Not So Famous…

edit: I originally wrote this post when annoyed.  Since this incident happened, I have had the situation resolved, and had an e-mail conversation with the General Manager of PrimeShine.  They are not a bad company.  This was just a really annoying series of events.

This is not a post urging everyone to stop washing their cars at PrimeShine.  This is not a diatribe explaining how they wrecked my car.  This is me venting.  I trust that you guys have brains enough to make your own decisions about what businesses you will or will not frequent, and that the rant of one guy who is sick of their incompetence will merely be factored into your decision making process.

When I first started at my current company, I was informed that I would be given a PrimeShine sticker and card to keep my company vehicle clean.  I liked that, because it meant that one of the perquisites of the job wasn’t a chore in disguise.  Namely, I didn’t have to hand-wash it every weekend.  The sticker went on the windshield and I was given a card.  A couple weeks later, I took it by our PrimeShine in town, and was informed that the number wasn’t “in the system”.  I called our CFO, and she was confused, but said she’d call PrimeShine and figure it out.  The PrimeShine people let me through, anyway, since I had the card and sticker from a corporate account.  They took down my name and company information, and off I went.

The next time, about 2-3 weeks later, the SAME THING happened.  I was told the same thing.  The number wasn’t “in the system”.  I explained that this had happened before, and that my office had called PrimeShine and that everything had been sorted.  My company had been using these stickers before for the fleet, and that they knew what they were doing.  He let me through again, and took down my information.  (I’m not really sure why they took my information, since I would assume that they DO something with it!!!!  Apparently, they roll up a couple of joints with the paper on which they wrote my information and smoked it, because this happened at a couple other PrimeShines.)

After awhile, this stopped happening.  I figured that some oversight had been corrected, and that everything was now “in the system.”

Cut to a couple weeks ago, when I get a “new sticker”.  I was informed that my old sticker would cease to function, (which didn’t really bother me, since it never really functioned 100% in the first place), and that I would be given a new sticker, which did not require a card.  I was told that the new sticker would work immediately, but I had my doubts.

I needed a car wash, so I took it there that day.  As usual, PrimeShine did their “stellar” job.  This time, since it was a barcode sticker, they scanned in the sticker, and THEN told me that it wasn’t “in the system”.  Now, keep in mind that the first thing these people do when you drive up is spray goop on your windshield.  This is to try and guarantee that if you don’t have enough cash, you’ll use your credit card.  If your credit card is denied, you’ll try and sell them some dope or something, because when they spray your windshield with this crap, you can’t see out of it, and presumably would not drive off. When I looked at him with the “…and, what else is new?” look, he said, “well, I’ll just take down your information and get it sorted.”  I chalked this one up to “hey, the sticker is new.  It’ll work next time.”  He let me through.

With some trepidation, today, I went to the car wash.  As I mentioned it’s been a couple weeks since I got the new magic sticker, so I figured the bugs had been squashed.  It now occurs to me that this was rather naive.  I apparently forgot that I was dealing with PrimeShine, the king of “it’s not in the system”.  You know the drill….I drive up, they squirt goop, then the dude scans my sticker and goes inside.  As usual, he comes back outside and scans again.  Then he comes out and tells me that it’s not “in the system”.  Big surprise there.  I tell him that this has happened before.  I give him my company name.  He goes inside.  His manager comes out with the magic gun, scans my sticker, goes inside, comes back out and tells me it’s not “in the system” like I’m going to say, “OOOOOOOHHHHH!  THAT system!  How silly of me!  Here….let me give you some money.”  I say.  “It’s not surprising.  I always have problems at this PrimeShine.  My company name is <NAME> and I got this sticker 2 weeks ago or so.”  She says, “I can’t let you through.”

Now, I’m starting to get mad.

“What?  Why not?  I’ve always gone through before.  I have the magic PrimeShine sticker, and I have my company information.  I’ve never not been allowed through, and always, this has worked itself out.”

“Sorry.  Are you going to pay for a wash?”

“What?!!?  No, I’m not going to pay for a wash!  My company already pays for me to have this non-functional sticker!  Why the heck would I give you cash when they’re already paying for this sticker???!?!!!!?”

(She turns to her underling.)

“Go ahead and open the gate if he’s not going to pay for a wash.”  And she walks off.  There’s someone in a car behind me, who is looking at me either like I haven’t quite learned how to count money yet, or else like my credit card has been denied.  My cheeks are burning with shame that I have no reason to feel.  I back up, and pull through the “I’m a moron” gate, with everyone in line looking at me.

PrimeShine should stop their idiot corporate fleet program if this is how their fleet customers get treated.  I’m going to talk to my company and explain to them what happened, but as I said….they’ve been doing this for a lot longer than the people who turned me away today.  If they were told that they needed to activate these stupid stickers they would have done it.  I’ve got far more faith in my company’s admin department than I do these people.

I’d rather wash my car with my TONGUE than go to PrimeShine again and take the chance that the people manning the unbelievably complex button-driven wash machiney things will actually remember what a freakin’ dollar bill looks like or that they’ll actually know how to swipe a freakin’ credit card.

I mentioned in a previous post that Kim was pregnant.  She’s 12+ weeks along now, and the morning sickness miraculously appears to have disappeared.  We’ve both read that most women’s morning sickness disappears with the end of the first trimester.  If I’ve learned anything about this life, though, it’s that you ought not get your hopes up.  So we weren’t.  :)

This weekend, however, Kim felt much better, which was a relief to me.  I still ended up doing the dishes (she’s still been quite tired), but I’ve actually been able to have some meals with my wife.  I even cooked sausage on the grill, and she stuck around.  :)  It was awesome.  We also went out to breakfast after we took pictures on Saturday morning.  She actually tried some of my corned beef hash, and liked it, which surprised the heck out of me.

That brings me to one of the reasons I was wanting to write today.  Kim and I were talking about how weird it is that we have completely different ideas about what breakfast should be.  We discovered this one day 4 years ago or so when we were discussing what our plans were going to be for Christmas one year, and I mentioned that Grandma would have an awesome breakfast set up, like she did every year.  I was informed, in no uncertain terms, that THAT sort of breakfast wasn’t real breakfast.  I was bewildered.  What could be wrong with sausage, bacon, eggs, toast, coffee, etc.?  Apparently, quite a bit.

I asked her, of course, what her idea of a stellar breakfast was.  Pancakes, waffles, and other assorted bread/pastry products with mounds of sugar.  While I have nothing against these kinds of breakfast foods, they cannot replace bacon, sausage, haggis, pizza, hamburgers, or anything else with a ton of protein; something with texture; something I can sink my teeth into.

In the morning, I usually have scrambled eggs with salsa.  If I have leftover meat of some sort like sausage, hamburger, ham, or haggis, it’ll make its way into the scramble.  Onions and potatoes are a nice rarity, but I usually don’t have that.  Lots of protein…helps me feel full.

Kim, on the other hand, usually has a bagel or toast.  When she goes out with her parents, it’s a short stack of pancakes with Strawberry Smuckers’ Jelly. I’ve seen her eat assorted breakfast sweets as well.  Her aunt has some recipe that is really wonderful called Dutch Babies, but I’ve got no idea what’s in it.  I want to say eggs, but that doesn’t seem right.  Kim normally cringes when eggs are mentioned in the morning.

When we were in Scotland, the traditional breakfast with eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, mushrooms, broiled tomato, baked beans, potato pancake, and haggis or black pudding suited me just fine.  Looks like my forebears had the right idea about breakfast.  I loved every morsel of it.  Kim, on the other hand, didn’t really like breakfast, much.  The fruit that they usually provided with a continental-style breakfast wasn’t usually very good.  Cereals were somewhat limited.  One thing we both liked was the coffee and the toast.  When we got to the B&B in Ft. William, however, the lady of the house was an American by birth.  She made us pancakes, and Kim was in carb-heaven!

Another delicacy I enjoy on rare mornings: Breakfast Burritos with sausage, eggs, onions, potatoes, and cheese with salsa verde.  /drool

What do you like for breakfast?