Pets Smart. Humans; not so much!

We are currently staying near Sacramento in order to have the work completed on CC that was left
undone in Eugene, Oregon. We've been in a hotel and taking daily drives to check out the area. I had my foot x-rayed and found out that I had broken all my metatarsals in my right foot, not a single bone as the
first doctor told me two weeks ago. Good news shows that the bones are knitting satisfactorily so I can now lose the crutches and begin walking on my "boot". Hobbled around the very quaint town of Auburn tastefully decked out for Christmas. Picked up some clementines from a local orchard and sampled the taste and fragrance of the season.

For those of you who do not have pets, I will educate you briefly on flea and heart worm medication. A few drops of liquid meds are applied to the back of the neck of dog or cat. They are used monthly to prevent any attack of the above mentioned nasties. We purchased enough of all Dixie's meds for our trip to avoid hassles later. Chris and I spent a week looking in every conceivable nook and cranny to discover where we may have stored her meds. You see where this is going.....

We needed to purchase more drops so we stopped at a Pet Smart store. Just inside the door was an
Advantage display with various combinations of drops for cats and dogs. The combo we needed was not on the rack and a salesclerk directed us to the veterinary counter. Because the meds involve a heart component, the dog needs to be healthy. We keep all Dixies' papers on board CC and did not expect to need them for a pop-in purchase. We did need them; so had to call Canada and have them faxed. Dixie
needed a full $30.00 vet check-up before the drops could be prescribed. The exam went ahead and at the end of it, the Vet....wait for it..............told us that Petsmart did not carry Advantage products because of some "political" management battle. You may recall my mentioning our perusal of the Advantage products when we first entered Petsmart!?! The vet technician phoned around to find a vet where Dixie could have a second checkup and get her meds. We spent over ninety minutes waiting at Petsmart for Dixie to be approved for a medication that Petsmart did not sell!?!

At this point we had been in Petsmart for almost two hours and I'd made an appointment to have Dixie washed and have her nails clipped. Now, our second vet appointment would interfere with the time set for Dixie's grooming. We requested a quick service where they could forgo the drying and brushing. A two hour appointment was now going to be completed in twenty minuteswith half the work for the groomers. We were charged an extra $11.00 for that!?!

Our fourth hour was spent at vet #2 and I'm happy to say that Dixie is now Protected!
Ok, so a blogger's gotta vent now and then.  Have you had any satisfying customer service lately?