online diary for the masses

On the heels of my 500th post (in which I offered every ounce of help I could muster to aspiring, up-and-coming bloggers), I’d like to continue in the helpful spirit by telling the masses about a few particularly bad experiences I’ve had with local companies so that they won’t make the same mistakes I did (giving these people my money), and hopefully, in the end, we can all band together to eradicate these companies from the face of the Earth. Dream big, folks.

• HP Valet Cleaners (3119 Knox Street, Dallas, TX‎) – My experience with this place could be a week-long series of blogposts, but I’ll give you the abridged version: I walked in and rang the bell with the hand that wasn’t holding my three dirty shirts. Then I waited for no less than 10 minutes as I listened to the HP Valet Cleaners staff member hold a personal conversation on the phone in the back. She finally came out to my letting her customer service blunder slide, and I gave her my clothes, requested light starch, and left. Several days later I picked up the shirts, and a couple days after that I actually unwrapped them to wear one. It was at that point that I found orange blots strewn about the shirts White and Blue.

Fast-forward to my going to pick up said shirts a second time and Mrs. Personal Call informing me that they couldn’t get the stains out. She went on to inform me orange blots in question were in fact food stains that I’d gotten on my shirts. Shocked by the absurdity of this suggestion, I asked her if she seriously believed that I’d gotten the same food stain on two separate shirts. She said she wouldn’t know, after all they were my shirts. This back-and-forth went on for about three more sentences before I left temporarily defeated. Thankfully I have a readership of 10+ people who take seriously my dry cleaning suggestions. Victory will be mine.

HP Valet Cleaners: They ruin your clothes and then lie to you about it.

• Pro-Tow Wrecker Service (1006 East Main Street, Lewisville, TX) – Granted, I can’t exactly think of a tow truck company that I’m (or anybody else is) particularly fond of. The only time you’d really appreciate having your car towed would be if it were broken down on LBJ and the sooner you got it moved the sooner the greater portion of Dallas’ driving population would stop hating you. But you wouldn’t want Pro-Tow Wrecking Service to move it. Of all the reckless and foolish drivers I’ve ever seen on the High 5, one Pro-Tow truck takes the cake. Passing cars in the median, cutting cars off… it was the kind of thing you’d hate a motorcyclist for doing, only Genius Driver was representing a company that everyone probably hated without his help.

I even went so far as to write the powers that be at Pro-Tow Wrecker Service a letter informing them that one of their drivers was representing their company as poorly as could possibly be imagined, a letter that went unanswered. So it turns out that driver might not have been misrepresenting his company.

Pro-Tow Wrecking Service: They know you hate them, they strive to make you hate them more.

• PrintPlace.com (1130 Ave H East, Arlington, TX) – Sure, PrintPlace has the capacity to more than adequately handle any and all of your printing needs. I’ll give you that. But the degree to which they value their customers is questionable to be sure. I had them print my business cards a couple weeks ago. I used the business card template for Illustrator provided on their website to ensure that the final product ended up exactly how I wanted. I designed the card with my logo in the top right-hand corner of the card. I received cards with the logo positioned in the card’s center. Multiple phone calls to the PrintPlace’s customer service folks ended with them assuring me that I submitted a file in which the logo was centered, which, interestingly enough, is impossible, because at no point in the design process was the logo centered.

In the last of these phone calls, I was told I’d receive a call from a manager the following morning to explore possibilities of fixing this problem. That call never came. So the only effort made at rectifying this situation was the unfulfilled promise of a phone call from a higher-up.

PrintPlace.com: They’re unable to make mistakes, but quick to point out when their customers do.

I’ll close with this: I’ve learned from these situations that it isn’t whether or not a company makes a mistake, but how they handle mistakes that forms my opinion of them. These companies handled their mistakes as poorly as any I’ve seen. So let’s not support them, or other companies that do likewise. Have some in mind you’d like to see close down? Share in the comments.