Word of the Day: Stimulus Package

Does anyone else blush when they hear Obama use the term “Stimulus Package?”

It’s not often that you get to feel good about a corporation and today, I have reason to feel good about two large American conglomerates – UPS and Starbucks. I’d like to share my stories with the hope that other companies will want to emulate these two fine examples of customer service.

UPS – “Ask what Brown can do for you” Their slogan is Kennedy-esque although I never thought they really meant it – until today.

My daughter ordered three pairs of shoes from Zappos to be delivered on the day that she was catching a plane to leave on a semester abroad in AFRICA. She had ordered sneakers, slip-ons and really cute sandals that she simply couldn’t survive the semester without. At 4pm, the package hadn’t arrived and although the UPS on-line tracking said that it was on  its way, we she needed to catch a plane. NOW.

So…even though my daughter is a big girl and could have done this  herself, I called UPS and asked where the darn truck was. They called me back, I met the truck on the other side of town, the driver checked my ID and handed off the package of shoes.

Then…UPS called to make sure that everything was okay. They called me.  Disaster averted, shoes packed, daughter en route to South Africa for semester abroad. Whew.

I celebrated on the way home from the airport at Starbucks where the stoner behind the counter barrista took my order for a “tall, non-fat  latte” and offered me free whipped cream on top. “Most people don’t know this,” he said,  “but you can get free whipped cream on every beverage at Starbucks.” If everything was run like Starbucks and UPS, we wouldn’t need a stimulus package.

Word of the Day: Mail

It rained a few days ago and the skylight in my upstairs hallway leaked water down three flights of stairs.

My husband, who is only marginally handy, taped up some plastic sheeting that directs the water into a bucket – that’s fine as an emergency measure, but it’s a strictly temporary solution. Although I have to admit, it gives the house a kind of Goth ambience.

What we need is a guy with a big ladder and a willingness to climb it. Lewis volunteered immediately. He said that it’s easy to get onto the roof from his bedroom window. He does it all the time.

Great.

Usually, it’s my mailman, Bob, I turn to for recommendations regarding this kind of thing.

First of all, he’s a guy. Secondly, he knows everything that’s going on in the neighborhood and who’s leaking what and where. So, today when he delivered the bills mail, he was happy to point out that roofers were climbing all over a house just one block away. “Have them fix your skylight,” he said.

I went over, yelled up to the guys on my neighbor’s roof and in an hour, a burly guy with a big, long ladder came to my house, climbed up, slapped some silicon caulking into the cracks of the skylight and for $50, the problem was solved. Thanks, Bob!

Special Delivery: Just now, the UPS man threw a package through the front door and almost wiped out the dog. My book! It’s the first author copy of my book!

My fantasy mailman

Bob, my actual mailman