Happy American Thanksgiving! I hope all you Americans are having a great time celebrating with your families and are not reading this. Let me just say that I am quite J to the EALOUS of you and all the eating and leisuring you get to do today. Our Canadian Thanksiving is long over (mine was great and full of eating!), and I definitely had to work today and ate pizza for dinner because I felt lazy after the gym (excellent pizza though – veggie from Toppers!)
I am actually thankful that our Thanksgiving is when it is though. I like that we have a longer break between Thanksgiving and Christmas – it gives me time to get amped up for a holiday all over again! And it gives my pantaloons some time to recover.
But moving on…
I have been on a pretty big coffee kick lately.
(Lexy, I know you are frowning upon my non-reusable cup and I am sorry. I promise I usually use one, but I forgot it on this day. Please forgive me.)
I have been getting coffee every morning on my way to work and it has made sitting in traffic slightly more bearable. In the picture above I have Tim Hortons coffee, but I usually prefer McDonalds. I am pretty sure they add crack or something to theirs, because it is so good and I can’t get enough of it!
The past four days, McDonalds drive-thru has messed up my coffee order. I always ask for a regular coffee with milk instead of cream (so one milk, one sugar). They are usually pretty good at getting it right, but not this week. Monday through Wednesday they added cream only. No milk, and no sugar.
Monday through Wednesday, I didn’t say anything about it. I don’t really like cream, but it wasn’t a huge deal…I just kept hoping they would get it right the next day.
I am not really a big complainer and I tend to avoid confrontation. I don’t like to make people feel uncomfortable or awkward, and sometimes I feel like “situations” can be avoided by keeping quiet instead of complaining. I am very understanding and can handle a few mistakes before I reach my “complain threshold”. I will never complain just to complain. However, once my complain threshold is reached, I will say something, even if it creates an awkward situation.
If I am overcharged for something? Complain threshold reached. Hair in my food? Complain threshold reached. Absolute wrong order in a restaurant? Complain threshold also reached. Three days of incorrectly made coffee?
Complain threshold reached.
So this morning, on the fourth day, I said something. I asked the girl who took my order if she would mind please making sure that my coffee was made with sugar and milk instead of cream, because my coffee order had been wrong the last couple days. She said no problem. It was a very pleasant exchange.
I got my coffee. And guess what. CREAM ONLY. Argh, I don’t like cream! It is too creamy! And I like my sugar!
I didn’t discover this until after I started driving, and if it had not been the same thing happening all week, I would have just kept going and drank the whole thing. If I hadn’t specifically asked them to take note of what I was asking for, I probably would have kept going also. But I was peeved. I build up the courage to say something and they still mess it up? Oh no. No no.
So I drove back there, went inside, told them about their mistake, and that they had been messing up my coffee all week, and asked if they would mind remaking it correctly. And they did. They also refunded my coffee and gave me a $5 gift card (which I honestly didn’t even want to take because I know it is really not a big D).
But I guess it pays to complain.
So I would like to know, what is your complain threshold? What does it take for you to complain? Would you have complained the first day your coffee was incorrectly made, or would you never complain even if it meant getting the wrong coffee order forever? What is your enough is enough point?
