POINT ONE:
Humans are not perfect. Won’t you agree? No one, except my Mom, is perfect. Ok, she’s not perfect either, but she IS perfect when it comes to maintaining an immaculate & beautiful home. She doesn’t even have a junk drawer. Good grief, Charlie Brown! That woman is Monk live and in person. But I digress.
POINT TWO:
There is a vicious rumor circulating that I have OCS: Only Child Syndrome. I just disregard those slanderers as haters with lots of siblings! 🙂 True, I know what I want and I fight for it. Yep! So where am I going with this? I’m getting there.
Companies, like people, are not perfect. Why? Because companies are run by people, who are flawed and fallible. So here is where I marry points one and two.
I believe that if you financially support a company by way of patronizing it, you deserve fair and respectful treatment. If you don’t receive fair and respectful treatment, then you must act. Don’t complain to your friends or spouses or the stranger sitting next to you on the bus (S/he does NOT want to hear it). To get results, contact the company. And when I say contact the company, I don’t mean the Associate Manager’s assistant’s assistant. No, go straight to the top!
Now, I must admit that this is not an easy task…for some people. But within my network, I’m known for ascertaining the contact information of company Presidents, CEOs, and the like. There are many company head honchos who’ve received love letters and sweet phone calls from me (And they are indeed sweetish. Never write a mean letter or leave a nasty message; it will get you nowhere fast).
One of my favorite stories involves Time Warner Cable. For years I had been suffering from constant cable blackouts. They would come and fix it. And each repair person claimed that the last tech was an idiot, and now that s/he has been called to the scene I would never have another problem. WRONG! It got to the point where the blackouts were happening once a month like clockwork. It happened the day before Super Bowl XLI. (Yes, my Bears were playing. Yes, they lost. And yes, I’m still mourning. But again I digress.) And that was NOT acceptable! Somehow I got it to work, but I was praying the entire time that it didn’t go out during the Big Game because I had a place full of folks. Not cool! I’m happy to report that it did not. Well the very next day, I acquired the phone number to then Executive Vice President of Time Warner, Barry Rosenblum. I called him around 7:30pm. His outgoing voicemail message indicated that he was out of the country and would have limited access to phone/email messages. Well, that did not discourage me from leaving a very eloquent message of frustration and disappointment in TWC.
I told him to enjoy his trip and that I would expect a call from him upon his return to NYC. Well, Mr. Rosenblum apparently took a break from his break because not more than 15 minutes after I hung up the phone, I received a call from the Head of Tech Support (His exact title escapes me, but he was surely in charge)! He apologized for all of my drama and said that he would have a team of technicians at my doorstep the very next day. He kept his promise, plus gave me a few months of free cable for my troubles. He also provided me with his number, email address, and mailing address and said if I need anything don’t hesitate to call. During the techs’ visit, I overheard one of them tell the other, “This is a VIP call.” Love, love, love it! Needless to say the TWC crew became my BFFs.
HSN CEO Mindy Grossman
TWC has now been replaced by HSN. These are my new BFFs. As a birthday gift my friend Ernest purchased me a super cute Wolfgang Puck 3-in-1 Food Processor. Unfortunately, I had some complications with it. No longer wanting to deal with the Associate Manager’s assistant’s assistant, I decided to reach for the top of the food chain. On Monday August 1 at approximately 8:48pm, I contacted HSN CEO Mindy Grossman via email. In the letter I simply stated my grievance and wish for a swift resolution.
On Tuesday, August 2 at 1:00pm, Leilah from the HSN Executive Office called to tell me that a brand new blender was en route to me! Two things about Leilah: 1) She has a brilliant accent! 2) She is a sweetheart and understood how important it was for me to make my delicious smoothies! Two things about Mindy: 1) Like any great leader she moves lightening-quick to solve a problem. 2) She recognizes a good smoothie recipe when she sees one!
Tracee's Green 'Go Berry Smoothie
I’m happy to report that I’ve received my new Wolfgang Puck 3-in-1 Food Processor and so far it’s working beautifully! Just made a Green ‘Go Berry Smoothie (Spinach, Mango, Strawberry & Raspberry). Yum!
Many of you know that in addition to writing/reporting/hosting, I also make money as an actress pitching products for major companies. FedEx is the most recent. (Click here to see the ad.) It is has always been my desire to represent companies/products that I believe in. High on my list is JetBlue. In case you don’t know, I LOVE JetBlue! Yes, I have contacted the head honchos at JetBlue to let them know of my plans to become their new company spokesperson. They are taking a bit long, but I’m patient.
But don’t wait too long JetBlue; HSN has the potential to clip your wings…pun intended! 🙂 Thanks Leilah and Mindy! I appreciate your fair and respectful treatment of me. You resolved the problem swiftly and I am so grateful.
Here’s a smoothie to you!!!
Signed,
A Lifetime HSN’er
*Their (HSN) slogan that I borrowed to prove their point.
**The second image is the trademarked logo of Time Warner Cable.
The Socialite Design™ 