One of Those Days
So Jacy and I had good plans for the day today. We were going to go get the oil changed in her car, get it washed, have a nice lunch, go shopping at the mall, pick up some clothes from the cleaners, feed our grandmother's cat, and put new flowers on her brother's grave over at the cemetary.
First stop was the cleaners, where Jacy left her sunglasses. We had to turn around and go back for them a few minutes later. Now, between the two of us and my aunt and uncle, we have four cars. But two of them aren't working. My uncle had the other one at work, so Jacy and I had to take her car there next. I picked up my uncle's car and we both went to Wal-Mart. Because it takes well over an hour for them to change the oil in a car, we left her car there and both of us went in my uncle's car to a restaurant to eat.
We got there at 10:58, went inside, they sat us down and told us it would just be a minute; the servers were still in the pre-opening meeting. Ten minutes later, when various waiters are wandering around serving the other people, the girl who seated us came back and got our drink orders. She was already coming back with them when our waitress finally showed up and got the rest of our orders.
Fifteen minutes later (after we've been trying for several minutes to flag our waitress down for refills on our cokes), a random waitress tries to bring out the steaks we had ordered. But they haven't brought us bread or Jacy's salad like they're supposed to. So we tell them we don't want our food until /after/ we had bread and the salad. She takes it back, explains the situation to the cooks and our actual waitress, and leaves our food sitting on the counter to get cold--and the irritated cooks are throwing tickets and stuff right on top of them now. A couple more minutes pass before we finally get the bread and the salad. We start eating those, and the girl tries to bring the food back. We once more explain that we don't want our meal just yet. She takes it back again and leaves it sitting on the counter. Finally, after we watch the manager talk to the cooks and waitresses, the manager comes over to us. We explained the problem to him, and he told us they were cooking fresh, hot steaks for us now and that the entire meal was free. He also got us more bread and refills at last, since we hadn't even seen our waitress since she took our orders, despite the fact she visited other tables often. So we got a free meal, but a lot of irritation along with it. Grah. I'm all for being understanding if someone is way busy and forgets soemething, but we were the first people there and the waitress only had one other table for most of the ordeal.
Anyway, we finally left and went over to Wal-Mart again to pick up the car. They were really slow, but finally we got it and we went all the way across town now to get both cars washed. For Christmas, Jacy had gotten a gift certificate good for six car washes. She'd only used one by now, and we were going to use two more today. Usually the car wash place takes half an hour to get to your car because they're so busy, but today we got both cars up there in about five minutes. So we leave them there and go inside to pay with the gift certificate. But the girl working the register says they don't accept those any more.
We asked why, and she said because they had changed owners and names and didn't honor certificates from the old place. Jacy took the card back and told them we just wouldn't get the cars washed, then; but I asked for a manager. So we went back there and talked to him, and he gave us this spiel about how they had lost so much money and that they had honored the cards but just quit. So I told him we were losing money by his refusal to honor the card. But in the end, we just left and started home.
I took one car over to my grandmother's to feed her cat (she's out of town for the weekend with my other aunt and uncle) while Jacy went to the cemetary. We just scrapped the shopping idea, since we really didn't feel like it, and we hadn't had a chance to go get money from the credit union anyway. So I head on home and find Jacy already waiting on me. Apparently, the flowers were in the car I had, so she didn't get to do that. Anyway, we explained the car wash fiasco to my aunt, who promptly went down there to talk to them. She just got back a few minutes ago. She talked to the manager, who had her talk to the new owners, who blamed the old owners and gave her the contact address he had for them. Which, surprise surprise, was the car wash's address. So she called them back and finally the new owner gave her names and phone numbers of the old owners, and the new owner agreed to honor our card. So hah! They got told. We still didn't actually get the cars washed, but we're going Tuesday to get it done, and they /will/ honor the card.
First stop was the cleaners, where Jacy left her sunglasses. We had to turn around and go back for them a few minutes later. Now, between the two of us and my aunt and uncle, we have four cars. But two of them aren't working. My uncle had the other one at work, so Jacy and I had to take her car there next. I picked up my uncle's car and we both went to Wal-Mart. Because it takes well over an hour for them to change the oil in a car, we left her car there and both of us went in my uncle's car to a restaurant to eat.
We got there at 10:58, went inside, they sat us down and told us it would just be a minute; the servers were still in the pre-opening meeting. Ten minutes later, when various waiters are wandering around serving the other people, the girl who seated us came back and got our drink orders. She was already coming back with them when our waitress finally showed up and got the rest of our orders.
Fifteen minutes later (after we've been trying for several minutes to flag our waitress down for refills on our cokes), a random waitress tries to bring out the steaks we had ordered. But they haven't brought us bread or Jacy's salad like they're supposed to. So we tell them we don't want our food until /after/ we had bread and the salad. She takes it back, explains the situation to the cooks and our actual waitress, and leaves our food sitting on the counter to get cold--and the irritated cooks are throwing tickets and stuff right on top of them now. A couple more minutes pass before we finally get the bread and the salad. We start eating those, and the girl tries to bring the food back. We once more explain that we don't want our meal just yet. She takes it back again and leaves it sitting on the counter. Finally, after we watch the manager talk to the cooks and waitresses, the manager comes over to us. We explained the problem to him, and he told us they were cooking fresh, hot steaks for us now and that the entire meal was free. He also got us more bread and refills at last, since we hadn't even seen our waitress since she took our orders, despite the fact she visited other tables often. So we got a free meal, but a lot of irritation along with it. Grah. I'm all for being understanding if someone is way busy and forgets soemething, but we were the first people there and the waitress only had one other table for most of the ordeal.
Anyway, we finally left and went over to Wal-Mart again to pick up the car. They were really slow, but finally we got it and we went all the way across town now to get both cars washed. For Christmas, Jacy had gotten a gift certificate good for six car washes. She'd only used one by now, and we were going to use two more today. Usually the car wash place takes half an hour to get to your car because they're so busy, but today we got both cars up there in about five minutes. So we leave them there and go inside to pay with the gift certificate. But the girl working the register says they don't accept those any more.
We asked why, and she said because they had changed owners and names and didn't honor certificates from the old place. Jacy took the card back and told them we just wouldn't get the cars washed, then; but I asked for a manager. So we went back there and talked to him, and he gave us this spiel about how they had lost so much money and that they had honored the cards but just quit. So I told him we were losing money by his refusal to honor the card. But in the end, we just left and started home.
I took one car over to my grandmother's to feed her cat (she's out of town for the weekend with my other aunt and uncle) while Jacy went to the cemetary. We just scrapped the shopping idea, since we really didn't feel like it, and we hadn't had a chance to go get money from the credit union anyway. So I head on home and find Jacy already waiting on me. Apparently, the flowers were in the car I had, so she didn't get to do that. Anyway, we explained the car wash fiasco to my aunt, who promptly went down there to talk to them. She just got back a few minutes ago. She talked to the manager, who had her talk to the new owners, who blamed the old owners and gave her the contact address he had for them. Which, surprise surprise, was the car wash's address. So she called them back and finally the new owner gave her names and phone numbers of the old owners, and the new owner agreed to honor our card. So hah! They got told. We still didn't actually get the cars washed, but we're going Tuesday to get it done, and they /will/ honor the card.