the corner office

I expected as much but now it's official - my keyring ornament is gone, presumably stolen. A chap from Impact Panelbeaters phoned up and apologised, and if I like I can pop by to see if I'd like to take one of two other keyrings they have the office. Apparently one looks just like mine but the logo is that of a hotel chain. Or else I can get a keyring with a Volvo logo, but it's an oval ornament, nothing like mine. Lucky me, huh?

Trying to be zen about it, it's just a bloody keyring, and getting that worked up over something with purely sentimental value seems a bit OTT. I've been in two minds about whether to make a big fuss about this with the panelbeaters, and I decided on the phone that I wasn't really going to waste my time. I politely told the bloke I wasn't particularly happy about the situation, but was philosophical about it and accepted his apology, and I left it at that.

Then, on my way home this afternoon, I stopped off at the petrol station, and discovered that someone even took the cheap Bic pen I keep with my petrol log book. For fscks sake!

This took me back to the one part of the apology this morning which had grated me somewhat: "this happens a lot," with the clear implication that there wasn't much they could do about it.

Nice cop-out. Our employees are thieves, and if you want us to work on your car, bolt everything down or keep a detailed inventory, right down to the frigging pens in your cubby hole.

Of course, that's nonsense. There are a lot of things that could be done to stop theft. Not to mention that simply having employees being held accountable when they don't do something they say they're going to do, might work wonders. There are also many ways to deal with a customer who's had something stolen from his car, and they got it very wrong. If I'd been given even the slightest indication that these people really, really took incidents and oversights like this seriously, this blog entry wouldn't be here.

They cost me one bad mood (actually, two: one on Thursday, and another today), a keyring ornament and a Bic pen. How much has it cost them, though? I know that panelbeating isn't something you get done every week, but how much business do they lose with customers who have bad experiences and opt for another panelbeater the next time round? The irony is that of the two recommended Volvo panelbeaters in Jhb, I chose to go to these people because when Ronwen originally called them up, they were the friendliest of the two. So there you go - they had friendly staff, and seem to have done a decent job on my bumper, but I won't go back to them if I can avoid it.