace running.   But by Saturday morning it was out again.  THANKFULLY, I have customers who are heating and cooling techs…  I gave Peter a call from Central Heating and Cooling for some advice.  He said to get a new switch and remove the mini fuse.  Did that on Sunday morning.  Bammo!  It all works now.

Money Saved…  Probably about 200.00

Saturday morning Aiden had a birthday party with one of his classmates.  I had talked to George, the boys Dad, and he said to bring out as many people as we wanted.  I thought, “This might be a good time to try roller blading”.   Realize that I have not been on skates since Ang and I were engaged, 15 years ago.  (Because you do crazy things to prove your manhood when engaged…  ie, Dan and Bow Hunting)  I remember falling backward and about cracking my head at an ice rink in Downtown Indianapolis.

I did it!  Roller-bladed for about 30 to 45 minutes.  Never fell!  got to watch Aiden fall all over the place!  Wow!  He made me look like an expert!  Poor kid wiped out hard at one point and cracked his head on the floor.  He was OK… But I could tell that he was about wiped out from the experience.

Saturday night we went out to dinner at Taj of India.  We were brave and took the kids!  They actually did pretty well considering.

“Considering” meant dealing with a myriad of poor service!!!  Man… I REALLY want to like this restaurant…  They are in Peoria, and they have a larger menu than Puran in Bloomington…  But it was not even close!

• We had a new waitress…  She had NO idea what ANY of the menu items were.  I cant fault her completely… We should know more… But, we were hoping to have some assistance in the ordering process.
• They sent another waiter to our table for the order.  He was more helpful.  Unfortunately we could not tell if he had our order.  He just kept smiling and nodding.  When he reviewed the order… It sounded pretty close.
• We got our appetizers in decent time… But after eating some hot stuff…  Everyone had drunk all their drinks.  Then, we did not see a waiter or waitress in the dining room for 10 solid minutes!!!  When we did ask refills…  It was another solid 10 minutes! 
• Ang ordered Tandoori Shrimp.  When she asked what vegetables came with it, the waiter had said only fresh vegetables were used with her dish…  Well, they looked pretty flaccid on the plate.  Kinda like they had been pulled out of a birds-eye freezer bag. 
• My Rogan Josh was more bones than meat.  It was VERY tasty… So, I could have overlooked that.
• My bottle of Taj was 12 bucks!  It was a 20 oz bottle.  But 12?  Give me a break?
• After being there for more than 90 minutes…  We were ready for the check.  It was unintelligible…  I spend 93.00 bucks on a dinner for 2 adults and 2 kids.  Ang wanted to argue about it… But I really didn’t care.  For the first time that I can recall… I DIDNT leave a tip.  I have worked for tips when I was younger, and always tried to give something if an effort for service was made.   But this young girl didn’t care at all!

In the end…  I will probably not go back to Taj.  Puran is a gem in Bloomington.  I would recommend it 1000% over our Peoria choice.

Down 100.00.

Overall…  I am still 100 bucks up for the weekend.  At least that is how I am rationalizing it!