another customer service shout-out

hey kids, are you like me? do you like office supplies and things that make you feel organized?

well, i'm starting an on-call position next week in which i could be working regular or children's reference at two branches, on a sporadic schedule. so it was time to get a datebook.

thanks to outblushoutblush, a nifty site i visit daily for eyecandy, i found rusell and hazel. outblush had listed a little magnetic bird that sits on your desk and keeps paperclips in order. when i visted the site, i saw the r&h specializes in datebooks and planners in put-together kits. franklin covey for the chic, per se.

so i ordered a (surprise) orange minidate book and smartset, and some pockets to fit in the binder. got the confirmation email right away, and noted the bit about 'you will receive another email when your order is in transit. meanwhile, you can check on the status of your order at.... (long url).' small problem with the status check: r&h uses yahoo's shopping platform, and if you're not logged into a yahoo account when you place the order, it can't go back and find the status. and after a week, no in-transit email arrived, so this morning i called r&h to enquire.

friendly person on phone couldn't see a shipping status for my order and conferred with colleague. they suspected their fulfillment company hadn't sent it out because they were printing the 2007/2008 calendar tags and were going to start sending orders with the new tags shortly. oh, i said, i was hoping to get this soon because i'm starting a new job next week. they promptly offered to send my order with the 2006/7 tags, refund the shipping, and get it to me by monday. i'm happy with that.

about fifteen minutes later my phone rings. it's r&h, they have found my order and tracked it, and it should be arriving today - which it did.

nice packaging! sleek and simple like apple's. all products banded together, fronted by a thank you note, and wrapped in a sheet of tissue paper. i just spent a few delightful moments filling out calendar pages until the end of the year.

c'mon, if you read my blog you're likely to be as big a geek as i am about nifty office supplies.