The Sign Of Disappointment

I am an admitted workaholic. I am making progress on it, but there are too many nights when I am driving home from the office after 10:00 p.m.

Sunday night I left the office at 9:45 p.m. I thought I would reward myself and treat the family to some ice cream/frozen custard. I hurried out to the car, threw it in gear and roared down the highway to make it to the designated place before it closed at 10:00.

I was sitting at the stop light about a block away and I could see their big LIGHTED sign inviting me to pull into their establishment. I double checked the clock on the dashboard:

9:55

Are they going to shut down before I get there? Hurry up light!!! Change for pete's sake!!! The steering wheel bends under my tight grip.

Finally the light turns green. I quickly pull into the drive thru lane.

9:58

I made it. The sign on the street is still illuminated. The order board is still illuminated. The outside lights of the store are still on. Life is good! I will come home the hero.

I roll the window down & I'm eagerly leaning toward the speaker waiting to give my order. And I wait. And I wait. And I wait. After 3 minutes I pull around to the window. I catch an employees eye and motion for her to come to the window.

She unlocks the window (not a good sign). Are you open or closed? We're closed. Your lights are on; you really should turn your lights off if you are not open. Yeah, we are getting ready to turn them off. So what time do you close? We close here in a few minutes.

So you mean to tell me that you are really still open, you have your lights on inviting me to stop and buy, but you are not taking any more orders and you will officially close in a few minutes? Um, yes that's correct.

I was mad! I was disappointed! I felt betrayed!

I will eventually have a conversation with the manager of that store just to let him/her know what happened. But I don't think I will ever return as a paying customer.

How often do we pretend we are still open for business but really just don't want to do the necessary work? Maybe it's phrased like this: Call me if you have any questions. Then we are not available when they do call or we never return the call with the information they requested.

Perhaps we do take the call but give them a dry, pat, generic answer letting them know this really isn't that important and not worth my time.

I'm ok if you don't want to do the work. Just don't tell me you do. Don't leave your sign on out front inviting me to refresh myself with your fountain of nurishment/knowledge only to leave me disappointed. I would rather see the sign turned off and the building dark.

Rick Trowe and I'm Standing Up.