Reputable...My Aunt Fanny

In the last few months a lot of things in my life have changed. Change of job position, change of address and I finally, FINALLY got my driver's license. Now the only thing I needed to change was my bed.

I have had the same bed since...forever. It was my grandparents bed before that and some great aunt or something or other before that. This bed has seen an age. Every morning when I wake up my body groans in anger at me for subjecting it to yet another moonlit nightmare. This bed needed to go, I've known for quite a few years but I just could never afford it. I kept buying foam mattress toppers to try and ease the pain but nothing really worked.

For Christmas and my birthday (since they are one and the same) quite a few people gave me money, plus the $100 that my grandmother had given me when I moved out to use towards whatever I wanted for my new apartment. I finally had enough to get myself all I had been dreaming of for years. A brand spanking new bed.

On boxing day I saw that The Brick had some great deals and decided to bite the bullet and order a mattress and box spring from their website. I figured that The Brick has been around forever. I'd never really heard anything bad about them so I was pretty excited when I hit that little 'add to cart' button. Little did I know that that was where the happiness and excitement ended and the frustration would begin.

Originally it said that my delivery date would be December 30th but that was subject to change and that a customer service representative would be in contact with me in the next couple of days. Now I'm an understanding person and I know that boxing day was probably very busy for them but The Brick pushed me into rages and frustration I would never have imagined.

They called me on December 29th as I was doing groceries and I was unable to fish my phone out of my purse in time. When I called back 30 seconds later it was busy and continued to be busy for the next five days. I called on every break at work and every spare moment I had. I repeatedly got the message that they were receiving a higher volume of calls and try back later. In this time I also sent two emails which were never responded to. Finally I got through and sat on hold for an hour...and was then hung up on. Rage.

The next day I got through again and after waiting another hour finally spoke to a human. She told me that they had to confirm with security about my credit card because the address on the card and the shipping address were different. Um okay. I ordered half of my Christmas gifts online with zero issues but now there's a problem. Still I understand and am actually glad that they double checked, however I didn't hear from them again for another FOUR days. They wanted to let me know that security cleared me and they could set up a delivery date. "Finally", I thought. "Sweet sleep will be mine, ALL mine."

Well... not just yet.

When I called to set up the delivery date and waited another 45 minutes on hold I was told that there are no dates available (on a weekend as I work full time) until January 18th. I was upset. I have been waiting for this bed for nearly 3 weeks and I just want it. I just want to crawl into a bed that doesn't cause me pain. When I expressed my frustration (politely) the girl on the phone giggled at me. I told her how many times I had called and about the unanswered emails and I asked her if there was a way to make a note that I was extremely displeased with the level of customer service to which she responded, "ya I guess", and laughed again. I thanked her for laughing at me and... SHE LAUGHED AGAIN! At that point I was so livid and flabbergasted at her behaviour that I pretty much just hung up. I realize now I should have asked her name and spoken to her manager but I was very upset.

During the course of our conversation I was also informed that if I wanted the delivery people to take my existing mattress and box spring I would have to pay an additional fee. I decided that I had already given these people too much of my money. When you wait years and years to make a purchase like this and then are treated in this manner it really sours the whole excitement of it. I would have cancelled my order just on pride but I really do need this bed and I couldn't have afforded it without the sale.

To make things (ie. me) even angrier a coworker of mine just bought a bed from The Brick and they are not charging her for delivery OR to take away her other bed, or at least that's what she thinks...I have a feeling based on my experience that those fees will just pop up for her.

Anyways I don't usually use my blog for this kind of thing but I was just so shocked that a place as seemingly reputable as The Brick (of course once I mentioned this to a few people the horror stories about The Brick started flowing) would have such shoddy customer service that I had to share it. Hopefully some other person will read this and go somewhere else. Save yourself the frustration. You'll probably never speak to a human and when you do they will treat you like crap and leave you feeling like garbage. I still can't believe that I was laughed at like that. Ridiculous.

For now I guess I have another ten nights of sleeping on my rock...errr bed.

The mattress and box spring that I will EVENTUALLY have. EVENTUALLY!

You Made The List

Dear Anchor Bar,

You made my list. How disappointing for you.

I heard nothing but hype and excitement about this new restaurant in Hamilton. Originally a staple in Buffalo, New York the franchise has now expanded into Canada, knocking local independently owned restaurants like Walt's Grill and Bar by the wayside.

My sister and I were frequent diners at Walt's and were very upset when we heard we would have to find a new place to go on our sister dates. The location was just so convenient. We could easily go for a lovely dinner and then head to the movies in Jackson Square.

When Anchor Bar opened we decided to go try it out in the hopes that we would have a new favourite restaurant in the same location as our old one. Unfortunately all of those dreams were dashed after our very first visit.

At first glance we were very impressed. The decor is fun and there was a big crowd of people in there at 3 pm. We were seated and given menus. They have a really big menu with lots of different choices. Unfortunately Anchor Bar is known for their wings but upon inspection they don't really have anything special about their wings. They were really expensive and only came in normal flavours, except for the suicide and drop anchor flavours which are so hot you have to sign something to order them. We decided we could get cheaper wings another time from somewhere else.

The second thing I noticed was their pops are $2.25 and they don't do refills for anyone over 16. Seriously? That's just ridiculous. Walt's had refills AND free nachos while you waited for your food. We both ordered water. We had decided on  the 6 cheese anchor dip for an appetizer and we both ordered the chicken wing crunch melt for our entrees.

Our waitress and the man who brought our food to the table gushed about how delicious our choices were and how they're the best thing on the menu. It was around that time that we noticed they had brought out our entrees but not our appetizer. Five minutes later our appetizer came out. The waitress seemed confused at our unhappiness. We had to explain to her that an appetizer should come before all the other food and that by the time we would get to it now it would be cold. The lightbulb seemed to go on then and she said that she would take it off our bill and away from the table apparently removing a plate from the table take ten minutes.

By that point neither of us were super impressed with the place but we tried to have an open mind. I turned to my entree which did look interesting. The less interesting thing was that there was hair on my sandwich. UGH. I decided that since it took her 10 minutes to clear our unwanted appetizer it would likely take an hour to get a new sandwich so I decided to eat the side that didn't have hair on it. Luckily for me after 5 bites I decided that it was too disgusting to finish.

My sister (who is 8 months pregnant and eats EVERYTHING) ate less than half of hers. It was not at all what was in the menu. It said it was  boneless wings basted in their FAMOUS mild wing sauce, topped with buffalo mozzarella on a roasted garlic hoagie bun topped with hickory smoked chips.

What we got was rotisserie chicken with lettuce and tomato topped with hickory sticks covered in Frank's red hot sauce all piled onto a foot long hotdog bun. Since when is Frank's mild by any stretch of the imagination? Is it their FAMOUS sauce? Also it made the chips soggy and the chicken tasted disgusting. Their only saving grace was their french fries which were actually decent.

I put that sh*t on everything...so does Anchor Bar apparently.

Our fabulous (note sarcasm) meal was all rounded off by a waitress who didn't bring us a bill but handed me a debit machine...um..."Can I see my bill? Also I'm paying cash..."

When we left the waitress apologized for her bad service and for the possibly poor food quality too. REALLY? What else do you offer? If your service and food is not good what am I paying for? The decor?

To say the least I would not recommend Anchor Bar to anybody. I doubt I will ever return there. If for some reason you are still interested in trying them out you can check out their website here.