Gatlinburg vs. Blue Ridge

Once a year, we usually take a family vacation.  Usually it is to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  We love the mountains and especially the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  Last year, after thinking that we needed to try someplace new, I suggested Blue Ridge, Georgia.  Everyone pretty much shot it down quickly, because "we always go to Gatlinburg."  I kept at it for a good while and over time, most everyone accepted the challenge to try Blue Ridge.

Since we live in Central Alabama, the distance wasn't much different.  Blue Ridge is about an hour closer but with less interstate driving.  I studied the different routes and decided to go through Cleveland, and therefore Ocoee, Tennessee.  It was a good choice because we stopped at the whitewater launching area and watched the rafters take off on the rough water.  I think I'll add whitewater rafting to my bucket list.  It looked like a lot of fun.  We were pressed for time so decided to push ahead to McCaysville and south to Blue Ridge.

Our base camp was a cabin, on a hilltop, just a a few minutes north of the city.  The VRBO listing is 188378 so you can check it out.  It was one of the nicest decorated cabins that we've stayed at.  It has a neat outside fireplace on the deck and sleeps ten.  The view was badly obscured by leaves since it was August.  We unpacked the cars and settled in for an evenings rest before our first day downtown.

Sunday morning, we decided to take the short hike to Long Creek Falls.  It is a popular thirty minute hike to see two falls which total about fifty feet.  It was a bit of a disappointment, but nevertheless a good outing.  I found my first annoyance with the Blue Ridge area though.  Signs and good directions are sadly lacking.  We took two of the driving tours and almost everything on the map was unmarked, difficult to find, and no pull-off parking if you did manage to stumble upon it.  The historical society along with the county and state need to get busy.

That trip also led me to my second disappointment, closed businesses.  At lunch, it was somewhat of a challenge to find restaurants open, along with several of the attractive stores.  We found a local Bar-B-Q that was open and enjoyed the outside seating.  Odd business hours seemed to be the norm here.  Monday, we came back to town only to find the same problem.  So, if you plan on shopping, Friday and Saturday are your best bets, other days may be iffy.

Sunday afternoon, we drove over to McCaysville and tubed the Toccoa River with Rolling Thunder River Company.  My wife and I had pink inner tubes with a back rest, which was pretty nice.  It was a nice hour and a half trip down the lazy river with just a few rapids.  We enjoyed that so much we went back again Monday afternoon and tried their competitors Toccoa River Adventures.  No back rest with their big yellow tubes but it was fun.

Tuesday morning, anxious for another hiking adventure, we took off for Amicalola Falls State Park.  This is Georgia's most visited park and the 729' water falls is the tallest in the Southeast.  It was pretty but due to the trees and the continuous climb, it's difficult to see the entire water cascade.  The park was crowded, mostly with Atlanta folks.  

Disappointed with downtown Blue Ridge, on Tuesday afternoon, we drove over to Ellijay, Georgia, and did a little antiquing.  The prices were average with several nice stores.  We didn't find any closed or with odd hours.  We ate at a nice little sidewalk cafe.

Now, the quick summary of my city vs. city.  

Blue Ridge views - Severely lacking.  Very few mountain vistas.  The ones you do see are not as high as around Gatlinburg.

Blue Ridge Historical Sites - Very few and hard to find.  Gatlinburg excels in this area.

Blue Ridge Shopping - Okay, but I wasn't impressed.  The odd store hours was a big turnoff, along with public restrooms.  They were almost nonexistent.  Again, Gatlinburg wins this one hands down.

Pet Friendliness - Finally,  Blue Ridge wins one.  Almost every store we went in has water bowls and treats for your pet.  I don't think I've ever seen that in Gatlinburg.

Trying not to let my own opinion influence the others, I took an informal survey after we arrived back home.  It was 100% for another Gatlinburg trip.  Blue Ridge was a nice change of pace, it just hasn't quite arrived yet.

Weed Eater Woes (Part Two) - Highway 157 Hardware, Cullman

 In Part One, I told you about the problems getting our Sears Craftsman C3 replaced and how difficult it is to do business with Sears.  Today, I want to back up in time and discuss our other weed eater, the Stihl FS-35.  With it, I discovered the difficulties of keeping a two-cycle engine running using ethanol gasoline.  Every season, it needed a carburetor kit before it would even begin to think about starting. 

Ethanol is yet another one of those things that our congress has done for us, that we didn’t need.  Corn should never be mixed with fuel.  It was just another opportunity for a ton of taxpayer money to be exchanged between our politicians and corporations.  All the while putting additional burden and expense on us.  I finally learned that purchasing a fuel stabilizer helps with the problem but is certainly not a permanent fix.  That would come through “Term Limits” which the American public hasn’t embraced yet.  Fixing Washing would correct a tremendous number of our troubles, but I digress.

This year, like the last three, I needed the Stihl to be worked on.  Since we were working in Cullman so much, I decided to use a local merchant there for the repairs.  157 hardware was close, so I took it along with my son’s Ryobi weed eater that we had borrowed to help us get ahead for the season.  They kept them both for about two weeks and called to say they were ready for pickup.

As my wife pulled in on a Saturday morning, she noticed a Sheriff’s deputy car parked out front.  She went to the counter, they pulled the ticket, and said the charge was $85.00.  She paid the bill, and then the guy said, “I hope they’re here, we had a burglary last night”!  He went to the back and returned with the Ryobi but not the Stihl.  Obviously, the thieves know a good weed eater when they see one. 

 So now, we’re out $85.00 plus a weed eater.  I suppose the correct amount would be $70.00 since that’s the amount charged for the stolen one.

This all took place on April 5^Th, 2014.  I made several calls and went by the store several times to check on the situation.  I called the sheriff's department and gave them the serial number, which the deputy said would be put into the national database.  I stopped by the store again in early July and was told the thief had been caught in Mississippi with over $300,000.00 of stolen equipment and my weed eater would be returned soon.  With my patience wearing thin, I stopped by again, the first week in August and spoke to the owner, Mr. Harris.  He said the insurance agent had been slow to get back with him, but should have everything handled the following Monday.  This was on Saturday, so I gave him my home number along with a cell number if necessary.  I’m still waiting for a call.

Just like with Sears, it truly boggles the mind to think that a business would treat it’s customers in such a callous, uncaring manner.   As a customer, I will not be taken for granted.  You cannot be mean, ignorant, or uncaring and expect me to give you more money!  You also shouldn’t expect me to remain quiet and not tell others what happened.  

Businesses like Sears Roebuck and 157 Hardware are good examples of what’s wrong with our economy.  They need to remember who allows them to stay in business, the customer.  If you’re willing to sell a product, have enough faith in it, to have a easy return/repair policy.  If you discover a defective product, replace it immediately.  If you lose a customer’s merchandise, replace it.  Above all, be nice.  Most of the employees I talked to about my weed eaters just wanted me to go away!  Treat your customers like that and they will!

The following quotes are from a Forbes article, “40 Eye-Opening Customer Service Quotes”. 

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. ~ Bill Gates

The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary. ~ Sam Walton

Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong. ~ Donald Porter

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Sept 6, 2014 Update...   Went by 157 Hardware today to check on the insurance progress.  They said everything had been settled and presented me with a brand new Tanaka string trimmer.  I had never heard of the brand but in reading internet reviews they seem to be well made and the reviews were good.  I've already burned a tank of gasoline with it and it handled the worst I could throw at it.  I'm impressed!  Thanks go to Johnny at 157 Hardware in Cullman, Alabama.

Weed Eater Woes - Part 1, Dealing with Sears

Several years ago, my wife wanted me to mow the grass.  I refused, saying that it didn’t need it.  She said it did!  My argument was that if I couldn’t easily see the strip where I had just mowed, it didn’t need it!  The disagreement went on so long that, I got a “fine, I’ll do it”!  She has been taking care of the yard work ever since. 

Now, I have to tell you that I appreciate it greatly and am willing to get her any equipment she needs to accomplish the task.  Trim work with a string trimmer is also very important to her.  I bought a Stihl FS 35 to use, but after using it a while, she didn’t like it.  It was too heavy.  So we researched battery operated trimmers and chose the C3 from Sears.  It worked great for a while, but the batteries started losing their charge too quickly.  We upgraded to two lithium batteries and that seemed to do the trick.  Then “it” happened.

She came in one day and said there was a crisis.  I jumped up and said “What”?  “My weed eater quit working”!  I looked at it, changed the battery, but still no heart beat.  I declared, “looks like its dead”!  She said, “I’ve got to have a weed eater”!  I was working the next day and couldn’t take care of the problem.  We were long past the warranty period, so I suggested she to go to Sears and buy a new one.  Crisis solved, for a while.

She went to sears and they showed here the combo pack with a blower & weed eater.  They were both at home when I arrived that evening.  Everything was okay for about four weeks, then it was deja vu all over again!  “David, my weed eater!”  I heard her shout one Friday afternoon.  I said, “No way, its brand new”!  “Yep, its dead” she said.  I changed the battery, no luck.  I said, “you’ll have to take it back to Sears and get another one.  It’s still under warranty”.  Appeased again,  she actually waited almost a week, till I was off on a Sunday to accompany her.  She did call Sears on Friday, and was told to bring the whole combo with the battery, back to the store and they would replace it. 

Sunday afternoon, we drove over the Riverchase Galleria Mall and the Sears store there.  We had to park in the parking deck and carry everything in, dividing it up between us.  We had already thrown the box away.  We went to the first desk in 'lawn and garden' and explained the situation to an employee there.  He said, “yea, no problem.  Take it to K**** at the other cash register and he’ll take care of it.”  I said thanks, and we carried everything over to K****, told the story again about D** telling us to bring everything back to replace it.  He looked at us and said, “I don’t know why he told you that, we can’t replace it until it goes to the repair center.  Shocked, I said “Okay, where is that”?  He said, “Do you know where Oxmoor Rd. is in Homewood?”  I think I repeated “Homewood?!”  more as exasperation than a question.  I saw fire in my wife’s eyes and knew right away that I needed to protect this man from an angry white woman?

She said, “How long is this going to take”?  He said, sensing his immediate danger, “If you’ll take it downstairs to our merchandise pickup window, they will send it out for you and you won’t have to drive to Homewood.  That will be quicker, because they have a truck leaving in the morning.  The turnaround time should be about a week.  And all they really need is the weed eater, not the blower.”  I said ok, and we went downstairs to the merchandise pickup window.

We walked in there and a guy asked us our problem.  We told him the story and he said, “we don’t do that”.  About that time, a lady came out and he told here the story, and she said, “we don’t do that”.  "Did they fill out the return paperwork for you upstairs?” She asked.  “No, they just said to bring it to you for the truck in the morning.  She said again, “We don’t do that here.”  She said, “Do you know where our store on Oxmoor Rd. in Homewood is?”  She said  I said “No, but can’t you send it out on the truck for us?  She said, “We can, but it won’t leave here till next Saturday”!  At this time, my wife who had been fuming and was about to explode said, “I can’t wait till Saturday.  I’ve got to get this fixed now.”  I said, “Okay, tell me where it is.”  She went back in and brought out a map.  My wife asked why the other three people we had talked to didn’t tell us all this.  The lady said that not only could they not replace it right away, it had to be returned three times to the service center before we would get a new one.  We also found out the location in Homewood was closed on Sunday. 

She would have to return it on Monday, while I was at work.  That night, I helped her with the directions and we discussed the best time to leave to beat the Birmingham traffic congestion. 

The next day, I got a phone call from her about 10:30 in the morning.  “You’re not going to believe this” she said.  I took them the weed eater and said we were told to bring it there.  The lady said, “We don’t do this here.  You need to take it to our location on Lakeshore rd, behind Jim and Nicks Bar-B-Que.  I think I said, “Unbelievable”.

That location ended up being a merchandise pick up point as well.  The real location was across town.  The lady asked her for the store’s return paperwork and of course we were never given any.  "We don't complete that here, you'll have to return it to the store." My wife said, "look, everyone we talk to sends us somewhere else.  Can you not take care of this?"  She referred it to a supervisor nearby who said it was okay to complete the correct paperwork and send it off to the Chattanooga repair center.  

So the weed eater got sent off for repairs and they took our number to call when it was returned.  It took about two and a half weeks before we had a message on our answering machine that the weed eater was ready for pickup.  The message didn’t give the pickup location, so we called the last place and they advised it wasn’t there, it must have been sent to the Galleria store.  We got in the car and drove over to the merchandise pickup location, gave them our return pickup paperwork and the information that a call said it was ready.  The lady went in the warehouse but came back out empty-handed.  “Its not here” she said.  My question was, “where is it”?   She said she would call the other location.  

I watched her talk on the phone a few minutes then she came out again saying, “its not there either.”  I said, “Do you have a supervisor I can talk to”?  She said yes and went to get one.  We waited a while and a lady walked up about the same time that the first one with the paperwork came out another door and explained to her our problem and added the information that the other location had located it and found it marked “non-repairable”.   The manager took the paperwork and disappeared into a nearby room.  I assumed she was making calls to get approval for a replacement, from a high-ranking manager.  No one gets to make decisions anymore in our “micro-managed corporate world”.  After several minutes, she came out with the statement that “we’re going to give you a new one”.  We walked pretty silently(thank goodness) up to the 2^nd floor to receive a brand new C3 weed eater.  I thanked the manager for her help and we left the store, glad that the ordeal was over. We never did get an “I’m sorry” from anyone or an answer as to why everyone had a different story to give us.

As soon as we arrived home, I unboxed the weed eater and got the battery and charger out to plug it up for a complete charge.  No lights…  I plugged it into another socket, no lights…  I put the battery into our first charger, lights worked okay.  Unbelievable!  I went upstairs and said, “you’re not going to believe this”.  She said, “Does it not work”?  “No, its okay, but the battery charger is dead on arrival.”  She suggested we take it back.  I said “No, I don’t have the desire to go through that again”. 

I know that we probably won’t shop at Sears any longer and I understand now why their business seems to be struggling.  Customers are like your teeth, ignore them and they’ll go away.  Treat them right and they’ll stay with you for the long haul.  The other comment I’ll make here, is that quality of merchandise counts.  If cheap labor and cheap parts push the profit margin to the roof, it will do you no good because the product won’t last.  Customers will return it and poor quality control takes away your profits and your customers.  Sell a quality product, and take care of any customer that has a problem, period!  It's just good business.

Weed Eater Woes has a part two, and that will be my next blog.