Rant #3,082: Some Guys Have All the Luck

Well, here I am, I am back at my usual perch, and I am a bit brow-beaten, but otherwise, my usual critical thinking, old fogey self.

Yesterday was a difficult day, and a long one for me, but before I get to that, the craziness actually started on Saturday … and yes, it had to do with another fast-food experience.

As you know, I go out on the weekend to bring in food for my family, and I did just that this past Saturday and Sunday.

Really nothing out of the ordinary happened during Sunday’s food outing, but it sure did on Saturday.

As part of my food travels that day, I went to Boston Market. My wife likes their chicken, and they have recently reinstituted turkey offerings, so I have what to eat there too.

So I go into my local Boston Market, there are two people in front of me, so I wait patiently until they can take my order.

The two people ahead of me ordered ribs and turkey and non-chicken items, which did not prepare me for what was about to happen.

It was finally my turn, and I said the usual for my wife’s order: “Half chicken white meal to go.”

The server’s response was this: “We have no chicken.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” I said, but then I looked at the spits that they have at the back of the counter, and lo and behold, there was nothing on them.

Boston Market not having chicken is like McDonald’s not having hamburgers, Arby’s not having roast beef, and a Chinese take-out not having egg rolls, and this was on a Saturday night yet, a busy night for the chain.

And there were no signs up about this, no warnings, nothing out there to alert customers.

I called my wife, ordered turkey for both of us, and then as I was paying, another younger guy came in, and when he heard they had no chicken, I thought he was going to literally explode into nothingness right before me, as his reaction was such that it was almost like he was having a root canal right then and there without the use of anesthesia.

I paid, went to the soda machine to get a Coke, and lo and behold, not only did they not have chicken in this restaurant, but they didn’t have Coke either.

That completed my food journey for the evening with a loud thump!

I did contact the company about this, and here is the empty response that I received:

“Greetings Larry

Thank you for taking the time to contact us. We  would like to apologize to you for your most recent visit at your local Boston Market. We take great pride in providing our guests with the best experience possible. It was very disappointing to hear this was not the case during your visit.

Unfortunately, our suppliers and our distribution center is experiencing shortages that is affecting many business nationwide.  This is leading to menu shortages as well as late deliveries from our distribution center which is beyond our control.  While we understand how frustrating it may be for our guests, it is equally frustrating for us as well.

We hope you’ll visit us again, and give us another opportunity to show that we’re committed to providing you with an extraordinary experience.

 Boston Market Corporation”

Yup … I will have a better chance at getting a chicken meal there if I go out and shoot the bird myself.

Then yesterday was tax day, piled onto everything else I had to do that day, including taking my mother to the doctor and getting a small problem with my car fixed.

The small problem actually started on Sunday morning. I went to the supermarket to pick up a few things for my mother, and once again—and for the first time in many months—I noticed that my front driver door was closed, but on the dashboard, it was saying that the door was open, which is a little problem that becomes a big one when you can’t use some of the inside security features of the car with the door “open”—and with inspection right around the corner.

So I panicked, went to a couple of auto body places on Sunday morning, but even those that were listed as being open actually weren’t, so I had to wait until Monday to take care of this.

I made an appointment at Firestone, in the meantime, where an attendant in the store told me that “they couldn’t do the work” on Sunday because they were backed up, but could do it on Monday, and a woman on the phone gladly made me an appointment for Monday morning at 7 a.m.

I went to Firestone yesterday morning, and the attendant told me, in no uncertain terms, they did not fix door jamb problems. I asked him why two people told me that they did, and he did everything but literally pick me up and throw me out of the store.

What was I to do?

I went to the auto body place that fixed this problem all those months ago, waited an hour until they opened, and when they opened, I told them my problem … and they remembered me, and fixed the problem, and did it at no charge!

I gave the guy who worked on it a tip, and I was off to the races.

And then we had our taxes to do … .