Pensacola Day 2: What’s Happened to Customer Service?

I think it’s time to take up online shopping permanently. That way, you would never have to deal with “customer service” people anymore. Do you ever get the feeling that you are annoying the person who is taking care of your transaction? Or maybe you are one of the lucky ones who gets the “I don’t care about the customer, I’m going to act like you’re not here” treatment. We have been fortunate to have had the experience with both while on this vacation. You read about our first instance with “exceptional” customer service in Van Horn, TX with the Ramada desk girl. Day 2 in Pensacola took us to Pep Boys for our 3,000 mile oil change that we will need twice while on our honeymoon. I stepped in to the Pep Boys store and was looked at by 2 employees behind the counter. Silly me, I thought you should greet a customer when they walk in to your store and you’re standing 3 feet away from them with a counter that separates you. I guess the correct thing to do, according to the Pep Boys customer service manual, is to turn your heads back to the computers you are typing on, speaking only with other Pep Boy employees. I waited another minute while the employees typed away on their screens. After the casual/in-your-face clearing of the throat (you know, the polite little sound you make when you want somebody to look up at you but in your mind you are thinking “Hey jerk-wad look up at me, there’s a customer in the store!”), one of them glanced up from his computer and with a rather snarky tone, asked, “Um, can I help you?” Now at this point I was thinking “Gosh, Pep Boys should be a little more peppy” but I thought that they may have been in a rush so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I told them that I needed an oil change and with an annoyed look, he glanced at his watch and retorted “It may be about 2 hours you might have to come back.”
We didn’t go back.
In fact, no one should ever go back to Pep Boys. They should be called Non-Pep Boys for their non-peppiness.

We ended up getting our oil changed right next door and we were on our way to the famous white beaches of Pensacola. The sun was blazing, the clothes were skimpy (on both genders – some guys should not wear some things *shivers*), but the water was amazing. You can actually let this water touch your skin unlike another ocean that I know (I say that just to get a rise out of all you Pacific Ocean lovers…my wife included) (Rachel made sure to type “my wife included”). We spent about 40 minutes wading up to our necks in warm gulf water and then ate a piece of “Death by Chocolate” cake at a little restaurant called Crabs. I will be digesting that cake after we get back to Boise – it was that huge! We took a stroll at a nearby shopping strip that had some beach shops, restaurants, and a giant clam shell. After a few hours at Pensacola Beach, we had had our fun in the sun for the day and decided to hit up a Walmart to restock our dwindling food supply.

On a final note our last minute hotel change worked out well as we were both pleased with our stay at Towne Place Suites in Pensacola. It’s funny how we are never pleased with the temperature as Americans. We were both “dying” of heat while standing in the sun on the beach and “freezing to death” back at the hotel room due to the blizzard-abilities of our air-conditioning. But if the temperature of a hotel room is the least of our worries on this trip, I’d say it has been a success thus far. On to Atlanta where another historical site awaits us (Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial) and a baseball game where the Atlanta Braves will take on the Pittsburgh Pirates – go Braves! More soon!!!

From the Road Less Traveled,
Rachel & Josh

Pensacola Day 2 Highlights: the Atlantic Ocean, chocolate cake at a seafood restaurant, Walmart, other people from Idaho who are 2,500 miles away from home that wave hello even if their license plate has a Vandal logo on it *yuck!*, showers off the beach to wash off the sand from your feet and legs, modesty (the little we saw), waterproof sunscreen.