Why I'm a Loser, albeit One with a Gift Basket

Well, the magical moment has come and gone--the Delta gift basket finally arrived. Now I don't exactly know what I'd been hoping to find in that basket, but whatever it was, I didn't find it. I guess I was hoping for some cool Delta swag, maybe a t-shirt or some fuzzy airplane socks or some vouchers. Instead, they sent me 2 bags of toasted almonds, one box of "chocolate swirl sticks," 2 bags of cheese crackers, 1 box of honey roasted almonds, 1 bag of cherry candies, 1 pecan divinity, and a little thank you note. And I guess I should be grateful to have gotten anything from Delta, but in all honesty, I don't feel grateful. I feel like a pushover. In fact, somewhere in Atlanta right now, I'm pretty sure there's a Delta customer service rep probably saying, "What a pushover."

That brings me to my next story, the "I'm a Pushover Part Deux" story from this afternoon. I raced home after work today because the guy from One Hour Heating and Air was supposed to be at my house to give my A/C and heating unit a tune-up at 4 PM. By 4:30, there'd been no phone call or anything to explain what had happened, and I was annoyed. By 5, I was pissed. I still hadn't heard from them, so I called the company and was greeted by a semi-peppy receptionist with the slogan, "If we're not on time, you don't pay a dime." As it turns out, that slogan is a BIG FAT LIE since they were definitely not on time and I'm pretty sure I did pay a dime--890 of them, in fact.

And that is why I'm both a loser and a great disappointment to my mom who I can guarantee you would NOT have paid any of those 890 dimes. It's not like I didn't protest, though. It's not like I didn't point out their lack of professionalism for not having called me to explain why the technician was going to be 1.5 hours late. It's not like I didn't suggest that they should waive the fee for me, per their slogan. But all I got was an apology. I probably should have asked to speak to some bigwig over at One Hour, but the last time I talked to a bigwig, I ended up with an apology and some almonds, so in my mind, it's just not worth it.

So yeah, I think what it all boils down to is that I just don't know how to argue effectively. What I do know, though, is that my mom, the Queen of Arguing with People and Consequently Getting Free Stuff, is going to read this blog entry and call me to chastise me about how I shouldn't have paid anything and how she wouldn't have paid anything and how my sister wouldn't have paid anything and how I shouldn't have sold my entertainment center for $25 and how my cleaning lady should be cleaning my ceiling fans and refrigerator for the amount of money I'm paying her, and so on and so on.... And all I can say to that is no me llames, Mami. Ya se.