I had to wait too long

I wanted to get some maintenance done on the van Saturday, so I made an appointment at the Firestone franchise. Most of my vehicle maintenance is done there and I am usually very happy with their service.

This time I wanted to have the tires rotated, which is free-a great incentive, and an oil change. 

I made the appointment for 7:30 AM so I could get on with the day. (Early bird, and so forth.) I arrived at 7:20 hoping to get the whole thing done in an expeditious manner. 

Walking in the door, I saw 3 or four other customers with the same idea. It's a good thing I made that appointment, I reminded myself.

At the desk, I was told that it may be a minute or two before they get my van into a dock. I said that was why I made an appointment, so I would not have to wait. No reply. Then I was told that I should be out after 8:00 AM. OK. Great, that is not so bad, I thought.

I waited and watched my van sit in the parking lot for over an hour before it even got moved into a bay. It finally made it into the bay an hour and 10 minutes after the appointed time. 

There was a managers special on oil changes and I wanted to take advantage of it. It turns out though, I needed to fill out an application for some promotion in order to get the advertised rate. 

Disappointment number two.

I gave specific instructions on how I wanted the tires rotated, but the job was done differently. 

Disappointment number three.

I have been going to Firestone for 5 years now and this is the first real complaint I have had. It is just plain annoying to get up and out of the house on an early Saturday morning for an appointment and have to wait for over an hour for a service that takes less then 30 minutes to do.

What do you think? Am I whining over nothing or do I have a legitimate complaint?

Let me know what you think.

olc

Here is my, totally insignificant, and short review of writing.com

         The plethora of resources available on writing.com is great! There is so much here that I have not even begun to discover it all. I like the that I can review some one’s story or poetry and get recognition for it. When I finally do get the story I am writing finished, I will be able to have people look at it and give advice on editing through final publication, whether it is be an ePub or actual book form.  There are writing contests to be entered---and won. If I decide to upload a story and have it reviewed by other authors, this can be dune too. If I get to a place in a story where I don’t know what to do, their prompts will help me find my muse. Such a great resource for such a minuscule price!

My time is limited and this means that I do not get to spend much of it exploring the depths of anything. As I bump into something that I think will benefit me, I look into it. So, that means I have not really delved into the depths provided by this site. Yet, from what I have seen so far, I like it.

Reviewing another author's story is a great exercise in self analysis. It helps one to look at some ones work and find something different. It also helps the reviewer to find perceived flaws in their own work and maybe find a better interpretation, thus helping to open new ideas and literary and imaginative roads to pursue. The only thing I have an issue with is the reward system. Most if the time we are given a fairly short amount of time to read then reread and write and rewrite a brief review. Now I am of the opinion that if some one puts their hard written work up for review, they want an honest and well thought out critique. To be honest, I cannot not do a quality assignment in an hour or so, especially if the work is over 1000 words.
Now I know I could just ignore the gift points that are offered as incentive, but I don't want to loose out on them. Quite the dilemma though, I will however, keep reviewing a project even after the time allotted for rewards has passed. Hmm, quite the dilemma.

The whole idea of crowd editing is a great one. There will be a time when I'll need to have my work edited and eventually published and the idea of reaching out is made easier because of the resources provided by writing.com. Also, due to the contests, I have found myself, writing some short stories and submitting them for review. And as I said earlier anytime we can get positive feed back is a time to rejoice.

Though this is far in my future, a couple months anyhow, the site has access to publishing agents and, hopefully, by then, I hope I'll have enough savvy to reach out and use them. And from there the sky is the limit.

Well, that is about all I have been able to figure out concerning the site. I know there is so much more to explore here and I'll get to it eventually. Suffice it to say that for the meagre amount of money for subscription, I am very happy with everything I have seen. Now let's see if the site can improve my writing skills to the point of a professional! (of course we know the writer ios not the tools he, or she uses, but the imagination and the ability to put those thought into a cohesive form. Good tools do help though, just sayin’

Thank you for taking a moment of your life to read my words. Please leave a comment and any critique to make it better.