"What's In Your Wallet?"- A Rant, Part One

I have waited a week to write this post. I thought maybe I would feel differently with a little distance, but I don't. This is a rant about Great Indoors and Capital One.

Last week, we went to purchase our lights for the house. This wasn't actually a hard thing. We chose the light fixtures several months ago and went back to confirm those were the fixtures we wanted. It wasn't a hard decision, and we weren't really tempted by anything else. So last Sunday, the three of us went to Great Indoors. Normally, I would have hesitated to take my almost 3 year old, but since Mr. Prof V. and I had already decided what we wanted, it should have only been a matter of ordering the lights, right?

It took over 3 hours to order. Why, you might ask? I am not sure. Great Indoors computer system is archaic for one. Their staff people, while very nice, are just one step above incompetent. It was a complete fiasco. Mr. Prof. V had to chase our 3 year old around the store for three hours while I had to stand with this guy laboriously entering each item into multiple screens. Once the orders got in, he had to track down the printed order. Then when one was wrong, he had to start the process over again.

Finally, after two + hours, we had all the orders in hand- there where 5 different orders. They had to create an order for the things they stock and had in stock that day (order #1), an order for things they normally stock, but which they were out of (order #2) and then separate orders for each of the other items which they don't normally carry and which come from different companies- separate orders for each company (orders 3, 4 and 5.) I can understand that, I guess, but the computer was so slow it made each order take 20 minutes or so to complete given the number of pages and fields which had to be completed.

When we finally got all 5 orders together and verified, it was time to pay. I was using Mr. Prof V.'s Capital One card which is the card we decided to put all the big house purchases on. Then the salesperson explained that he would have to ring each of the orders separately. I had a bad feeling about that, and I asked him if there were any other way to do it. He said no. They couldn't ring it up on one bill. I still don't understand why.

So we get to the 5th purchase and the card is blocked for security reasons! Too many charges at one time. This post doesn't begin to convey the frustration we felt at that point. Little Prof. V was running around like a maniac. Mr. Prof. V was trying to keep him contained, but after 3 hours of standing around, that was almost impossible. I really wanted to walk away at that point, but there was just one order left and then we would be done. So I put it on another card and walked away frustrated and unhappy.

There are so many levels of frustration. One, the Great Indoors' process is unbelievably cumbersome and anti-customer service. In this day and age, there is little excuse for such an antiquated computer system . Their sales people are not trained in good customer service. They didn't once acknowledge that this was a cumbersome, inconvenient task. They didn't acknowledge the fact that we had a young child with use. (They could have told us, this is going to take awhile come back in 2 hours so we can review the order.) Nor did they apologize for how long it took or how inconvenient it was. Then enter Capital One, the "No Hassle" Card. They certainly added to the hassle.

The lesson, don't shop at Great Indoors for big purchases. Stay Tuned for Part Two, where the hassle continues.