My Next Blog

I enjoy sitting down in front of my computer and doing another Blog for you, dear reader.

It gives me something very challenging to do to keep my mind working.

I try hard to take a look at different media outlets to find stories that I think are interesting and for which I can comment. Obviously, a lot of what I write about is “political” in nature because that is what has interested me for so long in my life. However, what I do try to do these days is find other topics about which I can provide my opinion.

All of this is done on the Internet. It truly is amazing. After a relatively short period of time, we are all experiencing life in a substantially different way. I can write something today and since some of my readers are in other countries, it can be seen in other countries around the world almost immediately and vice versa.

Everything is so much different out there now. The most obvious to me is the various kinds of telecommunications products that so many people use. Don’t you see people walking down the street and talking on their “telephone” or typing a note to send to their friend. The phones these days are much more than just a telephone. Some of the more expensive ones are virtually small PCs with all of the tasks they can accomplish.

However, for someone like me who does not have the need to upgrade my cell phone, I still just have a regular one that I use and it works well for me.

Perhaps one day I should sit down and comment about all the changes caused because of the creation of the Internet. Or at least, the ones that I seem to be familiar with.

I thought I would post a “fun” story today about a situation that occurred at an establishment here that we go to often for treats.

STARBUCKS

This is a company that provides a variety of different products for people to eat and drink. 

One can buy a number of different types of beverages, as well as food for snacks, breakfasts and lunches. They have high quality choices that taste delicious! We have sampled quite a few of them from their herbal teas to pastries and sandwiches.

However, that is not why I want to write about Starbucks today. I am going to tell you about the situation I had with problems with their website and how these problems are dealt with so courteously and effectively.

For whatever reason, either I or a family member who has an online account have had some real miseries using their website system recently. Accordingly, we have had to call their Customer Service Department and deal with one of their customer reps.

This is not something that is unique to Starbucks. Clearly, many websites have people who can be contacted if an issue arises either by phone or e-mail.

The issue this time involved a previous US Starbucks account, a Canadian one, converting US dollars into Canadian dollars, transferring money from the US account into the Canada one, old accounts closing down, new ones opening and some accounts seeming to disappear without anyone knowing about it but not really disappearing at all. Sounds quite fascinating doesn’t it, dear reader.

All I wanted to do was to have one account so all of our accumulated money could be in our Canadian account in Canadian dollars.

I am not going to go into the case in a lot of detail since it may be unique to my situation. However, how it was handled is important for you to understand, dear reader.

The conversation over the telephone started at about 9 o’clock in the morning. It lasted for about 40 minutes. We had to go through a number of steps with the Rep in order to see if it could be it done correctly. We wanted to set up a system so that we could do it as effortlessly as possible. Even she was not experienced with what we had to do so it took a lot of effort on her part for it to be successfully concluded. Finally it was completed!

What was interesting was how pleasant the rep was throughout the entire period of time.

There was no concern on her part that she had to exit our conversation quickly, even if the problem was not solved. She always told us what she was doing and what was not working. She tried very hard to get it done as quickly as possible but because that was not something that was easily workable, she had to take a considerable amount of time to accomplish the result.

When everything was finished with her, I did not hang up the phone. Rather, I asked her to put me in touch with her supervisor so I could speak to that person about the lady who helped me out so much. The call was made and the supervisor was very happy about how pleased I and my wife were about all of this accomplished so well based on her efforts.

So that is what happened, dear reader. A problem was resolved. Sure it took time but the Customer Service Rep was prepared to spend as much as necessary to get everything accomplished.

Now, I feel pretty good about going to the site and placing my order!