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KICK SOME FORUM.
All "Kick Some" entries are merely the
opinions of various people. Kickthefog.com claims no responsibility
for anything that is said or implied.
Page: 2
The Boathouse Grill in Toronto Canada -
(submitted by the Pat Jones himself on 8-18-2002)
Queens Quay Terminal, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5J 1A7
"Boy did my friends and I get the royal kick at this place. We went
there for dinner on July 6th 2002. 4 of us were seated at a table in a
minimally crowded section of the restaurant. We were surrounded by 7 couples at
various tables and a table of about 9 people was also in the room. Keep in mind
that this room had about 30 tables in it so 8 tables occupied is a dead night
here folks. (this will be important later)
Anyway... we sat down at 6:45PM. To make a very long story short,
we watched all 8 tables come and go, not to mention the fact that several more
couples arrived, ordered, and left before we even got our appetizers! After
witnessing this, we started to get cranky. We received..."sorry but we are packed"
(8 tables?!) and "ok, there was a small mix-up with your order" for
excuses. From 6:45 until 9:15pm we were stupid enough to sit and wait. Just as we were going to walk out, they brought our food. My regret today is
that we ate the crap (and I mean crap) instead of walking out but we were
damn hungry at this point. After eating the previously stated "crap meal",
we were then presented with a FULL bill at 9:45pm! We said, there isn't
any adjustment on this bill and the waitress flipped and was all snotty and said
"that's right, you ate the food!". We threatened to leave without paying and she
refused to let us talk to the manager!! IT'S UNREAL! Finally after a near fist fight with
the crazy beeyotch, we got our drinks free which was about $30.00 dollars of our
$160.00 bill. (Canadian funds but still a rip-off)
In summary... THIS PLACE SUCKS, THE FOOD SUCKS, THE SERVICE SUCKS
and if I had a water pistol with me I would shot that snotty beeyotch of a
waitress right in the eye! The only high note to this whole experience was
that I made sure I stole a wine list so I had the logo and address of the place
so that I could post it on the "kick some" page of kickthefog.com! never again..."
T.H. Talbot of Circuit City - (submitted
by
Carrie Rodler on 8-21-2002)
Store 3744 Erie, PA 16509-4712
"It was a hot summer day, and I wanted a big TV. So
I did a little research online and then went to Circuit City's lovely Erie store
to check out the selection. I was approached by a man with a pseudo-southern
accent who seemed all-too-eager to help me out with all my boob-tube needs.
To make a long (two hour) story short, I finally picked a wonderful Panasonic TV. Then my good pal T.H. started in on the 'extended service agreement' piece of crap thing that they always try to sell you (BUT IT'S NOT AN EXTENDED WARRANTY!!!) So the TV was gonna cost around $500, and this moron thought I'd be dumb enough to give him $200 more for his ridiculous service thingy. I said no as I handed him my credit card.
As he swiped the credit card, he transformed from the wonderful "How-May-I-Help-You-Today?" gentleman to "You're-Such-A-Stupid-Woman" freak. He started telling me about how SORRY I was going to be if I didn't purchase the extended service thing, blah blah blah.
I was pissed, but I ordered the TV anyway since he'd already put my card through. Oh yeah, and they didn't have the TV I wanted in stock. So I left, angry, and went to a neighboring store for some pet supplies. But the whole time I couldn't stop thinking about what a freaking asshole that guy was! So I went back into Circuit City, walked over to the "Returns" counter, slapped down my receipt and credit card, and demanded to be refunded. Two days later I bought a TV at Walmart ;)
My take on it: For eight hours every day, it is my duty to serve my company.
All the rest of the time, those freaks have to serve *me*. And I'm not going to
stand for my servant Mr. T.H. Talbot to give me any lip. We are the customers,
and they are out there to serve us. Don't take shit from anyone, especially
those assholes at Circuit City!"
Circuit City - (submitted by
Dean Johnson on 1-29-2003)
Winston-Salem, NC
CC.
"July 2002: I purchase
51 inch Sony HDTV from Circuit City for approximately $2500.00. The Salesman
literally won't let me leave without buying the Extended Warranty. He tells me
that if anything goes bad, Circuit City will just give me a new television if it
is not a quick repair. He also says that a large television like that is always
repaired in the home.
October 2002: Television starts to Flicker Light Green. At this point, I
did not call Circuit City because it didn't occur all that often.
November 2002: The television is now flickering a great deal as well as
turning Green. I look for my Circuit City Receipt with the circuit City Extended
Warranty. I call the number on the receipt and they say to call another number.
I call the other number and was put on hold. I was busy at the time so I hang up
to call back later
Early December: I now contact Circuit City again because the Television is
also flickering red sometimes and other times green. This always occurs once the
set has been on for an hour or more. I contact Circuit City on the number given
on the receipt and they again tell me to call another number. Once I went
through all of automated choices, I finally get someone. They cannot pull up my
record for some reason. I end up waiting on hold for about 30 minutes. I am
finally told their is a problem with the computer system.
One hour Later: I call back and wait on hold and the person says they
can't find my record. I ask to speak to the supervisor. The woman says she can
help me but she can't find the records. I finally get frustrated and hang up.
Later that evening: I can't take any more time away from work so I wait
until I get home to contact Circuit City. This time the woman is able to pull my
record up immediately. I talk to her a while about my television and she says
she will call a local repair shop to fix the unit. She informs me that they will
contact me.
Three days later. I contact Circuit City because I have not heard back
from the Repair shop. They give me the direct number to call them directly. I
contact the local repair shop and they inform me that they have already
contacted Circuit City and told them they cannot service the Unit Because they
are not a authorized Sony repair Center.
Later that Day: I call Circuit City back and tell them the repair shop
that they contacted cannot work on Sony. They say they have not received a FAX
back from the local repair shop so their is nothing they can do. At this point,
I call the local manager and leave a message to call me back and call Circuit
City about 5 or 6 times to try and get in touch with someone who can actually
get something done.
Next few days: I continue to call Circuit City many times. In between the
calls, I stop by the local Circuit City where I purchased the Television to
speak to the manager. I am informed that the manager is not in. I told them I
have already left messages for him to contact me and left a business card and
asked him to please contact me. I explained to the salesman all the problems
that I have had. I also contacted a local news station consumer activist who
advises me to keep them updated on the status of my television repair.
Next Day: I have to take medical leave from work due to a serious illness
I had contracted. I try calling the Circuit City Store one more time to get in
touch with the manager but he is not in and the person answering the phone is
not sure when he will be in. I am now calling Circuit City from the hospital in
between tests. They finally have another local repair shop that is scheduled to
come out and look at my television. However, the local repairman doesn't show up
even though my wife goes to the house to wait for them while I am at the
hospital. We contact Circuit City again and after several calls they finally
give me the direct number to the repair shop and advise me contact them myself.
I contact them myself and the woman claims that the repair person is not in. She
says she will have them call me back.
Next Day: I contact them when I don't hear from them and they schedule to
come out during the day. I asked for a time but they said some time during the
day. I am at home on medical leave at this time but I have to go back to the
hospital in the afternoon. I contact the local repair shop and explain my sob
story and they finally say the repairman will be out by noon. He didn't show up
at noon so I have to call the local repair shop again and they assure me that he
is on his way.
Later that day: The repairman shows up and looks like he has less sense
than even Circuit City Employees. He looks at the television and sees that it is
green. He turns it off and on several times hoping the problem will go away. He
opens up the set and takes a screwdriver and bangs on each one of the
components. He then looks puzzled and says "There is something deeply wrong with
your set." We will have to pick it up and take it back to the shop. We probably
can't look at it until January.
Next Week: I have many back and forth conversations with Circuit City
requesting someone else repair the television but to no avail. I finally just
schedule for them to come out the next week and pick up the television. I send a
email to Circuit City through the Contact Us link on their web site telling them
they should be ashamed of how much trouble they have caused me and explained to
them my medical condition at the time. They never responded.
The television if finally picked up and I get a call about two weeks later
at 8:50am in the morning saying he sees nothing wrong with the set. I asked if
he has had the set on for an hour or more. He says he has had it on for 24
hours. I said "I sure hope you changed channels because if you guys caused
burn-in, I want a new set." I then call back the Circuit City main number and
leave a message for a guy named Jesse who said he was the single point of
contact for me now. I later found out that even he works for one of the
outsourced call centers that Circuit City likes to use in order to save money.
Later that afternoon: Jesse from Circuit City calls me back and says at
9:00am EST, the local repair shop called him and said they found what is wrong
with the television. I looked at my caller ID and told him they had called me 10
minutes earlier and has said that nothing is wrong with the TV. I asked him how
it was possible that they can find a problem and solution within 10 minutes. He
said he would contact them and call back. Jesse did call back but he claims the
local repair shop had to order the parts and they should be in within one week.
Next Week: I contact Circuit City several times to ask the status of the
television. I finally get hold of someone who managed to contact the local
repair shop and says that the local repair shop has a computer that needs to be
fixed and it will be a week from Thursday before the parts are ordered.
Later that day: At this point, I have had more than enough. I start
calling every number I can find on Circuit City and demand to speak to someone
who is in charge of Consumer Relations. I get transferred, hung up on, and told
that you cannot call the corporate arm of Circuit City. I finally have someone
who transfers me to the corporate office and I get a secretary. I told him about
all the issues I was having and said "I want to speak to someone over consumer
relations because it is obvious that Circuit City does not service their
customers." He says that the people in consumer relations get their executive
summary reports of all issues and Circuit City does care about the consumer.
After arguing with this guy for a while, he finally agrees to put me in touch
with Tara that actually works for the corporate office at Circuit City. I talk
to Tara and she says she needs to try and get me a new television. She gives me
her phone number and email address.
Days Later: I email Tara and she calls me back but she will not put
anything in email. The best she ended up doing is having someone call from
Circuit City and offer me a rental of 30 dollars a week. I would have to pay up
front and they would reimburst me. I don't even consider this an option because
I believe it would be impossible to get Circuit City to reimburse me.
Days Later: I contact Circuit City more to find out a status. They tell me
that the parts are on order and it will take 10-14 days for them to come in. It
is now coming up on February of 2003 so I have decided at this point to buy the
domain name CircuitCitySucks.net and start publishing information about them. I
email both Tara and the main Circuit City email to let them know. They do not
respond.
At the time of this writing, I am still without my television and Circuit City
does not seem to care."
(Visit
www.circuitcitysucks.net for a follow up to this saga)
UPDATE: 3-22-03...
www.circuitcitysucks.net seems to have fallen
off the face of the web! Can it be that Circuit City forced Dean Johnson
to remove his site!?
The Blossom
Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, OH -
(submitted by the Pat Jones himself on 7-1-2003)
1145 W. Steels Corners, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44223
It was a beautiful day, not a cloud
in the sky and I was on my way with my Wife and 2 life long pals to see one of
the greatest acts in music: My buddy Tom Scholz and Boston! What a
perfect day for an outdoor event; low humidity, clear skies, I'm on
vacation from my job, I'm NOT the designated driver and I've got a pocket full
of eating and boozing money. Can it get any better? I
think not. However... It can, and does
get worse.
My wife and I are picked up by our friends and we hit the road at 4:10pm.
The show starts at 8:00 and we have a several hours drive ahead of us.
Approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes into the drive my cell phone (which I almost
didn't take) starts to ring. Who's on the other end but a mutual life long friend of
the 4 of us who is NOTORIOUS for playing practical jokes and basically just
likes to "screw with our heads" from time to time. He's a great friend
and an overall great guy and
since we all screw with each other all the time in the same manner, he fits right in.
ANYWAY... he says to me: "dude, the concert is cancelled".
I said: "yeah right Chicken". (we call him Chicken...don't ask). he says:
"dude I'm serious". I continued with my "your full of crap Chicken"
responses. Even Chicken's wife mentions that the concert is cancelled.
I said with one final glimmer of hope that he was just messing with me:
"Chicken, this aint even funny...you serious"? He replies with a
resounding "yeah dude, I heard it and I see it says rescheduled on the
Blossom website". At this point I'm clinging to a ray of hope that
he is still jerking my chain. Chicken and I both agree that I should call the Blossom
personally, scope out the situation and call him back. The number I
had turned out to be Ticket-Master instead of the Blossom but I got my answer
never the less. "Travis from Ticket-Master says: " The concert is rescheduled for August 18th,
2003." Reason given:
"Someone in the band was sick".
WHAT THE HELL!
My friend and I both had checked the website the night before LATE and the show
was a go. If a band member was truly ill (deathly) I can see it, but if you got
the sniffles...suck it up! You have out of state fans driving there
friggin arses off to see ya play! That "suck it up" statement is of course
based on if I actually believed that one of them in the band was sick. I
don't. And the reason is as follows.
Ticket sales as of 5 days before the show are cut in half! Why would you
cut prices in half you ask? Because ticket sales are slumping for this event
although why I don't know! Finding a better veteran music act would be difficult
in my opinion. So what do we know so far...
•Ticket sales have sucked for
this event. (as I said who knows why but they are never the less.)
•5 days before the show they
cut ALL ticket prices in half
•The Blossom web site,
HOURS...YES I SAID HOURS before the show said: "the concert is a go"
There is NO indication what so ever that anything is wrong or that the concert
has been cancelled or rescheduled.
•Not the month before, not
the week before, not the day before, but the DAY OF THE SHOW, it's cancelled.
CONCLUSION:
Boston's promoters and tour sponsors didn't care to play for a 1/2 or even a 3/4
filled venue. Can't hardly blame them BUT...don't cancel the day of
the damn show! People come from far away places to see their
favorite acts! You think ticket sales on the LAST FRIGGIN DAY are going to
make up for a months worth of poor sales!? You had 4 days of half priced
tickets. If that doesn't boost em, nothing will. How bout all the people
who CAN'T come on the rescheduled date? Sure, sell some more tickets
but the thousands that were there on the day the show was SUPPOSED TO BE may not
be there the next time around. End result: playing to a half
filled arena for
a bunch of half priced freaks. You should have played to the half filled Arena filled
with your TRUE fans who got tickets IMMEDIATELY and paid full boat to see their
favorite band.
I still don't know and may never know exactly what the reasoning was behind this
poorly orchestrated rescheduling of my favorite band. But I do know that
Tom Scholz adores his fans and would rarely if ever, cancel a show THE DAY OF
because someone has the sniffles. My guess is ticket sales were poor and
not enough money would have been made on the gig. So they decided to
screw over nearly everyone coming by canceling mere hours before the show to cushion their bottom line.
Go ahead... cancel any show you want. But concerts are for the fans,
and you have to give the fans more than 5 hours notice when you shut down a gig.
Not every fan is 15 minutes from the arena of the day.
I think the Blossom is to blame or possibly the promotion company who was sponsoring
the show. Either way... a fine example of "CORPORATE AMERICA".
Boston's new Album Corporate
America
BUY IT NOW!
UPDATE: 8-19-2003: It was well
worth the wait! AWESOME SHOW! I'm LUCKY I was able to attend on the
rescheduled date.
The
Picture People. (submitted by the Pat
Jones himself on
11-23-2003)
Millcreek Mall, Unit 485, Erie, PA
16565
Several weeks ago my wife explains to me
that we are going to get our picture taken for free at a local photography
joint. This free photo we were to receive was made possible by the use of
a coupon given to us by our friend Amy. Of course Amy, with good
intentions, could never have known that she was sending us into the
photography studio from Hell! (first door on the right). I think I
may strangle her when I see her next. (just kidding Amy... I
still love ya!). Anyway, my wife calls ahead for an appointment
for 11-22-2003 at 8:00pm. We planned to bring our Chocolate Lab "Rudy"
with us for a family photo. They specifically tell my wife that since we
are bringing the dog (which they welcomed openly) we would have to be either the
first appointment, or the last appointment of the day. With great
understanding we chose the last appointment...8pm. We arrive at 8:00pm on
the dot. We are shocked to see the place is PACKED with people. I
elect to wait in the less crowed area of the hallway since frankly Rudy and I,
both being male, enjoy our solitude. My wife stood for 10 minutes before
anyone was even around to take our name. At 8:10 my wife returns and says:
"they said they will get to us soon, have a seat, they will call us".
Knowing that the Mall and all stores within close at 9:00pm, we figure they have
no choice but to get to us before closing right? I mean... we have an
appointment... right? Well, nervousness began to set it when we
heard several angry customers inside the store. We heard mumblings about retake
after retake and unhappiness being expressed about the results of all. My
wife speaks to several other folks who were hanging around with that "oh my
God, get me outa here" look on their faces, and she learns that they
are unhappy with the backgrounds in their photos. They are littered with
specs and blotches. We repeatedly heard folks saying that the employees
were going to "digitally remove" these unwelcome spots. According to a few angry
folks near us, some retakes were handed back to customers looking the same as
they did before. One family, with 2 darling little girls, was there since
5:00pm!
At 8:40 my wife goes for the jugular. After waiting another 5 minutes or
so for someone to even walk by, she asks: What time do you close? They
reply 9:00pm. My wife strongly states: "then you better get to us because
we've been sitting here for 45 minutes and our appointment was at 8:00!".
At 8:47 we are escorted in the photography area by a young blond girl who was
very apologetic. She asks us: "what did you have in mind?". We
reply, "we just want a family photo with a nice background". She rolls out
a white sheet background and suddenly, it becomes painfully apparent where the
spots and blotches in the other folks photos are coming from. The white
sheet is literally spotted and blotched with marks, dirt and even BLOOD!
NO, I'm not making this up! There was a blood stain on the damn sheet!
The girl calmly folded the sheet to cover the blood stain and says to us:
" OK, how do you want to pose?". My wife replies, "you're the
photographer, you tell us".
After several awkward poses, leading to pain in our lower extremities, we
decide to pose ourselves and told her to take the picture while we sat "like
so". She then had difficulty with the camera and after 3 or 4 "no fires",
scurries off to get help. An associate returns with her, looks at
the camera, looks in the camera and says: "it'll work now, and you may want to
"go horizontal" because your cutting off her leg".
She adjusts the camera and takes 2 more pictures. With a sigh of relief, I ask:
"we're done?" She says "yes", and then recites standard exit phrase #32
out of the Picture People employee manual: "I really think we got some great
shots here, good job!".
You think eh? We'll see. Needless to say, we couldn't possibly hang
around to see our pictures that supposedly would have been ready for us before
we left (they say ready in 1 hour), because the store is now closed. It's
9:00pm. We walked into the waiting area to see the door half open, and the
inside of the store still full of the people who had been waiting since before
we showed up! Thank God we had an appointment!?... I think.
Which reminds me. Why the hell are they taking walk-in's when you have scheduled
appointments to fulfill? Who knows. Who cares. The only reason
I'll go back is to view our photos from this very odd night.
Remember, this didn't cost us anything, which is exactly why we didn't go
POSTAL. If I had paid the going rate, I'd really be hot! Actually I'd be
as angry as the other folks there that night who did pay full price to sit on
stained sheets and smile pretty.
Maybe one of the other stores in the mall should set up a "clean bed sheet"
kiosk outside this place. I think that would save us all a lot of trouble, all
while boosting bed sheet sales! Hmmmm, something to think about.
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