Monthly Archives: June 2009

Positive Customer Experience: True Food Kitchen and Exec Chef Michael Stebner

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Kathryn, my girlfriend, loves True Food kitchen and I am a skeptic of anything done by the FOX group especially when it aligns itself to a single philophers idea of eating well, in this case Dr. Weil. I am also a pretty critical person and enjoy critiquing most everything especially eatieries and restaurants.

One issue we have is that we are Vegans and while they do have a number of items listed as Vegan on the menu there are a few things that just seem silly. The first one is that they have no Salads listed as Vegan and the second is that they do not offer Vegan Mayo. The last time we mentioned the Mayo thing our server gave us a reason why they didnt but that we are welcome to bring our own in.

Today has been a fun day so I thought going to True Food would be a good treat for Kathryn and maybe distract me from other events occuring recently. Our server, Chris, has waited on us before and is always very nice. When we mentioned the Soy Mayo thing she offered to go talk to the chef and managers. When she returned the reply was that “at some point we have to draw the line.” To which I explained that by offering Vegan/Soy Mayo they would lower costs, increase shelf life, and even start substituting it with real Mayo without anyone noticing. She thought these were valid enough and again went to talk with the chef and managers. To which Kathryn and I exchanged glances and began eating our soup.

To our surprise our next visitor was none other than Michael Stebner the Executive Chef of the restaurant. We began a 10 minute conversation about their philosophy and methodology for creating the menu. He explained that they are not a health food restaurant but rather a restaurant with a health focus. He also pointed out that they are happy to modify anything on the menu to accomodate a number of eating requirements. This was really cool stuff.

He then went further and talked about his history as a chef and what he has seen work and not work from a practical perspective. This was a real conversation and I appreciate his engagement with us both. At no time was he demeaning to us and he never brushed a point of ours off. While I disagree with the philosophy of their menu I respect their methodology and see that they are interested in doing something more than just sell as much food as possible.

Follow up on Uhaul Customer Service tragedy – No Improvements #uhaul #fail #customerservice

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I posted about my horrifically tragic customer service event at Uhaul in Chandler the other day. – Thank you Uhaul, I had forgotten how horrible a customer experience can be.

Well here is some fantastic follow up:
I got a nice and friendly reaching out from @r_glass who is in the customer service department at Uhaul and he had one of his people talk to me about the incident. I missed their call and they left a name and extension to call back to (6 digit extension btw, thats a lot of employees or one of the worst managed phone systems in existence). When I called my first attempt at transfer was a swift hang up and when I called back to explain what happened the lady became quite impatient and asked what this was about and who I was trying to reach. I was sent to the Customer service department but was unable to talk to the person who reached out to me. The woman on the phone offered to help and I gave her my confirmation number for the Hitch Installation I had done.

This is where is gets fun again. After giving her the ID # that should show her all about me and my transaction she needed to know what I had purchased and where. I asked her why she wasn’t seeing that information when I gave her the Confirmation # and she explained that for Hitch Installs they do not get access to that information. I asked her what was the point of the Confirmation # and she wasn’t able to tell me.

She then wanted to know about my complaint and I gave her the story and also explained that she could read about it on my website and Yelp and Twitter. She wanted to know if I had applied my $60 gift certificate to this purchase and I had no idea what she was talking about. She then had to back up and offered me a $60 certificate for any future purchase within the next 2 years. I asked what she was going to do to resolve the current situation and she explained that because the transaction was done that they would not be able to apply the $60 certificate. I explained that that wasn’t good enough and she had nothing else to say. I asked her what the point of the call was and she explained that it would be passed onto the Regional District Manager for review.

Basically I am helping Uhaul improve their system so that the next person doesn’t go through what I experienced. I love volunteering for Six Sigma work as a customer of the company.

Scam Alert! Towing Scam in Tempe, AZ

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[Update - 12.19.2011: Wow so this post is over 2.5 years old and still gets a comment almost weekly! I am turning off the comments at this time as I have moved on past this incident. I am very sorry for anyone who has to deal with this or any other towing situation in Phoenix or Arizona. My advice is to stop going to the towns and places that are ok with this type of activity. If you did get towed apparently there is a way to get your money back and possibly some sort of payment out of the towing company but it sounds like a lot of work, good luck!]

Last night was Ignite Phoenix #4 which we held at the Tempe Center for the Arts and it as awesome. We had at least 500 people there and everyone was super cool. The after party was at La Bocca wine bar near 7th and Mill Ave and it was that intersection when the evening took a turn for the dreadful.

I pulled into a semi empty lot at about 10pm and parked to go to La Bocca. There were 6 other cars and a few taxis in the lot and I assumed things would be cool. Well in Tempe this is the wrong assumption. When I came out of La Bocca at 11:30 my car was gone and so were most of the other cars that were there.

A nice group of folks from Ignite Phoenix were there as well because their cars were gone as well. Jay Thompson (@phxreguy) has a good write up here.

When I got home I called the Tempe police and talked with Katie to discuss the Tempe Towing law and in particular Sec. 32-2. Maximum charges and fees; release of vehicles:

(a) No private towing carrier shall hold or attempt to hold any vehicle towed from any location within the city without the consent of the owner or operator thereof as security for accrued towing and storage charges. Any such vehicle shall be immediately released, regardless of impound location, to the owner or operator thereof upon the production of proof of ownership or agency, as hereinafter defined.

My issue was that the towing company dispatcher was telling me that I would have to wait till 9am to pick up my car but the law says the “vehicle shall be immediately released, regardless of impound location, to the owner or operator thereof upon the production of proof of ownership”. To me this means that when I can show that the car is mine I can get my car. Katie explained that the law does not require that the lot be open 24 hours a day to which I replied that it also does not not say that either so there is room for interpretation either way.

That is issue #1.

I sensed that this was going no where so moved onto Sec. 32-6. Notice to public of right to tow. Part b:

(b) Signs will be a minimum of twelve (12) inches by eighteen (18) inches in size and will be mounted at a minimum height of five (5) feet and a maximum height of ten (10) feet above the ground.

Here is the sign in question.
Jay and the Monster Towing Sign
Unless Jay is a giant I am pretty sure it is under 12′ by 18′ and is lower than 5 feet off the ground. Monster is the Irony here, ha!

Katie explained that I could file a complaint but that someone would have to call me back first.

30 minutes later Karen Scheffler called me back. Ms. or possible Officer Scheffler was pointedly unhappy about having to speak with me and explained that officer Tony Miller had already been to the scene and saw that the signs were all in order. I asked to speak with Officer Miller and was sent to his voice mail.

30 minutes later (1am) I was called by Officer Miller who was very nice and happy to talk to me about this situation. I asked about the size of the signs and he felt confident that they were up to code as they have to regularly check these types of lots around the city. He explained that this is a weekly issue for his beat and that it is a regular topic and Town Council meetings. He recommended that I contact the Mill Ave. Disctrict which is a coalition of Mill Ave business owners who are trying to fight this type of behavior as it is hurting their business. i thanked him for his time and went to bed.

That is issue #2.

I woke up this morning and got the car out of the lot a bit after 9am for $135. While I was there I noticed at least 10 other invoices on the desk. At $135 each that is about $1300 a night. Keep in mind this was a tuesday night in the summer in Phoenix/Tempe which means things are slow. That means conservitavely these guys are bringing in $300k a year from this one lot!

The next issue is still with Sec 32-6 but not on part e:

(e) The private towing carrier shall post a sign with a minimum one inch lettering with the maximum charges and fees as established by council resolution (see Appendix A) at the main business entry of the impound location.

Once again looking at this great picture of Jay you will notice that the only part of the sign with one inch lettering is the part that says Restricted Parking. The law states taht the charges and fees must also be this size when in fact they are about 1/8″.

That is issue #3.

While I was getting my car another customer was waiting and asked if I had seen him get pepper sprayed, see Jay’s post. I said I had missed that part but was very interested when he mentioned that the one car not towed was entered and driven away by a Tow Truck employee. This tells me that no one representing the property owner was actually at the scene which is in violation of Sec. 32-5. Authority to tow.

It shall be unlawful for a private towing carrier to tow or transport a motor vehicle from private property without the permission of the owner or operator of the vehicle unless such private towing carrier receives a request from a law enforcement agency or the express written permission from the owner of the property or the agent of the owner, who has complied with requirements of this section. The owner or the owner’s agent shall either sign each towing order or authorize the tow by a written contract which is valid for a specific length of time. The private towing carrier may not act as the agent of the owner. A copy of the written contract shall be made readily available to the law enforcement agency upon request and include the owner’s or owner’s agent name and current telephone numbers.

(Code 1967, § 33A-5; Ord. No. 2006.77, 1-4-07)

I am posting this for three reasons:
1) I need to release these thoughts in order to move on from them, as the Dhammapada states:
“He abused me, mistreated me, defeated me, robbed me.”
Harboring such thoughts keeps hatred alive.
“He abused me, mistreated me, defeated me, robbed me.”
Releasing such thoughts banishes hatred for all time.
2) I want to let others know about this scam and hope that it helps them avoid it. Start by not going to Tempe until they change their laws.
3) I want to see if any lawyers think that my Issues are valid and what steps may be taken.

With love from PHOENIX, peace out!