Brooke, Did yours come from Normans? I'm a tad disappointed in the vigor of the two noblis I received from Normans. They just seem a little weak, for lack of a better term. The other plants I've received from Normans are doing fine, but both of the nobilis' seem to have struggled. I put this one in a CHC mix, hoping to ease the transition from Normans packed spagh to my preferred Orchiata mix. I'll pot it into Orchiata next spring/summer. Keeping a little dry and the Normans packed spagh seem like different strategies, but I knew I was struggling with them in spagh, so maybe the CHC will help until I get it in bark. Honestly, it's not terribly impressive and it only has 3 branches, one 'branch' turned out to be a bud. It may end up with 10-15 buds/flowers (if they don't blast...). They do seem to have a different looking initial bud (long collar and thin) than most of my other phals. I don't think my straight stuartiana is like it... As far as pics, my whole world revolves around technology, so in my spare/me time, I do everything I can to get away from it :) Maybe over the x-mas break... Thanks, Bob

Having dealt with the public for decades I doubt quite highly that any of the comments you made would have pacified this customer. She wanted the store to have the item, period. She was going to complain about not getting it. Period. Having a "subject to availability" or any such disclaimer would have made no difference because she wanted it and that was it. Common sense tells people that that's a situation where they could be out of stock. But people with the "customer is always right" attitude don't use common sense. They feel they're more important than anyone else and can order store employees to violate company policy to satisfy them. Some people don't feel they should be subject to rules. Being rude to the store manager as this woman was, simply put was out of line. Shame on her. She should be sent to bed without her supper, grounded, given a "time out" or any other such treatment. When will these people learn that the manager doesn't set the rules. He's there to *enforce* the rules. Gee, is that really that hard to understand? If she handled the situation properly she would have contacted the corporate office after first being told he has no say on it, but NO, she wasn't going to do that, she expected special treatment. And she was going to try to make life miserable for an employee thinking that they'll give in just for "customer service" and in reality she only made herself look like a total fool. They she's likely to go home crying "bad customer service", when the employees can go home laughing about an unreasonable and childish customer. This woman's attitude is classic spoiled brat customer action. You see this all the time. And they generally do the same thing. ACT friendly... at first. Put what they think is a jovial, light sing-song in the voice (which most people with a couple weeks experience can see through, knowing what's coming next!) simply to try to get what they want. It's no different than a spoiled brat kid saying "I want a cookie". They're told they can't have what they want (Like telling the young brat we're out of cookies.) then they start getting louder and stamp their feet at times to a flat out fist pounding temper tantrum (just like the kid on the floor "I WANT IT, I WANT IT, I WANT IT!!!!) Shouting, screaming and yes, even pretend crying can be included in both. The similarities are striking. These types of people should be subjected to the same treatment in their job sometime, it'd be interesting to see how they react. I'd gamble they'd go "CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT THEY WANTED? LOL The staff could go ahead and say they agree with her or use other touchy-feely comments and but anyone who is pragmatic and any retail experience knows that it's not practical to try to assign someone to watch each item and go put OOS signs up and then take them down when stock is replenished. I've found that the bellyachers are big talkers but little doers. One of the first thing they spout is "I'll NEVER come back here again!!!!" Any retail employee is hard-pressed to refrain from splitting a gut when that happens. Contrary to what people want you to believe, it takes a lot for a customer to truly ban a store from their shopping armada. They shop certain stores for certain reasons. They put up with things. It's part of the shopping mentality. Lots of studies have been done. People will sit and wait in line, they'll pay more, they accept lower customer service, etc to get what they want and that's usually things like convenience, brand recognition and price, whether an actual savings or a perceived savings. When people *do* drop a store, with the exception of a small store, they'll usually be back within a few weeks to a couple months. "People want to be heard, and know that they are being taken care of." Some people do, but this woman wanted the world handed to her on a silver platter. She WAS heard. She was informed that the manager could do nothing about it but that wasn't good enough. She expected him to jeopardize his job to give her what she wanted. He had no right to do it and having to tell her THREE TIMES is stupid. That woman needs a reality check and she owes the store manager an apology. I wish I (or someone else with some sense) would have been there to explain the reality of life to her. People need to learn how to complain properly. If you have a complaint, fine, voice it. But voice it properly. When you find out you're talking to the wrong person they shouldn't have to tell you THREE TIMES that you're b!tching out the wrong person. "Abdocating blame seldom works under any circumstance." LOL Get real. Telling the truth is NOT abdicating blame! It's INFORMING the person that they have to go to the place where their unreasonable demands could stand any sort of chance of being granted. I will grant you that not everyone will realize that a corporate store has corporate policies. Again, common sense is not so common. BUT, when someone is told that they have no control over the situation and they keep on with their temper tantrum, they're not interested in voicing a grievance, they simply want to throw a temper tantrum like any other spoiled brat. Once the shrieking starts in a tantrum, it generally has to run its course, whether a 2 year old or an 80 year old. Customer service is getting less and less these days, I'll agree with that. But what so sorely needs teaching is consumer education and how to complain, and the more important thing is WHERE to complain. And the other thing they need to be taught is that the store will likely *not* go out of business even if the spoiled brat *does* take their business elsewhere. I haven't seen Michael's file bankruptcy yet because of this and I doubt I will. There is a part of business that there are some customers a store does not want. These are the types they don't want. They don't buy much, they complain about everything, trying to get a discount or other compensation (well I had a LILT in my voice and you didn't give me a new car as compensation!). They're far more like to use and abuse items then return it out of return policy expecting full cash refund.

I too had an excellent cs experience with Kirklands. We live and hour away from ANY shopping (except for WM and that's only 25 minutes <g>). I found the perfect picture for DH's newly renovated bathroom late last summer. It had all the colors, the theme...it gave "meaning" to or an explanation to everything we did with the reno. I know, that sounds silly LOL. I called Kirklands to see if they had one. I think the online store said the inventory was "low" at my particular store. She not only confirmed they had some but actually called back when she said she would, looked them over and made sure I got one that wasn't damaged, wrapped it with brown paper, bagged it, put my name on it and had it up front behind the desk when I got there. How many times have I expected to find an item waiting on me behind the counter and it wasn't there!!! Many.

How annoying!! We had a problem with our roofer. We have a contractor doing our entire project, but hired a roofer independently because he was highly recommended and cost $10K less. The roofer's guys punctured a pipe, didn't tell anyone, and turned the water off. We didn't realize THEY had turned the water off (why would they?!), so our contractor turned it back on for us (late in the day, 6 PM) because he thought HIS guys who were working on plumbing did it. Next morning, water pouring out of garage. We ended up having to re-do the entire garage ceiling and fix/replace the pipe. Roofer insists it's not his fault because the pipe shouldn't have been there. And he insists they didn't turn the water off. Guess God came down from on high and did it, because my contractor ended up checking in with his plumber later and they said no one had turned the water off that day. Re: bringing in people from other states. We are bringing Dutchwood up from PA to do our entire FL house full of cabinetry. It is $132,000 cheaper to bring in our PA cabinetmakers here for two weeks and truck up EIGHT truckloads full of cabinets than it was to have anyone here make what we wanted! Bringing in the people you trust is worth it! At any rate, I hope your problems get fixed soon! What a hassle for you!