twodoebs

For those of you who know the Jung family, you'll know the grand tradition of "writing a letter" when irritated with pretty much anyone or anything. I personally wrote a letter to my congressman once when I got so irritated by cellphone companies locking you in with contracts that you have to pay for even if they can't provide you service. (My congressman even called me because of my well crafted letter).

I digress...

I have a new beef I'd like to write about. Footlocker and both their ridiculous return policy AND the inexcusably poor customer service received at a store in the center of Manhattan.

On December 4th, 2006 I bought a pair of sneaks as a Christmas gift. Turns out I got the wrong size. Holidays come and go and on Saturday January 6th, 2007 we returned to the store to make an exchange. After going to two stores who didn't have the stock necessary to make the exchange we decided to make the return to unburden us by one bag then return to another footlocker the next day to buy different shoes all together.

The manager at the W. 34th street Footlocker, who had some paperwork spread out all over the counter, informed us that we missed our 30 day window by 2 days. Initially prepared just to take a gift card since we did plan to buy some new shoes the next day, we asked about other options. The only option offered was that he'd order us a pair and we'd receive it in about 5 business days. To me- there might have been another option to call the Footlocker in my neighborhood.

Anyway, when asked if there was any way he would be willing to just take the return he simply said "we're not supposed to". This of course indicated to us that he could do it if he wanted to, he just didn't want to. And considering we were a mere 12 days after Christmas we were suprised at this mans unwillingness to make the exception in the name of following corporate policy. Naturally the conversation unfolded and the manager grew increasingly accusatory as though we were trying to pull something over on them. In reality we were just looking for the manager to be understanding about the holidays.

I have written my letter to Footlocker, and referenced this site, so feel free to share your thoughts too! I have vowed never to spend another dollar in Footlocker. Modell's and Sports Authority are now the only sporting goods stores I will go to.

And making it ALL better- further proving why Modell's and Sports Authority are superior - BOTH stores have special holiday season return policies allowing customers the added time needed at the holidays to make necessary returns.

So there- bye bye Footlocker and your ridiculous policy and rude managers.

On Saturday night, Kati and I attended an event that was billed as historic. It was the first game for the New York Titans professional lacrosse team at Madison Square Garden.

The New York Titans play in the National Lacrosse League ("NLL"). The NLL is an indoor lacrosse league that replaced the old Major Indoor Lacrosse League ("MILL"). Back in the day, Pittsburgh had a team that was a part of the MILL called the Pittsburgh Bulls (get it?--the Pitt Bulls).

I played some lacrosse in high school. I also went most of the Pittsburgh Bulls games and thought seeing New York's new team play their first game would be fun.

Before I explain why the game wasn't any fun, let me explain why I thought the game WOULD be fun. First of all, when I used to go to the Pittsburgh Bulls games, I used to have a good time 'cause the sport was so scrappy--while they certainly weren't skill based, they were high scoring and entertaining. And unlike hockey, which is always trying to get fighting out of the games, the MILL didn't seem to care if there were ten fights per game.

Second, we had a great experience with the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team this summer. In opposition to a Yankees game--where we spend over $100 for tickets (and STILL have seats way up in the nosebleeds) then at LEAST another $100 for concessions--when we went to the Cyclones game, tickets rights behind home plate were twenty bucks a pop and for another $20, we ate all we wanted to all night long.

I thought we were gonna have the best of both worlds, with the MILL excitement in the games and the cheap night out. Trouble is, it wasn't EITHER. While the tickets WERE pretty cheap, we still had to pay MSG concession prices. And unlike the old MILL games, this was sanitized and boring. Where the Pittsburgh Bulls fans used to regularly throw stuff on the field, we were warned that if anything was thrown on the MSG field, the Titans would be charged with a two minute penalty. Where the Pittsbugh fan used to chant "Bull shit, bull shit" (get it?--they were the Pittsburgh BULLS!) when they didn't like a call, there were so many twelve year old boys at this game last night that nobody said ANYTHING exciting last night.

AND--to top it all off--they had this PA announcer last night who had OBVIOUSLY never been to any sporting event. Ever. He would try to get the fans to do the old de-FENSE, de-FENSE cheer, but somehow he managed to get the rhythm wrong, so that nobody knew how to follow along with him. And--speaking of defense--he didn't even seem to know the DIFFERENCE between defense and offense. Not to mention that he didn't know any of the player's names, so he would say things like "great save by . . . the GOALIE!"

Bottom line: New York Titans and MLL=not fun.

We kicked off the holly-days with a trip to the back woods of Alabama (withdrawn: with a trip to Jan and John's lake house in Alabama) to celebrate Thanksgiving.

John gave us a super cool treat and took us up flying so that we could get a birds-eye view of Lake Martin.

One of the highlights of the Thanksgiving trip was a huge bonfire on the lakeshore.

Abby and her chior gave us an extra dose of Christmas Spirit ("the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear" . . . ).

We were pleased to make yet another trip up to visit with Walker and Laura and attend their third annual Christmas party in early December.

While in Boston, I had the opportunity to visit my THIRD "This Old House" project (for a trip down Memory Lane, check out my visit to the Cambridge project from last winter)

We went back to Pittsburgh for Christmas and got to see Jenny.

What can I say?--it's a wierd crew, few of twodoebs.com's regular readers will know who any of these people are, and Stefanie's undoubtedly going to be upset with this picture . . . but Uncle Bob took most of the pictures from Christmas and he hasn't worked out how to e-mail them yet, so I'm short on things to post.

We wrapped up the season by celebrating New Year alone together. It's a tradidtion we've come to enjoy and this year, we just got dressed up in our formal finery, took our our china, and made ourselves a feast!