[speaker001:] [Clicking] Have you had that experience recently?
[speaker002:] Recently, I can't really say recently. But I think about, uh, about a year ago, uh, I bought a product from some company down at, uh, in Atlanta, Georgia. I believe it was one of these, uh, one of these, uh, mixers. These, like these juice machines and, uh
[speaker001:] Oh, yeah.
[speaker002:] the, uh, the blade they sent me at first that went into the machine, it looked, you know, perfectly okay but I found that, uh, it was made of some material which actually ended up rusting
[speaker001:] Oh.
[speaker002:] uh, after, even, despite, you know, diligent washing, it, it got rusty after about, uh, three weeks of use. And I don't think it was my fault because i-, I, you know, I had made a point of like drying it off and cleaning it but, uh, it was really, uh, it was, I had to send it back after like, you know, the third week because I realized it was like, it was not, something was very, very wrong with the blade. Uh, what about you?
[speaker001:] Well, I don't have so much trouble with products as service.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] I don't feel like that's as big a problem. I've had a few answering machines over the last two years just because I've had a lot of trouble with them working correctly.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And I'm not convinced that any of them work a hundred percent.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Uh, the one I have now is okay, most of the time.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] But that's it. But that's, that's probably the worst. My daughter has a charm bracelet I bought her that's guaranteed. Uh, James Avery. I don't know if you have that up there but it, it's a very good company. That
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] sells sterling silver things and
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] uh, she has a charm bracelet with lots of charms on it, a lot of money into it by now
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and the catch broke and she was sitting in school on a carpet and when she stood up, it caught and broke and we took it back and they said oh, this was just obviously yanked.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] This was yanked. I mean they were so rude about it.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] And so we wanted a different kind of catch and she said well it's not guaranteed. And I said, well put it on because apparently nothing's guaranteed so do it anyway.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] So we got the kind we wanted and I was really disappointed with that. I felt that this was a company that should have been more reliable
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and I happened to need a birthday present for one of her friends and I called there to see if they had it and the lady was very nice. And I said my goodness, I said you've been very nice, what's your name. And she told me and I said well I really appreciate it. I said there seems to be a big attitude problem in that,
[speaker002:] [Sniffing]. *slash error
[speaker001:] store and it turned out she was the assistant manager so,
[speaker002:] Well at least your talking to somebody who counts [LAUGHTER]. *slash error and your should be you're
[speaker001:] Right. So I felt kind of good about that, you know. I didn't
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] even know the person's name that had given [mispronounced] me the hard time or anything
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] but I just felt like, well at least I did something. Maybe they'll fix it. They might work on that, you know.
[speaker002:] Right, right.
[speaker001:] But I find attitudes are more of a problem. Service is more of a problem.
[speaker002:] I find, up here in the northeast, we have, uh, well w-, we have these mail order companies like L L Bean and, uh, they are famous for, I guess, having really top-notch service. They've got, uh
[speaker001:] Really.
[speaker002:] I mean I've, I've, I, I have friends and family who order from them because you can, you can literally, I've heard stories where you can literally buy something from them one year, wear it for a year and a half, and even after, like eighteen months of, you know, reasonably satisfactory use, they will accept it in any condition and they will gladly, no questions asked, take it back if for some bizarre reason you decide you don't want it anymore. Uh, they'll, they'll actually do things like this. I mean they're really, they, they go-, bend over backwards service wise for you. I've, uh
[speaker001:] That's really great.
[speaker002:] I've found also a lot of companies nowadays, have, they have eight hundred numbers you can call. I guess if, if you call the e-, any eight hundred number, uh, if, you, you can call up e-, any eight hundred number directory assistance, and you can get, uh, the eight hundred number of the customer service support line for a number of companies. And, um, actually I've tried that with a few companies lately. And they've, most of them have been pretty good, but I, I was, one reason why, I, like I buy a lot of clothing through mail order is that, uh, if you buy through Bean or though, uh, I guess Bean's, one of Bean's big competitors is Land's End out in, uh, I guess it's Wisconsin somewhere. They, they are, uh, they're very good about
[speaker001:] Huh.
[speaker002:] uh, insur-, like the customer is always right and you know, no matter how crabby you might be over the phone, they are very understanding and, uh, they usually get, you know, they, they make things are, they ma- make sure things are set properly if you're any way dissatisfied with their merchandise.
[speaker001:] That's really good. It use to be like that.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] But,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]. *slash error
[speaker001:] I don't think most places are like that anymore.
[speaker002:] Yeah. *slash error should be 'b' Well I think, I guess nowadays with the, uh, with the economy the way it is, I guess, there was a, there was a story on the news tonight about how, because a lot of companies are, uh, you know, things are getting rough out there, there's a lot of, you know, the morale among employees tends to go down and that, in turn, like, you know,