While doing some research for an article I'm working on, I came across this quote today and it really struck me:
"Fall seven times, stand up eight." - Japanese proverb
So many times we focus on the negativity of a setback or what we would see as a failure, that we don't refocus our perspective on where we need to go from there. We just need to reshift our thinking to not lose what our ultimate goals are. Maybe we just needed to take a different road or direction to get there?
I'm trying to find inspiration in everyday things as well. In my nephew who is incessantly curious, always asking questions, and always sees the novelty in things. In the hopes of a younger generation who doesn't worry about every detail of why something did or didn't happen, but who relish what's happening right now. And in the person who can come across a major struggle or heartache and immediately searches the positive in the situation, stands up and moves forward.
It's definitely a way of life I can walk towards.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
That Shakey's Feeling
Sometimes you're just in the mood for some yummy, indulgent comfort food. The kind you wanna have but never admit to eating. For me, today, it was Shakey's. I've been going to my local Shakey's pizza parlor, since I was a little girl. And hey, who can pass up an honest to goodness real pizza parlor? It's familiar, it's delicious and it's fun!
My mom, sister, nephews and niece decided to give in to our craving today and we headed over to grab some pizza. I decided not to change out of my workout gear figuring the Shakey's smell of grease would blend in perfectly.
So we sat, we ate our pizza, we had our decadent mojo fried potatoes with blue cheese dressing, and we watched the kids get sucked into the arcade games. Oh the childhood memories...
As we were leaving, my oldest nephew turned to me and said, "I feel like throwing up." I smilled to myself knowing that our mission was accomplished: We'd all sucessfully left with that all too familiar feeling you get after having just consumed about 25% food, 75% grease. (It's right up there with movie popcorn for me.) We affectionately call it, "the Shakey's feeling."
P.S. If you have the chance, checkout their "Bunch'A Lunch" buffet. It's a sprawl of different pizzas, mojos, fried chicken, buffalo wings, garlic bread and a salad bar, for a ridiculously low price!
My mom, sister, nephews and niece decided to give in to our craving today and we headed over to grab some pizza. I decided not to change out of my workout gear figuring the Shakey's smell of grease would blend in perfectly.
So we sat, we ate our pizza, we had our decadent mojo fried potatoes with blue cheese dressing, and we watched the kids get sucked into the arcade games. Oh the childhood memories...
As we were leaving, my oldest nephew turned to me and said, "I feel like throwing up." I smilled to myself knowing that our mission was accomplished: We'd all sucessfully left with that all too familiar feeling you get after having just consumed about 25% food, 75% grease. (It's right up there with movie popcorn for me.) We affectionately call it, "the Shakey's feeling."
P.S. If you have the chance, checkout their "Bunch'A Lunch" buffet. It's a sprawl of different pizzas, mojos, fried chicken, buffalo wings, garlic bread and a salad bar, for a ridiculously low price!
Friday, July 18, 2008
I am a huge fan of movies and an even bigger fan of musicals. So when you put the two together, I'm in movie musical heaven...most of the time. Today, not so much.
I've seen the musical version of "Mama Mia" two times now, once in Las Vegas and once in L.A. It is a fun, feel-good production that literally keeps your feet tapping throughout. It just doesn't quite work as a movie. It has a stellar cast and some cute moments, but for the most part it was acted as a live-theater production on film: over-acted, overly choreographed with direction that really only works on a stage where you have to be "big" to make sure everyone in the audience can see.
The scenery is beautiful and the songs, themselves, are still fun. But you're left waiting for it to get better and it just never does.
I still walked out of there humming the songs and wanting to see it again, just the live-theater version instead of the film.
"Mama Mia" opens nationwide today.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Car Update
Just in case anyone was wondering, my boyfriend was able to purchase the car at Power for the price that was on their website. They had to bite the $2400 because they "felt so bad about all that had happened."
Regardless of their bogus reasoning, he got the car. It's in excellent condition. And he is uber-excited about it.
They're still getting a customer complaint though...
Regardless of their bogus reasoning, he got the car. It's in excellent condition. And he is uber-excited about it.
They're still getting a customer complaint though...
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Power Buick - South Bay
Customer Service...if you work in a business like selling cars where you are pretty much dependent on your customers to make a living, wouldn't you try to provide them with the best service, treatment and respect that you possibly can.
My boyfriend has been car hunting and had an unpleasant experience with Power Direct of South Bay. He was told a certain car was available and spoke to quite a few sales representatives to verify the information. Well, come to find out, that someone had already put a deposit on the vehicle but they were going to take a look at it first before making their final decision. This transaction had already been made previous to my boyfriend making his initial calls. The dealership wrote it off as miscommunication within the sales department. We drove down to take a look at the car in case the first prospective buyers didn't want it. Once there, the salesman tried to sell us on other used cars at a higher price range. Was this their tactic all along? My boyfriend was told that he would be contacted, either way, once the first people made their final decisions, especially since it had caused such an inconvenience for us. No one ever called back. It wasn't until my boyfriend followed up that he was notified that the car was indeed sold. All in all, a really bad experience with them.
Now several weeks later, my boyfriend finds another car, a hatchback Ford Focus, on the same Power Direct of South Bay's website. This time the car is listed for $4,550. It's within the budget, the specs look great and the car seems to be in great shape. Having learned his lesson the first time, my boyfriend takes all the precautions necessary to not get swindled again. He talked to several people throughout the sales department and was reassured that the car was, indeed, on the lot, available for purchase, no one had it on hold (my boyfriend was later informed that that is, in fact, illegal to put a hold on a vehicle) and that the price was indeed $4,550. Calls were made up until we left for the dealership. They had our cell phone number. Constant communication was going on. Constant verification of information. Constant reassurance that the car was available.
We made the hour drive to the dealership and once we get there we're informed that, A) Not only is the car not a hatchback (o.k., we could let that one slide), but more importantly, B) The dealership had "made a mistake and the actual price of the car was $6,950." What?! But they felt bad enough for their mistake that they would knock off a thousand dollars bringing it to $5,950.
Why weren't we told this sooner? Why was the original, ADVERTISED asking price of $4,550 verified over and over again to us? We asked to speak to the General Manager, Ron Blomquist. This so called salesman was rude, disrespectful and down-right arrogant. He smirked at us and said, "Now I know you don't want to hear bad news but we've already printed up a retraction that we will be posting." We were upset and let him know as much as we tried to explain where we were coming from but he blamed the phone service operator and when we told him what a horrible business he's running he said, sarcastically, "Thank you," and walked away. He never heard us out. He never let us explain the situation. And he turned and walked away from us, mid-sentence! No apologies. No understanding for our inconvience. Not even the decency to be courteous enough to stand there for five minutes so that we could explain our side.
That's customer service? That's how they expect to get more clients or even customer referrals? How do they expect to do business? And what is this man doing in any position of "authority" when he clearly is so ill-mannered? We got all their information and as we were walking out the door, we talked about how we would be reporting this to the Better Business Bureau.
Today my boyfriend gets a phone call from the same woman Ron blamed in phone service, to let him know that indeed, the asking price online was $4,550 and that this Ron guy felt so sorry and bad about all that happened yesterday and that he didn't know the whole story (NO KIDDING!), especially the fact that we had come from so far. But that they were more than willing to honor the online asking price and sell the vehicle to my boyfriend for that price. And this couldn't have been figured out yesterday when we were already there? Now he has to drive down AGAIN because they realized their mistake, or more importantly, that we weren't going to put up with it and they would get complaints?
My boyfriend contacted the Better Business Bureau today and as it turns out, this Power Direct has an "F" rating for customer service. They have numerous complaints and have little to rectify them.
So here's my two pieces of advice:
1) Do your research. Everything from the car you're buying to who you're buying from. You don't want to get swindled. And your time is certainly more valuable than to just have it be wasted by incompetent, asinine employees.
2) Do not do business with Power Direct - South Bay. They are unreliable, rude, disrespectful and clearly do not care about the customer in any way. Even if my boyfriend does walk out of there today with the car he should have gotten yesterday, it doesn't change the fact that we were treated very badly. Save your time and your energy and look elsewhere for a car. You may pay more for better service but believe me, after this experience, it would be well worth it.
Power Buick - South Bay
14610 Hindry Avenue
Hawthorne, CA 90250
General Manager: Ron Blomquist
My boyfriend has been car hunting and had an unpleasant experience with Power Direct of South Bay. He was told a certain car was available and spoke to quite a few sales representatives to verify the information. Well, come to find out, that someone had already put a deposit on the vehicle but they were going to take a look at it first before making their final decision. This transaction had already been made previous to my boyfriend making his initial calls. The dealership wrote it off as miscommunication within the sales department. We drove down to take a look at the car in case the first prospective buyers didn't want it. Once there, the salesman tried to sell us on other used cars at a higher price range. Was this their tactic all along? My boyfriend was told that he would be contacted, either way, once the first people made their final decisions, especially since it had caused such an inconvenience for us. No one ever called back. It wasn't until my boyfriend followed up that he was notified that the car was indeed sold. All in all, a really bad experience with them.
Now several weeks later, my boyfriend finds another car, a hatchback Ford Focus, on the same Power Direct of South Bay's website. This time the car is listed for $4,550. It's within the budget, the specs look great and the car seems to be in great shape. Having learned his lesson the first time, my boyfriend takes all the precautions necessary to not get swindled again. He talked to several people throughout the sales department and was reassured that the car was, indeed, on the lot, available for purchase, no one had it on hold (my boyfriend was later informed that that is, in fact, illegal to put a hold on a vehicle) and that the price was indeed $4,550. Calls were made up until we left for the dealership. They had our cell phone number. Constant communication was going on. Constant verification of information. Constant reassurance that the car was available.
We made the hour drive to the dealership and once we get there we're informed that, A) Not only is the car not a hatchback (o.k., we could let that one slide), but more importantly, B) The dealership had "made a mistake and the actual price of the car was $6,950." What?! But they felt bad enough for their mistake that they would knock off a thousand dollars bringing it to $5,950.
Why weren't we told this sooner? Why was the original, ADVERTISED asking price of $4,550 verified over and over again to us? We asked to speak to the General Manager, Ron Blomquist. This so called salesman was rude, disrespectful and down-right arrogant. He smirked at us and said, "Now I know you don't want to hear bad news but we've already printed up a retraction that we will be posting." We were upset and let him know as much as we tried to explain where we were coming from but he blamed the phone service operator and when we told him what a horrible business he's running he said, sarcastically, "Thank you," and walked away. He never heard us out. He never let us explain the situation. And he turned and walked away from us, mid-sentence! No apologies. No understanding for our inconvience. Not even the decency to be courteous enough to stand there for five minutes so that we could explain our side.
That's customer service? That's how they expect to get more clients or even customer referrals? How do they expect to do business? And what is this man doing in any position of "authority" when he clearly is so ill-mannered? We got all their information and as we were walking out the door, we talked about how we would be reporting this to the Better Business Bureau.
Today my boyfriend gets a phone call from the same woman Ron blamed in phone service, to let him know that indeed, the asking price online was $4,550 and that this Ron guy felt so sorry and bad about all that happened yesterday and that he didn't know the whole story (NO KIDDING!), especially the fact that we had come from so far. But that they were more than willing to honor the online asking price and sell the vehicle to my boyfriend for that price. And this couldn't have been figured out yesterday when we were already there? Now he has to drive down AGAIN because they realized their mistake, or more importantly, that we weren't going to put up with it and they would get complaints?
My boyfriend contacted the Better Business Bureau today and as it turns out, this Power Direct has an "F" rating for customer service. They have numerous complaints and have little to rectify them.
So here's my two pieces of advice:
1) Do your research. Everything from the car you're buying to who you're buying from. You don't want to get swindled. And your time is certainly more valuable than to just have it be wasted by incompetent, asinine employees.
2) Do not do business with Power Direct - South Bay. They are unreliable, rude, disrespectful and clearly do not care about the customer in any way. Even if my boyfriend does walk out of there today with the car he should have gotten yesterday, it doesn't change the fact that we were treated very badly. Save your time and your energy and look elsewhere for a car. You may pay more for better service but believe me, after this experience, it would be well worth it.
Power Buick - South Bay
14610 Hindry Avenue
Hawthorne, CA 90250
General Manager: Ron Blomquist
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