Pura Vida Customer Service

[Sam Wilson]

LiCR,

I'm sure this story of above and beyond (the pale) customer service resonates with most if not all of you... jajaja

This morning I got up early and noticed a beautiful blue sky with nary a cloud to be seen.  So I assembled my new desbrozadora (motoguadaña for you campesinos), dumped out the year old gas in my gas can and I set off to prepare for battle with my 2 years worth of growth out on the farm.  Yes, it has been more than a year since I last mowed -- I do that to offset Gene in this upside-down world of extremes.  jajaja.  First stop was our local Colono hardware store to pick up 10 m of trimmer cord.  My plan was to use the cord to trim along walls and trees and sensitive places that I might damage with the blade cutting head.  Behind the counter where the trimmer line is sat a nice enough fellow.  So I told him I needed 10 meters of x.x mm trimmer cord and he looked at 2 types that were too small and one that was bigger than what I asked for and said he didn't have anything.  They had 2 more spools of trimmer cord that only had a product code on the spool, but nothing saying the size.  I asked him, what size is that one.  He didn't know for the same reason I didn't know because the size wasn't on the spool.  And I asked him about the other, same thing.  No sé.  So I asked him, how can you sell that to customers if you don't know what size it is.  No sé -- I'm not a salesperson.  So I gave him a chance to get someone over to help, but all the other employees in sight were busy chatting about their morning coffee and so... No sé.  I just gave him a grimace and shook my head and walked out.

I walked over to the only other little hardware store in town that is more than double as far from my house than Colono and their helpful person behind the counter presented me with 7 or 8 options and prices, I got my trimmer line and chatted them up for a bit before thanking them and wishing them a good day.

It is pretty easy to be better than the competition in Costa Rica.

--

Sam, in outback Guanacaste

PS - Yes it is true, Gene cuts his grass about every week.  That's at least 50 times more than I do in a year's time.  jajaja.

[gene]

WELCOME TO COSTA RICA!!!!!

Sent from my Galaxy

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[Joe Harrison]

Tales like this abound, Sam.  Some ferreterias around here likewise don't have the desired product, but sometimes there's a workaround.  Or, that establishment might have some home-cooked food for sale, courtesy of the owner's wife.  Not your typical "hardware" but delicious.  I have an HP printer (that I wish I didn't have) that needs a new black ink cartridge, previously easy to find here in San Ramon.  I got tired of looking last week, and a quick Google search found an HP store in San Jose.  Fantastic!  And, yes, they have what I need, at a steep price.  They could ship it to my house overnight, no extra charge!  Now, that's service.  That was  Wednesday.  Friday I checked and learned it might have gone to the San Ramon Correos office.  So, I went there.  Cual es el numero guia?  Hell, I have no idea; nobody told me about a tracking number!  The clerk took pity on me, an obvious neophyte*, so he checked all packages they have.  Nothing.  I enlisted my wife to check with the SJ store in her distinctly better Spanish and she found out that the cartridge still hasn't shipped, but "probably" will on Monday.  So, maybe on Tuesday I'll have it.  Or not.  

*I'm not really a postal neophyte, having spent 3 years with USPS as a political appointee (Bush 1) helping oversee their facilities.  Highlight of my service was my assignment (nobody else wanted it) to travel to American Samoa to verify that a new P.O. was needed there.  Damn right it was!  That was my introduction to the South Pacific  and the first of several trips down there.  I had a special ID card giving me free travel on Pan Am; the pilot had never seen such an ID and, assuming I had some high rank, at first offered to let me sit in the cockpit.  I declined and sat upstairs in the 747 from Honolulu to Pago Pago.  Nice!!!